Results 1 - 3 of 3
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Does God endorse polygamy? | 1 Kin 11:3 | Swordman007 | 68317 | ||
Dear friends, please understand that I am not a Mormon. I am a Southern Baptist. Polygamy existed as a foundational marriage structure LONG before Mormonism was ever known on this planet. It is interesting that many will jump onto the bandwagon of condemnation when the issue of polygamy is brought up. Many say that God's Law prohibited a man from having more than one wife, and yet they say this at the expense of ignoring the fact that God's Law made governing provision for a man to have more than one wife in Deut, 21:15. Lev. 18:18 is not in any way a prohibition against a man having more than one wife. God Himself gave king David five of his 18 wives as is revealed in 2 Sam. 12:8. Is God therefore sinning against His own moral absolutes? Also, the use of the verses dealing with a man multiplying wives to himself is also a common blunder made by many. The same context deals with a man multiplying horses and chariots to himself. Are we then to assume that it is wrong for a man to own more than one horse, or more than one car (chariot)? Not so. The idea of multiplying women, horses and chariots had to do with pride in one's wealth. If one multiplies these things (or anything else for that matter) as a form of pride in one's social "status", then he has done so for the wrong reason. The patriarchs fell not because they had more than one wife, but because they sinned. If having more than one wife were a sin, then one would have to accuse God Himself of sin, especially when He provided imagry of His being a polygamist Himself when He called Judah and Israel His "wives". God would certainly not associate Himself with that which He considered to be sin, and He certainly would not have given king David several of his already multiple wives. Where it is true that God gave Adam only one wife, this is an argument with no merit when applying it with such broad meaning that stretches it FAR beyond the intent within Genesis. God also gave Adam a Garden to tend, but He did not give the rest of us a Garden. Have we been cheated? Not at all. God aldo gave Elisha power that He did not give to Abraham. Does that mean that Abraham was cheated because he was not given the same power. It is my hope that the many falacies in the reasoning presented against polygamy can teach us all to be more succinct and powerful in our reasoning and presentation. Then we move on to Titus and Timothy. Suppose that we leave the popular translation intact. The prohibition is only against bishops (overseers) and deacons from having more than one wife, not the laity. Translating the Greek word (mia) as "one" is actually inconsistent with the context of these verses. It makes more sense to translate (mia) as "first" wife, just as the Greek Lexicons show us. This gives greater consistency to Paul's instructions. It makes far better sense to say that a bishop and a deacon should STILL be married to his first wife, therefore not having been divorced since divorce is a poor example to the Church, and VERY anti-family. To think that Paul would suddenly throw in the issue of plural wives out of nowhere is beyond textual consistency and introduces incontinuity. Many people try to speak authoritatively by declaring that God intended there to be only one man and one woman in marriage, but this is a declaration with no real teeth. It denies God's clear teaching on this issue. It rests itself upon the grounds of misinterpretation and transliteration of the root texts from which our Bibles were translated. Yes, God has many "brides". If we are the "bride" of Christ, that "bride" is still composed of MANY individuals. The imagry is consistent. Several wives are joined togeher into one family unit through a common husband, just as we are joined together into one body through a common Lord. If God did not look favorably upon polygamy, then He certainly did a good job of saying absolutely nothing against it to all the prophets and patriarchs who practiced it across more than 1000 years. Does this sound absurd? It is my thought that we would do better to abstain from pitting God's word against itself and read it for what it says. I can reasonably take to task any who add meaning into key verses that clearly is not there. Any of us can weave a doctrinal tapestry by pulling verses out of context. The REAL challenge is keeping that tapestry from unraveling when pulling on the many wild threads hanging loose. | ||||||
2 | Does God endorse polygamy? | 1 Kin 11:3 | Reformer Joe | 68451 | ||
I have followed with some interest the thread that you have picked up. I wanted to just throw in a couple of verses and see how you fit them into your pro-polygamy position. First of all, you are correct that the bride of Christ, the church, is made up of many individuals. However, the clear teaching of the Bible is not that we are each, as individuals, brides of Christ, but the entire communion of saints itself is a SINGLE bride. Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 5, when the analogy is between a single husband and a single wife, and Christ and the church. The church is THE bride of Christ; Christians are not "brides of Christ." And the husband is called to love his wife with the same unique, single-minded love that Christ exhibited when He died for the church, His bride. Christ is not a polygamist, and husbands are called to model His marital pattern. In that same passage, we see Paul taking the creation order and applying it to present-day Ephesus: "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." --Ephesians 5:31 He also uses the term "wife" (singular) when describing how husbands should conduct themselves. A one-to-one relationship is implied: "Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own WIFE even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." --Ephesians 5:33 We see this one-to-one relationship emphasized in other passages dealing with marriage: "But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." --1 Corinthians 7:2-4 We see mutual authority over each other's bodies, and that each one should have his or her own spouse (singular). You do make some very valid points in light of the Old Testament pattern. The first and most important one is that polygamy is not adultery. While we do not see polygamy in the creation order (God pronounced his creation of humanity "very good" after creating the first couple, not the first harem) nor in the redemptive model (Christ and his singular bride), taking more than one wife was indeed permitted with regulation under the Mosaic Covenant. We see that it was not practiced, however, by most of God's covenant community (kings being the most notable exception), and there are no signs of it at all among the Jews we encounter in the New Testament. And finally, we do not see a single instance in which the taking of multiple wives turns out to be an exercise in wisdom. Just because it was permitted in the Torah does not mean that it was a practice favored by God. Remember that divorce is also permitted, but Jesus claims that Moses allowed men to divorce their wives because of their hardness of heart. But just as "from the beginning it was not so" regarding divorce (Matthew 21:8), so with polygamy it was not so from the beginning. And if polygamy were perfectly acceptable to God, why does Jesus continue by saying that if a man divorces his wife and marries another, that such an act becomes adultery? How does multiple wives at the same time merit God's approval, but single wives in series would not? --Joe! |
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3 | Does God endorse polygamy? | 1 Kin 11:3 | Makarios | 68452 | ||
Excellent, well thought out post, Joe! - Makarios |
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