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NASB | 1 Kings 11:3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Kings 11:3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away [from God]. |
Subject: Does God endorse polygamy? |
Bible Note: Hello, justme. I can accept your analysis of my case if there is qualitative (not quantitative) justification. However, a man's being overly biased to the extent that he cannot see the truth is a two-sided coin. Please remember that the other side making this claim is just as subject to the same clouds of bias as the one to whom it is being directed. That is why none of us can legitimately lay claim to infallability. You see, I am willing to admit error if a clear, concise case is made to refute my position. All I have been given thus far in this forum are the "par for the course" argumentations that I have heard from many others outside this forum. Now, in relation to your personal life, this issue has been front page headlines across this country several times, so I would say that, YES, it is of great importance. It is even MORE important to me when I have close family friends with plural wives being accused by religionists within our many "churches", on an almost daily basis, of living in sin. Yes, justme, I can understand this not really being a big deal to you personally, but then you do not live in a vacuum. You too are living under a system of law that allows for a man to impregnate multiple women without having to take responsibility for his actions, and yet punishes the man who DOES accept loving responsibility for his family if he tries to acquire a license for more than one at a time. Please understand that I am not making a defense for polygamy on this basis. I am simply pointing out to you that you are not so isolated from this issue as you may think. There are two dikes living next to me. I had no choice in their being allowed to live next to me. Does the way they live their personal, private lives have no effect upon me? Certainly it does! I have talked with many a pervert who thinks that what he/she does behind closed doors does not affect others around him/her. We BOTH know that this is blatantly false. We all live in a macrocosm, not a microcosm. One man's personal life affects ALL those around him, no matter how isolated he may think his personal life is from his public life. Clinton taught this lesson to the nation quite strikingly, but America simply did not get it. Yes, justme, this may not appear to you to affect your personal life at first glance, but that only states that you have not yet become AWARE of the subtle ripple effects this is, in fact, having upon you personally. You are not at all isolated from this system of law that is blatantly hypocritical. Does God stand behind a government that enforces hypocrisy? Is that a government God endorses? These are hard questions, but they must be asked. Just as an aside: If a government agent comes to your door and demands posession of your food storage during hard economic crisis, are you going to willingly give it to him, even when you know that your giving it to him would place your family in grave danger of starvation, and violate God's word concerning your responsibility to see to the needs of your family? After all, food and raiment are a part of what a family has need of for survival that the man is commanded to provide. When an ungodly, tyranical governement demands from you what you have provided for your family's survival in accordance with God's command, what will you do? Yes, this is hypothetical, but it still demands thought. Paul stated that a man who does not see to the the needs of his own family is worse than an infidel. Even an infidel would defend his family and their provisions becasue of their need for those provisions. If you have the means to defend the provision you have made for your family and its needs, and do not perform what God has commanded, who do you think He will hold responsible for your family's demise? My Mennonite step-father once told me that he would not forcefully defend my mother against a man who broke into their house and began raping and killing her. My point in all of this is that whether it is of a theological nature or of a secular nature in regard to government and secular morals (whatever that is), these things ultimately have a profound impact upon us all, whether we realize it or not. Tyrannical and hypocritical laws being enforced by our government, that tamper with the family, IS a concern for you and the rest of us, whether you may agree or disagree with polygamy itself. May the Lord bless you and yours, justme. Yours in Christ Jesus Don Dean |