Posted on 01/15/2006 3:06:52 PM PST by SirLinksalot
Introduction
The Holy Bible is polygamous from cover to cover. However, the biased mind, steeped in centuries of cultural and religious tradition, can take a little time to adjust. The bottom line is honesty (a willingness to adjust inherited tradition in the light of God's Word) and logic (a willingness to stick with the mental process and not fall back on feelings and sentiment when the Word upsets cherished beliefs).
Before we begin, it is necessary to examine all assumptions in the polygamy issue as it relates to the Bible:
Q1. Do you accept the Bible as God's Word (in the original Hebrew/Aramaic manuscripts) from cover to cover?
If your answer is "no", then there is no point in your continuing with this essay because we will be working on different assumptions. Instead I suggest you read my earlier article, Objections to Polygamy: The Secular Viewpoint. The reason I categorise you as "secular" is because the arguments advanced by secularists are practically the same as those advanced by those who do not wholly accept the Bible's teachings. Somewhere along the line Yahweh's infallible Word is judged by those "Christians" who find it difficult to accept what Yahweh says in the same way as secularists do. Those who only accept the Bible in part only accept Yahweh in part. Though we could debate this matter, it is not what this Home Page is about and you would be advised to examine these issues on other Christians websites.
If your answer is "yes" to Question No.1 then I am going to hold you to your word. In my experience, though, the vast majority of Christians who say they accept God's Word from cover to cover rarely do. When God's Word contradicts what they believe, instead of confessing their error and readjusting their lives accordingly (this is the process the Bible calls "repentance") they wriggle and squirm and try to twist Scripture to conform to them. This is human nature, the fallen side of our spirit, which always resists any change in thinking, feeling or practice that requires any sort of sacrifice. We all "wriggle and squirm" from time to time, sad to say. This site acknowledges that the heart and flesh are a little slow in responding to the truth sometimes and we will show grace in that area, as we hope the same grace will be shown to us as we adjust to the truth in our daily walk with Yahweh. However, we will not permit illogical argumentation on this site and shall expect honesty and integrity of thought.
Not everyone, however, has been taught to think logically. In some countries and cultures we are simply expected to absorb "facts" without being encouraged to think. This is both a tragedy and a traversty. Accordingly New Covenant websites engage in much "mental exercise" in order to promote clear thinking. At this site we shall follow the same principle. Accordingly we shall first and foremost be led by thought before feeling, and we shall expect God's Word, the Bible, to lead both.
Q2. Does the Bible anywhere state that polygamy is wrong, sinful, unlawful or ungodly?
This site maintains that the answer to this question is crystal clear: "no". If you can find any scriptures that give an affirmative answer, I shall be most interested to hear them. However, I shall expect more than isolated scriptures (though these shall not, of course, be set aside) but will expect (1) isolated scriptures to be cited in context, and (2) isolated scriptures to be examined in the light of all scriptures on the subject. If, for example, one or two scriptures seem to maintain an anti-polygamy stance, and yet a dozen seem to maintain a pro-polygamy stance, then I shall expect an in-depth study to determine why there is an apparent discrepancy for both positions cannot possibly be right. It is here that we must make an important decision: Either (1) God's Word is contradictory and not reliable and cannot therefore be 100% true; or (2) The minority passages have been misunderstood or mistranslated by humans, God's Word being internally consistent and harmonious, or 100% correct.
No matter what topic we study, we will find apparent inconsistencies from time to time. What we cannot afford to do is accept one of two positions and ignore or "explain away" the position we don't like. If this is going to be a problem for some of our readers, then I suggest you deal with the issue of whether the Bible is wholly God's Word or not before confronting the sensitive polygamy issue. It is important that we have that matter sorted out before going any further. A person doesn't go and have riding lessons if he is uncertain about the morality of riding motorcycles - first we must be certain we think motorcycles are OK. Only then ought we to take lessons. And so we must do the same with the polygamy issue.
There are many biblical issues I have had problems with in the past but I have always discovered that the problems have stemmed not from a fault in God's Word but from an incomplete understanding of it. We live in pagan cultures (for the most part) where the whole thinking pattern is contrary to Yahweh's and to Yahweh's people's. The assumptions about life in each generation not based in God's Word change and we must become aware of this problem. Becoming a Christian requires nothing less than a total reorientation in the way we think, feel, and behave as is true, indeed, in embracing any new religion or (supposed) non-religion like atheism.
I maintain unhesitatingly that the Bible nowhere condemns polygamy as wrong, sinful, immoral, ungodly, wicked, or unlawful in Yahweh's eyes. In fact, I find exactly the opposite - Yahweh positively sanctions it, protects it, and indeed uses it Himself as an illustration of His own relationship with Israel (Judah and Ephraim) and the Church/Messianic Community (the saints), something He would hardly do if it were sinful as this would merely confuse people.
Q3. Are there any restrictions in polygamy?
Polygamy is not, as some people mistakenly believe, a type of marriage that gives men the right to do whatever they want with women even though historically it may have been so abused. There are strict laws and regulations governing its practice. It is essential to understand this. We shall be looking at these restrictions in another article. All freedoms bring responsibilites and polygamy is no less than, for example, the freedom to eat food. Everybody acknowledges that eating is not only good but essential. However, Yahweh has placed certain dietary rules for our benefit when it comes to eating, one of which is that we eat in moderation and not become gluttons. Over-eating is a sin, but not the act of eating itself. By the same token, the multiplication of wives is a sin but not polygamy itself. The Bible strictly warns kings not to go overboard as Solomon, for example, did. Gluttony destroys one's sense of taste in the same way as a man marrying too many women destroys his ability to have a proper relationship with them. Though the Bible places no specific limitations on the number of women who may enter a polygamous relationship, the community I belong to limits it to twelve, with seven being the average - a maximum of four for Deacons, seven for Elders, and twelve for Patriarchs-Apostles. There are other restrictions too such as the ability of the husband to financially take care of so many women. This I will discuss in another article.
Q4. Is there any evidence from the Bible that polygamy was repealed in the New Testament?
None that I have been able to find. There is a school of theological thought that the whole Law of Moses was brought to an end at the time of the crucifixion and a new "Law of Christ" instituted to replace it. Such a teaching is not to be found in the Bible though bad translations have not made the matter straightforward. Besides, polygamy existed before the Law of Moses and Paul declares that His Gospel and Abraham's were essentially one and the same.
The Bible, in fact, nowhere mentions the words "monogamy" or "polygamy" because no such distinction existed. All marriage was polygamous whether there was one, two, three or more wives. Let me use the food analogy again. In some cultures only one course is served per meal. In others, several courses. However, that doesn't mean that there are different kinds of "eating" - we don't speak of "mono-eating" or "poly-eating" because such a distinction is silly. However, picture a culture which says that one course is all that is allowed and condemns all those who eat more than one. To distinguish between the two they must introduce new words into the vocabulary. "Monogamy" and "polygamy" are, in terms of history, relatively new concepts. So really it would be more appropriate to call this the "First European Christian Marriage Page" since that is nearer the biblical truth. One group of people have excluded more than one wife from the marriage covenant and called themselves "monogamists". (Why they did this, and how they justify themselves, we shall examine in other articles).
There are only a couple of places in the New Testament where polygamy is hinted at and the translators, with their monogamous bias, have altered the meaning of ceretain words and created very confusing passages indeed. For as they stand it appears as though Church leaders cannot have more than one wife but ordinary church members can! Which is you think about it, is completely contradictory and nonsensical, for if we follow the monogamy-only paradigm, we are being taught that members can sin but leaders can't. This is rather like saying that ordinary members can be homosexuals or murderers (since both are sins) but deacons and elders can't! A close examination of the original Greek text clears up the (ludicrous) discrepancy - Paul wasn't concerned about whether church leaders had more than one wife or not but whether, as polygamists, they were being faithful to their first wives and not using polygamy as an excuse to get rid of wives they didn't fancy any more. (Another school of thought maintains, and which I have since come to accept as the better of the two interpretations, that these passages are merely stating that Elders and Deacons must be married to qualify for leadership).
So, no, there is no evidence in the New Testament that Christ ever repealed polygamy. Quite the opposite - He repeatedly cites polygamists as men and women of God to emulate, even commanding His followers to "do the works of Abraham". And Abraham was a polygamist.
Q5. Is there anywhere in the Bible where God actually commands or is positive about polygamy?
He is nowhere negative about it. Nowhere. Indeed, He specifically states to one King of Israel (David) that He has given him his wives (2 Samuel 12:8). And this through a prophet of Yahweh (Nathan) who was rebuking him for other sins (adultery and murder). So if the King had been living as an adulterer or in sin because of polygamy, you can be sure that the prophet would have upbraided him about polygamy along with his other sins. But he didn't. Instead, He not only said that Yahweh had given the King his present wives but He would, if necessary, give him more. To me that is polygamy-positive. If polygamy is a gift of Yahweh then it cannot possibly be anything other than a blessing and for all concerned (for husbands as well as wives).
It is usually at this point that those, steeped in the monogamous tradition, go into an inner catharsis. If that is so, then I urge you to PRAISE YAHWEH because He is revealing to you how far you have departed from Him even if you think you are walking with Him. It is at such moments of crisis that we have to make really fundamental decisions and either embrace Yahweh or wage war on Him. The issue is really about the personality of El Elyon (Almighty God). If you are turned off by this revelation (and indeed any other biblical revelation) then there is a pretty good chance that you are not worshipping the God of the Bible but some other god.
I say this not to destroy your faith but to seek further. Yahweh will not force you to follow Him but He will most certainly challenge you to be honest about His claims even if you are not about your own. The God of the Bible is represented allegorically as a polygamist and so are all His followers, whether they are married in one-wife or several-wife families. What we are actually facing here is of such fundamental importance that I believe it will be used as one of the touchstones of true faith in the last days. Again, I repeat, accepting that Yahweh is allegorically polygamous and that all true Christian marriages are polygamous does not necessarily mean that all Christian marriages should have more than one wife. In fact, it is my conviction that the majority of Christian marriages will only consist of one man and one woman. What is important, however, is that you understand and accept that a one-wife marriage is no different from a one-child family and that if a family wants several children, then that's fine too. Families have children, right? There's no such thing as a mono-children or a poly-children family, is there? They're not two different types of family! In the same way, families with one wife or more than wife are not "two different kinds of marriage" either. That is the lie we have been made to believe by an apostate church for centuries. That lie, however, is now being exposed by this and other polygamy websites. And this truth will spread as Christian men and women return to the Word and abandon the traditions of the whore of Babylon who loathes polygamy but adores fornication and adultery.
Conclusion
Now you'll be wanting concrete biblical evidence for all of these statements. This you can read at the Królewiec Wives Site and in other articles on FICP. You'll not only be surprised by just how much there is but how anyone could have been so blind to the truth. Ultimately the issue is not, as I have already said, about how many wives a marriage may incorporate but the personhood of God. Men and women, ever in rebellion against truth, have preferred to invent their own gods rather than go to He who is the source of all life, joy and peace.
To know the truth is to enthrone men and women as true patriarchs and matriarchs and not to emasculate men and defeminise women which is the result of turning to falsehood. The trend of our modern paganism is to turn men and women into a single sex - a unisexual being - which is out of harmony with itself and which is bleeding to be free and come alive. True polygamy is about freedom for men and women - and I underline the word "true" deliberately because there is a false form of polygamy too which is degrading to women and destructive of the true man. We under no circumstances stand for the latter. We at this site do not defend all forms of polygamy (whether secular, Muslim, Mormon, Hindu, Christian, or whatever) any more than we defend all forms of monogamy - we are defenders of New Covenant Echad Patriarchal Marriage. And it is important that our readers make this distinction and do not require us to defend other paradigms, for we will not.
May Yahweh-Elohim, the Lord God of Israel, enlighten you - men and women - and free you from any kind of mental or emotional bondage as you read these pages, especially those of you who believe the Bible to be the Word of God.
I DO NOT ENDORSE THIS SITE. HOWEVER, I FIND THE ARGUMENT THEY PRESENT TO BE RELEVANT AND I AM PRESENTING IT TO YOU ( ESPECIALLY BIBLICAL CHRISTIANS ) TO SEE IF YOU CAN REFUTE THEIR ARGUMENTS BIBLICALLY ( SINCE THEY CLAIM TO GET THEIR TEACHINGS FROM THE BIBLE ).
Now that our neighbors in the North ( Canada ) have legalized same sex marriage, and their justice department is even as we speak, studying the possibility of legalizing polygamy, I think we ought to seriously consider refuting this.
Expect to find support for Polygamy coming from fringe groups who claim the mantle of Christianity and use the Bible to justify their practice ( and expect the libs to quote them approvingly ).
The webmaster of this site are The Królewiec Family, who have been living polygyny now for nearly 25 years.
According to them ....
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"We felt strongly moved by the Ruach (Spirit) to make this principle more widely known. In this they were encouraged by the Chavurat Bekorot whose desire is to prepare godly men and women in positions of leadership, as they are called by Yahweh, for theocratic government as we enter the end of the pre-millennial dispensation (or 'Pentecostal/Shavu'ot Age') and prepare for the full establishment of the millennial Israelite theocracy (or 'Tabernacles/Sukkot Age') that will immediately precede the Second Coming of the Lord Yah'shua haMashiach (Jesus Christ) -- a theocracy where, according to the Bible, polygamy will feature strongly amongst all the survivors of the end-time holocaust called the Great Tribulation (Isaiah 4:1)."
"The first stable Christian polygamous community was established in Europe in 1991 (though earlier abortive attempts were made in about 1983 & 1988), which to our knowledge is older than any of the others extant in the West, and therefore has considerable experience."
"The authors of these pages all belong to a Christian Community called the Chavurat Bekorot which translated from the Hebrew means, Assembly of the Firsborn, the "firstborn" being one of the names of the Lord Yah'shua haMashiach (Jesus Christ) (Hebrews 12:23).
"The Chavurat Bekorot is Evangelical Christian/Messianic Israelite, meaning that it accepts and implements the Bible in its totality and its Hebraic-roots. It is also a contemporary prophetic community. Its members are polygamous (a tiny minority), monogamous (the vast bulk) and single."
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In contrast to their claims that the Bible is positive towards polygamy, I have the following verse against this teaching from the Old testament book of Deuteronomy 17:14-17 :
"When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," 15 be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray."
I hasten to note that Fundamentalist Muslims will quickly seize on this to provide support for their arguments. It will start in Canada. See here for the details :
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1557721/posts
and here :
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1557105/posts
Since Sharia law is now recognized in Canada, I can't find a reason why Polygamy should be outlawed there. If it gets legalized there, it could simply be a matter of time before the same arguments come into these United States.
I guess they never heard about the Mormons, who practiced polygamy successfully from about 1839 to 1896....Maybe they aren't considering them Christian.
The Holy Bible is polygamous from cover to cover.>>>
Oh really?
>>
4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'[a] 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'[b]? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"
8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
10The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."
11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage[c]because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."
We have been commanded to obey our leaders. Our leaders have deemed polygamy to be illegal.
This deserves repeating: "So they are no longer two, but one."
How many wives did David have? David had eight wives, although he appears to have had children from other women as well.
1. The first one was Michal, a daughter of King Saul.
2. The second was Ahinoam of Jezreel.
3. The third was Abigail, previously wife of the evil Nabal.
4. The fourth was Maachah.
5. The fifth was Haggith.
6. The sixth was Avital.
7. The seventh was Eglah.
8. The eighth was Bathsheba.
How many wives did Solomon have? First Kings 11:1-3 indicates that King Solomon had 700 hundred wives and 300 hundred concubines.
Note to self: read later.
So
That proves that he wasn't all that smart.
As David was an ANCESTOR of Christ God and not a descendant I find your observation silly in the extreme.
None of that matters.
The Bible indicates all sorts of people had all sorts of behavior that God specifically said not to do. The point is to show that people are not perfect, not to indicate that it's Ok.
Abraham and Jacob both told people their wives were their sisters. Rebekah tricked Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of Esau. Moses killed a man. Peter denied Christ 3 times. Noah got drunk and his kids saw him naked. David had an afair with a woman and had her husband killed to cover up the afair. I could go on...
These people all did things that were against God's law. That doesn't make it Ok. It shows that they were flawed people that were still able to do great things for God's purpose despite their flaws. God constantly chose flawed, weak people to be his leaders to show that His strength and might was doing the work and not the people.
How many wives did Solomon have? First Kings 11:1-3 indicates that King Solomon had 700 hundred wives and 300 hundred concubines.>>>
And you look to this as a GOOD thing? I seem to recall that Solomon's randy behavior led directly to the division of Israel from Judea and ultimately to the conquest by the Babylonians....
I am NOT saying this is good or bad. I am saying that the Bible says that at least two (and I haven't made an exhaustive study) of the more important characters were married to more than one woman.
Just repetition of the Biblical facts for those who haven't read it.
Get as huffy as you want to. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Polygamy is not outlawed in the Bible. Ashkenazi (European) Jews outlawed polygamy about 1000 years ago, by rabbinical decree.
Sephardi (Middle-Eastern) Jews who lived in Muslim lands continued to observe polygamy up until about 60 years ago. It is prohibited by Israeli secular law, although polygamous families who immigrated from Muslim lands were allowed to stay together.
Satan-speak>: And, then that ONE takes a wife, and becomes ONE, cpomposed of one man, and two wives. /Satan-speak>
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife , and let every woman have her own husband. 1 Cor 7:7
Didn't Greek have both a singular AND a plural? Why then, is the singular used instead of the plural, if multiplicty were the intent?
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