Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Does God Approve Of Polygamy?


Some people apparently think that God approves of polygamy.  One Christian couple tried to persuade Ken and me on one of my posts that polygamy is a good thing.  Yes, it did happen in the Old Testament but it produced very ugly fruit.  Those wives led their husbands, specifically King David and King Solomon, away from the Lord.  You know the ending of the story between Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, even though Hagar was only a concubine and not a wife.

In the New Covenant, which we live under since Christ died and rose again, there is no word of polygamy or multiple wives in the New Testament.  In fact,  all the verses addressed to husbands refer to his "wife" {singular} and the qualifications for any type of leader in the church state that he must be a husband of ONE wife.

With so much false teaching going around and many Christians being biblically illiterate, we must know Truth and where God stands on important issues such as marriage.  He ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman forever and always.  This was His design from the beginning and it has never changed nor will change with the changing seasons.

Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, 
and let every woman have her own husband.
I Corinthians 7:2

A bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife...
I Timothy 3:2

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother 
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Genesis 2:24

Print Friendly and PDF
Posted by Always Learning at 6:00 AM
Labels:

Comments (5)

Loading... Logging you in...
Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout
  • Logged in as
0 Vote up Vote down
Mrs. Abella's avatar - Go to profile

Mrs. Abella · 589 weeks ago

OOOOH I did a series on that a while back! Thank you for touching on the subject! It's a shame that people try hard to persuade folks to step outside the will of God and blaspheme what He has written in His book. Thank you for your solid stand!
0 Vote up Vote down
Lindsay Harold's avatar - Go to profile

Lindsay Harold · 589 weeks ago

I think it's also worthwhile to point out that polygamy, while it was allowed by God in the OT, was never the original plan. God made ONE man and ONE woman at the beginning and said that a man and wife become ONE together. You can't become one with more than one spouse. Each person has only one self to give and if a man is split between two or more wives, he can't give his all to either of them and thus can't be one with either of them.

I think polygamy was allowed for the protection of women in a world where women had only two options for survival - get married or sell yourself. Every woman needed a man to take care of her because the only "job" open to women was prostitution. So to ensure that all women had a man to care for them in a society where there might not be enough men to go around (especially in times of war), multiple wives were allowed. Polygamy is much like divorce and slavery, which were allowed for a time, but were never God's plan.
Loading...
+1 Vote up Vote down
2happy4's avatar - Go to profile

2happy4 66p · 589 weeks ago

I agree that God never intended polygamy but allowed it. The verse referring to the qualification of elders always seemed to me that it was holding elders up to the ideal standard but not necessarily other Christians. While no Christian should get into a polygamist situation, I always thought perhaps the verse referring to elder qualification spoke to the fact that some new Christians "remained as they were" when they became Christians. Like if a polygamist Muslim became a Christian, I would not guess that they would have to divorce their multiple wives, but they would never qualify for the position of an elder in the church.
0 Vote up Vote down
Tiffany's avatar

Tiffany · 589 weeks ago

I completely agree! Marriage is ordained by God between one man and one woman. There is no other way. And for that, I am very thankful. :) I have been watching "Sister Wives" on Netflix and while they seem like nice, good people, the thought of the way they think they need to live just sickens me. It's so sad for their kids and for the wives especially.
0 Vote up Vote down
Genevra Ower's avatar

Genevra Ower · 589 weeks ago

Polygamy is against the law in this country. Also, Adam and Eve produced some ugly fruit, wouldn't you say?

Post a new comment

Comments by

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)