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Is Polygamy Sanctioned by God?

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Marcia, Dec 8, 2006.

  1. Marcia

    Marcia Active Member

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    I am starting this because of the post below from the thread on "Boaz' Other Wives"

    So, are there others who agree that polygamy is okay as long as it's not to an unbeliever?
     
    #1 Marcia, Dec 8, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 8, 2006
  2. El_Guero

    El_Guero New Member

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    Other Baptists?

    That would imply that a Baptist could and has believed in heresy . . .

    IMHO - :godisgood:
     
  3. Brother Bob

    Brother Bob New Member

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    You watched Larry King tonight didn't you?
     
  4. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Here's what I posted at another site. I think it states what I believe pretty clearly. :D

    God's original design was a man and a woman - Genesis 2:24 says "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." It's not the two becoming one - but one flesh - the word being "basar" which is a physical word. It's not a spiritual becoming one but a physical one. I don't think you can become one flesh with many people.

    God also forbade the kings of Israel to be polygamous (Deut. 17:17). Look at the trouble when they disobeyed, including deadly sibling rivalry between David’s sons from his different wives; and Solomon’s hundreds of wives helped lead Solomon to idolatry (1 Kings 11:1–3). Also, Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was humiliated by her husband Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah (1 Sam. 1:1–7). When Abraham took another woman, he started an entire rivalry and divide between people that is still going on today!

    I think God allowed polygamy for a time due to the hardness of their hearts (much like He did divorce). When it WAS practiced, nothing good came out of it. In the New Testament, there are descriptions of what kind of man should be the leaders of the church - and one requirement is that he be the husband of one wife. If this is a quality that is honorable along with the other qualities of being sober-minded, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, etc., then I think it's a quality that all Christians should strive for.
     
  5. mountainrun

    mountainrun New Member

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    Kings are commanded in Dueteronomy 17 not to multiply wifes to themselves.
    Two or more would be multiplying.
    As to Christians being brides of Christ, that is not what the Bible says at all.
    It says the Church is the bride of Christ. Singular.

    God nowhere gives his approval of polygamy in the Bible.
    If the qualifications for deacons concerning being the husband of one wife doesn't refer directly to polygamy, and I don't think it does, it certainly rules it out.

    Are you sure 009Y is a Baptist?

    MR
     
  6. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    If he's going to Shelter Rock Church, he is. Shelter Rock used to be Manhasset Baptist Church but they changed their name a couple of years ago, I think. They also took over a dying baptist church - Syosset Bible Baptist and now have 2 campuses. As I said, the pastor is a personal friend of ours - my DH and he used to commute to college together and they had a band together. My DH and his brother went to Holland with Youth For Christ back in 1980 to minister in coffee houses and such. :D Pretty small world!
     
  7. Marcia

    Marcia Active Member

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    Good points, especially the last one! :thumbs:


    I assumed it since he was posting in a Baptist forum. But I just checked and his profile says he's Presbyterian!!

    So I'm wrong about that. Sorry!

    However, this topic has come up before and a few Baptists have seemingly defended polygamy, or at least would not say it's wrong or that God was against it.
     
  8. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    How can a society survive with polygamy?
    If men have two wives, 50% of men will be without wives.
    If men have ten wives, 90% of men will be without wives.
    Resulting in:
    1. limitation of polygamy to elite men
    2. turning to young girls for wives
    3. expelling young men from society
    4. raiding neighboring societies for wives
    The Warren Jeffs cult did 1-3, thankfully not 4.

    Scripture seems to portray polygamous families as uniformly disfunctional, with much rivalry and hatred.
     
  9. LeBuick

    LeBuick New Member

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    I believe one of God's first commands was to plenish then to replenish the earth. It is a far more efficient process when man has more than one woman. Later the Bible teaches the institution of family with one man and one woman.

    I know my statement appears on the surface to conflict with;

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

    But let's look at what immediately preceeds v24;

    Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
    23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
     
  10. pinoybaptist

    pinoybaptist Active Member
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    I think you misread the guy's post, Marcia. He was not saying polygamy is not okay if a believer marries an unbeliever. He said God frowns on a believer with multiple wives who get misled by his unbelieving wife and goes and joins himself with her god, too, or words along that thought.

    I am not surprised at all if there are Baptists who believe God neither approves or disapproves of polygamy. One of my Bible college professors, with whom I had not a few arguments with in front of the class, teaches so. He says it is a matter of "culture", "tradition", and such stuff. A gray area if you will. He also taught that the fetus is not yet with soul while in the womb. And he was a guy who hated the Doctrine of Grace so much he called it the devil's doctrine. Wow.
     
    #10 pinoybaptist, Dec 9, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 9, 2006
  11. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    Yet Adam and Noah and his sons, to whom the commands were given, were monogamous, were they not?
    Please elaborate on how more children are produced by two women married to one man than by two women each married to her own man.
     
  12. Bluefalcon

    Bluefalcon Member

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    Haha! Good point. Since there are generally as many boys as girls, if every man had two wives, then half of all men would have no wives! Hahaha!
     
  13. drfuss

    drfuss New Member

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    Jerome writes:
    "Please elaborate on how more children are produced by two women married to one man than by two women each married to her own man."

    My answer to your question.
    Society then was very different than it is now. They had no law and order like we have today. It was not unusual for one group to raid the other group, kill all the men and take the women as slaves or wives. If the men were not killed, they were sold off as slaves. This resulted in more available women than men. I have no scripture to support this, but this is generally acknowledged as a historical fact.

    I doubt if anyone on here believes that polygamy is okay today. The question is: Was it okay back then? I believe it was okay back then; the same as slavery, concubines, avengers of murder, etc. However, I don't know of any polygamy condoned after the Jewish exiles returned.

    Consider this. God's people, the twelve tribes chosen to be holy, were the product of polygamy and concubines. If God considered polygamy to be bad back then, would He have chosen a people produced through two wives and two concubines? I think God accepted polygamy as necesary for the times and conditions.
     
  14. LeBuick

    LeBuick New Member

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    Were they monogamous? You tell me but consider there was so much evil God destroyed the world.

    Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

    This where that previous verse on who the son's of God comes into play. I'm sorry to address your response with a question;

    Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

    Who are these sons of God?

    To asnwer your second questions it all about math. If one man has 9 women he can have 1 baby a month. One man with 1 woman can have 1 baby every 9 months. Unlike Bluefalcon, I seem to remember their always being more men that women in the world. The bible just didn't usually count women.
     
  15. mountainrun

    mountainrun New Member

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    Or nine men with nine women can have nine babies every nine months.


    It's not about math so much as logic. The man doesn't have the babies the women do.
    Nine women can have nine babies every nine months whether they are married to one man or nine men.

    MR
     
  16. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

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    Just remember folks, with an extra wife comes an extra mother-in-law.
     
  17. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Don't know how true it is but my husband always says that the Chinese symbol for confusion is 2 women under one roof. ;)
     
  18. SBCPreacher

    SBCPreacher Active Member
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    That's one of the best reasons to have just one wife that I know of! My one MIL is more than enough!
     
  19. drfuss

    drfuss New Member

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    If you could only have as many wives as you can afford, how many of us men could afford even one wife?

    Of course, wives didn't have credit cards in those days.
     
  20. Bluefalcon

    Bluefalcon Member

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    Funny. I've studied Chinese for quite some time and can say that no such character exists. However, it is true that one woman under a roof in Chinese means 'peace' (an), so that two women under a roof, if such a character existed, might possibly mean 'double peace'
     
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