Is Polygamy Sanctioned by God?

Other Baptists?

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

IMHO - :godisgood:

 

You watched Larry King tonight didn't you?

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

That's one of the best reasons to have just one wife that I know of! My one MIL is more than enough!

 

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.

 

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'