Is God against Polygamy?

[Cis.jd]

I made this thread due to the current events surrounding Gay marriage.

I'm not supportive of SSM due to my Catholic beliefs, however I've noticed several atheists and even christians who support SSM. There was this christian info-graphic about how God isn't against SSM..

Seeing this graphic made me think of a possible scenario in where someone will reference Solomon, David, Abraham, Lot, etc in justifying Polygamous marriages. God never scolded these prophets for taking in multiple wives.

How can we Christians counter an argument like this if it ever happens? I know the Jesus verses on celibacy but one can call out a "contradiction" (God does not change) or insert random meanings to it.

 

[Sabertooth]

I can only recall the topic being alluded to once in the NT. Paul gave qualifications for overseers & deacons, 1 Timothy 3:2 & 1 Timothy 3:12.

The implication was that poly[gyny] didn't disqualify one from being a Christian. (If it had, it would not have been given as a requirement for those two positions...)

 

[exitstageright]

I made this thread due to the current events surrounding Gay marriage.

I'm not supportive of SSM due to my Catholic beliefs, however I've noticed several atheists and even christians who support SSM. There was this christian info-graphic about how God isn't against SSM..

Seeing this graphic made me think of a possible scenario in where someone will reference Solomon, David, Abraham, Lot, etc in justifying Polygamous marriages. God never scolded these prophets for taking in multiple wives.

How can we Christians counter an argument like this if it ever happens? I know the Jesus verses on celibacy but one can call out a "contradiction" (God does not change) or insert random meanings to it.

Even if polygamy is ok with God,I would not have multiple wives. I would not want to have five women telling me to take out the garbage.I certainly would not want five different women nagging me about five different things.

 

[Pádraigín Ní Saorlaith]

God allowed divorce in the Old Testament because the hearts of His people were hard (Matthew 19:8). Arguably, the same was true for polygamy.

Whenever Scripture depicts polygamous marriages in detail, we see the negative consequences.

• Jacob marries both Leah and Rachel. Leah and Rachel fight often, and their rivalry causes them to encourage Jacob to have affairs with their handmaidens in an effort to have sons.
• David was unsatisfied with the number of wives he had. They weren't enough for him. He had an affair with Bathsheba, which further led David to scheme to kill Bathsheba's husband Uriah. His own infant son died as a consequence of David's sin.
• Solomon married pagan women, who led him to turn His back on God and to adopt their gods.

There are other examples, but those are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Even though God allowed these men to have multiple wives, and even though He still used them to fulfill His will, the Bible still shows us that there were consequences for their polygamy, as well as that it did not give them any satisfaction.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

Even if polygamy is ok with God,I would not have multiple wives. I would not want to have five women telling me to take out the garbage.I certainly would not want five different women nagging me about five different things.

And you would be told how you are wrong five different ways. To the monastery it is!

 

[Kenny'sID]

certainly would not want five different women nagging me about five different things

All depends on what those things are.

Honestly, if I could afford it and thought is was within Gods rules, I would love to have at least 5.

 

[RDKirk]

I made this thread due to the current events surrounding Gay marriage.

I'm not supportive of SSM due to my Catholic beliefs, however I've noticed several atheists and even christians who support SSM. There was this christian info-graphic about how God isn't against SSM..

Seeing this graphic made me think of a possible scenario in where someone will reference Solomon, David, Abraham, Lot, etc in justifying Polygamous marriages. God never scolded these prophets for taking in multiple wives.

How can we Christians counter an argument like this if it ever happens? I know the Jesus verses on celibacy but one can call out a "contradiction" (God does not change) or insert random meanings to it.

First, Christians are not circumscribed by the Mosaic Law. Those who claim it are wrong, and they can deal with that problem themselves.

Second, Jesus said: “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and 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’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh."

That is the definition of marriage that Christians have to go by. It's irrelevant for Christians what the early Jews did, because Jesus provided the definition applicable to those who follow Him. Paul and other apostles are in accord with Jesus.

 

[JustRachel]

You guys are hilarious! I wouldn't want to live with five of me and I'm certain that hubby would agree.

 

[GodLovesCats]

This reminds me of a thread last month that was started by someone who believes polygamy is Biblical. I alawys assumed it is not because Paul wrote every man should have ONE wife.

 

[Cis.jd]

This reminds me of a thread last month that was started by someone who believes polygamy is Biblical. I alawys assumed it is not because Paul wrote every man should have ONE wife.

I don't believe it's biblical. I'm just saying because I've noticed christians trying to biblically defend SSM. I've seen churches takes quotes to making catch phrases on their billboards so i'm just wondering once this culture gets bored of SSM and starts moving on to something like Polygamy, i can predict that the next Gen snowflake/left christians are going to biblically defend it using the OT as a source.

 

[RDKirk]

I can only recall the topic being alluded to once in the NT. Paul gave qualifications for overseers & deacons, 1 Timothy 3:2 & 1 Timothy 3:12.

The implication was that poly[gyny] didn't disqualify one from being a Christian. (If it had, it would not have been given as a requirement for those two positions...)

No, that is not implied at all.

First, polygamy was not even a question for Paul's audience. Nobody in Paul's gentile audience got an implication that he was permitting polygamy because polygamy was already prohibited by law in the Roman empire.

Second, if Paul is stating that a person need be "husband of one wife" to be an overseer or a deacon, then the implication is that there is something wrong somehow with being husband of multiple wives, even if it were not being explicitly prohibited.

 

[GodLovesCats]

Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states. Same-sex marriage is not. That will never change.

 

[Cis.jd]

Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states. Same-sex marriage is not. That will never change.

I'm not against SSM being legalized.. if they are not christian are marrying under civil law, then that really isn't the church's business.

this is more about Christians using the Bible to support it, and a "what if" in the future when people start thinking Polygamy is cool?

Here is the pic i was talking about.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

And you would be told how you are wrong five different ways. To the monastery it is!

That's what Gentlemen's clubs are for!

 

[GodLovesCats]

This is the thread I was referring to: Why Are Christians More Receptive to Divorce Than Polygamy?

 

[devin553344]

I made this thread due to the current events surrounding Gay marriage.

I'm not supportive of SSM due to my Catholic beliefs, however I've noticed several atheists and even christians who support SSM. There was this christian info-graphic about how God isn't against SSM..

Seeing this graphic made me think of a possible scenario in where someone will reference Solomon, David, Abraham, Lot, etc in justifying Polygamous marriages. God never scolded these prophets for taking in multiple wives.

How can we Christians counter an argument like this if it ever happens? I know the Jesus verses on celibacy but one can call out a "contradiction" (God does not change) or insert random meanings to it.

Well you have to say that Jesus is of superior character. And people of superior character don't engage in polygamy because it's immoral. It's as easy as that for me.

 

[crossnote]

Polygamy may be the next trend, at least that was my first impression when lately I saw this ...LGBTQ2+
I thought 2+, uh oh, more than two...polygamy.

But after looking it up, maybe not...

What does LGBTQ2+ mean?
LGBTQ2+ is an initialism that stands for: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or sometimes questioning), and two-spirited. The plus-sign signifies a number of other identities.

Well in the least, it appears the trend is toward Babylon...i.e. confusion.

 

[Carl Emerson]

I heard the Mormon movement split over this issue and many moved to Mexico to continue with several wives...

 

[Cis.jd]

Polygamy may be the next trend, at least that was my first impression when lately I saw this ...LGBTQ2+
I thought 2+, uh oh, more than two...polygamy.

But after looking it up, maybe not...

Well in the least, it appears the trend is toward Babylon...i.e. confusion.

They revised the name? What does 2+ stand for?

 

[GodLovesCats]

I heard the Mormon movement split over this issue and many moved to Mexico to continue with several wives...

Mormons were forced to condemn polygamy after settling into Utah, but a few of them do practice it.