Was polygamy commanded by God in the Bible?

[chris2009]

I just realize that the OP is a LDS after noting that a Muslim poster comes into the thread. It is interesting that they have much in common about polygamy. I wonder how that comes about. I mean about the commoness - two uttrely different religions but meet in polygamy.

It comes about because we both believe in the prophet Abraham and all the prophet’s back to Adam. The Catholics and Protestants believe in these prophets also as you may know.

Abraham had two sons. Ishmael from his wife Hagar and Isaac from his wife Sarah. Ishmael had 12 sons. Islamic traditions consider Ishmael as the ancestor of northern Arab people. Isaac’s son was Jacob who had 12 sons or the 12 tribes of Israel.

How about that! We all come from the same family!

 

[chris2009]

I have noticed ALOT of similarities between the Islam and Mormonism. It’s really uncanny. I wonder if anyone has done a comparison/contrast here on CAF.

To me, it’s as if Satan tried to get everyone to disbelieve in Jesus by creating Islam and its false teaching that Jesus was not crucified or resurrected. When that didn’t work on eliminating the Truth, another religion was created that seems to believe in Jesus, but twists everything in Scripture around.

This always makes me think of Acts 16:16-19. The demon that Paul cast out was seemingly telling people to follow St. Paul. Yet St. Paul knew that it was a demon and cast it out.

Really? Tell me all the similarities between Islam and Mormonism! I love the Islamic people as I do the Catholics and Protestants, but I don’t think we have much in common doctrinally with Islam. I think it’s pretty funny that you think this.

I also am amazed at your claim of Mormon’s twisting the scriptures when you can’t even admit polygamy was practiced in the OT under the Lord approval. Wow… Please reread the OT more carefully.

 

[zaffiroborant]

Throughout the history of the earth from Adam until now, God at various times has commanded that polygamy be practiced and other times God has commanded that polygamy NOT be practiced. Whenever polygamy was practiced, I don’t believe there was ever a time where ALL practiced it – just a small few. From what I understand, even among the Mormon’s who practiced polygamy in the 1800’s, only about 3% of the church membership practiced polygamy. It is a touchy subject now and it was a touchy subject then.

And from what you have said, throughout history God has commanded slavery. There were laws governing it, Patriarchs practiced it, and unlike polygyny it was never condemned (I see the NT as coming down firmly on the side of one wife).

 

[chris2009]

Not to hijack this thread but just this one. How true, after the coming of the Messiah, two principle messages of God - the sanctity of marriage and salvation of mankind through the ressurection were immediately compromised by the rise of another religions that seemingly based on the prophets. One cannot help but think that when such a beautiful concept (oneness of marriage) and important revelation (salavtion) to be outright rejected must surely be from forces outside of God.

I am more intrigued to note this finding - that the two religions, so far from each other in origin can meet on this subject (polygamy) which is outright rejected by Christ.

Reuben,

You say after the coming of the Messiah the two principle messages of God were “immediately compromised by the rise of another religion”. Immediately after? You must be referring to the Catholic Church.

Did Christ reject the OT? Please reference where Christ rejected polygamy.

 

[zaffiroborant]

Reuben,

You say after the coming of the Messiah the two principle messages of God were “immediately compromised by the rise of another religion”. Immediately after? You must be referring to the Catholic Church.

Did Christ reject the OT? Please reference where Christ rejected polygamy.

Why do LDS refer to Adam and Eve as proof that marriage is eternal?

 

[zaffiroborant]

Here is a Salt Lake Tribune article that touches on polygyany (among other issues) in a current situation.

 

[chris2009]

How can you prove that those prophets were living happy thriving while the stories tell us that those wives were jealous and competed towards each other:

-Sarah felt that she was humiliated by her maid Hagar, finally she told Abraham to let her go
-Jacob’s multiple marriage was not planned at all from the beginning, it was the fraud that was schemed by Leah’s father that he ended up in polygamy. Nonetheless, those wives were jealous at each other that they even competed in giving offspring for Jacob by giving off their maid. You don’t know exactly what these women must have felt in day to day household duties.

-Hana (Samuel’s mother) was so depressed by her rival in marriage.
-David multiple marriage only brought rivalry among his children, they killed each other, so did happen to Solomon

So even so that we know that there’s no explicit commandment of disallowing polygamy, the narrations of the bible only stress that these figures own desires and hard heartened that led them to polygamy, only bring stresses, jealousy, unhealthy competition, anger, hatred towards people who were involved in this relationships. Please, use your imagination whether these wives could behave nicely to each other. They couldn’t, then it’s obvious that it only bring more sins to people.

You make some great points that polygamy was not easy.

However, polygamy does not create jealousy, anger and hatred – it simply reveals it. Polygamy is only for the most humble and righteous of God’s children. That’s like my 9 year old boy who points to his brother and says, “He MADE me mad!” Nobody can MAKE you mad, they simply reveal what is already inside of you. WE are responsible or as Steven Covey says we are response-able. We are able to respond. We are given the ability to choose our actions. God presents life and all it’s problems to us that we may perfect our character.

 

[RebeccaJ]

The most obvious offense is against the women. In the case of David, treated as property; won as spoils of war. Women are treated as commodities. LDS are no different.

“I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow” Heber C. Kimball

 

[RebeccaJ]

You make some great points that polygamy was not easy.

However, polygamy does not create jealousy, anger and hatred – it simply reveals it. Polygamy is only for the most humble and righteous of God’s children. That’s like my 9 year old boy who points to his brother and says, “He MADE me mad!” Nobody can MAKE you mad, they simply reveal what is already inside of you. WE are responsible or as Steven Covey says we are response-able. We are able to respond. We are given the ability to choose our actions. God presents life and all it’s problems to us that we may perfect our character.

What happens when the person is no longer humble or righteous? Oh yeah, look to the Mormons who still practice polygamy. Children taken from their parents and wives reassigned to “righteous” men. But Mormons are all about “family”.

 

[zaffiroborant]

The most obvious offense is against the women. In the case of David, treated as property; won as spoils of war. Women are treated as commodities. LDS are no different.

“I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow” Heber C. Kimball

Just a note, Kimball was one of the original 12 apostles in the LDS church he had a “heard” numbering 45. So right from the get go we can see the humility of the leaders of the LDS church and the direction polygyny takes.

 

[chris2009]

“16: But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 17: Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold” (Deut. 17)

This is the real teaching from the OT that taking many wives considered sinful as it’s showing the act of “Greediness” that could turn you away from God!

Didn’t we just talk about twisting scriptures and taking them out of context? What is the context of this scripture? Who is the Lord referring to when saying “he”? Let’s read it. (Deut 17)

"14When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

15Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

16But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

17Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

18And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:"

The Lord is referring to the new king of Israel, not to all of God’s children as you have implied.

Your support of LDS is no surprise knowing that you are both dealing with the akin sort of prophets.

Yea, like Abraham, Jacob, David, etc. I guess the Bible is like a smorgasbord. You can pick and choose what you like and don’t like.

 

[RebeccaJ]

The Lord is referring to the new king of Israel, not to all of God’s children as you have implied.

I guess he wasn’t righteous or humble enough.

oh wait…it looks like God is all about choosing someone who is humble enough, and that list of humble attributes includes not practicing polygamy.

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

 

[zaffiroborant]

Really? Tell me all the similarities between Islam and Mormonism! I love the Islamic people as I do the Catholics and Protestants, but I don’t think we have much in common doctrinally with Islam. I think it’s pretty funny that you think this.

I also am amazed at your claim of Mormon’s twisting the scriptures when you can’t even admit polygamy was practiced in the OT under the Lord approval. Wow… Please reread the OT more carefully.

You can’t admit that when your criteria for accepting polygyny is applied to slavery it is also acceptable. So you agree that slavery is moral and is actually commanded by God and is a good and moral situation.

 

[chris2009]

I am sorry if you do not like the comparison. It just caught my attention after you Muslims come in to this thread – and I was thinking, goodness, both of you believe in the same thing!

Then I noticed that both of you have a prophet who believed that each was sent by God respectively with new revelations. And bingo, polygamy is allowed! There is similarity there, isn’t it? Both of course rejected Jesus by the differences in their teaching compared to that of Jesus respectively.

You may not realize it, but from Adam to John the “Revelator” who wrote the Book of “Revelation” there have been true prophets sent by God with new revelations. Then someone put 4000 years of seperate books together and made the Bible! New revelation and new scripture will ALWAYS be the sign of God’s true church. And sorry, but polygamy is nothing new – eg OT.

I noticed an interesting similarity between Catholics and ancient Greek Philosophy and Pagans. It’s really amazing how similar the doctrines are considering Plato and Aristotle lived around 400 BC. Logos, substance and essense (ousia), the nature of God, etc in Greek Philosophy. Pagan holidays (holy days) like Easter (Eostre - Pagan Goddess of fertility (eggs, rabbits)), Pontifex or Pontiff (pagan origins as early as 700 BC), feast days, idol worship, praying to someone other than God, etc… It’s quite interesting.

 

[chris2009]

Why do LDS refer to Adam and Eve as proof that marriage is eternal?

I don’t know if it shows absolute proof, but it does show that’s the way God wanted things to be.

 

[RebeccaJ]

I noticed an interesting similarity between Catholics and ancient Greek Philosophy and Pagans. It’s really amazing how similar the doctrines are considering Plato and Aristotle lived around 400 BC. Logos, substance and essense (ousia), the nature of God, etc in Greek Philosophy. Pagan holidays (holy days) like Easter (Eostre - Pagan Goddess of fertility (eggs, rabbits)), Pontifex or Pontiff (pagan origins as early as 700 BC), feast days, idol worship, praying to someone other than God, etc… It’s quite interesting.

Only 124 posts for the anti-Catholic to show. Teach you that in Sunday school?

 

[pinay]

Greetings to one and all.

I would just like to point out several misconceptions of the LDS church (Mormons) that were mentioned in this thread.

The LDS church teaches polygamy to be a sinful practice unless commanded by God. Therefore, that is not something we have in common with Islam. Anybody who practices polygamy today is immediately excommunicated. Any “Mormon” church who are practicing polygamy are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Thomas S. Monson being the prophet). They are “spin-offs” like the FLDS church that was popular in the news recently.

The LDS church do not have the same view of “marriage” as any other church. Marriage in LDS is eternal. That is - you are sealed for time and eternity. It is the LDS belief that the highest degree of exaltation requires that a person be sealed to an eternal companion. Sealings can only be performed in the temple. Because of this, the early church under the direction of 2 prophets - Joseph Smith and upon his death, Brigham Young - was given the commandment to be “sealed” to more than one woman. This was because in the early beginnings of the church, there were only a few men that held priesthood authority that allowed them to partake of the sealing ordinance in the temple. A woman does not require priesthood authority. They only need to be faithful daughters of God. Also at that time, the men of the church were getting persecuted. There was a law in Missouri (or was it Illinois) that made it legal to kill Mormons. This law was not repealed until the late 1960’s. The practice of polygyny allowed Mormon women to live under the direction of priesthood authority to receive the fullness of blessings. Otherwise, they would have had to marry outside of the church.

After Brigham Young brought the church to Utah, the church experienced fast growth - even internationally. It became unnecessary to continue polygyny and God revealed that the saints are to follow the law of the land and have only one wife. But, a man can still be sealed to more than one woman even today (i.e., when the wife dies and the man remarries).

Thank you for reading my post.

 

[Reuben_J]

Reuben,

You say after the coming of the Messiah the two principle messages of God were “immediately compromised by the rise of another religion”. Immediately after? You must be referring to the Catholic Church.

Did Christ reject the OT? Please reference where Christ rejected polygamy.

I was embroiled in answering a pesky Muslim poster who had since been banned whose style of debating had irked nearly every Christian posters here. When I came into this thread it was virtually answering the title of the thread, ’Was polygamy commanded by God in the Bible?’ My answer was that it was not. There are many commandments by God but none that commanded people to practice polygamy. All the Biblical verses you referred to have been addressed and none of them about God commanding polygamy. Some are merely recounting the acts of polygamy being practiced albeit by the patriarchs and kings; others were just a way of speech and hypothetical situations where polygamy was mentioned but none speaks about God actually commanding polygamy. The other was about governance.

Honestly I did not realize you are a LDS. It was written under your nick but I did not realize that. I have not engaged in debating LDSs simply because of lack of knowledge in their religious background. So I can only comment on what I know from what I read and heard. Those can never be comprehensive of course.

As to answer your question - Jesus came to found Christianity. Basically it is about Jesus; that he is the Son of God who saves us from sin by his death and resurrection. That is Christianity.

Then Islam came and much later, your religion. Both of these two religions religiously contradict Christianity. So that was the gist of my comment to the Muslim poster in my post you referred to.

 

[Reuben_J]

You may not realize it, but from Adam to John the “Revelator” who wrote the Book of “Revelation” there have been true prophets sent by God with new revelations. Then someone put 4000 years of seperate books together and made the Bible! New revelation and new scripture will ALWAYS be the sign of God’s true church. And sorry, but polygamy is nothing new – eg OT.

**
I noticed an interesting similarity between Catholics and ancient Greek Philosophy and Pagans. It’s really amazing how similar the doctrines are considering Plato and Aristotle lived around 400 BC. Logos, substance and essense (ousia), the nature of God, etc in Greek Philosophy. Pagan holidays (holy days) like Easter (Eostre - Pagan Goddess of fertility (eggs, rabbits)), Pontifex or Pontiff (pagan origins as early as 700 BC), feast days, idol worship, praying to someone other than God, etc… It’s quite interesting.**

This kind of post is not even worthed answering. I did not insult your religion and I don’t see why you should do that to mine.

 

[Reuben_J]

Greetings to one and all.

I would just like to point out several misconceptions of the LDS church (Mormons) that were mentioned in this thread.

The LDS church teaches polygamy to be a sinful practice unless commanded by God. Therefore, that is not something we have in common with Islam. Anybody who practices polygamy today is immediately excommunicated. Any “Mormon” church who are practicing polygamy are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Thomas S. Monson being the prophet). They are “spin-offs” like the FLDS church that was popular in the news recently.

The LDS church do not have the same view of “marriage” as any other church. Marriage in LDS is eternal. That is - you are sealed for time and eternity. It is the LDS belief that the highest degree of exaltation requires that a person be sealed to an eternal companion. Sealings can only be performed in the temple. Because of this, the early church under the direction of 2 prophets - Joseph Smith and upon his death, Brigham Young - was given the commandment to be “sealed” to more than one woman. This was because in the early beginnings of the church, there were only a few men that held priesthood authority that allowed them to partake of the sealing ordinance in the temple. A woman does not require priesthood authority. They only need to be faithful daughters of God. Also at that time, the men of the church were getting persecuted. There was a law in Missouri (or was it Illinois) that made it legal to kill Mormons. This law was not repealed until the late 1960’s. The practice of polygyny allowed Mormon women to live under the direction of priesthood authority to receive the fullness of blessings. Otherwise, they would have had to marry outside of the church.

After Brigham Young brought the church to Utah, the church experienced fast growth - even internationally. It became unnecessary to continue polygyny and God revealed that the saints are to follow the law of the land and have only one wife. But, a man can still be sealed to more than one woman even today (i.e., when the wife dies and the man remarries).

Thank you for reading my post.

Welcome to the Forum, Pinay.

While I note the information given (with thanks) any Christian would tell you God would not command polygamy, even today. God is an unchanging God and He is not about to change His mind, no matter how demanding is the circumstance.