Polygamy right everywhere in the Holy Bible

ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, DOES POLYGAMY COME FROM GOD, OR IS IT A SIN FOR A MAN TO BE POLYGAMIST?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in this times where many groups of Christians, churches are being made, each one of us tries by and by to do the God's will. Anyone tries to know whether all acts he commits are good or bad, or sometimes a condemned thing regarding to the Word of God. So, in the same way, someone asks if according to the Bible, polygamy is instituted by God Almighty himself, and if also it is not a sin for man to be a polygamist. There is the problem that we can try to resolve in this work by just using the Holy Scriptures that we all believe.

Let us firstly show that polygamy does not come from Evil as somebody thing it. The polygamy comes from God himself. God is the one who regulated it in the Bible. When we read across we will notice that instead of condemning it, God makes rules and principles that must be used before practicing polygamy form of marriage. It’s a first element which shows that God is not against the polygamy.

In Genesis chapter 2 and chapter 3, we see that from just one of Adam’s bones, God made the woman. There it is at the beginning. They were two, one man and one woman. But after the fall, God made a new order of living. The man became the chief on the woman. He had now a different rights regarding to what his wife had at that moment. The wife became since that moment bounded to the man who was now established as a chief. He started to dominate on her. But at the beginning things were not so. And now also it is not the beginning. We are not at the beginning now. We are after the beginning because, at the beginning, they were just two, naked and not ashamed of it, they were not using the sex to multiply themselves. 

Because of the sin which was made, God considered the polygamy and introduced it from all the nature. That was why anyone could see animals and human being freely practicing polygamy without blame from God. Thus, we can see Lemec, son of Cain getting married to more than one wife. He never had a reproach from God. When Cain sinned, by killing his brother, God cursed him just after the act without tarring. By the same he, God might condemn Lemec to have married many wives if it were a sin. Therefore, this shows that having many wives was not a sin, to start just by there.

To support again this point of view, in 1 Samuel 12.1-10 God said about David that he, God,  was the one who gave him many wives, and if it were not sufficient he, God was about to add him more again. Can we say without respect that God sinned to have made David a polygamist? Didn’t God know that polygamy was bad? To confirm that polygamy was not a sin in 1Kings 15.1-5 about David God says that he was faithful to all his commands, principles, laws and precepts during all his life excepted in that case of adultery that he made with Abigael, the wife of Uriah.  This testimony coming from God alone is trustworthy. It shows us more again that God is not against polygamy.

Can God himself condemn what he likes to do anytime? I think not. In Ezekiel 23 it is showed that God got two wives, Samaria and Jerusalem, what prove sufficiently that Elohim agrees this type of marriage. Farther, in Isaiah 54.5 the Bible shows again that God is the husband of each one Israel. Thus God has more than one wife. In Hoshia, Jeremiah God says that Israel was a prostitute when they went for other gods than Elohim; they were called unfaithful to God. This means that God was their Husband, the polygamist because they (people of Israel) was several.

Polygamy was established by God himself. God is the one who instituted it in the nature. To prove it let us take Leviticus 18.18, Exodus 21.15, Deuteronomy 21.10-14, Deuteronomy 21.15, Leviticus 18.8, Leviticus 19 and more other scriptures. Therein we see that God teaches to people how they can become polygamists, what they must observe, before getting married to many wives. For instance in these passages, it is showed that to have more than one wife, a man must respect the followings:

• Continue to care for the first wife in food, clothing and marital rights

• Never marry his wife’s sister

• Never marry one of his father’s wives, even his own mother

• Never marry his sister, his aunt, his step-sister, his daughter

• Never take one’s wife

This demonstrates clearly that God teaches, institutes, and regulates the polygamist marriage. Thus, it is not a sin, because he shows how it may be practiced.

In additional, in Numbers 31.25-41, the BIBLE shows how God made polygamists and Levites, and all the people, and soldiers, and the priests, and the high priest in the Israel’s house after they came from fight against midianites with people(wives and not men), donkeys, sheep, cattle. God tell to Moses and the Priest Eleazar. Here it is God himself who teaches polygamy. It is himself who tells to people how they can practice it. The truth remains the trust.

Let me also show you that many persons that God used as servants were mainly polygamists. More of them, prophets, warriors, leaders, kings was polygamists and made like that by God himself sometime. This was another way for God to show them his love. It was for example:

• Moses the Prophet who brought the laws, commands and principles. He had two wives: Sephora and the Ethiopian (Exodus 18, Numbers 12)

• Yacob the Prophet, took 4 wives

• Abraham the Prophet, had at least 3 wives( Galatians 4, Genesis 12, Genesis 25)

• David had from God many and many wives (2 Samuel 12)

• Kohelet or King Solomon, the son of David had 1000 wives (1 Kings 11.3)

• Roboam the son of Solomon took 78 wives (2 Chronicles 11.18-22)

• Abija the son Roboam took 14 wives (2 Chronicles 13.20-21)

• The high Priest Eleazar had more than 31 from God in Numbers 31.25-41

• Gedeon the great servant of God had numerous wives in Judges 8.30

• Elkana, the father of Samuel the Prophet of God was polygamist. He had two wives in 1 Samuel 1.1-11

It is never showed in the Bible where God condemn all the above quoted for having married many wives. About Abraham, God testifies that this man made all things that were right regarding to God’s law and commands in Genesis 26.5. Apart from that, you must know that Jesus Christ himself is a polygamist, and accept to be forever the son of polygamists like God his Father. He is Son of Abraham, son of Isaac, son Jacob, son David, and son of Judah in Matthew 1.1. In John 3.25-30 John the Prophet of God calls him a Husband. But for whom is he husband? For each member, because in 2 Corinthians 11.1-3 Paul says that he betrothed (espoused) us to one husband who is Christ. Jesus Christ our Master is the greatest polygamist that never existed. The Bible presents it in Luke 11.31, Jesus is more than Solomon in all. He is more than him in number of wives, wisdom, justice, intelligence, treasures. This ties well with what Paul said in the above quoted. The same is showed by the Apostle John in Revelation 19, that the Espouse of Christ the Lamb of God is composed with many and many people. Each one of us is a member of the Body of Christ, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, and for that must be reserved and committed to Christ alone. When we go for other gods, it is the prostitution. In this scripture Paul shows that we are bound to Christ by a spiritual relationship. That can be seen again in Ephesians 5.22. We are the Espouse of Christ. We must not be attached to Christ while we are attached to other things. To emphasize, in Matthew 25, the Bible shows that Christ we marry many wives. When he will come to take the Church and bring it in Heavenly Kingdom, it will be a polygamist marriage. This supports Revelation 19.7, the Marriage supper of the Lamb.

Second problem which interests us in this article is that there some people who say that according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 7.2 it is given to a man to have just one and one wife. Not two wives of more, because the both of man and woman must do just one body. The verb which used here is to be attached, to make sexual relation with. It is not to marry. That must be showed first. This seventh chapter completes the sixth. In the sixth, Paul showed that we are members of the Christ’s Body, reason why no one of us may attach to another thing besides Christ. If he does it, in that moment he will be one body, with the thing to which he attached himself. He who attached to a prostitute becomes one body with her in the moment when the act is being made.  With his own wife or a prostitute, a man can become one body, clearly when they do they have sex. After this, in seventh chapter, Paul shows that, it is good sometimes for a man to never touch a wife, to make sexual intercourse. But to avoid sexual immorality, each man has to have his own wife.

In this chapter as in whole the Bible, the Holy Spirit condemns sexual immorality, thing that is not permitted. Marriage is not an immoral act and is not forbidden anywhere (1 Timothy 4.1-3). The marriage comes from God. Immorality is each extra sexual relation such as prostitution, adultery, or fornication. That why Paul recommends to each man not to attach to a wife that he never married, and the same for wife. More of versions of the Bible use the form “let each man have his “own wife and let each woman have her proper husband”. The word own does not mean here one and only one, but it means his/her proper, which belong to him/her, which is legally committed to him/her. It is just a problem of grammar, the possessive adjective and not the numeral adjective.

If a man has many wives, the Bible calls each one of them his wife. This can be found in 1 Samuel 1.1-4, 1 Samuel 1.9 where the Bible calls his wife each one of Elkana’s wives. Also in 1 Samuel 26.49, 1 Samuel 26.43, the Bible calls his wife Abigael, Mical, Achinoam separately. Don’t forget that in 2 Samuel 12.24 Bath-Sheba is to David called his wife. We can wander everywhere in the Bible to notice that his wife means his legal and proper wife. It is simple to be understood. Therefore, in 1Corinthians 7, Paul does not recommend or teach monogamy, but marriage that has to be honoured. He tells to everyone to avoid sexual relations out of marriage. That is why he condemned a man who took one of his father’s wives in 1 Corinthians 5. Even there it confirm that polygamy was practiced everywhere in the Church of Lord, even there in the Corinthians Church. Paul did not condemn the father who had his multiple wives but, in contrary, Paul condemned the son who spoiled his father’s bed like Ruben by doing sexual relation with his step mother. The holy scriptures are clear and we must not trouble them by adding our thoughts.

For those who think that polygamy was good for pagans group and not for Christians, it is important to make clear this problem. Abraham, David, Solomon, Jacob, Moses, Gedeon were not pagans. They were believers to God, the Bible calls them prophets. Ok, just a little respect is important to them. They write the Bible that we all use now. Christ comes from them and the Word of God, and the Bible come from them. We must be unserious to declare out that they were not Christians in practicing polygamy or they sinned in practicing it. Besides, it is not serious and true to neither say that the polygamy was available in their time and not in our time, nor say that polygamy was not accepted in the Church ruled by the Apostles of the Lord. None of them condemned it, and none of them condemned or the prophets who practiced it. Neither Paul nor Peter condemned polygamy in the Bible. They condemned the whoredom in New Testament as it is the Old Testament.

When the Bible talks about the things that can be called as sin, in 1 Corinthians 6.9-10, in 1 Peter 4.1-6, polygamy is not quoted among sins.  Calling sinners those who were polygamists in the Bible is to say that God himself is sinner. Because firstly in the above paragraphs I showed that God is a polygamist. To resay, in Ezekiel 23 the Bible shows that it was two young girls whose names where respectively Ohola and Oholiba. They were both wives God. In Isaiah 54.5-6 God to Israel people says that he is the husband of each one of them. The message in the Holy Scriptures is singularly addressed to one by one among them and not to whole the people. We all know that Jesus came to be married, and his wife is composed by several people from nations of whole the world. To be honest, everybody who says that polygamy is a bad thing must say clearly that also Jesus the great polygamist more than Salomon is a sinner, pagan, and never fears God. We must be respectful to God and to his Word. Do not each one of us condemn what God doesn’t condemn. Don’t call sin what God doesn’t call sin.

To conclude, polygamy is not a sin according to Holy Scriptures, it as marriage that God likes. God is polygamist, Jesus Christ also is polygamist. Saint Prophets of God were polygamists, and some them, it was himself who made them that, the case of David is a proof more clear. Among those who are or were polygamists, Jesus Christ is the Greatest of them. There is none more polygamist than Jesus Christ. Polygamists will welcomed in the Heavenly Holy Kingdom and the others peoples who condemn polygamy will be sadden to be thrown out; this can be read in Luc 13.24-31. In The Old Testament there is not a law with is against the polygamist marriage.  In contrary there are many that are showing how it can be practiced. Each one of us is been being made a next espouse of Christ by the Holy Spirit. All members of the Great Espouse will be married to Christ when He will come to take the Church. Polygamy in the Bible is as valid for ministers and preachers as it is for believers. David, Salomon, Moses who prophets and preachers of the God’s will. Polygamy is not obliged for everybody. It depends of possibilities of someone. If it were a own, then Isaac had to be polygamist. But he wasn’t. the Early Church of God shows just that a Christian can be monogamist, polygamist or honest no married. All depends of one’s nature, one’s preferences. Paul never touch a wife is all is life, the same for Elijah, John Baptist.   But some of God servants like Peter, Abraham, David, Gedeon, Eleazar, Moses were polygamists. They were not called sinners because of that. The monogamist doctrine comes from Catholic Church. It does not come from God.

The true church of God believes that:

• Jesus Christ is not yet come back to take his Church

• The Church of God is not kidnapped

• The resurrection of the deaths in Christ is not yet occurred

• The Church of God is not baptized of the Holy Spirit as it were at Pentecost

• The seven thunders of Apocalypse 10.1-5 and the seventh Seal of Apocalypse 8.1 are not till now revealed to the Church of God

• The man is the chef of the woman

• The man has not same rights than the woman

• Etc.

While I am waiting for your questions about this article, may Almighty God bless you in Jesus Christ’s name.

Yours in Yeshoua Hamashiyah
Trésor Mulonga
For The Early Church