Im so saddened by this......legalized polygamy

[RGR]

How in the world could polygamy be an ideal situation? I work 40 hours a week; combine that with time given to this ministry and time spent with the kids, how could I possibly find time to make my married life more miserable by getting another wife?

[RGR]

The marriage relationship is, by design, a picture of Christ and His Church. We don't see Christ taking multiple wives; indeed when someone is saved, they are added to the Church. Maybe I'm making a far stretch here, but I wonder, if one can seriously sit and make a case for multiple wives, could this person also not try to further twist the Word to say that multiple roads lead to Christ and a relationship with Him?

[Guest Prakk]

"So, why are you pushing polymamy / polygyny?"

My primary objective is to promote a better understanding of what marriage is. The most important immediate application of the principle is that it bars believing women from divorcing believing men. If adultery is not defined in terms of a husband having sex with someone other than his one wife, to whom he is restricted then it is not odd that the permission for divorce we find in scripture, which is repeated without modification by Christ, doesn't permit women to divorce men. This is of immediate and vital interest to the churches since we teach that women may divorce men for their "adulteries". I'm sorry, but this simply isn't so. Don't make the leap that I am advocating for adultery, denying that men can commit it or seeking to authorize or excuse my own, I am not.

"Misspell. Does it make a difference?"

Yes, you look more credible for your point of view if you do not misspell an essential word in the discussion.

second, the form of Polygamy practiced in scripture is more properly termed Polygyny.

"Does it matter?"

Absolutely, the most common error in the Polygamy debate is to call it the Polygamy debate, it's not. Polygamy as defined includes unbiblical forms of marriage now refered to as "Polyamories" and "Polyandries". Neither form of marriage is even possible from a scriptural standpoint so I use the specific and accurate term "Polygyny" which means exactly "A man with more than one wife at the same time".

"Do you mean you haven't considered the consequences of this lifestyle you are arguing for?"

Technically I was a Polygynist for about 5 years. In that I define marriage and divorce from what I think is a Biblical perspective, I was seperated from one spouse for that time, and with yet another, I finally divorced my first wife when she moved in with another man and started calling him her husband.

"Other than third world countries . . . what women where?"

So, third world women don't count? I grew up in the third world. Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world.

"You are trying to sell us an argument here. Tell me, a woman, why I should favor the sharing of a man?"

I did, but you scoffed at it.

"I do believe you have much to learn about women if that's what you think."

Odd, I am closest, of all my children, to my daughter. She declares that I am so empathetic to women that I really am one.

"Whenever I hear a man pushing polygamy, the first thing that goes through my head is 'sex drive'."

Obviously, unless I am lying to you, that doesn't apply in my case, does it?

"Honostly - have you considered the consequences of this lifestyle you are pushing/ promoting/ arguing in favor of?"

Yes, for over a decade, and nearly a decade before I started a public discussion of it. Jacob's family by the way is praised in specific fashion in Ruth, or did you miss that?

Hugh McBryde

[Guest Prakk]

"Oh by the way you are partially correct in your assertations about Homosexual Marriage. God Ordained Marriage between One man and One woman."

Unless you are prepared to accept this remark, that God ordained all subsequent marriages to be between immediate brothers and sisters, you can't use the monogamy of Adam and Eve as an instructive archetype. Sorry, the way God set it up, all of Adam and Eve's children married their immediate sister or brother. At least the first one that got married had to.

"Again I agree that God Ordained Marriage for His Glory. We are in agreement. However I would like to add. Why add the crutch? You are horribly romantic by your own assertion. I am too. My wife and I were Created for each other. She for me and I for her. In this we are complete and formed in the image of Christ. Why the need for a third or maybe fourth wheel to sustain the Word of God? Is it not complete in it's Ordained form?"

In your case, it may very well be complete in it's ordination for your particular marriage, the general category of marriage though is simply not restricted to monogamy. The Hebrews didn't even have a word for monogamy.

"The marriage relationship is, by design, a picture of Christ and His Church. We don't see Christ taking multiple wives; indeed when someone is saved, they are added to the Church. Maybe I'm making a far stretch here, but I wonder, if one can seriously sit and make a case for multiple wives, could this person also not try to further twist the Word to say that multiple roads lead to Christ and a relationship with Him?"

God uses a variety of relationships to illustrate or exemplify his relationship to us. In one he is a mother hen, we his chicks (and thus Children), in another we are simply his children. In Ephesians 5 the church universal is almost certainly mentioned and it is his one bride, in 2nd Corinthians 11 there is a less obvious but more certainly Polygynous model in which the Corinthian church is one of several brides.

Hugh McBryde

[Ovedya]

I'm coming in late, so I apologize if this has already been written:

Prakk, how many wives do you currently have? If none, how many are you seeking?

[Guest Prakk]

"Prakk, how many wives do you currently have?"

One and only one and I am vowed to take no other, I am content, even ecstatic to be married to the great love of my life, and only her.

Hugh McBryde

[Ovedya]

God uses a variety of relationships to illustrate or exemplify his relationship to us. In one he is a mother hen, we his chicks (and thus Children), in another we are simply his children. In Ephesians 5 the church universal is almost certainly mentioned and it is his one bride, in 2nd Corinthians 11 there is a less obvious but more certainly Polygynous model in which the Corinthian church is one of several brides.

Unity and plurality and unity in plurality are two sides of the same truth in Scripture. The fact remains that in the beginning there was only one husband and one wife, and at the end there is also only one husband and one wife.

[Ovedya]

"Prakk, how many wives do you currently have?"

One and only one and I am vowed to take no other, I am content, even ecstatic to be married to the great love of my life, and only her.

Hugh McBryde

Great! Does she agree with your position regarding marriage, and would she be willing to abide your acquisition of further wives?

[Guest Prakk]

You make this absolutely true and insightful statement.

"Unity and plurality and unity in plurality are two sides of the same truth in Scripture."

And then this wild and seemingly contradictory leap.

"The fact remains that in the beginning there was only one husband and one wife, and at the end there is also only one husband and one wife."

I don't get it.

"Great! Does she agree with your position regarding marriage, and would she be willing to abide your acquisition of further wives?"

My current wife is my only wife but was my second wife while I was still married to my first, a condition of her consenting to marry me was that I would take no more wives. I have only one wife now.

Hugh McBryde

Edited November 16, 2005 by Prakk

[Ovedya]

You make this absolutely true and insightful statement.

"Unity and plurality and unity in plurality are two sides of the same truth in Scripture."

And then this wild and seemingly contradictory leap.

"The fact remains that in the beginning there was only one husband and one wife, and at the end there is also only one husband and one wife."

I don't get it.

Hugh McBryde

It's not contradictory at all. There is only one Bride of Christ at the end of all things. So the distinctions between those individuals are not there. The Bible does not say that there are brides of Christ. It does not say that Christ has married a myriad of individuals or churches. In the Bride of Christ there are no individuals, even though the aspect is there and is apparent by our reconing.

Likewise, Eve was called "the mother of all the living," and according to Genesis 1 she was created as a representative of the corporate man (God created man corporately, not individually). However, there was only one couple, just as it is at the end.