Christians who believe divorce and polygamy are wrong: If a man with 3 wives converted to Christianity.......

Question

Should he keep the wives or divorce them? The truth is Jesus spoke against divorce except in cases where a wife commits sexual immorality but never spoke against polygamy....In fact in the commandments which He said to obey many times it says:
Deuteronomy 21:15
"If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,
21:16
then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot * make the son of the loved the firstborn before * the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn.
21:17
"But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

So it makes provisions for men who have multiple wives. Its wrong for christian missionaries to go to Africa to convert them and tell them divorce their plural wives.

In Africa polygamy is legal in many countries.

Answer 1

He is only legally married to one. He keeps the one he is legally married too.

Answer 2

I am muslim and polygamy is allowed in islam but not recommended. I see no need in it but lots of people have several wives in middle eastern countries and in my honest opinion i don't like it. Even though Prophet Muhammad ( pbuh) had like 6 wives i think. Though i have lots of christians friends who are against it which i am fine with. I don't know alot about christianity so I won't talk about christians and there believes about polygamy. Have a nice day and very interesting question.

Answer 3

:) This is an issue Christian churches actually face; I have read that in Africa, one solution the Catholic church has is that he may not marry any MORE, but the established relationships should be honored. This seems fairly decent to me, but then, I am not a christian.

Of course, dumping the not-th-first wives is also something Christians have demanded. Or the Henry the VIII solution: call all inconvenient marriages of a powerful man irrelevant if he is the defender of your faith. And not just christians have treated women like property. What happens to traditional Hindu women, and Muslim women, who are divorced or widowed can also offend anyone who thinks women are people.

Answer 4

We Muslims are making Christian generations colorful. The Christians women are divorced are in excessive in quantity than men and as well as the number of available women rises due to abundance of gays movements. We Muslims are allowed polygamy. We are marrying these excess woman population and making them house wives. Obviously it is respectable to make a woman queen of home instead of freeing them to become public property. We feel sorry when we see any woman becomes public property due to scarcity of males in western society. There are 7 millions women more than men in single America. There are 25 million gays in America. Behold, if marriage market is super saturated and every one man has one wife there will be 32 million women which will have no man to marry. Now there are two solutions of this problem. Either they becomxe public property as Christianity does not allow polygamy. Otherwise follow Islam, and get marry to already man(polygamy). What is good solution?

Answer 5

The truth is-The Bible is filled with Contradictions which likely is caused either in Interpretation literally or figuratively. I highly suspect some doctrine is the reflection of the writers personal beliefs and as such you need form your own beliefs. Secondly, you could find Scripture to support almost any belief you want to preach. You can find in the Ten Commandments that 'Thou shalt not kill' yet find in Exodus 22:18 "Suffer not a witch to live." Thus encouraging murder. Again in other parts of the Bible you will find Scripture saying "Judge not, that ye be not judged (Matthew 7:1,2.)
In conflict again we are told to love one another-Love One Another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:17-18).
and to forgive one another -(Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:31-32; Matthew 18:21-35).
And to accept one another -Accept one another (Romans 15:7).

If this person happens to be a witch/wiccan-should we then ....a) not judge lest we also be judged .....b) love, forgive, and accept them just before we kill them in the name of God? This is utterly ridiculous-I could fill many pages with such conflicts-but I'm sure you see my point.

Likewise-there are verses in the Bible that seem to support polygamy and yet there are other parts that speak out against it-saying that a man leaves his parents to join in union with his wife and the two become one and let no-one put asunder. (tear apart or try to separate)

Answer 6

I believe in the prime directive:

"In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Prime Directive, Starfleet's General Order #1, is the most prominent guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets. The Prime Directive dictates that there can be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations. In many respects, then, the prime directive can be considered the galactic analogue of Westphalian sovereignty. It has special implications, however, for civilizations still at a 'primitive' stage of development, since no primitive culture can be given or exposed to any information regarding advanced technology or the existence of extraplanetary civilizations, lest this exposure alter the natural development of the civilization. In addition to exposure, purposeful efforts to improve or change in any way the natural course of such a society, even if that change is well-intentioned and kept completely secret, are prohibited."

When in Rome, darlin'......

I have one qualification. I do not believe people should be denied medical care or the benefits of technology. This is not another planet. We are one planet and the advances of each nation for the good of mankind are to be shared to the best of our ability.

Which makes the next part difficult.

When we bring advances to another culture, we are awful at treating that culture with respect. We want it our way, every day, right now. If a society has survived economically and socially with practices exclusive to that culture, then why does it have to change?

We educate people to believe what we believe, not allowing them to have the information and freedom to choose whether or not they believe it. Or want to incorporate it into their value system.

It's a matter of Respect.

Answer 7

In the end, it's all his choice, yes the Bible says divorce is bad, and unless absolutely necessary, I agree, however, the bible also mentions obeying the laws of the land, which, in the US, if we are assuming that is the setting, Polygamy is illegal, so he should not be married to multiple wives. However, as I said before, he should decide for himself how he wishes to interpret the bible, as for me, I would say, though it seems unfair to his other spouses, he should only keep one, his first.

Answer 8

A valid question. Multiple wives were permitted to Christians of the New Testament, but discouraged.

1Ti 3:2
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

1Ti 3:12
Let deacons be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.

Tit 1:5-6
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man be above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.

All of these verses make it clear that seekers of church office must have only one wife, clearly implying that some Christians of the time had multiple wives.

Jim

Answer 9

I think a proper Christian solution would be to sacrifice the extra wives. Christianity is all about sacrifice.

Answer 10

All the 'sins' you are referring to are nothing
more than rules set up by modern Christianity.

basically, church bylaws turned into public law
via pressure/bribery/lobbying etc..

basically, crap wrapped in 'god' paper.

BTW I do believe in God...not the government
approved versions of god. The real God, the
God of Abraham

Answer 11

You're using OT. If you would progress to the NT, you will plainly see that a man is only to have one wife. If a polygamist converted to Christianity, then he needs to have only one wife.