Is "Polygamy" a Sin?

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Are you attempting to say EGW got this wrong?

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Any perception that does not model reality goes out the window. This, BTW, is why EGW stopped advancing the Shut Door theory. She simply admitted she was wrong on that score. Nothing bad about that. Hey, I hae been through all these perceptions and discarded them when I realized they were deficient. A lifetime of Christianity and Adventism plus training in Adventist ministry is qualification enough.

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I'll take you normal dodge to mean yes. Please feel free to discredit that assumption if it is wrong.

I believe that se was as infallible as the Apostle Paul, Moses, or Elijah when it cam to the inspiration of God. If the spirit that inspired Paul also inspired EGW, and Paul was not wrong, then it would only be logical to perceive that EGW was not wrong.

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Hello Darius,

"This, BTW, is why EGW stopped advancing the Shut Door theory. She simply admitted she was wrong on that score."

Please provide the source or reference where EGW admitted she was wrong in advancing the Shut Door theory.

Thank you ,

Gordon

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Gen. 16:3 And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.

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Chap. 30 - Marrying and Giving in Marriage

In the days that were before the flood they were . . . marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark. Matt. 24:38. {Conflict and Courage 36.1}

In Noah's day brute force was the prevailing influence in the world. By threatened punishment, men intimidated other men. {CC 36.2}

Instead of doing justice to their neighbors, they carried out their own unlawful wishes. They had a plurality of wives, which was contrary to God's wise arrangement. In the beginning God gave to Adam one wife--showing to all who should live upon the earth, his order and law in that respect. The transgression and fall of Adam and Eve brought sin and wretchedness upon the human race, and man followed his own carnal desires, and changed God's order. The more men multiplied wives to themselves, the more they increased in wickedness and unhappiness. If one chose to take the wives, or cattle, or anything belonging to his neighbor, he did not regard justice or right but if he could prevail over his neighbor by reason of strength, or by putting him to death, he did so, and exulted in his deeds of violence. They loved to destroy the lives of animals. They used them for food, and this increased their ferocity and violence, and caused them to look upon the blood of human beings with astonishing indifference. {CC 36.3}

The descendants of Seth were called the sons of God; the descendants of Cain, the sons of men. As the sons of God mingled with the sons of men, they became corrupt and, by intermarriage with them, lost, through the influence of their wives, their peculiar, holy character, and united with the sons of Cain in their idolatry. Many cast aside the fear of God and trampled upon His commandments. But there were a few that did righteousness, who feared and honored their Creator. Noah and his family were among the righteous few. {CC 36.4}

Polygamy was practiced at an early date. It was one of the sins that brought the wrath of God upon the antediluvian world. . . . It was Satan's studied effort to pervert the marriage institution, to weaken its obligations and lessen its sacredness; for in no surer way could he deface the image of God in man and open the door to misery and vice. {CC 36.5}

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Abraham had accepted without question the promise of a son, but he did not wait for God to fulfill His word in His own time and way. A delay was permitted, to test his faith in the power of God; but he failed to endure the trial. Thinking it impossible that a child should be given her in her old age, Sarah suggested, as a plan by which the divine purpose might be fulfilled, that one of her handmaidens should be taken by Abraham as a secondary wife. Polygamy had become so widespread that it had ceased to be regarded as a sin, but it was no less a violation of the law of God, and was fatal to the sacredness and peace of the family relation. Abraham's marriage with Hagar resulted in evil, not only to his own household, but to future generations. . . .{Daughters of God 27.1}

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Polygamy had become so widespread that it had ceased to be regarded as a sin, but it was no less a violation of the law of God, and was fatal to the sacredness and peace of the family relation. Abraham's marriage with Hagar resulted in evil, not only to his own household, but to future generations.

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That is sufficient, but it is here I am struck by the irony. We wish to claim that polygamy is a sin but have no problems accepting it when it is done serially under the name of divorce and remarriage.

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Considering the example of Abraham, I find it interesting that him marrying Hagar, the egyptian, was distrusting God (Gal 4) while marrying Sarah, Abrahams fathers daughter (Gen 20) and thus his sister was according to Gods promise. And some 10 generations down the line, on the mount where Moses recieved the law from God, it would become detestable before God for Abraham to marry his fathers daughter while it would have been acceptable to marry the nonrelated Hagar. What to do with this mess?

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As to the change of rules regarding marrying sisters/brothers, you have to consider that at the beginning of the world, the only way for the race to multiply was the intermarriage between Adam's sons and daughters. This was modified later to half-sisters/brothers, and still later there was no need for marrying close relatives. The rules were modified because, with the weakening of the race, this came to represent a risk. This is not a mess. God was just being coherent.

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And I suggest you take another look at the passage about divorce and remarriage. It is not called adultery. Christ said that the man who divorces his wife CAUSES her to commit adultery.

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7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"

8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

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Why do we wish to turn rules of pragmatism into sins? We seem bent on inventing sins at every turn. How badly we must want to be thought superior to others.

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Daryl, I find it interesting that you aren't as insistent that inspiration equals infallibility when you read the Bible as you are when you read EGW. Could you have elevated her to a position she does not deserve? Why do you disagree with Jesus when He taught that at death the righteous go to Abraham's bosom and the wicked go to a burning hell?

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You are definitely not God's inspired messenger.

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do any of you know a someone living in polygamy? I do, and I can tell you that the man is happy but the women are not. Can you imagine how the children turn out? That should settle this argument....the results.

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Darius, are you claiming to be God's inspired messenger like EGW?

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He/She?

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The Creator never said that serial marriages are less objectionable than polygamy.

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1When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"

4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5and 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'? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"

8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

10The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."

11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage[c]because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

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