Another thing I would like to point out is that Jesus claimed that His purpose in coming was to reveal the truth about the Father. Ellen agrees:




The revelation of the goodness of the Father is the gospel, the good news, that Jesus came to reveal to us and to the universe.

Where on earth did Christians come up with the idea that the purpose of Jesus' visitation to earth was to save us from a God that couldn't forgive without innocent blood? And they have the gall to call this false doctrine "the gospel".

It appalls me!

scott

Back to the question at hand - Does polygamy violate the 7th Commandment?

The obvious answer is, No, not if Hebrew men were obeying the law of Moses.

Which commandment guards the family in regards to having relations with one not your wife?

It seems that we are beating a dead horse, or, one which is long past dead and whose corpse has rotted and there's nothing but bones left, but if polygamy was contrary to God's will because he knew is would cause men unhappiness, and He never sanctioned it, and it was no less a "sin" although it was common, it seems odd that to me that you would think it not a violation of the seventh commandment.

Leaving that aside, even not considering the Levirate marriage, your position is that polygamy is never contrary to the seventh commandment, isn't it?

This takes us right back to where we left off, namely, if it is always a sin to have more than one wife, why, then, did Jesus allow for it in the law of Moses? Does Jesus allow for sinning in the law of Moses?

Correct, I do not believe polygamy constitutes adultery. Adultery happens when a married person has sex with someone they are not married to. In the case of polygamy they are married.

We've discussed this. The law of Moses is not an expression of God's ideal will. God's ideal will was expressed in Christ. For example, Christ explained that it is adultery to divorce your wife and marry another, save for unfaithfulness. But the law of Moses allowed divorce for other reasons. Why? Because of the hardness of their heart. There's many, many example of this in the law of Moses. God graciously met a backward and stubborn people where they were, hoping to lead them to Christ.



You're assuming they're married, but they're not, at least in a Biblical sense. Christ taught that a man and a woman are joined together by God. He didn't teach that a man and multiple women are joined together by God. Actually, this can be seen from Genesis. A marriage is more than a civil ceremony.

SDA's have recognized this by having men put away their wives, except for the first, when they become SDA's. However, this is not necessarily a great idea, and I believe this has been backed off on, but it serves to make the point that we, as a people, have understood that only the first marriage is legitimate. For reasons of expedience (e.g., the ones obtaining multiple wives didn't know better at the time, and the "cure" is worse than the "disease," so to speak) the marriages may be allowed to continue.

The answer is Yes, not No. What does the law of Moses have to do with it? The fact that Paul allowed Christians to continue possessing slaves doesn't mean slavery is not a sin.
The fact that the law of Moses makes provision for an already existing situation is comparable to Paul doing the same in the case of slavery.

Amen!!!!!

I was going to say "What she said," but "Amen!!!!" works well.

If, as you all seem to be saying, the law of Moses accommodates certain preexisting sinful practices, does it mean Jews were guilty of sinning if they lived in harmony with the law of Moses?

Where does it say having slaves is sinful? I realize there are sinful ways to enslave people, but where in the law of Moses is it a sin to have slaves?

But the law of Moses does more than protect preexisting polygamous relationships, it tells Jewish men to marry their late brother's wife.


So, are you suggesting God accommodated sinful practices in the law of Moses? If so, was it a sin for Jews to obey the law of Moses? Did the law of Moses perpetuate certain sinful practices?