Quote:
Originally Posted by Jashobeam  If you are Mormon and your church doesn't allow polygamy, why do you take up for it? If it was OK with your founders, why not move to a country where it is allowed and practice it? The Amish were not allowed to be pacifists in other countries, so they moved to the US where they could be pacifists. To me, if Smith said, "This is from God," then Mormons today should seek an area where they can practice what they believe is from God.
No, I don't see Abraham being allowed to have more than one wife and God blessing him for that. It's apparent that Abraham left God's Will and followed that of his wife and his own will. As was stated before NO WHERE in Scripture are we commanded to live like that. God said marriage is one man and one wife. When He started to allow divorce, He was asked about it and said that it was because of the evil of men, God didn't punish them for a sin- the sin of divorce. God allowed what was sin to go on because the people were evil. God allowed Abraham to have another woman under his roof, but NO WHERE do we find God saying He approves of that. |
I never said that God blessed Abraham
because he practiced polygamy. He blessed Abraham, because he "followed the way of the Lord." Abraham just happened to have more than one wife at the time that God pronounced that blessing upon him. If polygamy was considered a sin by the God, than why did God say that Abraham "followed the way of the Lord" at a time when Abraham was practicing polygamy.
NO WHERE do we find God saying that polygamy is a sin, and that it must be stopped, or Abraham would be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorah were destroyed. God didn't even require that Abraham stop practicing polygamy in order to be considered to "follow the way of the Lord", in order to receive the blessing that the Lord pronounced upon him.
The only times that the Lord was displeased with the practice of polygamy was when the husband's heart followed after the worship of the pagan idols of his new brides, or when David sent Uriah to the front line of the war in order to cause his death so he could obtain Uriah's wife as his own.
As far as practicing polygamy today: Could you imagine 13 million Mormons trying to migrate to a country that happens to allow polygamy? Seems pretty impractical.
Polygamy was allowed by God, but it
isn't a commandment. We don't need to practice polygamy in order to enter the kingdom of God, it isn't required of us. Baptism is required, but not polygamy.
In the past, polygamy served a purpose, and was allowed by the law, and by God. But today, there is not a need to practice polygamy. So it really is not important if we are not allowed by the gov't to practice polygamy.
Now if the gov't decided to make baptism illegal, then that would be something we would demand to be able to practice, or migrate to another country in order to have freedom of religion, and continue the practice of baptism.
As I have stated before, I am
not writing these posts because I think that we need to practice polygamy today, or because I would even want to practice polygamy if it were legal (as I stated before, I don't think my DH could even handle more than 1 wife).
I am only trying to answer the original question asked by the OP. The main question asked by the OP was if "Christian polygamy was possible." My answer was yes, but only if it is legal in the country that they reside in.
The reason for this answer is that Joseph Smith and other Mormons of his time were in fact "Christians" who did, in fact, practice polygamy which was not prohibited, or considered a "sin" by the Lord (Abraham being the prime example of this), neither was it prohibed by the US gov't when they first started the practice. So since polygamy is not prohibited by the Lord, as long as it is not prohibited by the law of the land in which they reside, it is possible for a Christian to practice polygamy.