The Bible and Polygamy: Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?Newman, John Philip
Religion
The Bible and Polygamy: Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?
Newman, John Philip
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Polygamy -- Religious aspects
Again, on this point, we can refer to the Prophets of the Old
Testament--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others. When God called those
men he warned them that if they did not deliver the message to the
people which He gave them concerning their sins and iniquities His
vengeance should rest upon their heads. These are his words to Ezekiel:
"Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel:
therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him
not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to
save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his
blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he
turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in
his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." (Ezek. iii.17.18.29.)
How do we find these Prophets of the Lord fulfilling the commandments
of the Almighty? We find them pouring out denunciations upon the heads
of the people--against adultery, fornication and every species of
wickedness. All this, too, in a country in which, from the King down to
the lowest orders of the people, a plurality of wives was practised. Do
they say anything against plurality of wives? Not one word. It was only
in cases where men and women took improper license with each other, in
violation of the holy law of marriage, that they were guilty of sin.
If plurality of wives had been a violation of the seventh commandment
those prophets would have denounced it, otherwise their silence on the
matter would have been dangerous to themselves, inasmuch as the blood
of the people would have been required at their hands. The opposers of
Celestial Marriage sometimes quote a passage in the seventh chapter of
Romans, second and third verses, to show that a plurality of wives is
wrong; but when we come to read the passage it shows that a plurality
of husbands is wrong. You can rend the passage for yourselves. In
the forcible parable used by the Savior in relation to the rich man
and Lazarus, we find recorded that the poor man Lazarus was carried
to Abraham's bosom--Abraham the father of the faithful. The rich man
calls unto Father Abraham to send Lazarus, who is afar off. Who was
Abraham? He was a man who had a plurality of wives. And yet all good
Christians, even pious church deacons, expect when they die to go to
Abraham's bosom. I am sorry to say, however, that thousands of them
will be disappointed, from the fact that they cannot and will not go
where any one has a plurality of wives; and I am convinced that Abraham
will not turn out his own wives to receive such unbelievers in God's
law. One peculiarity of this parable is the answer of Abraham to the
application of the rich man, to send Lazarus to his five brothers "lest
they come into this place of torment," which was--"they have Moses and
the prophets, let them hear them; and if they hear not Moses and the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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