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
When the sons and daughters of the Most High God come forth in the
morning of the resurrection, this principle of love will exist in
their bosoms just as it exists here, only intensified according to the
increased knowledge and understanding which they possess; hence they
will be capacitated to enjoy the relationships of husband and wife, of
parents and children a hundred fold degree greater than they could in
mortality. We are not capable, while surrounded with the weaknesses
of our flesh, to enjoy these eternal principles in the same degree
that will then exist. Shall these principles of conjugal and parental
love and affection be thwarted in the eternal worlds? Shall they be
rooted out and overcome? No, most decidedly not. According to the
religious notions of the world these principles will not exist after
the resurrection; but our religion teaches the fallacy of such notions.
It is true that we read in the New Testament that in the resurrection
they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels
in heaven. These are the words of our Savior when He was addressing
himself to a very wicked class of people, the Sadducees, a portion of
the Jewish nation, who rejected Jesus, and the counsel of God against
their own souls. They had not attained to the blessings and privileges
of their fathers, but had apostatized; and Jesus, in speaking to them,
says that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage but are as the angels of God.
I am talking, to-day, to Latter-day Saints; I am not reasoning with
unbelievers. If I were, I should appeal more fully to the Old Testament
Scriptures to bring in arguments and testimonies to prove the divine
authenticity of polygamic marriages. Perhaps I may touch upon this for
a few moments, for the benefit of strangers, should there be any in our
midst. Let me say, then, that God's people, under every dispensation
since the creation of the world, have, generally, been polygamists.
I say this for the benefit of strangers. According to the good old
book, called the Bible, when God saw proper to call out Abraham from
all the heathen nations, and made him a great man in the world, He saw
proper, also, to make him a polygamist, and approbated him in taking
unto himself more wives than one. Was it wrong in Abraham to do this
thing? If it were, when did God reprove him for so doing? When did He
ever reproach Jacob for doing the same thing? Who can find the record
in the lids of the Bible of God reproving Abraham, as being a sinner,
and having committed a crime, in taking to himself two living wives?
No such thing is recorded. He was just as much blessed after doing
this thing as before, and more so, for God promised blessings upon the
issue of Abraham by his second wife the same as that of the first wife,
providing he was equally faithful. This was a proviso in every case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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