From: Brrolan@ra.rockwell.com
Date: Tue Feb 17 1998 - 13:38:15 EST
Jonathan Robie wrote:
[Begin snip]
>I guess what I don't understand is this: why do you think that this
passage
>implies that a convert who was polygamous at the time of conversion should
>divorce all but one wife?
>Is there a passage elsewhere in the New Testament that suggests polygamy
is
>an exception to the general teachings against divorce? 1 Cor 7:10-17 deals
>with the issue of marriages to unbelievers, implying in general that these
>happened before conversion, but it never raises the issue of polygamy.
[End Snip]
I am sure that this facet of the thread will stray far afield from the
topic of this list, but in the interest of explaining my original post a
little more clearly I will elaborate.
1) In the New Testament, the covenant of marriage is described as *two*
becoming *one*:
Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
2) Being married to more than one person at a time constitutes adultery:
Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her
husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed
from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she
be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her
husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress,
though she be married to another man.
3) Therefore, subsequent marriages, while the first spouse is alive, are
not valid marriages at all.
4) Therefore, "putting away" those second, third, etc. wives does not
constitute divorce.
I do not wish to engage in an on-list debate about marriage & divorce,
since there will surely be more "heat than light". This post is just to
clarify what I had meant in an earlier on-subject posting. Please feel
free to contact me off-list, and I will be glad to converse about this
subject, if you so desire.
Bret R. Rolan
BRRolan@ra.rockwell.com
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