The whole time that I was in the "borg" I never was given a good answer about Polygamy in the (supposed) new system. If a partner dies and the other remarries it creates a paradox in the "resurection".
Anybody have any ideas?
Polygamy in new system??
by 67mustang 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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SYN
It's strange how polygamy is approved of in the Bible and yet is strongly disapproved of in the Society.
There are far too many contradictions in their "doctrine" to count.
Guess we'll just have to wait on Jehovah.
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blondie
Death breaks the marriage bond. So it is not considered polygamy.
Thus if your spouse dies, you are no longer married. You can marry again. Then if you survive into the paradise with spouse #2 and spouse #1 is resurrected there is no problem.
Also JWs teach that people resurrected to life on earth will not be marrying anyone anyway because they will be like "the angels" who don't get married.
I also wondered though how that first spouse could just turn off those feelings that had for their spouse. It's not as if they had a spirit body, but they are resurrected with a flesh and blood human body with all working parts.
(Actually, men who were polygamists were allowed to get baptized as JWs until 1947. I wonder why that was the magic year for polygamy to stop?)
*** w95 9/1 25 "Love Never Fails" ***
But until 1947 when the missionaries came, polygamy was common in the congregations. Polygamous brothers were told that they had married more than one wife in ignorance. So if they had two or three or four or five wives, they could keep them, but they should not take any more. That was the policy we had.Then came new direction concerning polygamy. One of the missionaries delivered a lecture at a circuit assembly in 1947. He spoke about good conduct and habits. Next he quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, which says that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He then added: "And the polygamists will not inherit Gods Kingdom!" People in the audience shouted: "Oh, polygamists will not inherit Gods Kingdom!" Division resulted. It was like a war. Many of the newly associated ones stopped associating, saying: "Thank God, we have not gone very far."
1 Corinthians 7:39 ***
39 A wife is bound during all the time her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep [in death], she is free to be married to whom she wants, only in [the] Lord.Romans 7:3 ***
So, then, while her husband is living, she would be styled an adulteress if she became another mans. But if her husband dies, she is free from his law, so that she is not an adulteress if she becomes another mans. -
Farkel
: The whole time that I was in the "borg" I never was given a good answer about Polygamy in the (supposed) new system. If a partner dies and the other remarries it creates a paradox in the "resurection".
The WTS teaches that those who are resurrected "will neither marry nor be given marriage." That being the case, it would be impossible for a man/women to be reunited in marriage with his/her beloved spouse at the resurrection. Those damn Watchtower leaders can even find ways to fuck up Paradise, can't they?
Apparently God is going to disable or remove their sex organs. This is a pretty stupid move on God's part when you think about it. Dub women never enjoyed sex when they HAD sex organs, so nothing will change when those organs are "disabled" after they are resurrected.
It's all bullshit.
Farkel
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blondie
WTS explanation on why God tolerated polygamy. Pardon me while I go vomit.
*** w69 11/1 671-2 Questions from Readers ***
Jehovah allowed polygamy among the Jews, but not among Christians. Has Gods morality changed?J. P., U.S.A.No, Gods morality has not changed. It has always been perfect, and it still is. Moses, knowing of the marital arrangements that God permitted then, was moved to say about Jehovah: "Righteous and upright is he." (Deut. 32:4) Though God allowed temporarily a marriage relationship that he does not now allow, his righteousness is as evident today as it was in the days of Moses (HUH!).
Frequently when persons hear or read that polygamy was tolerated in ancient Israel or among Hebrew patriarchs they form notions of God as winking at loose sexual practices. They imagine that Jehovah condoned or encouraged promiscuity. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Why, one of the Ten Commandments forbade a man to have sexual relations with anothers wife. And on penalty of death God prohibited incest, bestiality and sodomy.Ex. 20:14; Lev. 18:6-23.
We must keep in mind that God did not institute polygamy. The first one mentioned in the Bible with two wives was Lamech, the boastful descendant of Cain. (Gen. 4:19-24) No one practicing polygamy survived the Flood, for Noah and his sons each had one wife. Later, when God dealt with the post-Flood patriarchs he had not yet given extensive laws on human behavior, including marriage. In some instances a man took a secondary wife in order to produce offspring because his wife was barren, as Abraham did at the urging of his wife Sarah. (Gen. 16:1, 2) Yet, it is noteworthy that many times in the Bible where polygamy was involved, there was unhappiness or trouble, as with Sarah and Hagar, Hannah and Peninnah, as well as Solomons wives.Gen. 21:9; 1 Sam. 1:1-6; 1 Ki. 11:1-6.
Hence, with the background of a patriarchal society, when Jehovah accepted the Israelites as his national people polygamy already existed to some extent, though it appears that monogamy was much more common throughout Israels history. Acknowledging polygamous marriages that already existed, God gave very stringent laws to regulate and control things(Why didnt he just regulate idolatry then?). Quite contrary to the charge that God disrespected womanhood and marriage, he enacted highly moral legislation to protect the rights and privileges of the original wife as well as of any secondary wife and her children. (Deut. 21:15-17) Consequently, even though Jehovah did not forbid polygamy, he definitely urged love and respect in marriage, and forbade sexual immorality. His moral standard was righteous, perfect.
Jesus made a significant point on marriage in Matthew 19:8, 9. About the fact that divorce was allowed under the law that God gave through Moses, Christ said: "Moses, out of regard for your hardheartedness, made the concession to you of divorcing your wives, but such has not been the case from the beginning. I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except on the ground of fornication, and marries another commits adultery." Evidently, just as with divorce, God made the concession of tolerating polygamy, yet bringing it under strict regulation.
This might be compared to Gods permission of the "superior authorities," the worldly governments. Jehovah did not institute them in the beginning. But they do exist and it is not yet Gods time for removing them
. So he gives his servants directions as to how they should conduct themselves in relation to this arrangement that he is allowing for a time.Rom. 13:1-7.*** g76 1/22 26-8 Why Was Polygamy Allowed? ***
What Is the Bibles View?So, since Gods standard for Christians is one wife or one husband, why did God allow his ancient covenant people Israel to have more than one wife?
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Brief History of PolygamyPolygamy did not start among those who were true worshipers of Jehovah God. The first record of polygamy is with Lamech, a descendant of unfaithful Cain. (Gen. 4:19) But Gods servant Noah had only one wife, as did each of his three sons. (Gen. 7:13; 1 Pet. 3:20) Gods friend Abraham had one wife, Sarah. But Sarah, long barren, knowing that a "seed" had been promised to Abraham, induced him to have relations with her Egyptian slave girl Hagar, who thereby became a concubine to Abraham. (Gen. 16:1-4) Abrahams son Isaac, born later to Sarah through a miracle, and who was the promised "seed," had only one wife. (Gen. 21:2, 12; 24:67) Isaacs son Jacob, however, had two wives, due to trickery on the part of his father-in-law Laban. Jacob also had concubines.Gen. 29:21-29; 30:1-13.
So when the Law came in, it did not bring in polygamy or concubinage, nor did it encourage these practices. In fact, polygamy was evidently not practiced by the majority in ancient Israel; primarily it was confined to the more prominent and wealthy, though not to these exclusively. (Judg. 8:30; 2 Chron. 11:21) For kings to have many wives was sort of a status symbol among the nations.2 Sam. 16:20-22.
The Mosaic Law Discouraged Polygamy, Protected WomenThe provisions of the Law were such as would actually discourage polygamy. Each time a man had intercourse with his wife he was unclean, in a religious sense, for a day. (Lev. 15:16, 17) Thus, relations with several wives would make it more frequently inconvenient for the Hebrew, for uncleanness prevented the man from engaging in a number of activities. (Notice how they make you find out what those were) (Lev. 7:20, 21; 1 Sam. 21:3-5; 2 Sam. 11:11) Also, the laws of inheritance required that the man give the double inheritance to his firstborn son, even if he was the son of the less-loved wife. (Deut. 21:15-17) In these respects, polygamy was undesirable.
Even though polygamy was tolerated, the Law protected women, giving Hebrew women a far higher and more respected status than was the case in other nations. If a man seduced a virgin girl who was not engaged, he was required to marry her, and he could never divorce her. (Deut. 22:28, 29; Ex. 22:16, 17) If a man falsely accused his wife of not being a virgin at the time of her marriage, he could never divorce her. (Deut. 22:13-21) Also, the polygamous man was required to provide fully for and give the marriage due to the less-loved wife. (Ex. 21:10, 11) A foreign virgin girl captured in warfare as a slave could be taken as wife by the soldier capturing her. But if he later sent her away because of her not being pleasing to him, he could not sell her to another person. He had to let her go free according to her pleasure. (Deut. 21:10-14) Allowing soldiers to marry captured virgins was a blessing to these girls, because they would otherwise have no homes or friends.
Furthermore, a man could not divorce his wife without due cause. He had to write her a formal certificate of divorce. This would require a public authority as witness and would very likely be done before the city elders, to give it official authorization. This provision, along with the further law that the man could not remarry this wife if she married another man who later died or divorced her, was a deterrent to hasty or frivolous divorces. (Deut. 24:1-4) Moreover, the certificate of divorce provided legal evidence of the womans remarriageability. It protected her from the charge of prostitution or adultery.Compare Deuteronomy 22:13-21.
"The Appointed Time to Set Things Straight"So God, although regulating polygamy, did not see fit to abolish the custom among his people at that time, just as he did not abolish, yet regulated, slavery. It was not yet time for him to restore all things to his perfect standard. The writer of the Bible book of Hebrews quotes Jesus as saying, in effect, about the many animal sacrifices offered by the Jews: "Sacrifice and offering you [God] did not want, but you prepared a body for me." (Heb. 10:5) The Laws arrangement for animal sacrifices was a mere shadow, not the reality. Jesus Christ gave the truly satisfactory sacrifice to remove sins. The writer speaks about sacrifices and other features of the Law and says: "They were legal requirements pertaining to the flesh and were imposed until the appointed time to set things straight."Heb. 9:10.Jehovahs considerateness and his progressive leading of his people are evident in this matter of polygamy. (Ps. 103:10, 14) In bringing mankind up out of the low sink of sin, God has his time to accomplish certain features of his purpose. Why, it will take the thousand-year reign of his Son Jesus Christ to wipe out all the effects of sin and to bring mankind to the perfect state, where they are no longer hindered by any vestiges of "hardheartedness" and so can live up to every aspect of Gods perfect standard. How thankful we should be for his patience and undeserved kindness!Rom. 8:21; 11:33-36.