Is there a limit ?

[Ahmad]

Hi
I am surprised to see Christians still believe in pologmy. I am a Muslim, and every muslim believes that God allows men to marry one wife or more. In Islam, there is a limit of four wives if a person can treat them fairly.
I am reading in Bible these days and traying to find out about the pologmy issue. I asked a priest last week and he told me that in Bible the God created one man and one woman, and said that states clearly that pologmy is forbidden. Comparing with what I have read in the Bible, I think he is wrong; It is very clear that God doesn't forbid pologmy in the Old testament neither New one. I have no dout now that pologmy is allowed in Christianity and Judaism.
The only thing that I don't know about it are : Is there a limit of the number of wives? Is there a rule determines whether a person marries another wife or not?
Thank you in advance, and hope I am welcomed in your fourms.

 

[steve]

welcome to this board, ahmad!
i think that you are referring to the word polygamy, multiple mates
i actually prefer the word polygany, multiple wives

do christians still...... well, a very small minority of us again believe in polygany because we believe that hundreds of years of traditional monogamy- only teachings do not square with the Bible, as you appear to have noticed also.

traditionaly the number of wives was dictated by scripture which primarily focused on how many a man could support financialy and with intimacy.
nowdays there seems to be a trend toward an Isaiah 4:1 approach in which many of the women provide their own support and we have no tradition or dictate on the number.
personaly, i am not comfortable with the wife or wives being a partner in the support. but many situations dictate that the husband have some help in providing for the family, the only alternative would be that a single woman stay single and then she would have to provide entirely her own support without the intimacy of family. for us, the long term goal will be for home-based industries in which work is shared to support the family.
of course, this is all theory as i am married to only one woman as of yet

i hope this helps, ask any questions you would like. some of us enjoy trying to sound smart

 

[Scarecrow]

Hello Ahmad. Welcome to biblical Families. All are welcome here, but you will notice most of us are Christian, so please do not take offense with any of the topics about our religious beliefs or other religions.

Following is a generalization of my opinions about how a man should participate in polygyny if he so chooses:

I have not seen any limitation in the scriptures to the number of wives a man can take, but I think a little wisdom needs to be applied.

A man should only take one wife and learn how to be a husband and father with her (Manhood 101).

When he has successfully shown himself to be a good husband and father he should then be allowed to take an additional wife if he chooses. He should go through a similar process of learning and proving himself to be a good husband to his wives and children before taking additional wives if he is led to do so (Manhood 201).

If he has the resources, ability, and desire to take additional wives beyond his first two he should do so as led by the Lord (Manhood 301).

What we lack the most in Christianity is many counselors for a man to guide him in polygyny because since early in the Christian church it has been shunned.

There are a couple of trials scheduled in the US where men are charged with bigamy and many think at these trials or appeals of the verdicts from these trials the bigamy laws will be overturned as unconstitutional. I would like to see a Muslim man with more than one wife attempt to get a marriage license for his additional wives and be turned down then sue the state. Let them try to claim it is not a religious issue with Islam!

 

[steve]

well said

 

[Ahmad]

Thank you all for replies.
Can I know if there is a group/ official organization / Churchs Adopt the principle of polygany ?
As far I know, the Catholic dosen't practice it nither the Orthodox .

 

[Scarecrow]

We are fortunate to have among us an outstanding theologian by the name of Dr. Keith R. Allen that wrote a very insightful article (and many others) explaining how the practice of polygyny became diminished over time. I think this article can answer your question better than any attempt I could make at answering it.

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2063

Essentially the modern Christian and Catholic churches have adopted the monogamy doctrine exclusively, and anyone challenging their opinions is considered a heretic or deceived while in reality that is the case with them. There is a movement among us that understand the biblical truths of polygyny, but it is just getting started. Eventually there will be church plants throughout the United States, and hopefully eventually internationally that teach the truths exposed by the Bible. We welcome any that would want to participate in such a venture to establish teaching the truth according to the Word of God.