I dunno either, Cecil. (I'm not wild about all these required "sign-ups" anyway.)
I posted once hours ago, without the sign-up, and didn't see anything either, so I reluctantly put one in, re-posted, and still don't see anything.
Perhaps it's moderated, but just slow...
(I do now realize that, if what we see is NOT what we get, when it comes to the post order, some things may not be as clear after a long delay. His post with the two numbered points was the last thing up there when I wrote, hours ago...)
So - hey, put it here.
Mine -- since it's already in my buffer
was this:
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It is good to see the question even being asked, more and more, by people who take the time to actually read what God Wrote, David.
Your own ambivalence about the topic, however, says more about how our increasingly anti-Biblical culture has turned
Monogamy into an idol than it does about the "laws of the United States". After all, that so-called Supreme Law also once prohibited fiat money, free-speech zones, warrant-less searches and wiretaps, and "gun control". Don't forget that no one is required to ask Caesar for a "license" to marry...but do read what God has to say about serving "another master", and particularly what Exodus 21 has to say about who who owns the wives and children so given!
So - to your last points, in reverse order:
The Founders wrote that what matters is the "consent of the governed" -- no doubt because they understood what the Bible repeatedly says about such choices. Ultimately, as we were also repeatedly warned, it all depends on Who we serve. As for me and MY house, we will serve YHVH -- and I neither ask Caesar for his permission to marry, or his "blessings" or subsidy.
But your first point - the claim that the Bible is somehow "silent" is FAR more misleading, because it denies the very character of God! (And I have written a much longer article on the topic, which will also soon be posted at BiblicalFamilies.com.)
There is no word for "poly-" distinctions in the Hebrew, because there is simply marriage, for which God Wrote the rules. And those rules include specific provisions for additional wives (Ex. 21:10, Deut. 21:15, the otherwise-redundant provisions of prohibited marriages, etc). Note just as clearly that God NEVER gives "rules" for sin, for doing that which He calls "abomination" - like sodomy, nor does He describe "how-tos" for adultery, idolatry, or murder!
Finally, and most obviously - God does not sin. But He does describe Himself as having two wives, and through two witnesses in the prophets (Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 3). Those who fail (as PG does above by making "assumptions" about what "Jesus assumes") to understand what our Savior taught about marriage also miss the third example as well. Like it or not, and even though translators have tried to obscure the politically-incorrect truth, the message of the "Parable of the Ten Virgins" is that FIVE brides, prepared with the "oil" of the Holy Spirit in their lamps, go in to become His brides.
EVERY metaphor of His relationship to us is consistent in type, David: a "one-to-many" relationship!
...whether it is one King with multiple subjects, one Master with multiple servants, or one future Husband with multiple Brides.
Why else does He so often talk in prophecy of TWO houses, TWO sticks, multiple "branches" (including those "grafted in"), five prepared brides, seven letters to SEVEN churches, (not just "there can be only ONE"
-- which they somehow all claim to be
) and TWELVE tribes?
The trouble with "adding to" His Word a "doctrine of men" based ultimately on a pagan tradition is that it denies the essential consistent message of His Word. "Let God be true, and every man a liar."
Mark
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