Kobojunkie:
So, God who declared Himself against such things, through both His prophets and Jesus Christ, went against His own Eternal proclamation to "ordain" men as bishops over those in His own flock?

God, who decreed that His Covenant, Jesus Christ, was an agreement between Him and individuals, decided outside of that agreement, to set up Bishops over the same individuals, in much the same way as it was in His Old Covenant?

Please point me to the Scripture where you derived such interpretation or to have come to such comprehension of His word?

perezeghi:

Please point me to the Scripture where you derived such interpretation or to have come to such comprehension of His word?

1. In Jeremiah 31 vs 31-34, God declared that He is the only one to teach those who belong to Him in His New agreement. In Matthew 23, Jesus Christ declare, in alignment with God's previous declaration, that He alone is authority, Master and Teacher over those who are His followers. He commands any in His flock setting themselves up above the others in any way.

2. In Ezekiel 34 vs 9-16, God declared that He alone is Shepherd over His flock, this after declaring that He is against every other shepherd over His own flock.
In John 10, Jesus Christ echoes that message when He proclaims that He is the good shepherd(everyone shepherd is bad), and that it is only to Him to His sheep listen to.

Kobojunkie:
1. In Jeremiah 31 vs 31-34, God declared that He is the only one to teach those who belong to Him in His New agreement. In Matthew 23, Jesus Christ declare, in alignment with God's previous declaration, that He alone is authority, Master and Teacher over those who are His followers. He commands any in His flock setting themselves up above the others in any way.

2. In Ezekiel 34 vs 9-16, God declared that He alone is Shepherd over His flock, this after declaring that He is against every other shepherd over His own flock.
In John 10, Jesus Christ echoes that message when He proclaims that He is the good shepherd(everyone shepherd is bad), and that it is only to Him to His sheep listen to.

What has being ordained got to do with this entire write up by you and the quoted Scriptures...........

I asked again what is your definition of ordained .......comprehending from your quoted verses or any other you may seem to come up with........

perezeghi:

What has being ordained got to do with this entire write up by you and the quoted Scriptures...........

I asked again what is your definition of ordained .......comprehending from your quoted verses or any other you may seem to come up with........

1. Recall my question to you was who ordained them? God or man?

2. You are of course welcome to providing the definition that best suits you. The question i asked seems simple enough to me, and I have no problems with human language (English in this case) comprehension so feel free to respond in English.

Princewell2012:
Happy Sunday brethren.
Let me go straight to the point.

If I have three wives when am still in the world and the 3 of them are legally and fully married.
All of them have children 6,4, and 2 children respectfully.

And today am now a born again.
And the word of God only permit only wife.
.so in this case what do I do.

1 should I sent two of them away and stick with only one.
2 should I sent the three of them away.

3. or should I keep the three of them?
what should one do in this condition?
Somebody asked me this question and I don't know what to reply him.

Please who can give us a reasonable answer biblically?


I will be very happy if it can be pushed to the front page. God bless you all.

I read some responses and I'm not even surprised at some of them.
Anyone who asks you to divorce any of the wives is obviously a Pharisee and not a Christian.
Cos Jesus himself said no man should divorce any wife unless on the ground of sexual immorality. Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19:9

Besides, God only permits one wife for whoever wants to be a church leader (Bishop or a Deacon.) 1 Timothy 3:12

No where in the bible does it say polygamy is a sin.

How do you explain God telling David he gave him many wives would have given him more instead of committing adultery?

2 Samuel 12:7-8
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!

Princewell2012:


OK I should send them away and keep the children? let me get your point. Thanks

well, you can decide to keep them, sending them away may lead to hardship and other problems.

Princewell2012:


So what is the way forward? hmm the Bible should be applicable now since am a born again. That's the issue now.

The bible is being misinterpreted by many. Jesus spoke about the ideal institution of marriage. You are not meant to send away your wifves when you become a born again christian. Even in the new testament from the letter of paul will can be simply interpreted that when he was talking about the qualifications of a Bishop. He said a Bishop must be husband of 1 wife. From this we could understand that there were converts to christian faith that were with more than 1 wives. Jesus spoke about the intention of God from the very beginning alluding to The creation of eve for Adam. It was meant to be 1 man 1 wife, however due to our stuff neck we went out own way. My own personal conclusion is if the wives chooses to stay they can, but if they choose to leave on their own volition ,they can

Myer:


I read some responses and I'm not even surprised at some of them.
Anyone who asks you to divorce any of the wives is obviously a Pharisee and not a Christian.
Cos Jesus himself said no man should divorce any wife unless on the ground of sexual immorality.

Besides, God only permits one wife for whoever wants to be a church leader (Bishop or a Deacon.) 1 Timothy 3:12

No where in the bible does it say polygamy is a sin.

How do you explain God telling David he gave him many wives would have given him more instead of committing adultery? Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19:9

2 Samuel 12:7-8
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!

This is deep. Thanks.

Princewell2012:
Somebody should help out please, it is urgent.

where did the Bible condem polygamy ?
Keep your three wives

Princewell2012:
Happy Sunday brethren.
Let me go straight to the point.

If I have three wives when am still in the world and the 3 of them are legally and fully married.
All of them have children 6, 4, and 2 children respectfully.

And today am now a born again.
And the word of God only permit only wife.
so in this case what do I do.

1 should I sent two of them away and stick with only one.
2 should I sent the three of them away.

3. or should I keep the three of them?
what should one do in this condition?
Somebody asked me this question and I don't know what to reply him.

Please who can give us a reasonable answer biblically?

I will be very happy if it can be pushed to the front page. God bless you all.

Princewell2012:
Hmm I think am more hooked in between. Righteousness2 said I should send the three of them away, that they are not my wife, and onother person suggested that I should keep the three of them since they are properly married. I think I need the Holy Spirit to help me out to get things right. mind you am not the person in particular someone brought it up to me to address.

One cant put a scrambled egg back in its shell

Acehart:
The guy who said keep all three didn’t only answer you from the point of the God’s Law but answered you logically, and it made logical sense to you and you had peace after you read it; why listen to someone who answered you by shooting bullets without hitting the target and you declared him logical and right.

Do you know the meaning of “Go and sin no more”? It means everything you have done before the point of atonement is not accounted against you; only those done thereafter will. So, marrying three wives is not regarded as sin before the Lord but what you do (covenant breaking) against those women will be against you. Israel experienced three years of drought because of covenant breaking, and God stood on the side of those who were defrauded (I am taking about the case of the Gibeonites against Israel).

Any effort to forcefully send those women away will not the cause the will of God - righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, to be done. Just walk with God and He will make a way,

Have a nice weekend

I wonder why Princewell2012 didnt give a response to Acehart, like he did with Myer

Myer:
I read some responses and I'm not even surprised at some of them.
Anyone who asks you to divorce any of the wives is obviously a Pharisee and not a Christian.
Cos Jesus himself said no man should divorce any wife unless on the ground of sexual immorality. Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19:9

Besides, God only permits one wife for whoever wants to be a church leader (Bishop or a Deacon.) 1 Timothy 3:12

No where in the bible does it say polygamy is a sin.

How do you explain God telling David he gave him many wives would have given him more instead of committing adultery?

2 Samuel 12:7-8
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!

I saw this thread right from page zero when it was still fresh, but didnt have the time to spare nor any strong motivation to drop a contribution. Yesterday one of the brethren took a shot and tied the knot. You know yourself brah and know who you are. Some knots are meant to be tied forever, you and madam are the true knot, so I pray that, what you tied yesterday, may it never be untied. May you both be knotted, locked and tied to each other forever. It's your marriage brah, that eventually persuaded me to comment on this thread today to my other brah's Princewell2012 original post

Every point made and/or all comments said by my brother Myer were right on the money, and so leaving me no choice, than merely to just complement and embellish

Princewell2012, I am going to give you a cut to the chase and cut to the bone responses, and at same time, try my best to stick to your numbered format and style asked 1, 2 and 3 option questions. I'll throw light on each of the three, leaving you to do a judgment call decision based on what the HS leads you and your eyes to see

#1 Should I sent two of them away and stick with only one.
Genesis 16:2
'So Sarai said to Abram, “See here, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children.
I am asking you to go in to [the bed of] my maid [so that she may bear you a child]; perhaps I will obtain children by her.”
And Abram listened to Sarai and did as she said'

Genesis 21:9-14
'9Now [as time went on] Sarah saw [Ishmael] the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking [Isaac].
10Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”
11The situation distressed Abraham greatly because of his son [Ishmael].
12God said to Abraham, “Do not let it distress you because of Ishmael and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her and do what she asks, for your descendants will be named through Isaac.
13And I will also make a nation of [Ishmael] the son of the maid, because he is your descendant.”
14So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she left [but lost her way] and wandered [aimlessly] in the Wilderness of Beersheba.'

If there's a Sarai in the relationship, and she says to send away two and stick with only one, then so be it

#2 Should I sent the three of them away
Genesis 2:18
'Now the LORD God said,
“It is not good (beneficial) for the man to be alone;
I will make him a helper [one who balances him--a counterpart who is suitable and complementary for him.” '

Why would you want the questioner to be alone?

#3. Or should I keep the three of them?
what should one do in this condition?
Somebody asked me this question and I don't know what to reply him.

Please who can give us a reasonable answer biblically?
Deuteronomy 7:1-11
'1“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has cleared away many nations before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
2and when the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant (treaty) with them nor show mercy and compassion to them.
3You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son;
4for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled and burn against you and He will quickly destroy you.
5But this is how you shall deal with them: you shall tear down their altars and smash to pieces their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah), and burn their carved or sculpted images in the fire.
6For you are a holy people [set apart] to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people for His own possession [that is, His very special treasure].
7“The LORD did not love you and choose you because you were greater in number than any of the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8But because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed (bought) you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9Therefore know [without any doubt] and understand that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who is keeping His covenant and His [steadfast] lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10but repays those who hate Him to their faces, by destroying them; He will not hesitate with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
11Therefore, you shall keep (follow, obey) the commandment and the statutes and judgments (precepts) which I am commanding you today.'

1 Kings 11:1-10
'1Now king Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
2from the very nations of whom the LORD said to the Israelites, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for the result will be that they will turn away your hearts to follow their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these in love.
3He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away [from God].
4For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not completely devoted to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David.
5For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the [fertility] goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the horror (detestable idol) of the Ammonites.
6Solomon did evil [things] in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as his father David had done.
7Then Solomon built a high place for [worshiping] Chemosh the horror (detestable idol) of Moab, on the hill which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the horror (detestable idol) of the sons of Ammon.
8And he did the same for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9So the LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
10and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe (remember, obey) what the LORD had commanded. '

God does and/or can in this fractured creation world we found ourselves living in, live with polygamy, however what pisses God off, as in Ezra 10:9-11, Nehemiah 13:23-31 and particularly 1 Kings 11:1-10, seen above, is when married wives turn the heart of the husband away from God to go after other gods

Ezra 10:1-4, 9-11, 18-19
'1Now while Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and laying himself face down before the house of God, a very large group from Israel, of men, women, and children, gathered to him, for the people wept bitterly.
2Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
3Therefore let us now make a covenant with our God to send away all the [foreign] wives and their children, in accordance with the advice of my lord and of those who tremble [in reverent obedience] at the commandment of our God; and let it be done in accordance with the Law. 4Stand up, for it is your duty, and we will be with you. Be brave and act.”
9So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the twentieth [day] of the ninth month, and all the people sat in the open square in front of the house of God, trembling because of [the seriousness of] this matter and because of the heavy rain.
10Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful [to God] and have married foreign (pagan) women, adding to the guilt of Israel.
11So now, make confession to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from [your] foreign wives.”
18Now among the sons of the priests who had married foreign women were found: of the sons of Jeshua [the high priest] the son of Jozadak, and his brothers--Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19They vowed to send away their [pagan] wives, and being guilty, they each offered a ram of the flock for their offense.'

Put another way, God doesnt and hasn't ever condemned nor condoned polygamy because if polygamy is not abused and/or misused, good can not only come out of it but good also can come from it. It is when polygamy becomes a vehicle, mechanism, apparatus to an aberration like turning to idolatry and turning away from God.

I am certain that if equity, justice, fidelity, integrity, faithfulness to God etc thrived Ezra and Nehemiah wouldnt have pushed to change back the hand of the clock and ask the Israelites to get rid of their foreign wives etc

Princewell2012:


So what is the way forward? hmm the Bible should be applicable now since am a born again. That's the issue now.

do as the Spirit leads you.
But I think in this case you'll retain the first wife and discharge the rest

helinues:
I don't think bible is applicable in this scenario...
Who should take responsibility of the wives and their kids?

Princewell2012:
So what is the way forward? hmm the Bible should be applicable now since am a born again. That's the issue now.

Deuteronomy 17:17a
'The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the LORD.'

There's no issue if the questioner's wives, dont turn the husband's heart away from God.

AntiAPC2023:
do as the Spirit leads you.

The Spirit will let you know that due to circumstances notable sons of God, patriarchs like Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel, Moses, Gideon, David, Solomon, Elkanah etc in their lifetime were in non abusive polygamous relationship

AntiAPC2023:
But I think in this case you'll retain the first wife and discharge the rest

1/ On what ground are you thinking, he should advise the questioner to retain the first wife and discharge the rest?
2/ What if the man got consent from the 1st wife before marrying the second, and also got from the first and second wives before marrying the third?
3/ Would you be pleased if its you or your female family member thats asked to leave?