Can we count the ways we know that polygamy was practiced and encouraged during and after the biblical period and it was not a sin.
You bring up a lot of issues here, and I'll try to respond one at a time. Yes, as I said, polygamy was allowed in the Bible. However, God made Eve for Adam, and not Eve, Mary, Gabriella, Sarah, and Becky.
It was unnecessary for Adam to have more than one wife. He could treat her as an equal, because she came out of his side, the rib, and was intended to be equal to the task of assisting him in serving God.
And she was sufficient to provide multiple children, who could then produce multiple children. The earth could've been filled in short order, if it wasn't for Sin.
The first Christians were Jewish-Christians and in there culture many wives and children were seen as a blessing of God….favor. This is how Polygamy was encouraged that and God took credit for King David's wives. So no reason for the Jewish-Christians not to have multiple wives.
I don't know--the Wisdom literature of the Bible seems to suggest that multiple wives was a problem for Solomon. So he wrote about what a good wife would be--not multiple wives. He also wrote, in the Proverbs, what a contentious wife could be.
In the NT, we are advised to select church leaders who only have a single wife. Does it need to spell out why?
And of course Paul made the stipulation that a church leader had to be married to one wife. Both of those requirements may have been there.
Yes, and we know why there was polygamy, and why it was discouraged for church leadership. The bigger the entanglements in marriage, the less time for the church.
And we know, from history, that kings and wealthy men had plenteous property and money, and needed lots of children to assist them--relatives they could trust. This is not the ideal, but a reaction to problems relating to trust. It did place financial pressure on the polygamist, who was responsible for caring for all of the wives and all of the children!
Still after the biblical era things changed.
No, the "Biblical Era" did *not* change! Changing traditions and changing social conditions do not trump biblical standards. The same standards remain true to the Bible.
The use of polygamy or the decline of polygamy is not a "green light" to those who wish to go rogue, and deviate from Scriptural Morality. As you already said, polygamy is not prohibited in Scriptures. But we are required to submit to legitimate political authority and the laws of our State, when they are reasonable.
The Bible is the foundation of our beliefs, but the Bible Only way of understanding it is messed up, because the NT only documents the first 65 year of God interacting with Christianity and a lot of things were taught to us by the Holy Spirit since then, just as it was intended. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you". John 14:26
The Holy Spirit never deviates from Biblical Morality, because He inspired the Scriptures! A change in practice of polygamy is not a "green light" to deviate from Biblical Morality!
Christians were practicing these things after the NT period.
So the Holy Spirit taught us that Polygamy and Concubinage was wrong. So we but a stop to it.
No, the Holy Spirit did *not* teach the Church that Polygamy and concubinage was wrong. Same with slavery. Under certain conditions, God has allowed certain practices that under different circumstances would be wrong.
These practices were allowed by God out of concession to the environment of sin, but does not in any way challenge Biblical Morality, nr does it change it. Any so-called "Spirit" that thinks to re-write Scriptures for our day, because it is a different "day," is not the Holy Spirit!
We simply need to recognize that times do change, and some things that are changeable can be changed, or what things appear to change really are just different circumstances. Slavery during war-time may be slavery permitted , but slavery in peace-time may fall under the category of "questionable." See Philemon.
So the Holy Spirit taught us that arranged marriages was wrong so we put a stop to it.
The Holy Spirit never taught us that arranged marriages were wrong. You are saying that--not the Holy Spirit.
The scriptures never said to build churches….in the 4th century we decided to build churches.
That's like saying the Scriptures never spoke in English. Of course not--the language was Hebrews, Aramaic, and Greek!
If the Bible spoke of temples or houses, the NT spoke of churches. They mean the same thing as the OT referred to as gatherings, or assemblies.
In the NT they are called "churches." And as mankind progress according to the mandate to "multiply and fill the earth," there came to be the need to build something bigger than "house-churches."
Wedding ceremonies are a Pagan custom.
I agree that wedding traditions can change. But to claim "weddings" as "paganism" is ludicrous. What pagans practice Christians can practice. When Christians practice weddings, it is a "Christian tradition"--not a "pagan tradition!"
When the Gentiles converted to Christianity they brought with them the custom of Wedding ceremonies, vows, and rings. Around 1550 AD the Protestants made church weddings a requirement to be married. On November 11th 1563 at the Council of Trent the Catholic Church made weddings a requirement to be married.
Things that have pagan origins can be borrowed and used for Christian purposes, just as Paul said a steak dedicated to paganism can be eaten by a Christian who thanks God for it.
So the Holy Spirit taught us that slavery was wrong. So we put a stop to it.
So things have changed…..Christianity is a dynamic religion.
No, Christianity's Rules from the Holy Spirit have not changed. The only thing that changes are things the Scriptures allow to be changed. "I the Lord change not."
