That is a complete distortion of the episode. Clearly God did not approve of the relationship between Abram and Hagar. While Abram did not necessarily sin by simply entering into a polygamous relationship with another woman, he did sin by failing to believe God. God had promised that Abram would be the father of a nation through Sarai, and neither Sarai nor Abram had faith in God at that point. Instead of believing God that Abram would father a nation through her, she took it upon herself to give Hagar to Abram. It was an act of FAITHLESSNESS and hence it was a SIN!
The act of faith for which Abraham was counted righteous was in believing that God would raise a great nation through Issac, even if Issac were sacrificed to God. It was at that point that Abram believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness.
If you think that God approved of the incident with Hagar, then you don't understand the passage.
The Bible NEVER condones polygamy. The Bible simply reports that it was a practice. Jesus actually made it a sin, wherein he proclaimed that if any man were to look upon a woman (other than his wife) with lust, that he would be committing adultery in his heart. Now explain to me how a married man could find himself getting married to another woman (other than his first wife) and not "lust in his heart"? It is that lust which triggers a man wanting to be with another woman which is the foundation of polygamy.
The New Testament makes it clear that polygamy is not to be tolerated in the Church and no man who was married to more than one woman was allowed to hold any official office in the church. In Utah, every one of the leaders of the LDS Church in the 1800's was, by virtue of their status as polygamists, scripturally prohibited from holding the offices that they claimed.
Delphi it is good to see you defending polygamy on these threads. It exposes Mormonism for the fraud and the evil that underpins the whole theology of the LDS Church. You believe in Polygamy. You;re heart's desire is to have 78 or more virgins to be given to you to service you forever in eternity. You desire to be God.
That is the ultimate goal of every LDS man. It is why you pay tithes. It is why you go on your Mission. It is why you do your "Duty" to the church. It is so that you can someday be a polygamist God (Like YOUR Heavenly Father) over a world where people will refer to YOU as THEIR HEAVENLY FATHER.
It is, in a word........ SICK!
How about in the NT when the lady with several husbands came to Jesus to be healed. He asked her who her husband was and she replied, “no one”. He said that was so and for her to go and sin no more. My brain is not working at its best since I am in so much pain but someone out there will know what I am talking about. Polygamy is not condoned anywhere in the Bible.
That is the ultimate goal of every LDS man. It is why you pay tithes. It is why you go on your Mission. It is why you do your "Duty" to the church. It is so that you can someday be a polygamist God (Like YOUR Heavenly Father) over a world where people will refer to YOU as THEIR HEAVENLY FATHER.
It is, in a word........ SICK!
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............uhhhhhhhhhhh............look...........ahhhhhhhh...........you are just a Disruptor and hate the LDS faith!!! < / sarcasm >
Absolutely amazing and well said post sir! Well done.
It is, in a word........ SICK!
And not only sick.......Evil.
There is nothing in this world more evil than what I'm seeing coming from mainstream LDS defending the rape of young girls. They may as well be members of Al Quaeda as far as I'm concerned.
"I confess that I cannot forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict the Scripture. If a man wishes to marry more than one wife he should be asked whether he is satisfied in his conscience that he may do so in accordance with the word of God. In such a case the civil authority has nothing to do in the matter." (De Wette II, 459, ibid., pp. 329-330.) Or Tertullian"As I think, moreover, each pronouncement and arrangement is (the act) of one and the same God; who did then indeed, in the beginning, send forth a sowing of the race by an indulgent laxity granted to the reins of connubial alliances, until the world should be replenished, until the material of the new discipline should attain to forwardness: now, however, at the extreme boundaries of the times, has checked (the command) which He had sent out, and recalled the indulgence which He had granted; not without a reasonable ground for the extension (of that indulgence) in the beginning, and the limitation of it in the end.OR Justin Martyr"And this one fall of David, in the matter of Uriah's wife, proves, sirs," I said, "that the patriarchs had many wives, not to commit fornication, but that a certain dispensation and all mysteries might be accomplished by them; since, if it were allowable to take any wife, or as many wives as one chooses, and how he chooses, which the men of your nation do over all the earth, wherever they sojourn, or wherever they have been sent, taking women under the name of marriage, much more would David have been permitted to do this."OR Augustine"Again, Jacob the son of Isaac is charged with having committed a great crime because he had four wives. But here there is no ground for a criminal accusation: for a plurality of wives was no crime when it was the custom; and it is a crime now, because it is no longer the custom. There are sins against nature, and sins against custom, and sins against the laws. In which, then, of these senses did Jacob sin in having a plurality of wives? As regards nature, he used the women not for sensual gratification, but for the procreation of children. For custom, this was the common practice at that time in those countries. And for the laws, no prohibition existed. The only reason of its being a crime now to do this, is because custom and the [secular] laws forbid it."I am in agreement with Augistine on this and for this "Christian" belief, I am being abused on this forum, Oh well I feel at home among my Brethren who are seekers after truth. U Said: You believe in Polygamy. You;re heart's desire is to have 78 or more virgins to be given to you to service you forever in eternity. You desire to be God.
I believe that telling a freeper what he believes is not allowed on FR, and in this case at least your mind reading is as accurate as your scripture interpreting, for I have no desire to participate in a moral polygamous marriage, it would be Illegal, against the instructions of my preferences and most of all unwelcome in that I am happy with my current and only wife, thanks, but you are wrong about me.
I also happen to believe in the right to defend yourself to the point of killing an attacker, that does not mean I desire to murder.
U Said: That is the ultimate goal of every LDS man. It is why you pay tithes. It is why you go on your Mission. It is why you do your "Duty" to the church. It is so that you can someday be a polygamist God (Like YOUR Heavenly Father) over a world where people will refer to YOU as THEIR HEAVENLY FATHER.
You speak in absolutes, thus your point is easy to disprove, I am an LDS man, I do not desire to have more than one wife (your first premise falls here) I pay my tithes, and even offerings because the Lord has commanded it. (your second premise falls here) My duty to the preferences is my love and devotion to Jesus Christ, and I served my mission because he (Jesus preferences) asked me to. (your third and fourth premises fall here). I have no desire to be a polygamist God. (your fifth premise falls here) and I have no desire to rule over "a world" where God's children will worship me as God indeed, I do not believe such a thing to be possible, according to the Gospel I have learned. (your last premise falls here) I do hope to gain salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and by being a doer of the word and not just a hearer only, and in that salvation I hope to inherit all that the Father hath becoming a Co-inheritor with Jesus by his grace and mercy.
U Said: It is, in a word........ SICK!
One of us is sick, one of us insists on focusing on the prurient, One of us is in denial one of us...
Have a nice day.