Polygamy, Abortion, and Post-marital Sex

Polygamy, Abortion, and Post-marital Sex

In the following e-mail exchanges, the e-mailers' comments are in black and enclosed in "greater than" and "lesser than" signs. My comments are in red.

>I do not know if this is the proper venue to send questions in, but if it is not I apologize. Anyway, I went to Bible School once. This was in the Philippines, and one of our instructors had two rather controversial points he raised for discussion:

1. That if a Christian happened to live in a country, or culture, where polygamous marriages are allowed, he does not sin if he takes more than one wife, because there are really no restrictions in the Bible on the number of wives a man can have and that the restrictions were put specifically only for pastors and deacons in the new testament, and the king of Israel (and even this was ignored by Solomon and David) in the Old Testament;<

This is a difficult one in the missions field. I can remember talking about it specifically in seminary. My opinion is this, if someone already has more than one wife before being converted, I don't think he should be required to "divorce" any of his wives, especially if there are children involved. But he shouldn't be made a deacon or elder.

OTOH, I do think that once someone is a Christian then they should not be allowed to marry additional wives. The reason why it is forbidden for deacons and elders is because they are to be examples of how the rest of the congregation should act.

>2. That a baby in his mother's womb does not have a soul as yet.<

This I definitely disagree with. I think the following verses clearly shows the Bible considers a child in the womb to be a person, which indicates the presence of a soul:

Exod 21:22f; Judg 13:5-7; 2Sam 11:1-27; Ps 22:10; 82:3f; 106:35-39; 139:13-16; Prov 6:16f; 31:2; Isa 44:24; 45:10; 49:1,5,15; Jer 1:5; 2:34; Hos 9:15f; Amos 1:13; Matt 1:18f; Luke 1:5,39-44; Acts 3:2; Gal 1:15

>Are these true, or accurate at least ?

Timmy
5/10/2000<

I hope the above helps.

>Thank you for taking the time to answer. I definitely agree with your answer to question 2, on the baby having a soul. In fact, that is why my professor and I had a heated sort of debate in college because I reasoned out that when we start pastoring a congregation, and someone comes with a problem of out-of-marriage pregnancy our advise as pastors could be influenced by what we learned in Bible school.

On the first point, however, I'm not really sure yet. Not that I want to have many wives, oh no. It's just that the professor I had gave pretty convincing arguments about it like if the law of a land allows polygamy then a Christian who marries three wives is not committing any adultery either by scriptural definition, or by legal definitions, but if he already has one wife and takes in two more without benefit of marriage, then he is committing adultery.

Oh, well, I guess it's best to keep this in the gray.

Again, thanks for bothering to answer.
Timmy
5/12/2000<

>Thank you, thank you, for your wonderful articles on pre marital sex. I think everyone should read those. I am very glad I have read these.

Thank you again.<

You're very welcome.

>On that note, what about Post-Marital sex? No one has really written anything about that.

As a single Christian male I am wondering what the moral position on the subject is because I could see how certain sexual acts, even between husband and wife, could be condemned by God or moral standards. So what is the position on that? I've always wondered but am not sure who to ask. I am asking since I have never been married.

Now I'm not asking for a perverted reason--just that I would like to know what your general take on the "other side of the coin" is so to speak..

I fully understand about the sin of pre-marital sex. But like I said what is Christianity's or Morality's view on sex AFTER marriage?

Thank you for your time. I hope to hear a reply from you.

Sincerely,
Ryan
Canada
5/3/2000<

Usually when such a question is asked the person has in mind oral or anal sex. I don't see anything in Scripture that would prohibit such acts between a husband and wife, provided they both consented to it. It would of course be wrong for one spouse to force or pressure the other into engaging in an act that made him or her uncomfortable.

Otherwise, it should go without saying that such things as including a "third person" or pornography would be prohibited on general Biblical grounds.

I hope that helps.

>Thank you for your reply to my letter. I have never really been sure who to ask. I'm glad I have an answer.

Sincerely,
Ryan
Canada
5/5/2000<

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