http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/13420-dc-132-polygamy/

So in this article I posted above a man is questioning Mormons on their views of polygamy and of course some of them have stupid brain gymnastic answers or lies to keep themselves believing, BUT a lot of people actually confirmed that Joseph Smith believed in polygamy and that he had hidden it from his wife and that it was a man's choice not God's and I'm like *FACEPALM* Well then of course he's not a real prophet! Is it really that difficult?!

P.S. Also, what's up with all the people in the Bible who practiced polygamy? I know there's really not that many, but some people try and use that as an example and whether you believe in the Bible or not, do you know if God actually encouraged polygamy at any point in the Bible?

Polygamy is quite pervasive in the Old Testament.

Notably:

Abraham had sex with Sarah's servants when she couldn't have kids. Abraham of course is the patriarch of all of the religions that God made all of these covenants with.

David & Solomon practiced extreme polygamy with hundreds of wives and hundreds of concubines. Both were highly blessed of the Lord. David especially was especially blessed until the whole Bathsheba incident. (Even with Bathsheba it wasn't the sex and pregnancy - it was the murder of Uriah that was the problem.)

It's pretty hard to believe the Bible is the word of God and have a problem with polygamy without a bunch of mental gymnastics.

There is nothing in the Bible to indicate God favored polygamy. Indeed, there is, in the New Testament especially, encouragement for monogamy in that elders and deacons were only permitted one wife. Further, the stories relating to Abraham and to the jealousy between Leah and Rachel later that it polygamy created problems. We can note the change even before Christ as to discouraging multiple wives. Of course, to some people everything was simply written in stone at Sinai. Rather, we see evolution in religious thinking and God brought man along in that evolution. One of the proofs against mormonism is the retreat back to polygamy by JS and acting in clear violation of the rules set forth in the New Testament.

I can add one other thought in that the bible has stories about princes killing their siblings to secure their position as king, especially those of the half-blood. Polygamy for David and Solomon can only be justified in that it was political to take wives to secure alliances between clans.

The BoM oddly condemns David for having many wives rather than for the death of Uriah.

<<Rather, we see evolution in religious thinking and God brought man along in that evolution.>>

This makes no sense to me. If there was evolution in religious thinking happening, and god brought man along in that evolution, whose religious thinking was evolving in the first place?

Was it your god's religious thinking? I thought bible-god never changes.

Was it man's religious thinking that was evolving? Then what was the need for a god to "bring man along" in that evolution?

Please clarify what you mean by this.

bc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Abraham had sex with Sarah's servants when she
> couldn't have kids. Abraham of course is the
> patriarch of all of the religions that God made
> all of these covenants with.
For what it's worth, this isn't polygamy. It is extramarital sex (though the cultural rules might have been different, since they were servants). There were a number of provisions for creating heirs if the normal process didn't work out; this was one.

Also of note is the infamous Onan, whose duty to his dead childless brother was to produce an heir with the widow. Instead he kept pulling out, either out of spite for his brother or so he could keep hittin' it. His sin was not spilling seed, per se, but avoiding his brotherly duty.

A lot of sexual values have changed in multiple ways, especially recently. Hooray puritanism!

The first murderer mentioned in the Bible was Cain - killed his brother Abel. The first polygamist mentioned in the Bible was Lamech, Cain's son. Coincidence? Who knows? There's nothing in the Bible to indicate that God said to take multiple wives. Nothing.

leroy

In other words:

"If you ignore ALL the parts of the bible in which god allows his chosen servants to practice polygamy, and pretend really hard that those parts don't exist, you'll see that there's nothing in the bible to indicate that god said to take multiple wives. Nothing."

Does anyone know who Danel(sp?) W. Bachman from Purdue is, or read his paper referenced by the second poster?

All I was trying to say is that in the Bible God never actually commands anyone to practice polygamy. No one is trying to ignore that it happened and that he allowed it (at least I don't think so. Idk what goes on in other people's heads but I wasn't trying to ignore it personally). I was just saying that he never actually told or commanded anyone to practice polygamy and it is also true that in the BoM some polygamists were condemned for it and yet it was magically commanded of Joseph Smith after he was caught with multiple women.

I find it ironic that many Mormons are now admitting this yet they still can't just say "Hey! That doesn't sound like a prophet of God to me."

Go read Exodus 21 if you want to really retch.

Wtf...that's just weird.

It is indeed, but the point is that God didn't need to command polygamy, He just needed to command the treatment of the many women one man might want. In God's culture women are belongings, they aren't worthy of being treated any differently than you would an ox.

I just read Exodus 21, and I think it's bad enough to implicate the Old Testament in evil. I could almost slap a Rabbi after reading that foul garbage.