WE* ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE LAW!! Galatians 3:25!!
Jesus and the New Testament have made countless additions and changes to Old Testament Laws!!
Galatians 2:14-16,20,21; 3:2,5,10-13;23-25: Paul said, When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is NOT justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because **BY OBSERVING THE LAW NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED**!
Galatians 2:20,21: The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Galatians 3:10-13: "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us!
Galatians 3:23-25: "Before faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, *WE* ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE LAW!!"
Hebrews 7:18,19: The former regulation is SET ASIDE because it was weak and useless; for the law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.!
Hebrews 8:8,9,13: "The time is coming." says the Lord, "when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah".... By calling this Covenant "NEW", He has made the first one OBSOLETE; and what is OBSOLETE and aging will soon disappear."
Hebrews 8:6: But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is Mediator is SUPERIOR TO THE OLD ONE, and it is founded on better promises.
Colossians 2:16,17: Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you **EAT** or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a **SABBATH** day. These are a *SHADOW* of the things that were to come, the reality, however, is found in Christ!!!
Galatians 4:9,10: How is it that you are turning back to those **WEAK AND MISERABLE PRINCIPLES**? Do you want to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing **SPECIAL DAYS** and months and seasons and years. I fear for you. that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you!!
you said " I am under **CHRIST'S LAW**!! " , so lets see what His purpose was :
Heb 10:7 ¶ Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Joh 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
Joh 14:31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
So the Christ speaks what His Father told Him to speak , let us " hear Him "
Mt 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And again in another place , hear the Word of the Living God :
Ro 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Servantfiss -- good grief, so much scripture and babble. You cannot interpret as you see fit. It's quite simple really. Also, I am surprised you attend church of Christ. so do I and the old law was written for Israel. why do you think God destroyed so many nations and saved Israel so many times? Now the gentiles can participate --you might want to read the story of Nicodemus asking how he can enter his mother's womb and Christ's explanation, as well as Acts 2:38. I am not here to argue with you, but it seems preferable to me that I keep it simple, follow in Faith and not argue with you anymore. You do not listen anyway.
" good grief, so much scripture and babble." , what ? Why would you call The Inspired word of God babble ?
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
The scripture is for us to read and learn by as you can see by the above scripture . Did you not even read it ? All of it speaks to your assertions that the Law was only for Israel , but maybe you don't want to hear it . The Gospel itself tells us that it applies to us , and yes even today .
Oh well , all I can do is bring it . If you don't want to study and discuss The Word , then maybe it's best that you don't go where people do that .
I used to think it must be restricted for bishops and deacons until I realized the assumptions behind it, and considered the issue more in the light of Scripture rather than hoping to "throw a bone" to the Romans. "You must have one" does not mean "only one" unless it is already understood that having more than one would be bad. Thus it is circular reasoning: "We know Paul believes multiple wives are bad because he said "you must have one wive", and we know this means "only one" because he believes multiple wives are bad."
As to why the word "one" was used you'd have to ask the translators, as I mentioned on the other thread: "The passages saying a deacon or bishop must be husbands of one wife were translated in a nation where there probably was not even one person who did not follow the Roman tradition of condemning multiple wives. Suffice it to say that the word translated "one" is also translated in other cases as "a" by the same translators, and they chose to translate it as "one" in this case no doubt because it bolstered their unscriptural tradition." (Though, of course, it bolsters their tradition by assumption and circular reasoning.)
To this it can be added that when in the same epistle Paul says that a "widow indeed" must have been "the wife of one husband", where we can justly take this to mean "only one", Paul in fact uses a different phrase, using a different word, more akin to "single". But of course the translators wouldn't preserve this difference of phrasing in the translation: they would want the phrases to sound the same.
But in the end, I never believed multiple wives were a sin even when I thought bishops and deacons couldn't marry multiple wives (after all, Jeremiah wasn't allowed to marry anyone). Such a restriction certainly is no foundation or plausible origin for the vicious attitude some people have against multiple wives. That obviously springs from another source, which is clear enough after a little thought and research.
As for a change in law, this would only have to do with the issue if there was a ceremonial law about it for Jews specifically, which would have nothing to do with us gentile believers. It is strange that “we are not under the law” would be brought up, as I have usually seen people using it to excuse progressive ideas that creep into the Church, like women pastors, indecent clothes, or even homosexuality. Biblically “we are not under the law” was part of a long and complex explanation (often hard to understand, as the apostle Peter said) of why gentiles can be saved (which was always true, not just after Christ). But apparently “we are not under the law” is often used today as a catch-all justification whenever culture gets put above Scripture, since instead of always using it to excuse things, in the case of multiple wives “we are not under the law” is actually used to justify making something “against the rules” when it disagrees with non-biblical culture.
As I already talked about “two shall be one”, I will just say that the same answer applies to Christ and his Bride. One could also say that having more than one son breaks the image God placed in the family of his only begotten Son. When it comes to figures, one may recall that God likens himself to a man married to two wives, Israel and Judah, in Ezekiel 23 and Jeremiah 3.
@Servantfiss when I came to this conclusion I was in contact with no one (outside the Bible) who agreed, family and friends included. Until someone succeeds in discrediting God’s Word in my eyes, I will have no reason to follow a more Rome friendly worldview. I have been attacked before - not much to speak of I would say: some women were jailed for refusing to testify against their husbands (so much for “women’s rights”; as if women have never initiated being multiple wives). But these are some of the comments when I brought up the subject on a different site:
“I think when he dies he dies with his face smiling...hahaha”
“haha,
smiling maybe,
but there will be no resurrection of it!”
And there were some comments which I won’t share here, not being sure whether moderators would consider them too indecent or not.
Polygamy was a worldly practice dates back hebrew patriarchs (e.g Agar-Sarah, Leah-Rebecca) that always leaded to conflict between spouses. But Christ instituted again the original mandate (Matthew 19:4-6), (Genesis 2:24). True marital love is a union of 3, where God occupies the first place (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
