Does a polygamist need to divorce his extra wives?
Question:
If you're married to more than one wife before you became a Christian, can you divorce your second and third wives and be only married to your first wife when you become a Christian?
Answer:
In God's teaching, one man is to marry one woman. "And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate" (Matthew 19:4-6). To marry another while you are still married to your first spouse is adultery. "For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man" (Romans 7:2-3). Therefore, a second marriage while you are married to your wife is not a valid marriage in God's sight. The only solution is to end the illegal marriage. You cannot become a Christian while you are living in adultery.
Question:
The Pastor said, God never told us to end our adulterous marriage. What should I respond when a pastor makes such a claim?
Answer:
His statement means he agrees that the marriage is sinful. God's view on adultery is clear:
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19-21).
If he refuses to end his adultery or teach others to end their adultery, then they will not reach heaven.
When the Israelites had entered into invalid marriages, they were told to divorce their spouses.
"Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law" (Ezra 10:2-3).
"Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, 'You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. Now therefore, make confession to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives'" (Ezra 10:10-11).
While the reason the Israelites' marriages were invalid was not due to adultery, it does show there is precedent for ending sinful marriages.
This man is clearly a false teacher. I would strongly recommend that you find a congregation that follows God's teachings.
Question:
He said the Bible says remain as you received Christ. Paul said that if you are a believer with wives, don't send any away. Only if they want to leave of their own accord may they leave. He also says that idolatry and a marriage relationship are different. Jesus was addressing a different topic.
Answer:
"Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called" (I Corinthians 7:17-24).
If a man was a thief before becoming a Christian, does that mean he is to remain a thief? Notice the condition: "as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each." Each of Paul's examples is a righteous state. You are not in sin, whether you were circumcised or not. Being a slave or a free man is equally right. And in the greater context of I Corinthians 7, whether a person chooses to remain single or to get married is also a just condition. However, a single person cannot remain in fornication (I Corinthians 6:9-11), nor can an adulterer remain in adultery.
"But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?" (I Corinthians 7:12-16).
Every mention of a husband and wife refers to one man married to one woman. This false teacher is altering the text to insert his own false belief. "And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness" (II Peter 3:15-17).
Response:
Thank you very much, sir.
