Sometime in 1974 or 1975, while living in Colorado, I was invited to attend a gathering of brethren who believe in the “no Bible Class” arrangement. We met at a prominent restaurant for a noon meal. When I arrived, I noticed the table was filled with two seats empty, one in the center of the table on one side and another in the center on the other side. It was obvious that they wanted me to sit in one of those chairs and the other brother to sit in the other. We were faced off \u2014 this preacher on one side and me on the other.<\/p>\n
We small talked for a while and in the conversation, he made the statement that he believed I Timothy 3:2, “the husband of one wife<\/em>,” was opposing polygamy! When he made that statement, I responded by saying, “Brother, you believe a bachelor can be an elder don’t you?” His response was, “Yes I do, but how did you know what I believed about that?” My response was, “The position you took on the `husband of one wife’ demanded it!”<\/p>\n At this point, the brethren, which were affiliated with him looked at him and said, “Brother you do not believe that do you?” His answer was in the affirmative and from that point there was a lively discussion about elders and their qualifications. I sat back and listened to them discuss this issue with their preacher.<\/p>\n This is what those who believe a bachelor can be an elder have argued. If this passage is opposing polygamy, then it has nothing to do with whether a man is or is not married; so, a bachelor can be an elder. The New Testament does not oppose such if it is combating polygamy. The thought of a widow is stated in I Timothy 5:9. One of the qualifications is, “the wife of one husband<\/em>.” Now, if “the husband of one wife,<\/em>” is combating polygamy, why would not “the wife of one husband<\/em>” be combating polyandry? The two stand or fall together. Polyandry (many husbands) was never known in the land of Canaan; so, it could not be forbidding polyandry. That same statement concerning an elder, “husband of one wife,” is not combating polygamy! If I wanted to show polygamy wrong I would use other texts to do so \u2014\u00a0I Corinthians 7:2.<\/p>\n I learned a long time ago that the position you take on a certain passage can lead to a false position. I have tried through the years to become mindful of these positions and avoid them.<\/p>\n I believe the passage in\u00a0I Timothy 3:2\u00a0is talking about a man being married, with a family. When one teaches it is opposing polygamy, he is open to a conclusion he may not want to accept. Be careful of the position you take and make sure it is what the Lord is teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Carl A. Allen Sometime in 1974 or 1975, while living in Colorado, I was invited to attend a gathering of brethren who believe in the “no Bible Class” arrangement. We met at a prominent restaurant for a noon meal. When I arrived, I noticed the table was filled with two seats empty, one in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[123,64],"class_list":["post-25060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-elders","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62467,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-my-husband-becomes-a-non-believer\/","url_meta":{"origin":25060,"position":0},"title":"What if my husband becomes a non-believer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Brother Jeffrey, I hope all has been well.\u00a0The situation I face now is this: My husband and I are currently separated for several reasons (him mostly not wanting the marriage at the time). My husband was a baptized Christian in the church when we married. He was raised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25370,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-every-divorce-that-is-not-for-fornication-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":25060,"position":1},"title":"Is every divorce that is not for fornication a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"How it is possible for a requirement that if a woman divorces her husband, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband (a command by the Lord according to Paul) if the only allowed cause for divorce is fornication which gives by implication the non-fornicator the right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13653,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-marriage-before-a-justice-of-the-peace-legitimate\/","url_meta":{"origin":25060,"position":2},"title":"Is my marriage before a justice of the peace legitimate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please help me.\u00a0 I am a spiritual person who believes in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 My husband does not.\u00a0 That is OK.\u00a0 The problem is that we were not married before God nor did we invite him to our union in any way.\u00a0We were married by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37834,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-atheists-worship-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":25060,"position":3},"title":"Do atheists worship Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Earlier today a friend and I were talking about things in Christianity that tend to bother me.\u00a0 One of those things was the mantra of \"atheists worship Satan.\"\u00a0 It drives me crazy because first off, they believe in neither God nor Satan.\u00a0 An illustration: a husband and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25537,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-only-the-husband-initiate-a-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":25060,"position":4},"title":"Can only the husband initiate a divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to say that I have found that your article on \u201cIs divorce a sin?\u201d is very well explained and thought out. I have been studying marriage, divorce, and remarriage for some time with other believers and you and I have come to the same conclusion -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16397,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-i-do-my-wife-and-i-are-drifting-apart\/","url_meta":{"origin":25060,"position":5},"title":"What can I do? My wife and I are drifting apart","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It has been almost a year since I first wrote to you about my thoughts on divorcing my wife. We have one child together. A lot has happened since then! I moved out of my house for two reasons: 1) because I had already planned to and 2) because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}