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Yes, just wow! Never caught this before in all of my reading of the Bible and my initial take is that it is disturbing. The main reason I never liked the Catholic Church as a Christian is because I don't agree with the idea of middle men when it comes to salvation. Protestant does away with...

Thinking about this more made me realize that even this is based on some speculation. Based on biblical examples and questioning some views of mine and yours, I will change my view regarding Paul writing as new issues popped up to my new view that Paul also expanded on things that were already...

Since authority was a requirement for canonicity, I'm willing to bet that such letter would've made it into the canon if it existed.

Oh come on... His success was in spite of God , but I don't see the relevance with my point about Jacob's polygamous marriage. God acted in the latter case.

You are failing to realize that Paul had to add to Scripture (all of his letters made it as Scripture), and he did so as problems popped up. Problems in Christianity I'm sure continued to pop up long after Paul and we can clearly see it today.

Interestingly, I could not find anywhere in the Bible where it says that the Bible canon and divine revelation ended at the 1st century. That is all tradition and assumption about Scripture. I look at this issue from the perspective of a 1st century Christian. If all of the Scripture that...

Opinion is too weak of a word because we both are going by evidence. So I see our views as competing theories. Of course, yours is the more mainstream Christian one. I'd like another person's perspective to weigh in or we could go deeper into a specific piece of evidence and reasoning if you...

My response... For one, though the Bible doesn’t say the Patriarchs’ polygamy is wrong, it shows it. Read about Abraham and Hagar, or David and Bathsheba, or Jacob and Leah. Again and again, kings and Patriarchs take multiple wives with disastrous consequences. We can read between the lines...

I think it would be more helpful to consider your approach instead of just addressing your points. One problem area with your approach is that it only considers some of the data - the data that favors your side. A stronger view would be one that accounts for the pro and anti polygamy points...

For your point to be right, God would've had to play a passive role or show a type of concern that was negative towards polygamy. My Genesis reference doesn't say God just watched or He was bothered by a woman trying to get the affection of a guy that's already married. Instead, we see that...

I don't see that as being enough and I think that can be seen based on some of the reasons why Paul wrote letters to various Churches. As various issues popped up after Jesus's death, Paul often wrote to reassure, correct, and instruct these Churches when issues would pop up. Fast forward to...

Not exactly encouraging in the sense of telling someone to take two wives, but the Bible shows that God was okay with it in other ways. I explained this by referencing the story about Jacob and his wives and how God intervened. You're forgetting that exception clause for divorce (except for...

What leads you to believe that? Is there a passage in there or something else?

@Scooter If this was the only thing God said about marriage in the Bible, then I'd agree with you. It would mean that there's only one male and female in a marriage and if you really want to follow what it says, then we could even say that the man can only have one marriage in his lifetime...

How can we know this? We can theorize what this would look like. For instance, why wasn't this revealed from the start? It took centuries for the canon to be formed and agreed upon. Men deliberated and debated on it which is another thing that I wouldn't expect if revelation was given.

That's true. I wonder if there were more than 4 gospels then. I know the Gospel of Thomas and others were used by some Christians. Really, this is one big problem in Christianity, the selection of books, like who says that God can't inspire people who aren't apostles? Who says that the Canon...

From the above article: Sure, every instance of polygamy practice in the Bible had problems. But does that make all polygamous marriages immoral or is the issue just the way it is practiced (which means it can be practiced different ways, good and bad)? The author doesn't consider this point...

Source: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-the-bible-permit-polygamy My response will be in the next post. I welcome all others to chime in.

True. At best, we can use Justin Martyr to say that all 4 Gospels existed by his time, but he does not say specifically that John was the author of any of them. I think Irenaeus was the first one to specify that John wrote a gospel. Here's one perspective: Source...

I believe many Christians view the Jews and their state as being part of prophecy, and that leads to them always taking the side of Israel over the Arabs. I remember when I was a Christian, I also had this same feeling and thinking, and it made me think that Israel could do no wrong. But now...