O How Painful is the Word of God
Well . . . election time. Oh joy. It's difficult, for there really is no choice. Frankly, we have to choose between a liberal socialist in the guise of a Democrat and a wishy washy Washington politician in the guise of a Republican. Frankly, neither are trustworthy.
Thus, we are in a crux.
Romans 13:1-7
13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
How in the world am I to apply this to our modern context?
Oh how painful are the Sacred Writings . . . and yet how wonderful is this Truth: Regardless of us, God is in control.
A New Christian Has FIVE Wives. Does He Keep Them?
This question arose in one of my classes this past week. We spent two class sessions discussing the issue. Frankly, there were answers across the board.
The SituationThe class is 1 Corinthians and the passage under review was 1 Corinthians 7. Paul is teaching the Corinthian people that they need not worry about their social situation. Rather, they should "remain as you are" and worry more about who they are in Christ.
The question then came out,
"What about those on the missionary field who lead folks to Christ who are in a Polygynous relationship"(polygyny: one man, many wives. Different from polygamy: having multiple partners)
The ProblemWhat shall be done? Is the man to keep his first wife and release/divorce the others? Does he keep all of the wives and only have relations with one? Does he divorce them all? Does he keep all of this wives and follow Paul's words, "Remain as you are?"
The Background infoIn Genesis 1 and 2 it appears that God sees marriage as a relationship founded on Him between one man and one woman. Later, though, in the history of salvation we see what appears to be God condoning a man having multiple wives (2 Samuel 12:8; 2 Chronicles 24:1-3). Even so, this was certainly not the norm in the Old Testament days. Somehow I think it to be a mistake to assume that "well, everyone back in those days had many wives, or concubines, or whatever." Well, yes, Song of Songs seems to indicate this and other OT passages do too, but was it the norm? After all, when God first created everything and sin had not yet permeated the earth, he only gave to Adam, Eve, and to Eve God gave Adam, right? It seems to me that it was not the "norm," as many people assume.
Further, in 1 Corinthians 7:2, Paul makes it adequatley clear that "each man is to have his own wife, and each wife her own husband." (1 Corinthians 7:2)
The ResultsSo, what to do? My prof asked several other profs at the seminary I attend. He asked a NT Greek Professor, an Ethics Professor, a Philosophy Professor, and I myself asked one of our OT/Hebrew Professors.
Can you guess what the initial (I use the term initial in the sense that each of these profs would likely request more time to study and meditate on the issue) answer was from each of these profs?Well let's hear it? Tell me what you think.
I'll let you know later what the profs all said . . .
