:::chuckles:::

Yes, I know most women don't like the liberty that men have in JESUS. It has been that way from the beginning. Adam was never Eve's "help meet" and Eve's internal struggle with her desire to have her husband rule over her and her secret desire to rule over her own husband is certainly a classic. I believe that for the most part, in pre-historical civilization the number of wives that a man had back then was pretty much a non-issue and it was also a non-issue at the time Moses gave his account in the pentateuch. Roman Catholic Augustine also shared the same view as you and changed GOD's Moral Law by adding the MONOGAMY ONLY law to GOD's Moral Law. One thing is certain: GOD's Moral Law never changes.

What I find equally interesting is that in the entire volume of the HOLY BIBLE, no, not once, does GOD ever come against any man for the sole cause of having more than one wife. GOD blessed these unions, GOD acknowledged these unions, and GOD recognized these unions. GOD never forbade it. Even more interestingly, I have spoken to women involved in marriages with more than one wife who expressed gratitude and great relief in sharing the burden of household duties and also in the raising of the children. Perhaps you are correct in your summation of GOD's "ideal" prior to the trespass and one might only speculate concerning this; howbeit, there is in fact no marrying nor giving in marriage in the resurrection, so I am inclined to wonder what the MONOGAMY ONLY people are clinging to so desperately. It would seem to me that they're mighty attached to the flesh, which also perishes with the using.

I am still not entirely of the persuasion that man-made population control is of GOD and there is certainly much scripture in the HOLY BIBLE I could resort to in order to support my position. (I trust that you are not pro-abortion.) I would readily risk the belief that there will be a multitude of saints in heaven too great in number for any man to count; nonetheless I also believe that GOD knows this number and that He is capable of counting it, whether it be finite or infinite.

The purpose of being fruitful and multiplying is to raise up seed unto GOD. This is only yet another responsibility, I find, that Christians frequently shirk in these latter days. (And no, I am not Mormon.) I also believe that when that sacred number, too great for any mortal to count, is finally satisfied that the end shall come and that great vacancy created in heaven by the Hand of GOD, after He cast out one third of the angels, will be filled. I think that the enemy knows this as well. The planet earth has the capacity to sustain 8 times the population it currently holds but mankind has made a mess of everything. What is more important today is winning these souls to Christ.

The learned know that this old earth will pass away and there will be a new heaven and a new earth to replace it. My confidence is in the provision of the LORD and not nearly so much in the dark forebodings of sociologists and the population control freaks of the New World Order. Be fruitful and multiply was GOD's command to Adam and now we live in a society that desires to live for creature comforts and the things of the world instead of answering to what thus saith the LORD.

I will not dispute the geneologies with you, but there is enough in the scripture to substantiate some reasonable belief that Adam was not the father of only three children. In fact, the scripture states that the Adam lived 800 years after he had begotten Seth and had begotten both sons and daughters; but the account does not appear to list their names. Perhaps it is  Eve was beyond childbearing years then, but I find that this scripture would lead one to wonder just who the sons of Adam married — but I digress.

What is important to avoid is the "setting at nought" for which we were warned as true worshippers to discount. This was the snare that Augustine embraced and it is a lie: Those predisposed to the "only one wife" doctrine will automatically and unconsciously interpret "one wife" to mean "only one wife" and this is highly erroneous. It should stand to reason that Jacob and Abraham were also the husbands of ONE WIFE though they had many. There is no 'thou shalt have only one wife' commandment in the Word of GOD and the words "one wife" certainly do not magically translate to "only one wife", or we might well expect the majority of GOD's loyal Patriarchs to be roasting in hell along with GOD, seeing that GOD's Moral Law never changes. Therefore we can only agree that since GOD never once ever condemned a man for having wives (plural) and that since GOD used this same example in Matthew 25, and that since GOD, Himself did describe Himself as the Husbandman of more than one wife, see: (Jeremiah 3:7-14) (Ezekiel 23) (Isaiah 50:1), and that GOD most certainly recognized the union of a man and two wives (Deuteronomy 21:15), and that GOD's Moral Law NEVER changes, that it is not a sin for a man to have two wives, or even fourteen wives, as did the noble Abijah.

I submit to you that my interpretation of these things whether in metaphor, parable, or in the actual is not nearly so important as what thus saith the LORD. GOD called it "two wives". Surely this requires no stretch of the imagination or interpretation.

GOD bless you

JT