Wisdom is part of the equation here. I mean this very simply: sometimes a very evident sin in one circumstance is not in another. Sticking a knife in somebody: deadly, painful, but sometimes for the purpose of saving life, not destroying it. So, plural marriage--especially where it grew out of levirate conditions (necessary and outside the norm, remember), where it was even enjoined by God--may at one time be permitted. But God's positive employments and enforcements are subject to his adjustments. But the problems and strife and abuse of the institution of marriage are never glossed over, and the normative state (one man, one woman) is never effaced, never forgotten.

The New Testament refuses to countenance it at all, and a good analogy is slavery. Just because God doesn't tell slaves to rebel or masters to immediately divest themselves, does not mean that the tenor of the Scriptures--especially in this age--is not plainly against it. Clearly it is, and Philemon is proof of it. Neither is polygamy to be countenanced, promoted that is, in the church, or in a society influenced by Christians.

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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