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Taking the opportunity while it was there.

So we finished our study on adultery this afternoon. It is a lesson to me on how to teach the truth of plural marriage and not have to mention polygamy once but still deal with the subject in detail. We began this particular study on adultery last week and I said we'd first have to lay a foundation in understanding what God says about marriage. That was a good lesson in itself and I used Adam and Eve to explain God uniting the man and woman, and then the marriages of Isaac to Rebekah and Jacob to his four wives as examples. That was as far as we got.

I don't know how much detail you all want here about today's study but I'll give a few details and the results. I first did a brief summary and then got the people to read Ex.21:10 and Deut. 21:15-17 from a couple of translations in their own first languages. We bought two different Bible translations some weeks back in an effort to give better understanding and it's been well worth the money spent. The Exodus and Deut. passages linked a man having more than one wife with God's instructions for that situation. So having shown that it is God who unites the man and woman, and then it being right for a man to have more than one women/wife, I asked, "So, what is the sin of adultery?" **Long pause** **Puzzled looks**. I got them to read Lev. 20:10 and then Rom. 7:2-3 in the various translations (including English) and asked again. Voilà! A couple of them were immediately able to explain that adultery occurred with a married woman having a relationship with a man; married or single, other than her husband. AND that a man who was married wasn't committing adultery if he had a relationship with a single woman. It was an awesome point to arrive at. To test their answer, we looked at the example of David beginning by learning the names of some of his wives before examining the incident with Bathsheba. Faces lit up as they saw that the conclusions that had been drawn were indeed biblically tenable. We noted that, if having more than one wife were in fact practicing adultery, men like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, etc., could never be in the kingdom of God since it is written; "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, ....will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). We wrapped the lesson up reading the names of these men from Hebrews Chapter 11 and them being examples of men who lived by faith.

There wasn't one objection, raised voice, emotional outburst; no tar or feathers, rotten tomatoes, threats or abuse. Awesome, awesome!

After I got home, I felt so ashamed for having taught the usual modern monogamy-only ideas about marriage and adultery in the past. My own prejudices and stupidity, not having done the proper study, resulted in me being a false-teacher deserving of God's judgement. Makes me ever more grateful for God being slow to anger and rich in mercy!

I'll be away for a few weeks so we won't have a Bible study but the encouragement is, they are sad there's no study. I couldn't ask for a better outcome.

Shalom brothers and sisters.
 
Curtis Gerhart said:
Especially when you read the original definition of the word “adultery.” A woman at work threatened me, screamed, and cussed at me only because I read what the original meaning of adultery IS. My prayers are with you.
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Did you respond, "come out of her in the Messiah's name!!!"

Verifyveritas76 said:
1 Timothy 5:8 is a great go to verse for adultery/covenant breaking. A man that doesn’t provide for his own is worse than an infidel (apistos -without fidelity, untrustworthy). Is it any wonder that a synonym for adultery is infidelity? Is it too much of a stretch to say that the man that doesn’t provide these basics is worse than an adulterer?
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I understand where you are going, but I think it is too much of a stretch since the adulterer destroys an entire family not even his own and severely wounds the victim (the husband); I've talked to guys who never recovered i.e. no confidence to go out and get another gal. The damage to the children to "learn from" their mother's ways, etc. not to mention that Adultery is a pešʿa (crime against the big 10) carrying the death penalty.
I assume you were using hyperbole but I had to comment on that one.

******​
@frederick Don't be surprised if some of the gals in your bible study start getting, ahem, overly eager to attend now that the light bulb has turned on.

​
 
Verifyveritas76 said:
My response to the intent of monogamy from the garden is to ask, How do you quantify or prove Gods intent from the garden story? Intent there is strictly assumed re monogamy. Monogamy as His intent is impossible to prove from that story.
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Good point.
It can further be supported by the fact that G-d had Noah bring the impure animals to the ark in pairs, 1 female and 1 male, so does this mean that Mr. Lion (impure animal) is going against G-d's design by having his full pride of females?
 
FollowingHim said:
This is great to hear. I think the key point to keep front of mind in such discussions is that you are not actually talking about polygamy. You're talking about something else (adultery in this case). Everything is directed towards this goal. Now if someone else in the discussion sees a need to go off on an obvious tangent about polygamy because of some of the points raised, you can go with them for a bit but make sure you then pull it back on topic yourself. So you're never the one pushing polygamy, you're the one keeping the discussion focussed elsewhere - nevertheless polygamy is taught...
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Spot on! Love the perspective. You want the curiosity of the students to cause the “misdirection.” Gives you the opportunity to go back to the original topic in case it “gets out of hand.”
 
frederick said:
So we finished our study on adultery this afternoon. It is a lesson to me on how to teach the truth of plural marriage and not have to mention polygamy once but still deal with the subject in detail. We began this particular study on adultery last week and I said we'd first have to lay a foundation in understanding what God says about marriage. That was a good lesson in itself and I used Adam and Eve to explain God uniting the man and woman, and then the marriages of Isaac to Rebekah and Jacob to his four wives as examples. That was as far as we got.

I don't know how much detail you all want here about today's study but I'll give a few details and the results. I first did a brief summary and then got the people to read Ex.21:10 and Deut. 21:15-17 from a couple of translations in their own first languages. We bought two different Bible translations some weeks back in an effort to give better understanding and it's been well worth the money spent. The Exodus and Deut. passages linked a man having more than one wife with God's instructions for that situation. So having shown that it is God who unites the man and woman, and then it being right for a man to have more than one women/wife, I asked, "So, what is the sin of adultery?" **Long pause** **Puzzled looks**. I got them to read Lev. 20:10 and then Rom. 7:2-3 in the various translations (including English) and asked again. Voilà! A couple of them were immediately able to explain that adultery occurred with a married woman having a relationship with a man; married or single, other than her husband. AND that a man who was married wasn't committing adultery if he had a relationship with a single woman. It was an awesome point to arrive at. To test their answer, we looked at the example of David beginning by learning the names of some of his wives before examining the incident with Bathsheba. Faces lit up as they saw that the conclusions that had been drawn were indeed biblically tenable. We noted that, if having more than one wife were in fact practicing adultery, men like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, etc., could never be in the kingdom of God since it is written; "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, ....will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). We wrapped the lesson up reading the names of these men from Hebrews Chapter 11 and them being examples of men who lived by faith.

There wasn't one objection, raised voice, emotional outburst; no tar or feathers, rotten tomatoes, threats or abuse. Awesome, awesome!

After I got home, I felt so ashamed for having taught the usual modern monogamy-only ideas about marriage and adultery in the past. My own prejudices and stupidity, not having done the proper study, resulted in me being a false-teacher deserving of God's judgement. Makes me ever more grateful for God being slow to anger and rich in mercy!

I'll be away for a few weeks so we won't have a Bible study but the encouragement is, they are sad there's no study. I couldn't ask for a better outcome.

Shalom brothers and sisters.
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Great to hear it went well. Be patient though. Maybe someone will do the “addition” and put it all together. On the line of the past mistakes: Welcome to the club. We all made them. It’s about from here forward. It looks as if you are doing just fine Son. Thanks for sharing. It blessed many to hear it. Shalom
 
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