[teejay]

>How does a child born to someone by his wife become
>illegitimate? Polygamy is not forbidden even though it seems
>this is what you are insinuating. The Bible clearly says that
>one should not discriminate among the children even if the
>mother of that child is not loved. This means that Isaac can
>not be named as "the only child" when Ishmael is also
>Abraham's son and older than Isaac. Read carefully...

This is how. Abraham never married Hagar as a second wife but went in her and conceived a child after the advice of her wife Sarah. Do no justify polygamy because it is embedded within the pillars of the traditions of your religion. It is simply a ploy for men to carry out their lustrous ambitions. It is true Children must be loved like you say but then When Ishmael is sent away Isaac remains the only child in that sense why do you want make complicated yet it is simple reading that 2(Ishmael & Isaac)-1(Ishmael)=1(Isaac)

Polygamy to my understanding should mean the act of amassing many women with the intention of making them wives to a single man. But the act of commencing sexual relations with another woman or man be it gainfully or gainless as pertaining to procreation either on one’s counsel or another person advice does not and is not an equivalent of marriage and does not warrant the use of titles wife and husband until such a time that it shall be so decided by the participants. In addition to that, polygamy does not encompass this type of relation. Notice Abraham telling Sarah that the sole role of dealing with her maid servant(s) rests with her. Abraham specifically refers to her as servant and not “my wife.”


>"If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and
>they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated;
>and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
>"Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that
>which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved
>firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the
>firstborn:
>"But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the
>firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath:
>for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the
>firstborn is his." -DEITRONOMY 21:15-17

You say it well that if a man has two wives, but Abraham had one wife Sarah the other woman (Hagar) is a servant and the bible clearly refers to her as so. She never became Abrahams’s wife.

You have very well quoted the book of Deuteronomy neatly. Remember this culture you are talking about in Deut several hundred years later and rules are erected to govern that society that applies to that period. These people had been in Egypt and had copied unisraelite habits. They do not apply in Abraham’s time. Reading further God is telling Abraham not to worry about Ishmael for he will bless him too, but he is not the one that he is going to make a covenant with.

>I would like it if you looked at these verses and understood
>what they meant because they contradict what you hold to be
>Christian belief.

Not at all Coach. I do believe that God created one woman for one man and the fact that men feel comfortable to pile the women behind them in polygamous settings does not make it right and will not. It lust that plays it victorious role in driving these unresisting creature to do so.

>The Bible says taht if one marries a second wife that he
>should take care of her...
>
>"If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her
>duty of marriage, shall he not diminish." - EXODUS 21:10

Proceed with verse 11.

>David had several wives and concubines...
>
>"And David took him more concubines and wives out of
>Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet
>sons and daughters born to David." - 2 SAMUEL 5:13

David continued to marry and that did not tether still until he desired to commence illicit affairs. Notice the use of the word concubines in place of the illicit affairs.

>This shows that there is no talk of "illegitimate according to
>God" because the Bible contradicts this. I can even quote
>several verses from the NT that shows how pious Christians
>practised polygamy if you wish.

You people baffle me. Do you mean to say that if it is written that teejay was married to many a woman in the scriptures then that licenses all persons to say it acceptable. These things are written so that we can learn from them. In them there are valuable lessons.