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Polygamy

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 1, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 11.

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Polygamy.

The first instance of this sin is to be found in the race of Cain. Lamech, the sixth from Cain, was the first polygamist; at least the first of whom there is any record. This man, like Enoch, was the seventh from Adam, and, therefore, his cotemporary. Gen. 4 and 5. The entrance of this sin into the ranks of the people of God is given as one of the causes of the flood. Thus Moses writes: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of ALL WHICH THEY CHOSE. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” Verse 3.
This does not simply imply that they chose merely to please themselves, without any regard to the guidance of the Spirit of God, but it implies, also, that they chose just as many as they pleased.
The family of Cain did not worship God, so far as we are able to judge from the narrative. It was comparatively a light thing for them to be guilty of this sin. But when the sons of God adopted this wicked practice, it called for the vengeance of Heaven. But how hard to extirpate a sin when once it has gained a foothold! The ancient people of God allowed this evil thing for long ages, even through the whole period of the Old Testament. Yet this sin which received so terrible a rebuke in the very commencement of its finding a place in the church of God, (Gen. 6:1–3) was never anything but evil and wrong. It was the cause of very great unhappiness in every family where it entered. Witness, as instances, the cases of Abraham, Jacob, and David. See Gen. 16; 21; 29; 30; 31; 2 Sam. throughout. Moses tolerated it because of the hardness of the hearts of ancient Israel. Our Lord placed the whole subject on the original order of things in Eden. Matt. 19. This ought never to have been departed from. See the strong testimony of Malachi 3: 14–16.