The justification anti-polygamy preaching clerics give in telling a man in multiple-marriage to do away with the spouse or spouses he married after the first one, are God’s statements in Genesis 21: 9 – 21.
Sina Adedipe
The first sin of lying that Almighty God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, told them that it is wrong for a Christian to have more than one wife, which I wrote about last week, is committed by most of the pastors, if not all of them, who preach against polygamy in the country. But only a few of them, maybe five per cent or less, commit the second sin of telling a polygamous man to send away the other spouse or spouses he married after the first one.
READ ALSO: Sins anti-polygamy preachers commit
This happens mostly in Pentecostal Churches and I had when on invitation I attended the services in some of their branches in Lagos listened in consternation to either a General Overseer or a Pastor preach the fake doctrine. Something that is against what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 19: 1 – 9 that a man can only divorce his wife, if she commits adultery.
The Lord specifically said in verse 6: “wherefore they (husband and wife) are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder, (King James’ version). Given this order by Jesus Christ, the son of the Heavenly Father who established Christianity, how can a priest or prophet say that a polygamous husband should divorce a wife or wives who did not commit adultery?
When as stated in last week’s column the Ancient of Days in the Ten Commandments (in Exodus 20: 1-7) and His other laws in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, did not forbid a man from having more than one wife. Also, given the fact that Jesus Christ did not preach against it anywhere in the New Testament.
The justification anti-polygamy preaching clerics give in telling a man in multiple-marriage to do away with the spouse or spouses he married after the first one, are God’s statements in Genesis 21: 9 – 21. This is that Abraham carried out the demand of his wife, Sarah, to send away Hagar, her slave girl who bore him a son, Ishmael, his first child.
READ ALSO: Sins anti-polygamy preachers commit
But to see this as evidence that the Supreme Being is against polygamy is a wrong notion and the misinterpretation of the Abraham – Hagar story in the Bible. And one that makes one wonder if anti-polygamy preachers, clerics and non – clerics alike, have a good or reasonable understanding of what they read in the Christian Holy Book.
The full story of the Abraham, Sarah and Hagar affair is in Genesis 16: 1 – 16 and 21: 1 – 21. Hagar had Ishmael for Abraham when he was 86 years old (Genesis 16:16). Sarah, who made her spouse to sleep with Hagar when she remained childless eleven years after God had promised them a covenant son, gave birth to Isaac when her husband was 100 years (Genesis 21:3 – 5).
Abraham sent Hagar away a number of years, not revealed in the Bible, after the birth of Isaac. In other words, it was more than 14 years after Hagar had been the wife, or to use the word in the Holy Book, the concubine of Abraham, that he told her to return to her country, Egypt.
In the Bible, a concubine is a slave girl who had a child or children for the husband of her mistress, when she could not bear him offspring, or before she could do so. She is not called a wife because her mistress paid money to buy her and as a result, her master did not need to pay dowry to her parents.
Sarah caused Abraham to send Hagar away. It was not initiated by Almighty God. The Lord only told Abraham to abide with his wife’s decision for peace to reign in their home (Genesis 21: 9 – 21). It is therefore wrong for anyone to say that the Heavenly Father made Abraham to send away Hagar because He was against polygamy.
READ ALSO: The Bible, Almighty God and 1 (10) – Untold story of Adam’s grandchildren
To be continued Wednesday, next week
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Ebenezer Babatope, the great (13)
Although I graduated at the University of Ibadan in June 1968 with a degree in History and Political Science and he from the University of Lagos in June 1969 with a B.A (Hon) History and Philosophy, we both became journalists in 1969. He as the Lagos correspondent of the Ibadan – based Nigerian Tribune. His office was at Broad Street on Lagos Island.
I was a Current Affairs Officer in the Current Affairs Unit of the News Division of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Ikoyi also on Lagos Island but in a different area.
Next Wednesday is another date
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Phenomenal matriarch of the Adedipes, Falaes, Ade – Ojos & others (12)
The story I am about to tell is one that would make anyone that had been reading this series to further appreciate God’s love for our family through our matriarch, who died about 160 years ago and was His specially anointed one. I had known General Tajudeen Olanrewaju since 1965 when he was a final year student and member of the senior soccer team of Ahmadiyya College, Agege, Lagos. But we became friends in 1987.
We last met in 1988 in the office of another Lagos Island pal of ours, Navy Captain Olabode George, who was then the Military Governor of Ondo State. Olanrewaju was at the time the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Army in the State and was based in Akure. I came to see the Governor at his invitation concerning his plan to offer me an appointment in his cabinet. But I declined it.
It was six years later, in April 1994, that General Olanrewaju and I met again at a wedding reception at King’s College premises on Victoria Island, Lagos. Although he had lived in Akure for about two years and made friends there, but it was I, he chanced into years after parting, that he chose that year to nominate to General Sani Abacha, the country’s Military Head of State, for consideration in the appointment of someone from Ondo State as Nigeria’s Ambassador to another country or as the Chairman of a Board of Directors of a federal agency or parastatal.
More in a week’s time