Polygamy -- an Old Testament sign for the New Testament 'Bride'

Not everything in the article I'm quoting is profitable or sound. That's why I'm not reprinting it, but quoting part of it.

Without a union with the quickening spirit in our Soul, we tend to serve our carnal senses. So God introduced the polygamy law for males. Now we learned last week, 'If they cannot contain their passions, and to avoid fornication, it is better for the unmarried and widows to marry than to burn with lust,' (I Corinthians 7:2, 9). This is not speaking of polygamy, but I this Scripture illustrates why God permitted men to have many wives under the Old Covenant. Their unregenerated souls could not always bring their body and spirit subject. But no woman could have more than one living husband.

Some without a knowledge of the Bible or understanding by the Spirit may flush with moral outrage at the thought of God introducing polygamy in all nature following the Fall. So let's repair to His unchanging Word as our authority, rather than our carnal passions.

Abraham's father Terah had two wives. Abraham married his step sister. And the law that no woman could ever have more than one living husband was universal for when Abimalech discovered Sarah was Abraham's wife as well as his sister he knew he could not marry her. Abraham, the father of faith, had several concubines (Genesis 25:6; I Chronicles 1:32). And Jacob bore the Patriarchs by his two wives, Rachel and Leah, and their concubines, Bilhah and Zilah.

Gideon the judge, had many wives and at least one concubine who bore him over seventy sons, and presumably many daughters (Judges 8:30-31). There was a Levite who had a concubine (Judges 20:10). Elkanah, the father of Samuel the prophet had two wives (I Samuel 1:1-2), and Saul a concubine (II Samuel, 3:7). We find David, a man after God's Own heart, with five hundred wives, and Solomon, a type of Christ, with 1,000 wives.

Now the prophet Paul instructs us that all of the Law and the history in the Old Testament section of our Bibles are shadows and types of things to come under the New Testament. The NATURAL types the spiritual. So the natural polygamy before Pentecost was a TYPE to establish a pattern for the Spiritual Marriage Union between Christ (ONE) and His Bride (MANY). If there were no polygamy, there could be no election and no new birth.

Likewise, were there no NATURAL divorce, there could be no remission for past sins, and JUSTIFICATION by grace through faith, according to Acts 2:38. You see, we were born in fornication with the nature of Satan. Not by our choice but as a consequence of the Fall. We had to CONFESS our Spiritual UNCLEANLINESS before accepting Christ's proposal. Our espousal is justification by grace through faith.

Following justification, the second stage in our Christian walk, or our Spiritual romance with the heavenly Bridegroom is called SANCTIFICATION. Sanctification is a further step of revelation wherein we become aware of our shortcomings as we begin to compare our life to God's Word by faith, and separate from the things of the world.

The natural types the Spiritual. As an espoused maid seeks to identify with her man so she may please him, separating herself from anything or anyone which would not meet with his approval, so Christians cleanse themselves from habits and desires and thoughts and associations that do not please her Lord.

Finally, comes the marriage. The union is consummated and Christ and His Bride are united by God through faith in the Living Word, or the PRESENT Truth manifesting through her. She is a written epistle of the Word God promised to fulfill in her day. She and the Word are one, and she cannot be deceived on the revealed Word for her day. Like the marriage of a man and woman in the natural...

Now, Christians - those truly born-again by the Word for THEIR day are united by their NEW Husband, Christ, through a New Covenant of Grace. By faith alone, and not works. A Covenant which cannot be disannulled... the shadows of the old Order are still present.

Of course, if a man has several wives and is subsequently born-again, and they are also born-again, or pleased to dwell with him, he is not to put them away. However he would be disqualified from the (lay) office of Deacon or Bishop.

I Timothy 3:1-3, 'This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, NOT A POLYGAMIST, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach';

I Timothy 3:12, 'Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, (i.e NOT a polygamist) ruling their children and their own houses well'.

Titus 1:5-6, 'For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, [or NOT a POLYGAMIST] having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly'.

Yet in this day of grace, we see the shadow of the old polygamy covenant in the (many-membered) Bride of (one) Lord Jesus Christ. Its evident in the separate covenants wherein God deals with the man and the woman. And in the matter of marriage and divorce.

If anyone doubts that God established separate covenants with man and woman following the Fall, ask yourself these three questions. Does the serpent still move upon his belly? Must man still toil against nature to produce his daily bread? And does woman still conceive in sorrow? If the answer to these questions is yes, then man and woman are NOT co-equal in nature as it was in the beginning, and she serves God as she obeys her husband.

God Bless you Brethren, we live in the LAST times. Don't become involved in any of these unscriptural movements seeking equality for women [genderlessness]. Seek to know the mind of Christ that His will may be seen to manifest through your life.