The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-14, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 42."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 1993 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Yes, it’s always sin. You go back to Genesis, and God designed one man, one woman leaving, cleaving for life. That’s always, that’s always God’s standard. In the Old Testament period people who violated that, suffered. Read the rest of the story. I mean look at the life of David. Look at the life of Solomon. Look at other people who had more than one wife. Bigamous or polygamous, and you will always see trouble, distress, difficulty. But at the same time, there is a certain sense in which God was patient. To put in maybe terms you can understand: the Scripture is very clear about marriage, but God was very patient in the early years. You know the apostle Paul talks about it in the book of Acts. He said, “There was a time that God overlooked, to some degree, these things.” The times that God winked at that, just kind of looked away. There needed to be the progress of Revelation, the full bloom of spiritual truth, and in the process of that unfolding, God was very patient, and God was very gracious. And I’ll tell you, just in case you think that is odd for God, take a look at your own life. You’re not dead, and neither am I, and maybe our thing isn’t polygamy, but there is a lot of other stuff for which we had every reason to be killed by God. Right? If the wages of sin is death.

So the fact that in those early years when the world was filled with bigamy and polygamy...it starts right off in the book of Genesis, you see it right after God lays down his law and then the fall and then the mess, and what do you have? You have prostitution, incest, homosexuality, and polygamy, all right in Genesis, and God is simply expressing what happens in the fall, he never advocated it. There were times where he restrained his judgment. That’s all. In his mercy.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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