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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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==Endnotes== | ==Endnotes== | ||
− | #{{ | + | #{{note|fn1}} {{Anf| author=Tertullian|article=Exhortation to Chastity|citation=6|vol=6|start=53|end=54}} |
− | #{{ | + | #{{note|justin1}} {{Anf1| author=Justin Martyr|article=Dialogue With Trypho|citation=141|vol=1|start=270}} |
− | #{{ | + | #{{note|augustine1}} Augustine, ''Reply to Faustus'' 22:47, in NPNF Series 1, 4:288. |
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==Further Reading== | ==Further Reading== | ||
===FAIR wiki articles=== | ===FAIR wiki articles=== |
Answers portal |
Plural marriage |
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Joseph Smith era:
Post-Joseph Smith:
Post-Manifesto–present |
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Critics point to New Testament scriptures such as 1 Timothy 3꞉2; 1 Timothy 3꞉12; Titus 1꞉6 to argue that the early Christian Church was opposed to any plural marriages.
The listed scriptures do indeed include Paul's instructions to some leaders to be both married and monogamous. Latter-day Saints agree that the 'standard' instruction to all believers is monogamy—exceptions can only be commanded by God through His prophet (see Jacob 2꞉30).
However, critics go too far when they conclude that early Christians believed in an absolute prohibition on plural marriages.
Tertullian's perspective is strikingly similar to Jacob 2꞉30, in which monogamy is the norm, but God may command exceptions to "raise up seed."
Justin Martry argued that David's sin was only in the matter of Uriah's wife, and echoed a common early Christian idea that marriage was a "mystery," or sacred rite of the type which Latter-day Saints associate with temple worship:
Justin saw the patriarchs' marriages not as corruptions or something which God 'winked at,' but acts with significant ritual and religious power.
Even Augustine, a towering figure in Christian theology, held that polygamy was not something that was a crime before God, but rather a matter that depended more upon cultural biases:
The Latter-day Saints do not take their doctrine from ancient Christian writers, but from canonized scriptures and the living prophets. However, the perspectives of early Christians demonstrates the plural marriage was not the absolutely forbidden idea that some modern sectarians might wish it to be.
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