If the Pharisees had not asked Jesus the question on divorce, he would not have made the statement in Matthew 19:4 – 6

Sina Adedipe

Last week, I established ignorance that arises from anti – polygamy preachers not reading all the 66 Books in the Holy Bible as being responsible for their stand that Almighty God and Jesus Christ are against a man having more than one wife. That this is why they do not know that the Heavenly Father has no law against multiple – marriage in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament and that He did not punish any husband for having more than one wife.

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That on the contrary He gave out rules for polygamous men in Exodus 21: 10 – 11 and Deuteronomy 21:15 – 17 on what to do to have love and peace in their families. And I made the point that He would not have done this if He was against polygamy.

But ignorance coupled with poor intelligence and bizarre reasoning faculty are responsible for the claim by anti – polygamy preachers that Jesus Christ was preaching monogamy with his statement in Matthew 19: 4 – 6, and that this is indisputable evidence that he is against polygamy. They said this because they had not read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:27 – 32 and as a result do not know that Jesus Christ preached marriage on the occasion and that he condemned only adultery and divorce. And that he did not speak on monogamy or polygamy.

Since Christ did not condemn polygamy during the Sermon the anti – polygamy preachers should have known that he could not have been advocating monogamy with what he said in Matthew 19:4 – 6. A statement which was a repeat of what God said in Genesis 2:24 and which I had shown in last week’s column was not instituting monogamy, but the marriage system in which an Israeli man would go and live with father of the woman he wanted to marry and serve him for seven years.

The Heavenly Father told me this when I raised the issue of Jacob’s marriage with Him about six years ago, explaining that every married man in the Old Testament from Lamech the first husband who was not the first direct son of Adam wedded under the same condition (Genesis 4:19 – 25).

If the anti – polygamy preachers had read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount their problem is not ignorance but that of poor intelligence and bizarre reasoning. Deficiencies which make it impossible for them to realize that if the Pharisees had not asked Jesus the question on divorce, he would not have made the statement in Matthew 19:4 – 6.

In other words, verses 1 – 12 would not have been part of Chapter 19. People do not make laws or rules when answering questions or on the spur of the moment. They do so after careful consideration. All the laws and rules of God for the Israelites in the Old Testament were written on two stone tablets (See Exodus 24:1 – 18).

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The Ancient of Days did not have a law that a man should marry one wife and did not make polygamy as offence or sin. So, Jesus in Matthew 19: 4 – 6 could not have been preaching monogamy.

He was asked a question on divorce by the Pharisees and that was what he answered. It is the anti – polygamy preachers who are being clever by half that are twisting his answer to the question on divorce to say he was ordering Christian husbands to be monogamous.

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To be continued next Wednesday

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Ebenezer Babatope, the great (17)

The three close musician friends I had were Biola Sonekan, the lead vocalist of the Cyclops and the late duo of David Nelson – Cole, a guitarist with the Soul Assembly and Anthony Abiola Quincy Johnson who also played the guitar with Chris Ajulo’s Cubanos band in Ibadan in 1969 when he was on holiday from London.

The three of them got me interested in music and I attended some of the performances of their bands in Lagos and Ibadan. But I never developed interest in playing music.

By the way Biola Johnson was the son of Chief Joseph Modupe Johnson, Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Sports (1957 – 64) in the administration of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Like his dad he too became a politician and a member of a government, serving as the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation (1999 – 2001) and Commerce and Industry (2001 – 02) in the cabinet of Governor Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.

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Phenomenal matriarch of the Adedipes, Falaes, Ade-Ojos & others (17)

My two – year tenure as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja facilitated in 1989 by the Ondo State regime of Navy Captain Olabode George, a military Governor, ended in January 1991. A year later, the elected administration of Governor Bamidele Olumilua of the Social Democratic Party in January 1992 chose Professor Sunday Oluwadare Agbi, another descendant of our mystical Ilara – Mokin – born matriarch, Madam Fatile Atoosin, as the Secretary to the Ondo State Government in January 1992.

He served until November 1993 when the military seized power and sent all elected governments packing. The son of one of my father’s half – sisters, he was the second person from Akure to serve in the position. The first was late Chief Wunmi Adegbonmire who did so in the elected administration of Governor Adekunle Ajasin (October 1, 1979 – December 31, 1983).

 

Continues next week