It seems that there is a hot competition going on in the camp of Satan: who will outdo the other to win the gold medal.

Related News

A woman and her son insist that they must marry; a man insists that he must sleep with his daughter; a woman is carrying a baby for her son-in-law… Last month, a 25-year-old man has married his 17-year-old-younger sister, as published in the Sun newspaper of Sunday, February 25, 2018. The unusual couple claimed that they are Sabbatharians and that their Bible approves such a marriage. Their General Overseer has not spoken, perhaps in defence, citing how he also wedded his younger or elder sister. Nobody from their congregation has identified with them to show that it is their practice.
What is very strange in the report is that their parents approved the marriage. According to them, the only person that distanced himself from it is their eldest brother. He reported the matter to their Traditional Prime Minister, who saw it as an abomination. Their kinsmen have burnt the makeshift building they were using for their Sabbath service. Strangely too, the joining was reputedly made by one of their siblings, said to be a pastor of an unnamed Church.
One of the elective courses we did in 1970 in University of Nigeria was in Sociology. The Lecturer, Mr. Nkpa, told us that Christians [not born-again] commit worse sins than heathens. His argument was that while heathens refrain from committing certain sins because of the repercussion, which may be death, those who belong to the Church, do so glaringly with the hope that God will forgive them. That statement did not go well with me when I knew Christ in 1972. Things happening today seem to justify Mr. Nkpa’s assertion. Last month, it was all about a man and his mother-in-law sleeping and the woman becoming pregnant for him, and they are not heathens. In one case, Uncle had the effrontery of blaming his daughter for seducing him. A dad!
It was reported that the Uncle above, who married his younger sister, same parents, quoted copiously the Bible for its justification, anchoring on Song of Solomon, which is really, the foretaste of Christ’s love for us. It does not justify their conduct. ‘Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse…’ 4:9; ‘How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!’ – 4:10; ‘A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse…’; ‘I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse…’ – 5:1.
In that Song of Solomon, a Book not quoted anywhere in the Bible, the word ‘sister’, does not in anywhere mean a lady from the same womb. Solomon did not marry any of his biological sisters. My wife is my sister. On the envelope of my letters to her, in those days, I used to write: ‘Sister Ify Anyalechi’. Her dad asked me, why I was addressing her as such. I told him that she is my sister in the Lord, and that was why God joined us. Are all Christian women in my Church and elsewhere, not my sisters? If Uncle’s growing ambition towards his sister was fuelled by reading or rather misreading, ‘my sister and my spouse’, this is what lust can do, making a fool of a man. I advise that he should not come to Lagos with his parents. If he does, he is sure to fight them silly, when he hears us, calling his father, ‘Daddy‘ or even ‘My Daddy’ and his mum, ‘Mummy’ or even ‘My Mummy’. He would accuse them of having children outside marriage.
Some cultures in Nigeria, as it was with the Jews, allow marriages between people, who are somehow related but not from the same womb. Abraham married his half sister. The position of the Bible is clear, ‘If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked thing. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people’ – Lev. 20:17. ‘Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother’ – Deut. 27:22. If Uncle is not lusting after his sister, but was misled by someone on the verses on ‘my sister’, in Songs of Solomon, he would have recovered by God’s warning about uncovering the nakedness of one’s sister, referred to above.
The only imagined marriage between siblings could be Adam’s children. He had two sons but the Bible is silent on his daughters. The Jews never counted women, unless when reporting peculiar things about them. If Uncle was copying Adam’s children, who perhaps, married when there were no other families on earth, is he marrying his sister because there are no more ladies in the world? If he majors in copying, will he also copy Abraham, who wanted to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, until God intervened? Why did Uncle, a teacher, not copy John the Baptist, who lived in the wilderness, not eating rice and Eba, but lived on wild honey? Why is he not a Missionary like Paul, who for the Gospel’s sake, closed his legal practice, and was on no one’s payroll? He also remained celibate.
If Aunty’s brother was lusting after her, should she not have rebuffed him instead of succumbing to marry him? A funny argument they raised in support of their marriage is that many marriages are collapsing today, and marrying one’s sibling will reduce it. Is there any empirical data to prove that marriages contracted by people from the same village, last longer than those from distant places? Their second feeble argument is that divorce is rampant today. They did not proffer any solution, but rather succumb to the comfort zone that when it takes place, the divorces will still return to the same family. It means providing a landing pad for divorce! Amnon, King David’s son, raped Tamar, his half sister – 2Samuel 13. The result was hatred, which was greater than the lust that made him to rape her. Absalom, Tamar’s brother, murdered him. Nothing good ever comes out of evil.
If Uncle’s problem is bride price, it is possible for him to get a lady, whose parents will not ask him to pay a kobo. If his sister is very beautiful, it is possible for him, like me, to still get the most beautiful lady. It is shameful for him to be talking about worshipping God, when God and tradition have condemned their marriage. Some people will declare fasting for days, if in the dream, they married their siblings.
We thank God that the Sun newspaper of March 17, 2018, reported that, at last, the marriage has been dissolved. It is good to obey God’s Word, no matter our conviction on any issue. May we never interpret the Bible narrowly.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi:
0802 3002-471;anyalechiosondu@yahoo,com