First Breaking Past the Barrier, How this Helped Advance Christian Polygamy
The "Barrier": Three Verses
When first faced with a direct presentation of the Scripturality of Christian Polygamy, fellow Christians oftentimes try to refute this truth by referring to what are known as the three "one wife" verses. These three verses are as follows:
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one [3391] wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; " (1_Timothy 3:2.)
"Let the deacons be the husbands of one [3391] wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
" (1_Timothy 3:12.)
"If any [[[who would be an ELDER]]] be blameless, the husband of one [3391] wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly." (Titus 1:6.)
These three "one wife" verses, of course, are only instructions to bishops, deacons, and elders ---and to no others in the Churches.
Still, though, these three "one wife" verses are often the only "barrier" to help fellow Christians be able to see the Scripturality of Christian Polygamy. And the Founder of this ministry was led of God to discover and then teach others
how to break past this self-imposed "barrier".
For, a closer study of the Greek texts provides some deeper insight,
that the translation to the word "ONE" is not necessarily an absolutely accurate
translation for those "one wife" verses.
Founder revealed that "MIA" was also translated as "FIRST"
In the original texts of the Scriptures, the Greek word being translated to "one" in those three "one wife" verses is MIA. This may be quickly discovered by way of the "Strong's number" for the translation of "one" in those verses. According to
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, that
"Strong's number", in those verses, is [3391],
which is, MIA.
That Greek word, MIA, was, IN FACT, also translated as FIRST in a number of other passages throughout the Scriptures.
The Founder of TRUTH BEARER was the very first and original source of this "FIRST wife" teaching, that the Greek word, MIA, which is translated as "one" in those "one wife" verses, could very well indeed be translated as "first" instead of as "one". The very first revelation of this "FIRST wife" concept was published in the October 4, 1995 issue of THE STANDARD BEARER newspaper, published by the Founder, in Maine, U.S.A.
This exclusive "MIA" teaching of the "FIRST wife" concept appeared for the very first time in that issue of the Founder's newspaper, in the TRUTH Tract titled, "The TRUTH and the Paradox". It taught and established the whole "first wife" principle of how bishops, deacons, and elders should not be divorced, that they still be married to their "FIRST wife", namely the "wife of their youth" (Malachi 2:14,16), all in still naturally following the requirements of Exodus 21:10 and the doctrine of not putting away a wife as per Deuteronomy 24:1-4. (The principle of how the Scriptural reference, "wife of thy youth", refers to a man's "first wife" was also another original doctrinal teaching first brought by the Founder as well,
in that same
