So, I have a morbid fixation (or an extremely one-sided Sitcom Arch-Rivalry, in TV Tropes parlance) on @geoproxus4, whose failings include the usual objectification, misogyny and smug attitude of typical "trad male" blogs with a dash of heresy.
That's a harsh charge. But I think I can justify it. On his Twitter, he has declared that "a monogamy-only mindset is antithetical to the words of the Most High. Such a mindset will prevent a proper understanding of Scripture." So I guess the vast majority of Christians from Paul's day to the present were wrong.
And now I have to argue with his latest Tumblr post. In it, he points to Jesus saying that He did not come to destroy but to fulfil the Law. The Law included provisions for polygamy. Therefore, polygamy is good.
Things I have to say include:
The most you have demonstrated is that polygamy is okay. This is far from "a monogamy-only mindset is antithetical to the words of the Most High."
Jesus fulfilled the Law, by removing the need for it. The crucial bit in that section is "until everything is accomplished." And what were His last words? "It is finished." The Law is obsolete. The entire Book of Galatians is about this, not to mention Matthew 19 and Mark 7.
Being allowed in the Mosaic Law does not demonstrate that it a thing is good, only that God did not choose to ban it at that time. This made explicit in Matthew 19:8-9; divorce was permitted because of the Israelites' hardness of heart, but Jesus abolished it because it was always suboptimal.
Considering that Paul regarded the creation of sexuality as between two, and the problems caused by Solomon's multitude of wives and concubines, I very much believe that polygamy is a distortion of God's intended design.
But does this add up to heresy? In my 17-year-old, truly-Christian-for barely-a-year opinion, yes. To declare a thing that God never endorsed (or explicitly condemned) to be essential to understanding the Bible, in defiance of the vast majority of past and present exegetes, to elevate into key doctrine a practice on the periphery of Scripture - what is heresy but that?
I've blocked him for the sake of my peace of mind. I hope that this post allows more people to recognise heresy and helps me to get him out of my system. In the meantime, what's left for me to do is to pray to God for the silencing of false teaching, forgiveness for my sin of grudge-holding and turning my heart away from doing so.
