RESTORATION
     Every married man has a responsibility to keep his wife under every circumstance, except one: if his wife is unchaste, that is, if his wife has partaken in a sexual act with someone else--this is fornication. Then, and only then, is the husband lawfully (according to the Bible) to put away his wife, and to give her a bill of divorcement. Logically, if a woman, has committed a sin of fornication with someone, a bill of divorcement does not induce her to become unchaste--she has already committed the act which defiled her. If a man puts away his wife for any reason other than fornication, he causes her to commit adultery (Mt. 5:32). Such an act would also violate I Cor. 7:10, 11.
     As I mentioned before, the king of Israel, David, one of God's great men of the Old Testament, was a holy man, preciously beloved of the Lord. He had several wives: this was a common characteristic among some of the spiritual leaders of the Old Testament. The spiritual leaders of the New Testament had one wife at most, and those, such as the Apostle Paul, chose to live single lives.
     The Lord was with David and blessed him in the days of his innocence (even as a polygamist); but when the valiant, young leader committed adultery (lying with another's wife) with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, it was accounted as sin unto him. David had despised the commandment of the Lord and had done evil in His sight. The prophet of the Lord said,
     "Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon." (II Sa. 12:7-9)

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