Ah, so you deceived ones, as laying such claim to being the seed of Abraham (even of faith), do reply, "We be not born of fornication". (John 8:41c.) So you thereby admit that fornication is evil! "Thou hast well said" then. (John 4:17d.)

And yet you perpetuate and promote false doctrine by which you accuse father Abraham of the unrighteousness of fornication, and even of so-called "adultery"!

What? Have you not done so in deed? Ah, but you have indeed done so in truth, even.

Do you not perpetuate and promote false doctrine which would now accuse Abraham of so-called "adultery" for his other wives besides Sarah in Sarah's lifetime? Ah, so you call those others as "concubines" instead of "wives", do you? But what do you call a "concubine" then? A harlot? (God forbid.) And if a "harlot", then with whom is a woman made a harlot, but a whoremongerer? And what is a whoremongerer, but a fornicator? Are you not therefore and thereby calling father Abraham a fornicator? Which is it? Was Abraham married to his concubines or not? If not, do you not therefore accuse Abraham of fornication? But if you do call them as his wives, do you not therefore accuse Abraham of so-called "adultery"?

And how do you therefore define the establishment of a marriage at all, if not at consummation? Did not Jacob believe he was marrying Rachel in Genesis 29:20-30? But in the morning, with whom was he married? Was it not Leah instead, because of the consummation? And was Jacob thus not married to Rachel for yet another week, when Jacob would consummate thereafter with Rachel?

And if marriage be established at the feast or ceremony (as it were), but not at the consummation, then what of Jacob's consummation with Leah when the feast was thought to be of his marrying Rachel? What is the consummation thereof then if no feast or ceremony (as it were) occur? Is it not therefore fornication? God forbid.

Thus is it made manifest that you know not the complete truth about marriage, wives, or concubines. For indeed, no, a concubine was and is no harlot. Again, God forbid. For she was yet a wife, according to the Word of God. Does not Genesis 37:2 call Jacob's concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, as Jacob's "wives" (even though specified as "concubine" in Genesis 35:22)? Even though ten of David's wives were subsequently called as "concubines" in 2_Samuel 15:16 and 16:21-22, did not God Almighty Himself beforehand refer to those very same women as David's "wives" in 2_Samuel 12:11?

Indeed. Therefore, even though Abraham's third named wife was called his "concubine" in 1_Chronicles 1:32, it is back in Genesis 25:1 where it is thus clear that "Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah."

And it is only self-rationalization in order to reconcile false doctrine to suggest that Abraham had "waited" 37 years for Sarah to "die" (in Genesis 23:1-2, who had been 90 years old when Isaac was born, per Genesis 17:17) before marrying Keturah, who bore Abraham six more sons (in Genesis 25:1-4.) Furthermore, because Genesis 25:20 is the time of Genesis 24:67, it is clear that Genesis 25:1-19 is simply an after-the-fact addendum to conclude the story-line about Abraham, as the story-line thereafter shifts to being that about Isaac. (Have these things not already been clearly shown through this my tabernacle in previous writing at my own hand?)

Therefore, O vain man (even woman), do you not indeed speak well, when you would call yourself of the seed of Abraham, of whom you accuse of fornication, even of so-called "adultery", as you still perpetuate and promote your false doctrine?

Wherefore, if you would be truly of Abraham, you do well to unwittingly correct such false doctrine, to thus say of father Abraham (as you lay claim to being of his seed, even of faith), "We be not born of fornication" (John 8:41c), nor of a man falsely accused as "guilty" thereof.

© October 4, 1997, The Standard Bearer
P.O. Box 765, O.O.B., ME 04064

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