ANSWER: Polygamy (plural marriages) is sin! God has ordained from the beginning that marriage is between only two people, one man and one woman, until separated by death (Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 7:1-3). When a man and woman are scripturally married and other people enter that relationship, all of those who are actively involved do so without the blessing of God. All who knowingly participate in such a marriage are in sin as long as it continues. The above passages demand that those others who have entered that relationship be excluded from it, and that all who have participated come to repentance. Whether or not the divorced wife (of the first marriage) can be remarried must be determined by scripture. If the wife divorced the husband because of his adulterous relationship with the other women, then she is free to marry again.

However, if she divorced him for any other reason, she would not be free to remarry. Though the wife may be the innocent one, if her husband divorces her for his own reasons, she still does not have the right of remarriage (Matthew 19:3-12). She does, however, have the right to remarry her husband if, at the time of remarriage, they, otherwise, have a scriptural right to do so.

Hopefully, the first marriage in the relationship under discussion was entered according to biblical teaching. It is certain that God did not approve the following “marriages,” though perhaps approved by local and state government. This is to say that though God may have joined the first wife and the husband together (Matthew 19:6), He certainly did not join the following wives to this one husband! All of the following marriages are, therefore, nothing more than adulterous relationships, which must be dissolved and repented of, if those involved are to become heirs to the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9-11).

God’s commandment that a divorced person cannot marry another is directed only to those whom “God hath joined together” and whom “man has put asunder” (Matthew 19:6-9). In other words, this commandment does not apply to those involved in adulterous relationships or “marriages” in which God had no part in the “joining together.” Therefore, a person involved in an unscriptural physical union, with or without state approval, (whether as married or unmarried) and who, with penitent action, severs that relationship to the pleasing of God, he or she may marry another, if both, otherwise, have a scriptural to marry.