Polygamy the Cause of the Deluge

THE sixth chapter of Genesis reveals to us the sin which caused God to destroy the earth by the deluge. In the days which immediately preceded the flood, men were guilty of every kind of wickedness; but there was one great sin, which was the especial occasion of the destruction of the earth. This sin is brought to view in the first three verses of Gen. 6. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."

The sons of God took to themselves as many wives as they pleased. When God saw this he said that his spirit should not always strive with men, but promised to bear with them one hundred and twenty years. We shall find it profitable to study carefully these three verses. Who are the persons that committed this transgression? They were members of the human race, as is shown by the third verse, where God calls them men, and says that he will not strive with them always, for that they are flesh. Why then is the human family spoken of in these verses as made up of two distinct classes? To answer this question we must examine the two chapters which immediately precede the one from which we have quoted.

The fourth chapter of Genesis records the murder of Abel and Cain. The chapter next gives a genealogy of Cain's family for six generations. The descendants of Cain seem to have been wholly irreligious. John tells us that Cain killed his brother Abel because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. 1 John 3:12. Instead of repenting of his sin, he murmured at the punishment inflicted upon him; and went out from the presence of God manifested at the gate of Paradise and dwelt at a distance from that place, apparently desirous to be separated from God.

After the death of Abel another son was born to Adam, and his mother called his name Seth, saying that God had given him to take the place of Abel. Eve had no hope of Cain's family, because of his wickedness, and her hopes now centered in Seth.

The fifth chapter of Genesis gives us Seth's genealogy in the same manner as the fourth gives us the genealogy of Cain. The family of Seth is that one by which the worship of God was perpetuated and maintained in the earth. It produced such men of God as Enoch and Noah. The rebellion of Cain caused him to remove his family at a distance from the place where God's presence was manifested, and from his father, Adam. The family of Cain, therefore, grew up in wickedness, and as a distinct family from that of Seth. A careful examination of Gen. 4:26, will show us how one class of Adam's posterity came to be called the sons of God. This text mentions the birth of Enos, the son of Seth, and says, Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. A better translation is given in the margin of the English Bible. "Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord." This indicates that the pious descendants of Adam, to distinguish themselves from those who were irreligious, and as a protest against their wickedness, took upon themselves the distinctive appellation of the sons of God. The others were only members of the family of Adam, sons of men, but these were sons of the living God.

The sin of polygamy originated with Lamech, the fifth in descent from Cain. Gen. 4:19. An evil precedent being thus established by this man, polygamy doubtless became general among wicked men. While this sin remained with the wicked descendants of Cain the cause of God was comparatively safe. But when the sons of God entered into this wickedness, then there was the utmost reason to fear that everything good on earth would be corrupted.

We have seen that the fourth chapter of Genesis gives the genealogy of Cain's descendants, and that the fifth chapter gives the genealogy of the descendants of Seth, and that this last family was the one among whom the sons of God were found.

The multiplication of mankind upon the earth brought together these two great families who, in the first place, dwelt remote from each other. Gen. 6:1, 2. The beauty of the daughters of the apostate family attracted the attention of the sons of God, and they forgot that it was a sin to take irreligious wives. But this was not the extent of their transgression. The family of Cain, under whose influence they were now brought, practiced polygamy, and the sons of God also forgot God's institution of marriage which assigns one man to one woman, and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Unless this state of things could be changed there was nothing before the cause of God but ruin. The Spirit of God strove with these men to correct this evil practice. It was at this time that Christ preached to the antediluvians by the Holy Spirit, through Noah, the preacher of righteousness. 1 Pet. 3:18-20, 2 Pet. 2:5; Gen. 6:3. Lamech, the fifth from Cain, with whom polygamy commenced, was the contemporary of Jared, the father of Enoch. How long polygamy remained exclusively in the family of Cain we cannot say. But the sixth chapter of Genesis shows that in the days of Noah, who was the fourth in descent from Jared, polygamy had become general among the people of God. God's institution of marriage gave place to man's wicked institution of polygamy, and in the train of this abomination followed every kind of sin and wickedness.

To save virtue and religion from total extinction it was necessary for God to destroy the human race, with the exception of the family of one just man. Noah and his sons preserved the institution of marriage in its purity.

The sons of God committed a fatal error when they sought to better their condition by yielding to the temptations of Satan. The institution of marriage as explained in Gen. 2, and by our Lord in the New Testament, unites one man to one woman by a sacred and indissoluble union. Polygamy has cursed all who have for any reason yielded themselves to it. The families of Abraham, of Jacob, and of David attest the truth of this remark.