Posted by
Pastor Don Milton on Monday, April 13, 2009 2:50:22 PM
In a land where two women are left behind for each who finds a husband, a tempest is brewing. How long can seven million women wait to have husbands? Is the fulfillment of a prophecy on the horizon? Is the prophecy about to be fulfilled which is written in Isaiah 4:1?
"In that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own bread and we will wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name, take away our reproach!'"
Will this taboo Bible verse finally be explained? Our missionary, Ishmael David, is about to find out.
At least that's the way it's described on the back cover of
Prince of Sumba; Husband to Many Wives by Pastor Don Milton. (That's me.) This new novel is certainly a novel idea. A missionary, gone to a foreign land where polygamy is not so uncommon, gets approached by women anxious to have a husband. What better catch for Christians than a pastor, and a missionary at that?
This is Pastor Don Milton's first novel but it is not the first book in history that has included
A Dialog on Polygamy. That honor goes to Bernardino Ochino, the most famous Italian minister of his era and the second general of the Capuchin monks. His ideas of preaching the gospel in the local vernacular precipitated his quick departure from Italy. He was welcomed in Geneva by Calvin, lauded by Bucer and given the Prebendary of Canterbury, soon after his arrival in England.
According to Benrath, John Fox (Book of Martyrs) desired Ochino to collect everything he knows about Italian martyrs for his history. Little did either of them know that Ochino himself would end up a martyr. From the back cover of my reissue of
Ochino's Dialog on Polygamy we read:
In,
A Dialog on Polygamy, the Famous Italian Reformer; Bernardino Ochino, presents both sides of the argument, and it's HILARIOUS! Ochino plays the part of a sixteenth century priest, which he was, while Telypolygamus plays the part of the advocate for polygamy. On December 2, 1563, Ochino was exiled from Germany for publishing this work. Some say the German Reformation ended that day. He and his children were sent out into the harsh elements where three of them died of the plague. Ochino died a year later.