Quote:
Originally Posted by satz  I shall go out on a limb here and say that I don’t believe there is any command for Christians to fill the earth at all. Those commands were given to Adam and Noah, two men who had the unique position of standing on an empty planet. There is no indication in either testament that this specific command to fill the earth was meant to extend to Christians in general.
None of that is to deny at all the fact that the bible presents children as a blessing and large families as a blessing and something Christians should seek after in the ordinary course of life. That said, I am content to desire children because God’s word tells me they are a blessing. I see no reason to believe that the commands given to Adam and Noah still apply to me. |
Does it strike anybody as strange that as Calvinists, we revel in being unlike the world and hum-drum evangelicalism...but in the practical sphere, there's little observable difference? Sure, we'll have 2-3 kids...but we employ reasoning baptized by explaining away things like being fruitful...even though it is a *creation mandate*. Spiritual dominion isn't spiritual because we neglect having kids, rather, it *finds normative expression there*.
God's covenant has always involved family blessings...it is a biblical fact and a physiological fact that we are created to reproduce...if we stifle that ourselves, it is an act of unbelief.