"(And don't underfill or overfill)?"

I have been thinking about this for a while. Dr. Mohler regularly brings up marriage, having children, underpopulation, etc.

The question I'd like to put on the table is: When God gave the commandment "Fill the earth" to his creatures, could it be disobeyed especially in our case?

Are we hardwired to fill AND THEN STOP? or can we disobey such a primal command

Here's Mohler's commentary (scroll down) but the essence is Japan is imploding in population with ramifications that now must bring it to its knees economically and socially.

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Bryan Wiley
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Reformed Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky

I know places where I can hike all day for 3 weeks and not see a single soul.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

Some think Japan's declining population is something to be more concerned about...

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Craig French
Married and father of a beautiful daughter.
Member of Christ The Word, PCA
Toledo, OH

MY BLOG

I believe you. Must be nice to have that option.

Yes, that's what the blog said. Apparently it's going to happen.

I think the lack of a desire for children in non-Christians shows a lack of hope for the future (or complete narcissism) for the most part. For believers, there are some who are not called to it and some who are not blessed with children. But when I talk to non-Christians about children and they respond negatively, the reasoning is usually pretty similar.

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Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

T.H. White claims that the birth rate always rises during a war.

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Ruben
Moderator

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Calvinistas Conversando - Reformed Discussion Board in Spanish.

Spanish Blog -Teologia en Mexico
English Blog -The Howling Wilderness

It might be worth questioning whether those words from God to Noah mean that our aim is to cover the surface of the Earth elbow-to-elbow with people. The implication of those words (particularly as you see the disobedience to them, and the results of that disobedience in Genesis 11) seems to me to be that mankind was to spread themselves across the face of the Earth - some living here, some there, some elsewhere, everywhere habitable. I really don't think God was giving a command to fill the Earth to capacity.

We certainly can, and did, in Genesis 11, in the sense that I noted above. Also in the sense that you're implying, it can be disobeyed. Many countries are having negative population growth - so with modern 'family planning' policies, and the globalist UN policies demanding access to murder of children in the womb for every woman, etc., we're very likely to see pockets of negative population growth for time to come. UN population people continually are claiming that the Earth is soon to be overpopulated (which is hogwash). I sincerely believe that natural limitations on the Earth's population will NOT be the reason its population is limited - rather, human selifshness and the idolatry of self will be.

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Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://semperubi.rtrc.net

"Many men, after a long conversion, see more of the workings of sin in their hearts than ever they did before or at their first conversion. Now, such men have not an increase of sin, but an increase of illumination and light" (Christopher Love)


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Much of the earth remains to be subdued.

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Daniel Ritchie
Saintfield, Northern Ireland - Queen's University, Belfast:History/Politics
Member of Dromara Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Covenanter)

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.

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Mark Li
International University Church
New South Wales, Australia

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.

Oh, you must be referring to Nova Scotia

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Stephen Welch
PCA Teaching Elder
Nova Scotia

This is the first commandment that is given to us and will remain until Jesus, the Christ returns for His final perousia. Unfortunetly much of the visible church is in "rapture" mode. Our eschatology affects whether we will continue to rule and fill the earth.

That's interesting. I usually associate baby booms with the aftermath of a war (I've read stats to this effect concerning post-WWII, post-1967 Six-Day War, post-1973 Yom Kippur War, post-2006 Lebanon War, etc.) or natural disasters (e.g., 9 months after 1989 Hurricane Hugo), although I've also seen some claims along these lines disputed (the 1965 New York City and 2003 Northeast US Blackouts).

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"On land, at sea, at home, abroad, / I smoke my pipe and worship God." -- J.S. Bach

Genesis 1:28 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

God was not saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and then subdue it." He was saying that the purpose of filling the earth was to subdue it.

Genesis 1:26 26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

rule (radah) = to have dominion.

Man was to rule the earth under the divine authority of God. Adam wasn't expected to do this alone. 1:28 clearly explains that his posterity was to share in subduing and ruling. So, this has nothing to do with elbow-to-elbow people. It is about populating the earth with those who will have dominion over creation. Man abdicated his primary responsibility through the sin of Adam. Christ, the second Adam, took up the abdicated role of dominion. The church now fulfills the command in Genesis through the preaching of the gospel, waiting for the return of the Messiah who establish His kingdom, and dominion, forever.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

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Hey Todd,

I agree, that the world can attempt to disobey the commandment but in the long run will God allow to be disobeyed. Gen 11 has him correcting the people so it would be obeyed.

Also, occasional pockets of disobedience in times and places doesn't necc. mean the commandment can be eternally disobeyed.

I agree also that a homogeneous dispersion of people is over the face of hte world is not likely becuase of geography, climate, etc. The commandment was given in the perfect garden whole now we have deserts, ice caps, etc.

We have ghettos (defined as heavily overpopulated areas) and vast tracts of unihabitaed areas great for civilization (and in some cases "great for civilization once again) if subdued.

So, I lean towards thinking that God made a commandment in which man will do a botched job of filling the earth with densely populated areas and unihabited areas but reaching a balance with 0 population growth.

Naw, that's not going out on a limb. Paul would have advocated marriage regardless of the gift God gave people and would have commanded to "subdue the earth with flesh, who cares if it's regenerate...."