In Time magazine’s Briefing section on Health and Science under the title Whew! Bullet Dodged was the image and description of a large asteroid with the following summary:

“Earth didn’t get clobbered but asteroid 2005 YU55, seen above during its approach, passed closer than the moon. Had it hit earth, it would have gouged out a 4-mile crater and caused 70-ft tsunamis. Thousands more like it are there.”

It was just a small blurb taking up only a fraction of one page filled with stories  seeming to take for granted the fact that Time magazine wouldn’t have any editors left to write any story if this rogue rock smashed into our planet.

It’s interesting that there are thousands of asteroids, capable of seriously disrupting or destroying life jetting through the universe on a daily basis. It’s intriguing that we can use the exclamation “whew” in the same way as if we just narrowly escaped being beaned by a fastball. And it’s astounding that most people from the erudite astronomer to the mundane pedestrian somehow believe we live in a chaotic, random universe where we “dodge” thousands of catastrophic “bullets” every day.

The vast universe we live in was not only created by the word of God but is maintained by the same power. Everything existent simply ceases to exist apart from the divine will of the almighty.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”

God is not absent as the atheists assert, distant as the deists believe and he’s not the creation as the pantheist’s say. He is separate and distinct from his creation and yet involved in every intricate detail of the work of his hands.

This means he is concerned and active in the lives of small sparrows, rocketing stones the vast darknes of space and everything in between.

And to our humble consolation he says he cares more for us than anything else he’s made.

We dodged a bullet, one that was dodged simply because God never destined it for anything but that.

Take comfort  in God’s sovereignty over creation.

Why did God create the world? While speculation about God’s divine purposes is usually fruitless and often dangerous, a sufficient (at least as adequate as anything I’ve researched), albeit non-exhaustive answer is found in the Trinity.

Understanding God as love is best comprehended in the eternal context between the three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three are a community constantly giving love and receiving it in return in perfect harmony. There is no need. There is no want. There is no deficiency.

We understand love because God. Love by nature, gives, it shares, it delights in the other.

The giving aspect answers the question of why God created the world. It was because of love.

God’s love, demonstrated in the relationship between the father, Son and Holy Spirit prompted him to create beings in which to share it with.

God wasn’t lonely; he wasn’t bored; he wasn’t even seeking beings to give him homage.

God did something in complete accord with his perfect nature: he created.

And while God’s ways are not our ways, nor are his thoughts our thoughts God reveals what pleases him to reveal about himself. This alone is an act of grace.

Some questions are beyond our ability to comprehend such as why beings created without sin would choose to disobey God. It’s a mystery….but it is reality.

We were strangers and rebels living in opposition to the almighty when the same love that brought forth creation was the cause behind Christ coming to earth to die on a cross and save us from sin.

The same love existent in eternity between the godhead gave of itself in the person of Jesus for an underserving creation.

This should profoundly shape our perspective on God, humanity and creation –and make us eternally grateful.

“And what is the object of my love? I asked the earth and it said: ‘It is not I.’ I asked all that is in it; they made the same confession (Job 28:12). I asked the sea, the deeps, the living creatures that creep, and they responded: ‘We are not your God, look beyond us.’ I asked the breezes which blow and the entire air with its inhabitants said: Anaximenes was mistaken; I am not God. I asked heaven, sun, moon, stars; they said: ‘Nor are we the God whom you seek.’ And I said to all these things in my external environment: ‘Tell of my God who you are not, tell me something about him.’ And with a great voice they cried out: ‘He made us’ (Ps. 99:3). My question was the attention I gave to them, and their response was their beauty.” – St. Augustine Confessions

Take time to observe the beauty in creation. Find pleasure in the seen world of nature. Contemplate God, creator and sustainer of the cosmos; designer of the vast seas and measureless deserts stretching across the globe who also knows the intricacies of a tiny aphid on the leaf. May you stand breathless on the rocky precipice in awestruck wonder. Ask, and you’ll find creation answering your question: “We are not God, look beyond us”. May creation beckon us to our creator.  May our praise fall to him who made it all.

The film writers and makers of Hollywood are remaking and reproducing some of the movies and figures from the past in new and exciting ways.  I have enjoyed their recreations of Batman, Transformers, X-men, and so forth.  One of those movies which will be released tomorrow will be called “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011).  This movie will perhaps be a rebirth of “The Planet of the Ape” series.  Before going to watch this movie, I decided to read the book which inspired all the movies: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle.

In this book Boulle reveals a time and world in which the apes rule over everything else.  A couple of humans and their pet ape arrive, are taken captive, caged, and treated like we might treat zoo animals.  The apes feed the humans, the dangle things in front of them, and they take the humans for walks occasionally.  Reading this book was similar to imagining a backwards zoo – where we as humans are on display and the apes are looking at us.  It was quite, well, shocking to picture such a role reversal.  Could you imagine what it would be like to be in a zoo while the apes run the planet, have their own theaters with ape actors, have their ape authors, and so forth?  This idea of a role-reversal still shocks me to think of it because it is so backwards.  What are we to think of this idea?

As Christians, we must reject this idea by revealing its inadequacies.  Though entertaining, this idea is erroneous.  Apes still lack the mental capacity to rule, to talk, and so forth.  Though they can learn to mimic actions of other people, they still cannot learn to read, speak, and write at a level of competency similar to humans.  In the upcoming movie, humans will supposedly release some sort of gas that will accelerate all animal intelligence.  This invention is simply imaginative; clearly, we don’t have anything like this invention.  Furthermore, for the sake of the argument, even if we did invent something similar, we would probably be more inclined to try it ourselves rather than give it to another species.  Now, I am all for cultivating our imaginations.  Nevertheless, when we use our imaginations to propagate erroneous ideas, then we have misused our imaginations.

As Christians, we must present our Christian worldview in response to this inadequate, evolutionary worldview.   In Genesis 1:27-28, Moses writes, “27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  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.’”  In these verses we learn that God created man and gave him a responsibility over creation – man is to rule over all the creatures, including the apes.  Yet, man is unable and unwilling to complete this task as assigned because of The Fall in Genesis 3 (search our other articles for more information on The Fall).  Whereas before, man was supposed to rule over everything with a benevolent rulership, now, he rules sinfully, or has apathy for his task, or both.  To remedy this sad circumstance, God has sent his Son to redeem mankind.  If man will change his mind about his sin (repent) and trust that Jesus Christ has bore God’s wrath on the cross for and rose again for man, now he can be made right with God.  Then, and only then, man can learn to rule over the earth in a benevolent fashion again.  That is, man should rule with a sense of responsibility.  This command from God rules out all forms of animal abuse, reckless animal killing, and so forth.  Yet, God still commands us as humans to rule over creation, not be ruled by any part of creation.

I am personally excited about watching this new movie soon.  From watching the trailers online and in the theaters, it looks interesting!  Nevertheless, we must learn to think and interact with the ideas with which we are being presented.  The writers and film makers of the movies we watch are trying to communicate ideas in their movies, just as good authors of fiction do in their books.  Yet, we, as Christians, need to be prepared to interact with those ideas in an intelligent and biblical manner.  Hopefully this article will help our readers who watch this movie engage the ideas they receive from it and all other movies they watch henceforth.

Caveat: In many ways, I chafe at this topic of gender roles. I squirm in the way the hip young
youth pastor squirms when he runs across 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and has to tell his group of dweeby
15-year-old boys and ambitious 15-year-old girls that the latter must remain silent and the former
has authority.

I don’t think the issue ever gets resolved in most group discussions. The girls always leave
feeling a bit uneasy about it, and I’m sure the guys do, too. It bumps up against our cultural,
feminist-tinged sensibilities.

But rather than do what one writer dubbed “hermeneutical acrobatics” and try to squeeze what
the Bible says about gender roles into the ever-changing mold of what the broader culture deems
acceptable, let’s just take some of these passages about gender at face value.

Genesis shows us gender roles that are different from each other. They can also be complicated, mysterious, confusing. But they are beautiful nonetheless — even when we can’t always wrap our head around them.

This is the inerrant, inspired word of God. Chances are, what needs to change is our attitude
toward the scripture—not the scripture itself.

—

Let’s set the stage. Adam is enjoying life; he’s got a great career and a vibrant relationship with
God. It’s not Adam that decides he’s unsatisfied—it’s God, who declares “It is not good for
man to be alone.” He proclaims something is missing and he can do one better than a one-king
kingdom — he can share it between two people.

So God creates woman and presents her to man.

Sometimes, the “she was taken out of man” line in Genesis 2:22 can get dicey. Does it mean that
woman is less than man? She only has an identity in relation to man?

But the passage reads differently. Everything leading up to it shows how unsuitable a companion
all the animals in the garden were. Even a relationship with God can be improved when you
add an equal. It’s like a grandkid sitting at the table with his grandparents. While he loves his
grandparents and will hang out with them forever, a wise grandparent realizes he’d probably have
a great time playing with kids his own age.

Same thing here. God wants to give Adam someone who’s on his level.

Adam’s exclamation in Genesis 2:23—“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”—
points out how suitable, how equal, Adam and Eve are. The emphasis is their similarity and
compatibility—not a hierarchy.

But God still made man and woman differently. He gave the genders different names; he
describes the woman as a help meet.

Volumes have been written on that phrase “help meet,” a translation of the Hebrew “ezer
kenegdo.” Hebrew scholar Robert Alter, quoted in the book Captivating, makes a good point. The
word translates to “sustainer beside him” and is used about 20 other times in the Old Testament
to describe God. Most of the instances we see it are when people cry out to God to be their
help—to keep them alive when they are on the brink of death.

The woman was not provided to Adam as a useful but dispensable personal assistant, or an
intern to get his coffee in the morning. She has different skills and characteristics that are keeping
him alive, just as his skills and characteristics are keeping her alive.

A woman’s role is definitely unique and definitely vital. And the two fit each other so perfectly that
they can “become one flesh”—physically, but also as a team moving toward a single purpose.

Finally, here’s a powerful statement: “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no
shame.” There weren’t the body image issues that plague our society today and torture us
with guilt trips about working out or losing weight. There weren’t the insecurities or impossible
standards that come from an out-of-whack understanding of sexuality. And another convenience:
Adam and Eve apparently didn’t need much protection against the elements—God protected
them even from the minor discomfort of getting too cold and needing to bring a sweater.

It was truly a paradise. If I could sum it up in one word, it would be contentment. People trusted.
God provided. And Adam and Eve were completely content in that—even when their roles were
different.

In Genesis 1:26-27, God said, “‘Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, over the cattle in all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” What does it mean for God to make man in his image? This question has been asked by many throughout the age of the Church. Many and varying positions have been proposed. This post serves simply to survey these positions.

Structural Perspective

Three major positions have been typically held by the major figures throughout the history of the Church: the structural, relational, and functional perspectives. The structural position has been the most widely accepted position. This view suggests that there is something about our structure–that is, our physical makeup or formation–that constitutes man’s being made in the image of God. In line with Aristotle, the early church focused its teaching concerning the image of God on human reason and free will. Augustine emphasized the structural elements of human memory, intellect, and volition and spoke of them as a reflection of the Triune God. During the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between the image and the likeness of God; he associated the immaterial aspects of the human with the divine image and the material aspects to the likeness of God. Thus, he positioned the image of God in man’s reason. These structural capacities were thought to be what separated man from animals and what enabled them to have a relationship with God.

[...]

How does the Son fulfill his role alongside the Father and Holy Spirit in the stage of creation? What is the Holy Spirit’s role in the creation of the universe? And more commonly answered, what is the Father’s role in the creation of the universe? These are all relevant questions for the thinking Christian. How many of us look at Scripture through the lens of God’s redemptive acts and stages?  Whether we have not been taught how, or whether we are stuck in a ‘what does this text mean to me?’ phase, understanding redemptive history and how God, in triune relationship with himself, works for our good and his glory is the big lens we must learn to look through when reading the Bible. So for the purpose of this article, how can we begin to see the mighty Triune God working together to create the seemingly exhaustive, ever-expanding universe

Redemptive history can be broken down into 4 stages: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. As we look specifically at the stage of Creation, we understand that the Father is the primary member of the Trinity who creates by speaking the world into existence (Genesis 1:1, Hebrews 11:3, Hebrews 1:2). Genesis 1:1 says, “God created the heavens and the earth.” Then, in Genesis 1:2, we find our first reference to a Trinitarian Creator-God with the mention of the Holy Spirit. We find our second reference to a Trinitarian Creator-God in Genesis 1:26 which states, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness (emphasis added).’” With the unfolding of Scripture through a progression of redemptive history we come to note three things about how the Son specifically interacts with the Father and Holy Spirit within the stage of creation.

1) The Father created the cosmos through Jesus, the Son. John says in John 1:1-3 about the deity of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” A direct comparison can be made between the wording John uses here and that used in Genesis 1:1 concerning the creation of the world. Instead of “In the beginning God created,” John has “In the beginning was the Word.” This locates Jesus’ existence in eternity past with God and sets the stage for John’s lofty Christology.[1] Other passages that speak of the Father creating the world through the Son are Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2.

2) Jesus, the Son, is the sustainer and upholder of the entire cosmos. Not only is Jesus the instrument by which the entire cosmos was created, he is also the instrument by which the cosmos is sustained. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” The author of Hebrews also says concerning the Son that he is the ”heir of all things”, the instrument the Father used when he created the world, the radiance of the Father’s glory, and the exact representation of the Father’s nature. This glorious and powerful description of the Son’s preeminence is central to a proper understanding of redemptive history. He is the heir; he is the one the world was created through, he is the radiance of the Father’s glory; and he is the exact representation of the Father’s nature. This poetic imagery of Christ upholding the vastness of the universe is also mentioned in Colossians 1:15-20, which is worth quoting in full here:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Paul’s famous theological treaty of the preeminence of Christ is very rich with creation language. First of all, Paul references that Christ is “the image of the invisible God,” alluding back to Genesis 1:27 where man was created in the image and likeness of God. Paul’s language here is virtually identical to the ’Sonship’ language used elsewhere in Genesis 5:1-4 as Adam’s ‘image-bearing’ likeness to God the Father implies that Adam was God’s son.[2] When Adam’s son was born, Adam was said to be the “father of (a son) in his own likeness and according to his own image.”[3] The ‘image’ language Paul uses here implies that Jesus is God’s son, as Adam was God’s son. But Paul goes further in saying that this ‘son’ is the “firstborn of all creation”. This reference in the second line of Colossians 1:15 to Christ as the “firstborn of all creation” further highlights the idea that he was an Adamic figure and ‘son’ of God.[4] G.K. Beale says this concerning this Adamic comparison, “By a similar application, Christ is the last Adam, who is the “firstborn,” not only of all humanity in the new creation but also of ‘all [things in the old] creation.’”[5] In verse 16-17, Paul gives another reference to Christ being the instrument the world was created through, but Paul goes further in stating that not only were all things created through him but also “all things were created…for him” and “in Him all things hold together.”

3) Jesus, the Son, is the Creator of the entire cosmos. Paul acknowledges in Colossians 1 that Christ is the sovereign creator of the entire world, giving uniqueness to his ‘oneness’ with the Father. Paul seems to be stating two things here that are of equal importance: 1) Jesus, the son, is the perfect and divine Creator of all things, who is separate from and sovereign over all that he has created, and 2) Christ perfectly embodies the ruling position that Adam and his flawed human successors should have held.[6]

As we dive into Scripture and begin to view Scripture through a redemptive historical lens, we begin to learn the beautiful intricacies of the world we live in. In our minds and in our understanding of scripture, may Christ reign over us not only as our Warrior-King but also as the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

[1]Beale, G.K., and D.A. Carson Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing, 2007), 421.

[2]Ibid., 851.

[3]Ibid.

[4]Ibid., 853.

[5]Ibid.

[6]Ibid., 854.

One month ago I had the opportunity to hike into the Grand Canyon with my beautiful wife. It was awesome (I actually meant to use that word according to its actual definition)! It simply inspires awe as you behold something so expansive, stretching into the distance in all directions as far as the eye can see.

Five years ago I had the opportunity to go out into the deep blue ocean – to the point where there is no visible land in any direction. We anchored, our little boat rocking atop rolling waves, directly above a coral reef, and we spent our day scuba diving. As soon I slipped into the water, I discovered how strange and varied this world we inhabit really is.

Five months ago, my first child was born. I have seen a lot of truly incredible things in this world; I have visited numerous countries, climbed mountains, walked through deserts, and explored underground caverns. But nothing in Creation could compare to the beauty and jaw-dropping amazement that the birth of another human inspires.

This is all creation. And it all declares the majesty of God.

The Bible tells us in Genesis, the book of beginnings, that God created the heavens and the earth. Sadly, in today’s world, this simple truth inspires a never ending litany of questions. Long before the massive, earth-shaking influence of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was felt there were a lot of Christians who debated exactly how and when God created everything we see. After Darwin’s shockwaves moved throughout the world, these debates became wars, the questions themselves became battle lines, and many believers became enemies.

There are numerous interpretations of how and when God created the world and everything in it, but those interpretations will not be our focus here. If you would like to get a basic, working knowledge of the different views, click here. What we are going to be discussing here is not how various people interpret the creation account. We are going to discuss what a Christian should believe about the creation account.

The Creation Account and the Basics of Belief

God created. The most basic truth which every Christian should believe about creation is that God is the one who did it. If God is not the agent who created everything out of nothing, then the language of the Bible is, at best, misleading or, at worst, misled. The universe is not eternal, and there is no Big Bang without someone (God) causing the clamor. God created everything ex nihilo. The Word is very clear on this.

God created all things good. The Bible makes clear that before the Fall, all things were made good. God did not create a defective Garden. He created a perfect garden with the injunction that man spread the goodness of the garden to all of the earth.

Adam and Eve were real people. The biblical language in the creation account makes clear that a special emphasis was placed upon God’s creation of Adam – God spoke everything into creation out of nothing until, the Bible tells us, God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground. The switch in language shows a change in emphasis. Then we see that Eve was formed from Adam. Again, special care was taken here, that was not taken as God spoke things into existence. The Genesis account makes clear that Adam and Eve were created differently than all other animals. Also, the New Testament makes clear that Adam was a real person. Luke’s genealogy links Jesus to Adam and Paul speaks about Adam’s death leading to death for all other humans. In order to stay faithful to the Bible, one must agree that Adam and Eve were in fact real people, specially made by God, and distinct from the rest of creation.

The Fall is real. The importance of the Fall to the rest of the Bible is impossible to overstate. The whole of the Bible is written upon the basis that we are fallen and in need of revelation leading to redemption. Paul assumes the Fall, perpetrated by Adam and Eve was a real event, with real consequences. The Fall helps us to make sense of evil in the world. It also paves the path for redemption, because it is impossible to believe in Christ without first understanding our need for Him.

No matter what you believe about the length, the frequency, or the actuality of the days of creation you have to believe these things. Battling it out over whether there were simply six consecutive days of action or if there was a creation followed by thousands of years of destruction leading up to six days of intermittent action serves only to delineate interpretational methodologies between believers, but the first four issues listed above have the power to delineate believers from non-believers.

To believe in Christ, we must first believe in the awesome, good God who created all things, including us. Then we must recognize that we are not good, because we have been tainted by the sins of a real person who fell from God’s grace in the garden long ago. Not only are we tainted by His sin, but we are prone to continue his rebellion in our lives on a daily basis. It is these truths, communicated in the creation narrative that cannot be left out. If an interpretation of Genesis 1-3 makes any one of these truths an impossibility, then know you are not looking at an interpretation, you are looking at a false gospel.

God created all things; he created the Grand Canyon, the deep blue ocean, and my son. All are the work of a good God, all are part of a once good/now fallen world, and all are waiting eagerly for the day of redemption.

And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them. And God blessed them; and 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 thing that moves on the earth.” –Genesis 1:27-28

When a college or high school group discussion turns to marriage and the question “so how many kids do you want?” it is unlikely for many to say more than “three.” Why would anyone want more than that? It’s financially impractical. It’s too much work. Nobody does that anymore. Besides, young people are bombarded with a secular worldview predicated on pleasure, leisure, and self-gratification. Although most Christians have smaller families and no one really questions why, it’s important to weigh our choices against what Scripture actually says.

When we read the Bible, we see a clear understanding of family, children, and mankind’s role on earth. God gives Adam and Eve a command to fill the earth with his image bearers. He blesses them by making them fruitful. God is pleased with a planet full of his crowning creation. Sadly, a close examination of contemporary Christianity reveals a worldview less like Genesis and more like Hollywood.

The prevalent opinion is that pregnancy is something to be prevented or protected against to insure quality of life. An Institute of Medicine panel recommended that the U.S. government require health insurance companies to cover birth control for women, without copayments, as “preventive care.”In the last fifty years, wealthier nations (notably Western) have boasted of the alleged correlation between a country’s wealth, life expectancy, happiness, and its low birth rates. It would appear that the most satisfied, fulfilled, and carefree life is one without children. But a declining population in all Western nations, excepting the U.S. and Ireland, has brought the issue to the forefront. A disproportionate aging population is putting a strain on economies trying to support retirees. Moreover, a proliferating Muslim demographic is on pace to overtake many European countries. More children would be the plausible solution to these problems. Interestingly enough, we see God’s Word supports having bigger families over smaller ones.

But what parts of Genesis should be taken at face value? God’s speaking the world into existence? Definitely. God’s creation of man in His image? Certainly. God’s creation of male and female to become one flesh in marriage? Positively.

But what about the little passage in verse 28, “Be fruitful and multiply”?There are many passages and promises in the Bible that I enjoy and love to quote, yet there are others that I would omit from the Ryan Rindels Standard Version (RRSV). Of course, the problem is not with the Bible; it’s with me. When I read the text my natural response would be to doubt the viability of having a big family. The objections range from insufficient finances to time devoted to each child. I realize however, God’s plan is superior to my own and that if he in fact, commands this, he will adequately equip me for it.

What is clear and undeniable upon reading Genesis is God’s plan for mankind to fill the earth with his image bearers. There’s no reason to believe that this intention has become outdated and inapplicable. Sadly, however, many American Christians have bought into the secular world’s materialistic, small-family system. Though such thinking may seem convenient, it is not only unbiblical, but it offends common sense, especially for the future of society. The 2.1 child-per-woman minimum birth rate is necessary for a population not to decline, much less, increase. For more on this, read an article I wrote a year ago: http://theveritasnetwork.org/2010/09/12/procreation-an-intended-blessing-of-sex/.The current U.S. birthrate is hovering just at the 2.1 replacement level.

Most secular nations worry about an insufficient workforce to support retirement programs like social security. Even without a biblical worldview, societies realize more children need to be born, and more than just two per family. But even with tax breaks and other generous incentives the statistics show the birth rates are still below the replacement level.

So when the marriage and family discussion with any Christian prompts the answer “God is calling me to only have two or one children, or maybe not any at all,” I would seriously question if that is God’s voice, especially when such a system is not only insufficient to maintain an economy but also runs contrary to the mandate in Genesis 1. And yet, it seems there are more and more Christians hearing the same message about having fewer kids.

An unmarried friend with whom I grew up in church was seriously considering havinga vasectomy at age 21 simply because he didn’t like kids. I was appalled.

Is this the Christian view of family? Birth rates for American evangelicals are no higher than the rest of the country. I’m bothered by this.

Children are a blessing from the Lord. The Bible consistently and amply supports this. As for birth control, the Bible is not explicit. However, I believe the best answer is understood by examining the scriptural pattern. It’s apparent that the burden of proof is upon those who would artificially limit what God created—not the other way around. You cannot read the biblical passages regarding children, family, and fruitfulness and then successfully justify having few or no kids.

As Christians, we need to repent of our rebellion against God’s plan for the family. To have many children is to bringforth bearers of God’s image, to raise ambassadors and warriors for His kingdom, to bless the nations, and to contend with its enemies at the gate. Let’s get back to the biblical understanding of family and challenge this dwindling generation.

In the second part of a three part series, Whitney Clayton continues his discussing on the Christian Faith as it relates to modern day science.  Tell us your thoughts below. [...]