Be fruitful,be many / become great,Fill the land …

Christian natalism and the Bible.

John McKeown, February 2007

University of Chester

I = P x A x T•

I is environmental impact

P is population

A is affluence

T is technology (specifically, how green technology is, reducing emissions)

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Newsweek, November 13, 2006.

“Quiverfull”, a small but growing Protestant group that ... believes family planning is exclusively God’s domain.

Purists don’t permit even natural family-planning methods, such as tracking fertility cycles (the only form of birth control condoned by the Roman Catholic Church).

“The increasing cooperation of Catholic and Evangelical leaders on abortion and same-sex marriage has allowed cross-pollination ... In September, 250 anti-abortion activists met in Chicago to attack contraceptives such as IUDs and the pill ... because they might prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.

Some Perspectives

• Modern pro-natalists

• Early Judaism

• Ancient Near East and Israel

• Biblical theology

• The early Christian Fathers

• Ecological exegesis

Natalist use of Bible

Command to multiply (Gen 1:28)

The more sons the better (Psalm 127)

Generative defect ritually unclean (Deut 23:1)

Reproductive failure as a curse (Deut 7:14)

Non-generative sex as unlawful (Gen 38:9-

10)

Provan

Charles Provan,

The Bible and Birth Control,

1989

Pride Mary Pride,

The Way Home,

1985

Campbell

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Mary Campbell, Be Fruitful & Multiply, 2003

Torodes

Sam and Bethany Torode, Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception, Eerdmans, 2002

Commended on cover by Prof J. I. Packer, author of Knowing God

Mohler / Land“Mohler has certainly expanded his following.

He is seen as the popularizer of a position

that is still very marginal, but 15 years ago it

wouldn't have even been discussed, says

Land, adding that he knows of two former

students who had reverse vasectomies after

hearing Mohler's arguments.”

Dr Richard Land, chair of Southern Baptist

Ethics Commission, Newsweek, Nov. 2006.

CBN Christian Broadcasting Network

“The Growing Movement of Natalism”

"Because we're Christians, we believe our commandment is to be fruitful and multiply … big families are what God would have us to do.”

“they will be the soldiers of the next generation who will fight the coming hostilities, that are already apparent, toward Christianity.”

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050331a.aspx

Martin Luther

Gen 1:28 “is a physical

blessing and is restricted to

filling the earth. No matter

how saintly a father or

mother are, this is of no

advantage to the children

who are born to them.”Yegerlehner, p.164

Augustine (in 421)“This propagation of children which among the ancient saints was a duty ... now has no longer the same necessity. For from among all nations the way is open for an abundant offspring to receive spiritual regeneration, from whatever quarter they derive their natural birth.”

Augustine of Hippo, written in 421 CE.

NPNF vol.5 On Marriage and Concupiscence ch.14

Continency in marriage

Eusebius claims that Enoch, Noah, Isaac

and Joseph “had children in early life, but

later on ... ceased from having them”, and

“Moses and Aaron are recorded as having

had children before the appearance of God,

but after the giving of the divine oracles as

having begotten no more”.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Demonstratio Evangelica. Tr. W.J. Ferrar (1920) New York: Macmillan. p.53

Filling the land

“He wants the earth to be filled! Remember

we found that the word ‘replenish’ means to

“fill up the world to overflowing”. And

contrary to the scare tactics of the would-be

population controllers, there is still plenty of

room ... the entire world population could fit

in the state of Texas” [0.05 acres each]

Mary Campbell, Be Fruitful and Multiply, p.27

Filling the land

Cyprian of Carthage (Tunisia) d.258

“While yet the world was

uncultivated and empty, we

begot large numbers ... Now

when the earth is filled ... they

who can, receive continency.”Cyprian, ANF, vol.5 p.436

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Thank You

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