Reality always triumphs because God is reality. I sometimes ask those who want no children, who will take care of them when they get older? They talk about being in a nursing home but have never visited one. While there are some fine nursing homes to trust your future well-being to a paid stranger will prove to be dicey. Particularly when the number of older folks vastly outnumber the younger caretakers. We have already seen the results in places like Europe where several years ago, thousands of elderly people died in France in nursing homes during a particularly hot August when most Europeans take their vacations.
BOBGUTJAHR
We tried the outbreeding approach in the '90s. It hasn't worked out too well. Of course, the rub has been, "and those kids remain religious".
It appears that raising Christians while taking advantage of unChristian services doesn't work out very well. Raising Christian children seems to require a lot more sacrifice than we all imagined.
Then, of course, there is good, old-fashioned evangelism.
People are trying to play God in a population control tug-of-war, when for the Christian the marching orders are to seek God and His kingdom first. What follows SHOULD include evangelism to others and the discipleship of our children. What follows MAY include getting involved in these "terrestrial" matters of trying to keep our birthrate from dropping off a cliff. But the second should never come without the seeking God first. We'll only muck it up on our own!
Given the declining marriage and birth rates of my fellow Millenials, I'd say we've already mucked it up on our own. Is it any surprise that the Christian generation that 'kissed dating goodbye' now has a lowered marriage and birth rate because they expected the perfect spouse to appear on a platter before them without any attempts on their part to seek out a suitable mate?
In the interest of full disclosure -- I myself am an unmarried Millenial and believe that is the state that God has called me in; however, I'd be lying if I said I don't wish I'd married and had children on some days, which is only natural because that IS the created standard for human beings, no matter what lies the modern era tries to fill our heads with.
I think you and I are a good example, then, of how two people with the same God-given set of instructions and part of the same generation can end up with two different results. You could have tried to force matrimony for the sake of matrimony, but just because something is God-given and good doesn't mean it is His plan for everyone. I, on the other hand, somehow became one of those Bible college statistics who met and and married their spouse at a fairly young age and am a mother of five. I never personally read Harris's book (it probably sat on the bookshelf of at least half of my friends at the time so I am familiar with it), but I definitely see the ways in which growing up in the midst of both purity culture and third-wave feminism imposed thou shalt not's on the natural inclinations of young women like myself. (And I think Gen Z has it worse!) Not that both sides don't have their pros as well as cons, but again it becomes a human battle of human ideas when we're much better off getting our guidance directly from God's word and His leading. There is no worthwhile advantage to being married or unmarried (despite all the wonderful Biblical arguments in support of both) if it's outside of God's will.
"There is no worthwhile advantage to being married or unmarried (despite all the wonderful Biblical arguments in support of both) if it's outside of God's will."
The secular world-view is anti-human, and offers no redemption. it is not surprising that this results in philosophies and practices that reduce humans. If people are bad, the best solution is to have less of them on the Earth.
For Secularist, humans are only a part of the fabric of this mud ball we call a planet hurtling though space with no aim or purpose, just like their life.
Reality always triumphs because God is reality. I sometimes ask those who want no children, who will take care of them when they get older? They talk about being in a nursing home but have never visited one. While there are some fine nursing homes to trust your future well-being to a paid stranger will prove to be dicey. Particularly when the number of older folks vastly outnumber the younger caretakers. We have already seen the results in places like Europe where several years ago, thousands of elderly people died in France in nursing homes during a particularly hot August when most Europeans take their vacations.
We tried the outbreeding approach in the '90s. It hasn't worked out too well. Of course, the rub has been, "and those kids remain religious".
It appears that raising Christians while taking advantage of unChristian services doesn't work out very well. Raising Christian children seems to require a lot more sacrifice than we all imagined.
Then, of course, there is good, old-fashioned evangelism.
People are trying to play God in a population control tug-of-war, when for the Christian the marching orders are to seek God and His kingdom first. What follows SHOULD include evangelism to others and the discipleship of our children. What follows MAY include getting involved in these "terrestrial" matters of trying to keep our birthrate from dropping off a cliff. But the second should never come without the seeking God first. We'll only muck it up on our own!
Given the declining marriage and birth rates of my fellow Millenials, I'd say we've already mucked it up on our own. Is it any surprise that the Christian generation that 'kissed dating goodbye' now has a lowered marriage and birth rate because they expected the perfect spouse to appear on a platter before them without any attempts on their part to seek out a suitable mate?
In the interest of full disclosure -- I myself am an unmarried Millenial and believe that is the state that God has called me in; however, I'd be lying if I said I don't wish I'd married and had children on some days, which is only natural because that IS the created standard for human beings, no matter what lies the modern era tries to fill our heads with.
I think you and I are a good example, then, of how two people with the same God-given set of instructions and part of the same generation can end up with two different results. You could have tried to force matrimony for the sake of matrimony, but just because something is God-given and good doesn't mean it is His plan for everyone. I, on the other hand, somehow became one of those Bible college statistics who met and and married their spouse at a fairly young age and am a mother of five. I never personally read Harris's book (it probably sat on the bookshelf of at least half of my friends at the time so I am familiar with it), but I definitely see the ways in which growing up in the midst of both purity culture and third-wave feminism imposed thou shalt not's on the natural inclinations of young women like myself. (And I think Gen Z has it worse!) Not that both sides don't have their pros as well as cons, but again it becomes a human battle of human ideas when we're much better off getting our guidance directly from God's word and His leading. There is no worthwhile advantage to being married or unmarried (despite all the wonderful Biblical arguments in support of both) if it's outside of God's will.
"There is no worthwhile advantage to being married or unmarried (despite all the wonderful Biblical arguments in support of both) if it's outside of God's will."
Definitely.
The purpose of marriage is not to make you happy. It is to teach you to love like God loves. Having children is the same on steroids.
Did you get that from the "Sacred Marriage" book by Gary Thomas?
No, I made it up. Is that in the book?
The secular world-view is anti-human, and offers no redemption. it is not surprising that this results in philosophies and practices that reduce humans. If people are bad, the best solution is to have less of them on the Earth.
For Secularist, humans are only a part of the fabric of this mud ball we call a planet hurtling though space with no aim or purpose, just like their life.