This is blog #8 of a continuation of my response to a missive/blog posted several months ago entitled "Why I am a Christian Who Supports Gay Marriage." Please Google it and check it out before continuing.
Concerning the Blogger's Statements About the Overpopulation of the Earth
Concerning the Blogger's Statements About the Overpopulation of the Earth
Consider this statement from that blog:
"I realize that God told Noah to be fruitful and multiply, and that is one of the reasons we have known of marriage as between a woman and a man – so they can make babies. But with the world population weighing in at over 7 billion people, is that really still as important as it was back when the inhabitants of the world fit inside an ark?"
First of all, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28) way before He told Noah and his sons(Gen 9:1); the significance is that God provided for populating the earth both before and after The Flood. But in either event, to me that begs a question or two: 1) Exactly when did God ever countermand that directive to any of the resulting offspring; and 2)When did God ever suggest or provide for the concepts of birth control or safe sex, other than in the case of those who were either born, made or chose to be eunuchs?
In terms of overpopulation, I guess she is saying that God just did not understand or realize all the problems He would cause by not limiting the number of off-spring women or couples were allowed to have or by not providing instructions on how to practice birth control while having sex in marriage (or outside of it for that matter). If there is one thing all pilots, or those who look out an airplane window in flight, or even long haul truck drivers know is that the concept of the earth being overpopulated is as bogus as the recent claims concerning global warming and climate change (I guess God missed that one too!). There may be certain cities or population centers that may be considered to be "overpopulated", but that's a matter of choice made by the inhabitants based on their desire for a certain level of convenience, comfort and/or other personal factors, not because we are running out of land mass or adequate places to live.
It's amazing how we humans, especially those of the Western culture over the past few hundred years, have the sheer audacity to declare that since God obviously made a huge mistake in not planning ahead for the eventual overpopulation of the earth that He created, we need to come up with measures like abortion and family planning and, oh yes, gay marriage to resolve the problem. By the way, may I ask who has the authority or the right to declare when a location has reached overpopulation…And who gave that person or persons the authority to make that decision? In fact, I challenge any Christian who believes in the Bible to show me anywhere in the Scriptures where God specifically addresses the notion of overpopulation or birth control (yet I can show you unequivocally, in several places, where He rejects the notion of homosexuality and same sex relationships). Ultimately, birth control is strictly a manmade concept and convenience.
But all that being said, the truth is, God did (and does) provide for population control over the generations in four important ways:
- Life Span or Age - From the beginning of Genesis until the end of Genesis we see a very important dynamic concerning the normal life span of humans take place: The normal life span of the major players mentioned starts out at 900+ years (Adam lived 930 years), but by the last chapter in Genesis, the maximum life span was down to about 130 years (Jacob lived 147 years and Joseph lived 110 years.) In Gen 6, God said he planned to limit men's time on earth at 120 years.
- Body Physiology Concerning Fertility & Child Bearing - We see in Gen 17-18 (not even half way through the Book) that by the time the time God announced to Abraham and Sarah that they were to have a son, both of them laughed at the pronouncement because at age 100 for Abraham and age 90 for Sarah, both were considered to be well past the age to conceive and bear children. Actually, today, the average span of fertile years for women has decreased considerably since the time of Moses and Sarah, to where the average age for menopause for women in the Western Hemisphere, for example, is age 51.
- Large Scale Death by Natural Disasters, Man-made Follies, And Cultural Influences - Earth quakes, floods, storms, volcanos, tidal waves, fires along with wars, massacres, purges, mass-kill weapons and genocide have and continue to have a sometimes significant effect on the human population. Also, many cultural influences that are often determined through the presence or lack of religious beliefs, such as family size, have helped limit population growth in recent years.
- The Laws and Commandments Given to the Israelites - In the same Laws that were given to the Israelites concerning sexuality and deviant sexual behavior, there were also given laws to control marriages in order to stop incest and inbreeding that were previously allowed to facilitate early population growth.
