A Shrinking Population: Evidence of a Love of God That Grows Cold
Question: What was God’s first command to mankind?
Answer: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion…” ~Genesis 1:28; 9:7
In an alarming new trend and in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the contrived “right” to abortion, more men and women are choosing permanent sterilization.
According to an article published by the LA Times, if women were already planning not to have kids, they decided to get sterilized sooner, or they were thinking more intensely about sterilization after the Dobbs decision was leaked.
The chief healthcare officer of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Diana N. Contreras, said that the abortion chain has seen a massive increase in people coming to its websites, seeking information on how to get sterilized or get a vasectomy after the ruling was released.
According to the CDC, between 2015 and 2017, about 65 percent of women ages 15 to 49 in the U.S. were using contraception. And of those, the most common form used was sterilization. About 18.6 percent of women in that age group had undergone the procedure. The second most common form of contraception was the pill at 12.6 percent.
As a result of this trend, it’s no surprise that California is considering legislation to make vasectomies free. If passed into law, The Contraceptive Equity Act of 2022 will enable irresponsible sexual activities for those who want to take extreme measures to ensure they don’t become a parent. (Perhaps many of these people are horrified at the prospect of having to care for someone other than themselves?)
This anti-child selfish attitude is growing more prevalent in our culture, even among those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. “Jesus loves the little children” isn’t merely a nice Sunday School song. It is a central truth of the faith. God desires that His crown jewel of creation, human beings created in His image, fill the earth. Our purpose is to glorify God through our dominion on earth.
On the other hand, our adversary is working overtime to destroy, distract, and disable as many of us as possible. While God wants the earth filled with His crown jewel of creation, Satan is working to oppose God’s will at every opportunity every day.
Satan is busy selling lies and promoting abortion, wars, murder, and suicide in his frontal attack on the image-bearers of God. Yet he is also attacking the flanks by fostering selfish thinking, worldly amusements, various addictions, sexual confusion (LGBTQIA+), and sexual promiscuity that leads to sexually transmitted infections, and the increased desire for sterilization. These are just some of the tactics used to keep us from doing God’s will of filling the earth.
So too are the lies and deceptions that tell us that the world is “overpopulated,” or that mankind is the cause of global warming, or that children are a burden, or that having a big family is onerous.
What the godless Left doesn’t understand is that human beings are the greatest resource God has given to us. Through our intelligence and ingenuity, we are able to create solutions to the problems confronting us. The Left will claim that earth’s resources cannot keep up with global growth. They ignore the fact that we are yielding more crops per acre than ever before. According to a report,
Since 1960, yields in sugar beet have more than doubled, rising from 30 tonnes* to more than 80 tonnes per hectare.** Potato yields have also almost doubled, increasing from just over 20 tonnes in 1960 to more than 40 tonnes per hectare in 2014.
[*UK spelling of metric tons: **2.47 acres.]
Declining Birth Rate in the U.S.
While an average of 2.1 births per women of childbearing age is considered the replacement rate that would keep the population stable, our nation is and has been below that at an average of 1.6 births per women of childbearing age. To make matters worse, narcissistic attitudes seems to be a growing trend. According to research published by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS):
Close to a quarter of adults (23%) are currently childless and say they do not hope or desire to have a child someday. Men, younger adults, and adults without a college education are more likely to be in this group, so are Democrats and non-religious Americans.
It is also interesting to note that this IFS found that,
Men are more likely than women to be in this group. Some 26% of men ages 18-55 are childless and do not desire a child someday, compared with 20% of women.
And,
The differences by religion and party ID are large. Fully 30% of non-religious Americans reject parenthood, compared with 14% of their peers who attend religious services regularly, and a similar share among those who attend religious services a few times a year. Meanwhile, childless Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say they do not plan to have children (28% vs. 15%).
We should not be surprised to learn that having a stronger biblical worldview makes a difference in our attitudes about obeying God’s command to procreate, love, train, and disciple future generations of Christian men and women. Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:12, that “[b]ecause lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” It isn’t hard to see how the love of God, His Word, and precepts and indifference toward His church has been “growing cold” over the past several decades in our culture.
There is also the lie that the national economy will thrive with a shrinking population base. The opposite is true. Well-raised children are tomorrow’s productive members of society. They are the ones who will be fueling the economy by purchasing homes and cars and starting new businesses. Without young people to enter the workforce, the Social Security system will not be able to support the number of retirees. Many industries, from fast food restaurants to toy stores, rely upon patronage from and for children to stay in business. The larger population base of productive human beings, the larger the economic pie. So, ultimately the whole economy depends on families having more than 2.1 children per household.
Bible-believing Christians must work diligently to promote a pro-life/pro-marriage/pro-children attitude in our culture. Pastor Doug Wilson is spot on about teaching our children and grandchildren:
Now someone might object and say that a child can be brought into this world quite apart from marriage, and that many are. But this is like saying that private property doesn’t exist because thieves do exist. It is like saying that because vandals wreck something valuable, then that value wasn’t really there. We should never evaluate the worth of anything by the measurements of those who understand nothing. Our sole question should be “what does God say about it?” This biblical view must be taught to our children and grandchildren.
We shouldn’t allow what the world says about children to be our source of wisdom and guidance. We already have clear instruction from the Word of God, and it says that children are a blessing from the Lord, not a burden to avoid bearing. And we certainly should not ignore the fact that the very first command given to mankind is to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and sub due it.”
Contrary to Satan’s lies and fake news, we are not even close to filling the earth. While we are closing in on 8 billion human beings in the world, we have to understand that the population of the world could easily fit inside the state of Texas, and each of us would still have approximately one thousand square feet of personal space.
The Apostle Paul repeatedly exhorts us to “stand strong” and keep a laser beam focus on the prize. He exhorts us to “work out our faith” and finish the race strong. These are vital keys to making sure that our love for Christ will never grow cold. As we grow in the faith, we should make every effort to increase in our knowledge, wisdom and love:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. ~Philippians 1:9–11
It is my prayer that God will find a large remnant of American Christians faithful and obedient.
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.
~2 John 1:6
