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Be fruitful, be many / become great, Fill the land … Christian natalism and the Bible.

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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Be fruitful, be many / become great, Fill the land … Christian natalism and the Bible.

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  1. Be fruitful,be many / become great,Fill the land …Christian natalism and the Bible. John McKeown, February 2007 University of Chester

  2. I = P x A x T • I is environmental impactP is populationA is affluenceT is technology (specifically, how green technology is, reducing emissions)

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  6. 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.

  7. Some Perspectives • Modern pro-natalists • Early Judaism • Ancient Near East and Israel • Biblical theology • The early Christian Fathers • Ecological exegesis

  8. 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)

  9. Provan Charles Provan, The Bible and Birth Control, 1989

  10. Pride Mary Pride, The Way Home, 1985

  11. Campbell Mary Campbell, Be Fruitful & Multiply, 2003

  12. Torodes Commended on cover by Prof J. I. Packer, author of Knowing God Sam and Bethany Torode, Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception, Eerdmans, 2002

  13. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. Thank You 21

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