This archive report was first published on 7 July 2019.
Published on July 7, 2019, by Joe Babendreier, a renowned author, this article delves into the mysteries of God's command to humanity to be fruitful and multiply.
According to the Book of Genesis, God told the plants and animals to 'be fruitful and multiply,' but with humans, it's different. We have the freedom to choose whether to heed God's command or ignore it.
God's command is to 'fill the earth and subdue it,' which means we are to populate the world and care for it. However, this command is shrouded in mystery, and one of the reasons is a paradox.
Some people with weak faith assume God made a mistake by commanding us to fill the earth with human beings, thinking it's the worst way to care for the planet. But paradoxically, filling the earth with human beings is the only way we can work together with God to make the world as beautiful as he wants it to be.
This assumes that humans understand what it means to work together with God. If we don't, we will destroy the planet, as the Book of Revelation warns: 'The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'
Another reason God's command is mysterious is understanding what would have happened if Adam and Eve had never sinned. The Book of Genesis implies that there would be no death or disease, and the human population would have grown extremely fast.
Assuming each married couple had a small family of only four children, the population would double every generation. After a mere 800 years, the planet would have been home to one trillion people, ten times more than the total number of human beings that have ever been born.
This 'what if' scenario offers a context for asking questions about God's plan for a world where death and disease are universal. What are we supposed to do once we have filled the earth? Have we reached that point already? Are we still a long way off? How full is full?
These questions can be answered by remembering that procreation is not open-ended. When Christ returns in glory, he will change everything so radically that no more children will ever be born.
The number of human beings will be fixed forever, as he said, 'men and women will no longer marry.' Instead, we will be 'like angels.' In the meantime, he wants us to take our mission seriously and 'fill the earth.'
