Excerpts from the Foreword to ‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’
Excerpts from the Foreword to the Book by Nancy Campbell
by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., January 27, 2003
“Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate...”
Can you imagine attending a wedding where families and friends offered the above blessing to a new bride? Yet these words of encouragement, once offered to Rebekah on the advent of her marriage to Isaac (Genesis 18:24), beautifully communicate the heart of God’s command to Christian husbands and wives that they be exceedingly fruitful and raise children who will influence all of culture and society for the glory of God.
There is no escaping the fact that the Bible is dogmatically pro-child. Scripture declares unapologetically that the birth of many children is a source of blessing, that a key reason for marriage is to bring forth many children for the glory of God, and that parents should actively seek such blessings. The Bible begins with a mandate for conception. The first great commission given to man was to “be fruitful and multiply.” This commission to bring forth many children for the glory of God and through them to subdue the earth was first given to Adam and Eve and their progeny, and was later renewed to Noah in the days following the Great Flood, and remains our standard for today — a fact that is clear from the affirmation by the Lord Jesus of the Genesis marriage mandate upon which the fruitfulness and dominion commission rests (Matthew 19:4-6).
But there is more: The Bible abounds with examples of people of diverse economic backgrounds who were considered blessed to have many children. There appears to be no relationship whatsoever between the economic status of a family and the mandate to bring forth children. Rich and poor alike are to have many children for the glory of God and to recognize that the same God who gives life is also able to provide for the life He brings into the world. In fact, in the biblical model, large numbers of children not only increase the spiritual blessing of the family, but potentially increase the financial strength of the family as well, as parents and children join in unison to contribute to the economy of the household.
In contrast with our modern society which promotes barrenness, population control, and abortion, the Bible consistently associates the inability to conceive with sorrow, a decrease in a nation’s population with judgment, and the careless and harmful treatment of babies with paganism and witchcraft. The Bible is not silent on the issue of conception control. At least four patterns and precepts are relevant: First, under the Mosaic law, complete abstinence was the natural consequence of the ceremonial uncleanness during the season of a woman’s menstruation. Second, the apostle Paul instructed husbands and wives that they may choose to exercise complete abstinence for a season of self-examination. Third, Scripture offers the controversial but relevant passage in which we learn that Onan, now married to his brother’s widow, is struck dead by the Lord for practicing a form of conception control, with the goal of preventing children who will bear his brother’s name.
Finally, in the Bible, there is no separation of life from love. Sometimes it is the sovereign will of God for Him to permanently close the womb of a woman, and when He does this, we must accept in faith His will. (Ultimately, the Lord does this for all women through the aging process.) But the Scripture offers no refuge to the idea that man may deliberately separate the “life” component from the “love” component of the holy union between man and woman.
It is fair to say that for six thousand years of earth history, the unanimous sentiment of Hebrew and Christian culture was opposition to birth control, support for conception within marriage, and recognition of the blessing of children. Of course, forms of birth control have been with man since the ancients, but it has only been in the twentieth century, with the influence of evolutionism and eugenics, that Christians have publicly embraced the notion of child prevention. The point is this: The Bible is enthusiastically pro-childbirth, and what it does say of relevance to the issue of conception control is comprehensively negative. There are no clear patterns, precepts, or principles found in the Bible which seem to give any leeway to the idea that couples should alter their bodies and cut off their seed. Until recently, this was the universally accepted principle of Christian culture. This is why Christians who advocate conception control have a whopping task: The burden of proof rests on them (not those of us who argue for the normative and plain teaching of Scripture) to prove from Scripture alone that God is pleased with us altering our bodies and thwarting children from coming into the world. It is not enough to argue from the “penumbras and emanations” of the Scripture, or to hope that there is a stewardship principle which would support the practice of cutting off the seed. One must actively prove from clear patterns, precepts, and principles of Scripture that child prevention is part of the jurisdiction over which man may lawfully exercise stewardship. This is an important point because all sorts of wrongs can be argued on the basis of “stewardship.” The relevant question is this: “do we have the jurisdiction and authority to thwart children?”
The great tragedy of our day is that the Church has been swept up in the birth control ethic, with its selfish quest for convenience, comfort, and the self-deceiving vision of the individual’s control over his own destiny. The fact is that we have lost our love for children and our vision to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion over the earth. The results have been devastating.
In fact, many Christians are unaware that they are not only engaging in an unbiblical practice of preventing “blessings,” but that some of the very practices they embrace have abortifacient consequences. How sad to think that someday we will get to Heaven and learn of the untold millions of children that were inadvertently aborted by their Christian parents — all because of lack of faith and ignorance. “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” I have a simple thesis: Hollywood is not the primary problem in the battle for our families. Neither do Wall Street, nor Madison Avenue, have any more power over our households than that which we grant to them. The problem is not the media. The problem is not Planned Parenthood. The problem is not the “liberal elite.” The problem is us.
We are the problem. And judgment must begin with us. As long as we continue to abort our babies, or cut off our seed, or abandon our children to the world, we can never expect blessing and joy within our households, let alone our culture. As long as we view children as a burden, we will not experience the victory of multi-generational faithfulness. Judgment begins first in the House of God. That means us. We must actively seek to bring forth legions of children for the glory of God. We must be willing to bless future mothers with the very words given to Rebekah: “May you be the mother of thousands of millions, and may your seed possess the gate.”
It is for the perpetuation of this glorious vision that Vision Forum Ministries is pleased to publish this important study guide by Nancy Campbell. For many decades, Mrs. Campbell has served her husband at home and through her Titus 2 ministry to Christian women promoting virtuous womanhood. She and her husband bring to this discussion a wealth of rich insight from God’s Word which we hope will inspire you to search the Scripture diligently on the issue of trusting our sovereign God for the birth of children. It is my prayer that in years to come, we will have the privilege of meeting many hundreds, if not thousands of children, who would not have been born, but for the wonderful new vision for fruitfulness inspired by this thought-provoking study guide.