Post Date: 14th Dec, 2005 - 6:19pm / Post ID:
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Multiply And Replenish The Earth
This comes from a discussion on the Religious board (See Here), but because I wanted to discuss the issue from a Biblical point of view only I am bringing some of the messages and posts of some members to discuss here.
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The Bible does commend, not command, a life of celebacy |
Hmm, I am not sure your interpretation of this. From Genesis the Lord has commanded men to marry and form families, leaving the whole issue of celibacy out of the way. Even Paul who you quoted earlier, later on, in Timothy said that those who forbid marriage are apostates.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2: 24).
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I do believe some of Jesus' disciples never had children |
Any references for this assumption?.
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Were they, God's chosen men, going against His will by dedicating their lives to Him? |
I think you need to understand how the jewish culture regards marriage and even at that time it was something that any honorable man would do. In fact, people in general at that time would have looked down at somebody who tries to preach them and who has not been married as yet since marriage itself completes an individual. As you know only married jewish men were allowed to enter certain places that Christ and their disciples were able to access making them in my eyes, all married individuals.
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Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply because according to scripture, they were the only two people on earth. If they had not followed that commandment, then the earth would not be populated. In context, I do not look at it like a command because there are no stated consequences involved. The consequences would have been implied and understood. If you don't populate the world, humanity will not exist when you die. |
Well as JB said I would love to read a scripture that states that the commandment of "multiply and replenish" the earth is no longer in force.
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The 'command' was valid for the purposes of expanding the human population. However, if every single married couple followed the statement and multiplied, we could quickly run out of space here |
That's a pre-concept of men. I believe God to be a Supreme being who knows exactly what he is doing. I do not believe we will ever run out of space here, I do think some individuals and governments use this reasoning to stop people from having children and having more headaches concerning their welfare.
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Exactly, and if you go by the Christian God, then He gave us the 10 commandments, of which having children is not one of them. |
10 commandments only?. If you refer to the ones mentioned in Exodus then you will know those are just basic ones the Lord has given as a
guidance but definitely not the only ones.
Offtopic but,
QUOTE (Tastanagee) | And LDS, with all due respect, I believe Gods commandments do not hold the same status. God sent men to war and told them they would win as long as certain conditions were met. This clearly violates "Thou shall not kill" yet it was God's will. |
I think your interpretation of that commandment is wrong. Yes, he sent men to fight on wars but I do not see a contradiction in the commandment of "Thou shall not kill" which literally means "Thou shall not murder", can you see a difference now?. If the commandment of "Thou shall not kill" applies to everything then even if you kill an ant you are under condemnation. The Lord is wiser than that, the key factor is "murder" meaning, shedding innocent blood.
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