The Spirit of the Last Age

One of the most common arguments for “family planning” is the lack of resources available to provide for children.  China has been on that train for years, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi isn’t too far behind.

As Denny Burk writes, “Pelosi’s remarks reflect the spirit of the age.  In general, our culture has come to view children as burden rather than as a blessing.  Even among those who are married, children are increasingly viewed as add-ons–an option that may or may not be pursued by the couple.”

The pressure is certainly strong, in a strapped economy, to put off children until the storm passes.  A culture with no unshakeable hope would reasonably look to storing, saving, hoarding as much as possible.  However, is this the attitude that Christians should have?  Is this one of those issues where Paul might desire to “spare you from worldly troubles” (1 Corinthians 7:28)?

The irony in that verse is that Paul did want to spare his people from worldly troubles…by asking them to stay single.  If you’re going to be married, he argues, you’re going to have worldly troubles, and that includes providing for a family. By the time a couple get married, they are past the point of no return for “family planning”.

Now, there is wisdom in a marriage for deciding when to start building a family.  When, not if.  Children are a blessing, and an appropriate outcome of marriage.  For the Christian, it seems that making a decision about whether or not to have children based on economic stability is not prudence, but fear.

Look at this passage from Psalm 113:5-9:

“Who is like the Lord our God,

who is seated on high,

who looks far down

on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the ash heap,

to make them sit with princes,

with the princes of his people.

He gives the barren woman a home,

making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord!”

 

Notice that same sovereign God who makes the barren woman joyful with offspring is the same God who provides materially for her as well.

Having children as the family structure of the surrounding culture becomes progressively more dysfunctional shines brightly the strength and stability of Christian familial love.  In the same way, having children in a culture that continues to get progressively more unstable economically, a culture that begins to reveal its true values by pitching the unecessary investments overboard,will demonstrate more clearly the worth and value that God places on human life and the sacrificial service needed to raise the future generations.

If this continues to be the spirit of the age, it will guarantee itself to be the final spirit of the last age.