After writing my previous post on being fruitful and multiplying in regards to Genesis 1:28, I sensed it needed further study and namely on the multiplication part. As I have mentioned, this verse is usually taught as “have lots of kids and fill the earth.” This is the same commandment given to Noah after the Flood. While this verse definitely does teach to have kids and procreate, there is so much more to it.
There are modern families who have taken this verse to the full extreme. The Duggar family is the classic example, with 19 natural born children (and each with a name starting with “J”). They are professing Christians, but something went wrong in that home. What “cancelled” them was allegations (which I understand to be true) of sexual abuse by one of the older kids. While each is held responsible for his own actions, one has to wonder how it went unnoticed and how there was an environment where this was a possibility. These issues did not stem from having so many kids but from something else.
As this is part of a series on what the Christian home is supposed to be in an American culture that is all about consumption, there is one thing that people on all sides have noticed. In the agrarian cultures, families had lots of kids because that meant working hands for the farms and animals. That was a productive home. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and technology, work went to a factory or business instead of the home and kids suddenly had nothing to do. As a result, families started having fewer kids. This is especially true when the mindset changed from “kids are an asset for life” to “kids are a liability, keeping us from our pleasure and consumption and enjoyment.” We no longer talk about “how many kids can we have?” but instead “how many kids can we afford?” Our view of what a “child” is has changed and it REALLY went downhill when abortion entered the scene.
But multiplying carries much more to it than just having children and multiplying people. When Jesus told the Parable of the Sower, He tied these two things together: fruit and multiplication. The three soils of the path, the rocks, and the weeds did not produce fruit. But the good soil did produce fruit, and that fruit was 30x, 60x, and 100x what was sowed. Fruit and multiplication go together. Last week, I emphasized on being fruitful – that we need to be productive and bearing fruit that will produce works, deeds, and attitudes that are becoming of God. If we are bearing such fruit, it multiplies.
One of the problems we have is men of God who have great visions and do great works but when they pass away, there are few who carry it on. Often the vision goes a different direction, which can be fine, but when that happens, it is due to loss of sight of what God is doing. When Henry Morris started the Institute of Creation Research, he had a vision to see highly qualified scientists trained and teaching on Biblical Creation. They have pretty well kept that vision after his passing. But when David Wilkerson started Times Square Church, he sought to simply preach the Word and forget all the social engineering and methods that seminaries and church builders are using. Yet after he passed, the church looks nothing like what Wilkerson started and doesn’t even preach the same message. The Salvation Army also lost the vision that William Booth had. Then they were Gospel first and help was second. Now they are primarily just a charity organization that hardly preaches the Gospel at all (though I know some still do). But things are not multiplying as they should be; they are instead “devolving” into something entirely different.
The Creation Truth Foundation saw a problem with how they were doing ministry. They would go to a church and arm and equip them then leave and they’d be on their own. So, what they did was create the “Cadre” program which was designed to train and equip pastors and church leaders on the issues with intense training for the purpose of multiplying the ministry and content and carrying it out. While I had studied origins for several years prior to going to the Cadre, it was at the Cadre when I got my commission to go, and it was there that the fire was lit. That is also when I started with Worldview Warriors in 2014. It was life changing. I learned little in terms of new content, but what I have been doing with Worldview Warriors and now as co-leader of the El Paso Creation Network, the vision the Creation Truth Foundation has multiplied with me. I am not officially part of them, but I am a product of their fruit.
Multiplication is not just about having kids. It is about sharing the faith so others can go out and do the same. Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples. Disciples are people who seek and walk after Jesus and then teach others to do the same. It is about multiplication. Instead, the modern evangelists in general have this idea of making converts and professions of faith that more often than not have no weight to them. We have lost the meaning of multiplication. Today, we think we are growing if we have more people in church, but we quit examining them to see if we are multiplying sheep or goats. Most are multiplying goats and goats are going to leave when the tests come. We need to be concerned about multiplying sheep instead, and that calls for proper instruction and proper evangelism using the full council of Scripture.
Finally, multiplication is not about our kingdom but about God’s kingdom. We need to be focused on multiplying God’s kingdom, which means His purposes, His will, His authority, and His plans. Now, don’t read what I am not saying. God is sovereign and He does indeed rule over everything. But there are ideas and teachings and even territories that are not submitting to God’s sovereign reign. Our job as ambassadors is go to these rebellious sectors and call for them to make peace with God before God’s judgment comes. He is simply delaying His judgment because there are some loyal citizens He wants to save before that happens. God never lost territory. He still rules over it all. But when we rebelled, we went from treasured vessels to things to be tossed out in the trash. We are called to bring the message of hope, restoration, and regeneration before the trash is taken out to be burned. Those who obey God will receive a great reward, but what if that reward included souls we have witnessed to? Let us go back and re-learn what being fruitful and multiplying truly means. Our American culture has departed from the truth for so long that the only way we can get back do the right thing is not to “right the ship” but to actually go backwards and reset back on the foundation God gave us from the start. That is for next week.
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