Rewriting Modern Standards
Part I
This series will be about rewriting accepted modern standards or cultural norms that are incorrect. American idioms, if you will, that we have begun to believe as truth, but really are from the world and its ruler, Satan. I have been shocked to see just how many lies we have come to look upon as facts. Standards that we have even begun to build on over the years because of the culture we live in. Yet, do we leave God out in favor of cultural values and should we look to the Bible to better evaluate the culture we live in? Shouldn’t we weigh our accepted modern standards on the righteous scale of God’s Word? I will continue this series until I run out of things (which I doubt will ever happen). Please write to me if you have learned something new or have something to share!
Modern Standard #1
“We are overpopulating the world. One or two kids are more than enough.”
This modern standard is wreaking havoc on the world at large. America is slowly dying from the lack of good, honest, hard working people that will uphold the laws and statutes of God and country. Who are we to tell God that we can’t accept His blessing to us because of the supposed “overpopulation of the world”.
You always hear that “the world’s population is growing too fast and there’s not enough food to go around”. But where did this thought first come from? My mom gave me a book called ‘Facts, Not Fear” by Michael Sanera and Jane S. Shaw. According to their research a British clergyman and economist, Thomas Malthus was the cause of this lie. In 1798 He published, ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’ sounding the “alarm” of the overpopulation theory (I mean hypothesis). The comical thing about this is that everyone is buying into this 210-year-old hypothesis. It reminds me of the saying “Nothing is new under the sun!” Malthus argued that the population of the world would grow faster than the production of food did. This would leave people to starve when the farmlands were exhausted. What Thomas Malthus could not have known then, was how many inventions and agricultural discoveries would make it easier to cultivate, distribute, and store food around the world. Refrigerators, freezers, crop rotation, compost, and different ways of packaging would give people the ability to keep food for longer periods of time. Not to mention the enormous value of growing more food in smaller areas (container gardens, victory gardens, greenhouses, square foot gardening, cold frame gardening, etc.)
George Carver is one person who showed the necessity of rotating crops every year. This revolutionized planting. Even today we still rotate crops and it has become a science in itself. Carver demonstrated the need for compost and mulch. He developed 118 products out of sweet potatoes and over 300 uses for peanuts! Now that’s what I call resourceful.
By 1783 part of California and all of Oregon, Washington and the NW regions of BC were unexplored. By the 1790’s very little more had been “clamed” by the British or America. At that time the French and Spanish “owned” most of the United States. Most of the French and Spanish were trappers and hadn’t settled much of this area. There is no way that Malthus had enough knowledge of geography at his day and age to claim that the world would soon be over populated and underfed. The NW regions of the US and Canada are very fertile areas with raspberries, corn, apples, beef, dairy, potatoes and various vegetables being grown there.
As finite humans we tend to cry, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” even before we check for facts. God is all knowing and our provider. We are to be good stewards of the land and use its resources wisely. If there did come a time that we needed food do you not think that He would provide it? The Scripture says,
Psalm 111:5 “He has given food to those who fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant.”
Psalm 145:15 “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season.”
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood said, “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
How could anyone even listen to Planned Parenthood if they knew what its founder believed? She openly encouraged murder! Now that sounds like an insane thing to say. How can a “respected” college educated person make such an insane statement? Solomon declared the insanity of sin in our world when he stated,
“To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things, to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.” Ecclesiastes 7:25
“This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.” Ecclesiastes 9:3
This brings us to the second part of this Modern Standard: “One or two kids are more than enough.”
Margaret Sanger spoke out in the madness of the world and sin. Spreading the lie that children, lots of children, should be put to death out of mercy to the rest of the world. But what does God’s word say?
Psalm 127:3-5 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.”
As Christians we are commanded in scripture to “Be fruitful and multiply”. If our forefathers understood this concept, why is it so hard for us to do the same? Could it be that we have become secular in our thoughts? Have we hidden our Christian beliefs under that proverbial bush so we can become more pleasing to the world? Have we been “schooled” in the accepted madness that it is more merciful to kill infants than overpopulate the world?
Here are a few examples from Scripture concerning children: Genesis 9:1,7, Psalm 84:4, Psalm 112:2, Psalm 127:3-5, Proverbs 17:6, Psalm 128:3-4, Isaiah 44:3-4, Psalm 102:28, and Proverbs 20:7.
A chart put together by the UN, which I do not like or support, showed the world population dating from 1950-1995. It shows the world population rate around 1.8% growth at 1950-1955. Around 1960 it went up to 2.0% then slowly decreasing till it hit around 1.6% in 1975-85. By 1990-95 it drops to below 1.0%. I’m not a math whiz but I would venture to guess that you would need to increase family size to increase population size but the statistics don’t indicate that the population is increasing but decreasing!
Most families are having one child maybe two. Many couples prefer no children at all. Sadly for many Christian couples the decision to build a career supersedes that of building a family. This is the norm or accepted “standard” in America. I’m sure you have heard this worldly advice, “Wait till you have enough money in the bank, your career is solid, and you buy a house before you have children”. Another common statement is, “Remember not to have too many children because you won’t have time for yourself” and “Children will eat you out of house and home.” These speak of selfishness and worldly wisdom! Not self-sacrifice and godly wisdom.
Christians speak often of searching the Lord in prayer and discovering God’s will for their lives. But are we so blind to the will of God that we miss what is written plainly in the Bible, that we search vainly for another path other than our Lord’s? We certainly seek in vain when God’s will has already been made known in His Word.
Because we have left the principles of the Bible for what our culture tells us to do, we are loosing sight of God’s desire for our lives. He wants us as Christians to have dominion over the earth. This includes our families, our homes, and even the communities in which we live. You won’t find any scriptures telling us to kill our babies, put our careers first, limit our family size, or listen to worldly advice, or warnings.
I hope dear friends that you will not fall into the dangerous trap that Satan has set and is waiting to snare you in. Children are the most amazing gifts of God’s creation. Don’t throw it away for the sake of blending in with the world. Let’s rewrite this modern standard and go back to the truth of God’s Word.
