Why Have Kids If They Might End Up in Hell?
00:00:00.000 | This week I opened Twitter to see this Washington Post headline, "Deciding whether to have
00:00:09.360 | kids has never been more complex.
00:00:12.360 | Enter Parenthood Indecision Therapists."
00:00:15.280 | Now, I'm not sure the question is more complex than it was 100 years ago when the infant
00:00:21.880 | mortality rate in this country was about 24%.
00:00:25.160 | Nevertheless, having children is always a life-altering decision for sure, and it comes
00:00:30.280 | with some really complex implications, especially when you factor in this profound reality that
00:00:35.640 | every child we bring into this world is an eternal being who will live forever.
00:00:42.000 | This reality leads to a question like this one from Claire.
00:00:44.400 | "Pastor John, thank you so much for this podcast.
00:00:47.200 | It's been so extremely helpful in answering many of the exact questions I wrestle with
00:00:51.680 | myself.
00:00:53.680 | Something I have been recently wrestling with as a mom of two little children is why do
00:00:57.320 | we as believers continue to have children when we know that verses like Romans 9, 18
00:01:03.560 | are true?
00:01:04.680 | It sounds like the natalism/anti-natalism debate a little, but it's really driven by
00:01:09.680 | the doctrine of election.
00:01:11.680 | Knowing that our children could be the ones God chooses to harden, is it worth the risk
00:01:16.920 | of having children at all?"
00:01:19.320 | Yes, it is worth the risk, and I'll give you four observations.
00:01:25.920 | I hope they're biblical to support my answer.
00:01:30.440 | Number one, obedience is always worth the risk.
00:01:36.840 | Now why do I put it that way?
00:01:39.360 | Because when God said to Adam in the beginning, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,"
00:01:46.560 | Genesis 128, He knew exactly where the world was going.
00:01:52.320 | He knew all the horrors of history.
00:01:56.960 | He knew what the fall would mean for perishing and suffering, misery, relational horror and
00:02:05.440 | catastrophe.
00:02:06.440 | Oh my.
00:02:08.760 | Nothing took God off guard.
00:02:10.120 | He knew all that when He said, "Fill up the earth."
00:02:13.680 | It's not like He was talking to unfallen man, and as soon as man fell, He said, "Whoops,
00:02:18.600 | whoops, I gave them bad advice."
00:02:21.640 | God never, never, never gives bad advice because He knows everything that's coming.
00:02:28.920 | He takes everything into account when He gives His counsel.
00:02:33.640 | So He knew everything that was coming, and yet He said, "Fill this earth with human
00:02:39.880 | beings.
00:02:41.600 | These are the offspring that are going to experience either destruction or redemption."
00:02:46.840 | In other words, it isn't we who have discovered the doctrine of election and wonder whether
00:02:53.200 | it means we should have children.
00:02:55.360 | God created the doctrine of election and commanded us to have children.
00:03:01.120 | That's why I say it's worth the risk because obedience is always worth the risk.
00:03:08.080 | God knew the 21st century.
00:03:10.720 | He knew the first century.
00:03:11.800 | He knew every century and everything it would bring.
00:03:14.360 | He never rescinded the command, "Fill it up, fill it up."
00:03:17.640 | Number two, when we think about the fact that people are lost and people are saved, we must
00:03:26.960 | always remember that God is infinitely wise and good.
00:03:31.060 | He has purposes for this fact that some are lost and some are saved.
00:03:37.560 | He has purposes.
00:03:38.560 | They are wise.
00:03:39.720 | They are good.
00:03:40.820 | He knows what He's doing.
00:03:44.000 | He has good reasons for why one person is shown mercy and another is passed over in
00:03:50.840 | their rebellion and unbelief.
00:03:53.940 | We must be very, very careful lest we think in a way about children that implies that
00:04:02.800 | God's ways are foolish or unwise or cruel.
00:04:08.240 | Number three, it is a high and holy calling, not just for a woman to physically give birth
00:04:16.200 | to a child, but more for parents to agonize in spiritual labor pains until Christ be formed
00:04:25.840 | in their children.
00:04:27.560 | Paul said in Galatians 4.19 to the immature Christians that he loved, he was not entirely
00:04:34.120 | certain they were saved.
00:04:36.200 | He said, "My little children, for whom I am again in anguish of childbirth until Christ
00:04:44.640 | be formed in you."
00:04:46.880 | We don't choose to be parents because parenting is easy or because the outcome is sure.
00:04:56.480 | It's not easy and it isn't sure.
00:05:00.360 | We become parents because it's a high, holy, divine calling and all the risks and all the
00:05:10.000 | sorrows that it brings are part of a high and holy, precious and honorable calling and
00:05:19.200 | purpose of God.
00:05:22.060 | Number four, one last observation.
00:05:26.600 | Think with me for a moment about the fact that the Lord has delayed the second coming
00:05:30.920 | now for 2,000 years.
00:05:33.160 | He didn't decide to do that year by year.
00:05:37.080 | We know from the Gospels that the day was set in the mind of the Father from the beginning.
00:05:43.720 | Now what does that mean for the question that Claire is asking about the wisdom of having
00:05:50.680 | children?
00:05:52.520 | Some people had expressed skepticism that the Lord would ever return because it's been
00:05:57.520 | so long in their viewpoint in 2 Peter.
00:06:00.880 | And so Peter answers like this, "Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord
00:06:07.080 | one day is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years is as one day.
00:06:11.840 | The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward
00:06:17.000 | you, you, not wishing that any of you should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
00:06:27.720 | In other words, God delays the coming of Christ so that all of the elect will repent and be
00:06:36.040 | saved and have the experience of eternal joy in the presence of God.
00:06:43.720 | And God made that choice, the choice to appoint the day far out.
00:06:50.040 | He made that choice knowing that thousands, indeed millions of others will be born during
00:06:58.440 | that delay of Christ who will not believe but will perish.
00:07:04.440 | And here's the implication for the question we're dealing with.
00:07:07.840 | We should value the eternal joy and praise and glory to God that every redeemed child
00:07:18.080 | gives to God.
00:07:19.080 | We should value that joy and that praise more than we fear the misery if some are lost,
00:07:29.360 | because God does.
00:07:30.360 | There's no other way to understand this delay.
00:07:34.280 | God has planned history and the timing of the second coming the way he has because of
00:07:42.880 | the massive priority he puts upon the repentance and the salvation and the eternal joy of his
00:07:50.160 | elect who will be born and brought into the kingdom.
00:07:55.320 | He does not let the fact that many will become rebellious and reject his love, he doesn't
00:08:02.520 | let that fact compel him to withhold from his elect their eternal joy.
00:08:09.080 | Now, I think we should share God's mindset when we think about our children.
00:08:15.760 | We will pray and work and agonize and weep, and if we can, die so that Christ would be
00:08:25.800 | formed in them.
00:08:28.080 | But we will not let the possible misery of some prevent us from pursuing and hoping for
00:08:36.320 | the eternal joy of all.
00:08:39.200 | Amen.
00:08:40.200 | Excellent, Pastor John.
00:08:41.460 | Thank you for those hope-giving words.
00:08:43.200 | And Claire, thank you for this articulate question.
00:08:46.500 | If you want to send an articulate question to us or if you want to find old episodes
00:08:50.680 | in the archive, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:08:58.320 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.
00:09:00.520 | We'll see you on Monday.
00:09:01.800 | Have a great weekend.
00:09:03.040 | [END]
00:09:05.040 | Desiring God's Mindset in the Archive - Part 2 of 2
00:09:07.040 | Desiring God's Mindset in the Archive - Part 2 of 2
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