Awakening to the De-population Bomb

South Korea laments birthrate drop from anti-child emphasis
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (BP)--South Korean officials are searching for ways to reverse a decline in the country's birthrate, concluding that a policy of denouncing more than two children per couple as "unpatriotic" has had adverse effects.

The push for a higher birthrate comes as some of South Korea's doctors have asked for forgiveness for performing illegal abortions for years and are working to cut the number of the abortions in the Asian country....More

Babies Win Wars

An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal:

• Babies Win Wars
  By GUNNAR HEINSOHN

Dying nations are usually defined as those with fertility rates of 1.5 or lower. By that measure, 30 European countries are either dying today or -- like France -- seeing their cultures and populations transformed by growing ethnic and religious minorities.

Europe is shrinking just as the population in Islamic, African and Asian countries is exploding. In 2020, there will be one billion "fighting-age" men (ages 15-29) world-wide; only 65 million will be Europeans. At the same time, the Muslim world will have 300 million males, often with limited opportunities at home.

Little can be done to reverse Europe's demographic fate. Germany's 80 million inhabitants would need 750,000 skilled immigrants every year up to 2050 to offset the declining fertility rate that started in 1975. Even if such an unrealistic immigration level could somehow be achieved (only 10,000 skilled immigrants a year are arriving now), Germany's median age would still jump to 52 from 42 while ethnic Germans would become a minority in their own country.....more

Less Expensive and Just Plain Easier

New at Polemos
Education
Audio Links

They are the greatest purveyors of Socialism in the United States of America. They are one of the largest governmental agencies taking some peoples hard earned money and spending it on others who didn't work for it. They threaten imprisonment and fines if not complied with. They tear apart the family and promote homosexuality, promiscuity and many other immoralities.

They are anti-Christ and forbid the practice of Christianity. They are temples of a false religion that goes by the name “Humanism.” They worship a false god and place their hope in a false messiah they call “education.”

They have produced multiple generations of people who do not understand freedom. Many of those they have produced do not even know what freedom is and most of them just don’t care anymore. The only freedom this institution promotes is freedom from the Law of God.

This institution is, perhaps, the single greatest threat to freedom in the United States of America.

What am I speaking of? No, no, not our churches, I'm talking about the Public Schools!

So why do so many professing Christians send their children to these godless places? Why do so many professing Christians send their children to the enemies of God to be “educated?” In a recent survey71% of the respondents said that they did it because it was less expensive and just plain easier. Can you believe it? Can you believe that 71% of them would be that honest? Why are we throwing our kids to the Lions? "Because its easy and cheap."

What will we do to our posterity next? Print a bunch of money to bail ourselves out of debt and give them the bill?

• What the Bible Says about Education
  Scott Brown

• The Worst Enemy to Freedom
  Kevin Swanson

• Why Christians Send Their Children to Public Schools
  Kevin Swanson

• The Phenomena of Teenagers
  Kevin Swanson

Imposing a crushing debt on our posterity

The mistakes of one generation...

"The mistakes of one generation, many times become the calamity of succeeding generations."

-Solomon Stoddard grandfather of Jonathan Edwards

Throwing Our Posterity Under the Bus

My 15 year old son and I were discussing economics recently (he's very interested in politics and economics) when the wickedness of what we are doing economically as a country really struck me.

We have created a economic situation in our country that is sure to do harm to our posterity if we don't do something about it. If we don't start taking drastic measures to change things, somewhere down the line our posterity will pay the price, yet we keep on doing the same old irresponsible things that started it all in the first place.

Because it hasn't had a very adverse effect on us yet we just go on our merry way. Because we're still fairly comfortable we're happy with the way things are. Working to solve the problem would be difficult and that might be uncomfortable, and why make ourselves uncomfortable when we can possibly avoid the consequences of our actions and leave them to another generation to deal with?

If you think about it we do the very same thing in numerous other ways. We put our children in government schools because its easy and the immediate consequences of our actions are hard to see. We elect the politicians who keep the status quo because we're comfortable with life the way it is right now. We make all sorts of compromises with sin because it makes our life easier at the moment. We don't share the gospel which could potentially change generations of a family because we fear the discomfort of possible rejection or persecution. We sit in bad churches because we're comfortable or our kids like it there, unconcerned about the long range effect it might have on them spiritually. We fail to train our children because right now it's easier not too. Or worse yet we just skip having the children because in the short term it's a lot less of a hassle.

We seem to be spiritually myopic and all too willing to throw our posterity under the bus, so to speak, in order to be comfortable now and avoid some difficult work.

A Tragic Ignorance Part 4

The Churches Tragic Ignorance of Church History Part 4
Some Applications

2. If we as Christians remain willful ignorant of the works of Christ in church history and historical theology we cannot obey the scriptures.

In 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 we are told twice that the things that happen in history happen as an example for us:

“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

1 Corinthians 10:6-11

The history of the people of God gives us examples to be followed and examples to be avoided both in practice and doctrine, an ignorance of both history and theology leave us unable to do either. History, both in practice and theology, is a means which God has graciously given to us to help us avoid errors of the past that displease Him and arouse us to follow examples of the past that do please Him. We are fools indeed to ignore this help to our sanctification.

We hurt ourselves a great deal when we ignore a help and a means that God has given unto us for our growth and progress in the faith, but we hardly just hurt ourselves alone. We all have spheres of influence in which we live and exist and there are probably many around us who would benefit from our own growth in the grace of the Lord. The Church especially is a body and the grace (or lack of) in one life will undoubtedly rub off and affect the other parts. Both in the Church and in the rest of life we cannot escape having an effect, for good or evil, on those around us.

Foremost in this concern should be our own families! Psalm 78 commands us to relate the works of the Lord to our children that they might “set their hope in God, and not forget the works of the Lord, but keep His commandments.”

"We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God."

Psalm 78:5-7

Do you love your children? Do you desire their conversion? Do you want them to “set their hope in God” and “keep His commandments”? Do you want them to grow up to pass on the testimony of the Lord to their children and their children’s children? Then study the works of God, learn its lessons, apply them to your own life and share them with your children.

There's an odd phenomenon being reported

For a Few, the More Kids the Merrier
By LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN

"There's an odd phenomenon being reported.....highly educated, highly compensated couples popping out four or more children--happily and by choice. "

Can anyone believe it??? Smart people having several children? What could be going on here?

"What most outsiders want to know, though, is how in heck these parents keep straight who's got Taekwondo class and who needs new sneakers and who's desperate for some quality time alone with Mom or Dad...."

How on earth do they do it?

Click here to read more....

Killing your babies to save the planet???

Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly
Daily Mail

"Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy.

But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.

Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet."

Click here to read more...

Now this is insanity! Killing your babies to save the planet??? Taking a life to save a ball of dirt? What exactly are they saving it for anyhow?

Don’t such people ever stop to consider that while people cause problems, it is also people that solve problems? How does she know that she didn’t just murder the person that would solve most of the world’s ecological problems? Perhaps one of the children that she would have had would have perfected a new form of fuel that would have been good for the environment? Perhaps one of her children would have grown up to solve all the problems in the Middle East?

A similar decision by many Christians not to have children, or not to have anymore children, is almost as sad; how do we know that the next child might not be another George Whitefield, another John Calvin or another Mathew Henry? How do we know that God may not use that next child to bring thousands to salvation and change the course of world history? Or maybe have a profound effect on someone else who will change the course of world history? We of all people ought to have hope in what God might do with our children.

"Children are a blessing from the Lord"

The multi-generational character of error

As Ive been reading the biography of George Whitefield to my children Ive been struck once again by the multi-generational character of error. A little error seems to grow slowly and almost irresistibly over time.

As you read the history of Whitefield's good friends, John and Charles Wesley, you can't help but stand in awe of their zeal and boldness in evangelizing the wretched and depraved world of their day. But as you look at the Methodist Church (which grew out of the Wesley's endeavors) as it stands presently, you can't help but stand in awe of one of the most liberal, unbiblical, lost denominations of our day! How did it go from that to this? The answer is a little error and a lot of time.

The errors that we indulge in our generation will most likely be taken to far greater extents by our posterity. For this reason it is supremely selfish of our generation to try so hard to avoid doctrinal distinctives and clear presentations of doctrinal truth; while we may be popular in our own day because we embrace everybody's belief system, we're setting up future generations to stumble. Our cowardliness and laziness is sure to bear fruit in generations yet to come.

George wouldn't stand a chance in our day

The kids and I just recently finished reading The Autobiography of George Muller, which I highly recommend reading, and now we're moving on to The Biography of George Whitefield (I guess we have a George theme going on) by Arnold Dallimore, which I even highlier (I know thats not a word) recommend reading.

This condensed version of Dallimore's two volume biography is among the best biographies I have personally read, I think I would have to put it in the top five at least.

I have often wondered why God does not send such men in our own day, and last night while reading chapter one I discovered one reason why; George Whitefield was the seventh son of seven children. George and four of his brothers and sisters wouldn't stand a chance in our day, they would have been victims of the birth control mentality for sure! Who cares how God might use the next child to bless the entire world and change the course of history, another child would be too much work!

Hatred of fertility and large families

Hatred of Beautiful Things
From Scott Brown online

"Hatred of fertility and large families will always end the same: unforseen economic problems and a net loss of love in this world. The people who contradict scripture on birth control will always at some point eat their words and some will gnash their teeth. But in the mean time they will trade the biblical tenor on the matter for their own thinking that argues, "God gave us a brain for planning, so birth control is lawful."

Children and the Dominion Mandate

New at Pol'-e-store
Birth Control
Children

I just recently finished listening to the Vision Forum message Children and the Dominion Mandate by Willaim Einwechter; very good!

By our anti-life and anti-child attitudes and practices we are cutting off our own posterity, destroying our own future and disobeying the Dominion mandate given us by God. The death of Western civilization is no longer a matter of prediction, as pastor Einwechter so clearly points out, it's now a simple mathematical equation.

• Children and the Dominion Mandate Audio CD
  By Willaim Einwechter / Vision Forum

Children are more of God

Verse 3.—"Children are an heritage of the Lord." Hence note, 'tis one of the greatest outward blessings to have a family full of dutiful children. To have many children is the next blessing to much grace. To have many children about us is better than to have much wealth about us. To have store of these olive plants (as the Psalmist calls them) round about our table is better than to have store of oil and wine upon our table. We know the worth of dead, or rather lifeless treasures, but who knows the worth of living treasures? Every man who hath children hath not a blessing in them, yet children are a blessing, and some have many blessings in one child. Children are chiefly a blessing to the children of God. "Lo, children are an heritage of the lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward." But are not houses and lands, gold and silver, an heritage bestowed by the Lord upon his people? Doubtless they are, for the earth is his, and the fullness of it, and he gives it to the children of men. But though all things are of God, yet all things are not alike of Him; children are more of God than houses and lands.

—Joseph Caryl.

Explanitory Notes and Quaint Sayings

From Spurgeons The Treasury of David

Psalm 127:3

Arrows or Firecrackers?

Modern American Christianity seems to have the firecracker mentality when it comes to our children; we light the fuse to get them started and then we run away and hide while they blow-up.

I love the Scriptures presentation of the mentality we should have when it comes to our children: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” Psalm 127:4. What a tremendous number of truths are left implied by this verse! Here’s a few to think about:

1. Arrows must be skillfully, carefully and patiently fashioned; they start out as sticks and will remain sticks unless carefully acted upon.
2. The warrior must be skilled in the use of his arrows or they are no good to him. A quiver full of arrows which are not used with any skill or wisdom are little more than a burden and a distraction.
3. This picture of the warrior with arrows implies vision in regards to his target and guidance in regards to the arrows. The target must be looked upon, fixed on, and aimed at. The arrow must be pointed at and guided towards its destination.
4. Arrows are not shot without thought, purpose and intention. Shooting arrows in any other manner is dangerous and bound to hurt somebody.
5. To the warrior, the arrow is an extension of himself, used to go beyond himself to carry out his mission. A warrior with a little skill and some arrows can do a lot of damage from a distance. Used properly, the arrow can accomplish things well beyond the reach of the one shooting it.

But what good will that do me right now?

I was contemplating where the modern Church lost its biblical understanding of posterity when my thoughts naturally drifted to the story of Abraham. I began thinking: “How would the story of Abraham be different if God appeared to the typical 20^th century church goer?” Maybe it would go something like this:

Then the Lord brought Abe outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

Then Abe answered and said “But what good will that do me right now? Not to mention that sounds like a lot of work! Think of all the collage tuition! People will talk! I’m way over 40 and I’m just about to retire! There’s ways to prevent this you know, and I really have to think of my health now that I’m so old. I don’t want to overdo myself. Maybe you could bless me with something more to my liking, like cars or houses or something?

“what about………?”

I know I know “what about………?” Every time I bring up the subject of having children (Suffering for the sake of our posterity) someone brings up some of the most difficult scenarios possible to show that it’s entirely O.K. to stop having children, even if I didn’t say anything about them having more children.

But let’s be honest, many of these scenarios aren’t that frequent and most of us are willing to stop having children simply because it’s a little bit difficult or just inconvenient.

I’m not saying that we actively need to try to have as many children as humanly possible, and I’m not even saying that we always need to be wanting another child, but shouldn’t we at least be open to letting God give us more?

Those of us who already have one or more children and are thinking of quitting just because they are difficult ought to ask ourselves this question; which one of our children would we give up in order to make our lives easier?

Any parent with any heart at all would quickly answer something like this: “I would never get rid of any of my children; I would do anything for any of them!” That being the case, wouldn’t we feel the same about the children we intend to prevent? Wouldn’t we do anything for them also? And if that’s the case, that we would do anything for them also, shouldn’t we start by giving them the opportunity to be conceived?

This afternoon I sat in this chair, looked at one of my children and tried to imagine how different this family’s life would be without that one child. I thought about all the joy, all the laughter and all the good times that that child had brought to this household. I thought about all the friendship, fellowship and help that that child had brought to the other children in our own household and even to the children of other households; how sad it would have been to miss out on all that. What a huge empty space that would have left.

Think about it, if we willfully prevent the Lord from giving us more children for no good reason, aren’t we depriving ourselves and others of everything that another child might have been and done? Isn’t it almost as if we are erasing one of our children, but we’re just doing it before we have a chance to miss them?