Love and Death
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

There are all kinds of ways to get people to look at you, and all kinds of looks one can receive. I have a habit (which my wife is desperately trying to break) of dancing in the aisles at the grocery store. Other folks spike their hair (not an option for me), others pierce their faces. My wife Denise gets looked at for three reasons. Some look at her and feel pity for the woman with the dancing husband. Some look at her and admire her because she is so pretty. But many folks look at her with amazement and disgust when she is out with Darby, Campbell, and Bambino in the belly. The third group is not reluctant to communicate with their mouths as well as their eyes, "Are those all yours? How old are they? Do you know what causes that?" (I have a pretty good idea, but more testing is required.)

I write on our baby's due date, in a fog of impatience and eagerness. I want to see that baby, and I want to see the next, and the next and the next, and the next, and so on. One of the accusations we receive for our crime of having "so many" children comes, like jeopardy, in the form of a question, "How many do you plan to have?" "As many as God will give us" is my standard reply. If Denise is not around the bonus question is always, "Well, how does your wife feel about that?" For those keeping score at home, the same.

That's one of the strangest things about this strange land in which we live. It would seem that if a culture will not acknowledge God, if it denies that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, that there would be one obvious place to stop in its search for a telos, a purpose. Preservation of the species is the closest thing to a logical corporate goal for the unbelieving world. Yet they hate children. Such, however, shouldn't really surprise us. We've been warned in Scripture. The one philosophy which embraces all unbelieving philosophies is masochism.

In Proverbs 8 wisdom is personified, presented as a living person. It is, in one sense, a uniquely accurate personification. Wisdom is God Himself. And wisdom tells us in verse 36a, "But he who sins against me injures himself". It makes sense that if those who lose their life gain it then those who seek their own will lose it. Selfishness is the surest way to self-destruction. Self-love is self- loathing. Verse 36b makes it even more clear, "All those who hate me love death." Wow.

Look around you though. Consider the homosexual movement. What could be more destructive than to embrace a lifestyle which never did and never will bring life, and which now can quickly bring death. Consider abortion, the wanton destruction of the fruit of one's womb. Consider contraceptives which say no to life.

To the pagan mind children are not so much the hope of the future, but the problem of today. Of course rarely is this said directly. It is love of children we are told that leads us to kill them: "Every child a wanted child!" or "I could never bring a child into this messed up world." It is the unspoken assumption in the culture that celebrates the joys of being single and unencumbered, of being free of the drudgery of wiping dirty noses and bottoms. Children are not called nuisances in television and movies, they're just shown that way.

I'm not surprised that it is on this issue that the church has most freely ceased to be strange and has instead embraced the ways of this strange land. It is in the church where Denise and I experience the most puzzlement over our decision to let God plan our family, and to pray for all He'll give us. It doesn't surprise me because I once loved death. I was committed to Reformed theology, limited government, objective truth. I was persuaded that I had a fairly sound biblical world view. Then I saw what God said about children, that we are commanded to be fruitful and multiply, and that children are a blessing. Only a masochist says "no thanks" to a gift from God.

If we are to be strangers let us begin with our children. Let us strangely see them as God sees them. Let us pray for all that He will give (have you ever known a believer to wish one of his or her children hadn't been born? Have you ever seen the righteous begging for bread?) and then train them to see their children as God sees them. It is a strange land, where Moloch is worshiped in abortion mills and pharmacies, by pagans and professing believers alike.