Be Fruitful and Multiply: A Case Study in Natural and Divine Revelation

My thesis is this: The consequences of defying God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” are becoming visible in the modern world.

I recently heard a pastor say, “Reality is undefeated.” That line captures a powerful apologetic truth: the world God made behaves according to the design God gave. In Christian apologetics, one of the most underused tools is simply pointing to reality: the observable consequences of obeying or rejecting God’s created order.

One of the first commands God gave humanity was, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28, ESV). After the flood, God repeated the same mandate to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1, 7). The theme continues throughout Scripture as a covenant blessing to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel (Genesis 17:2; 26:4; 28:3; 35:11; Exodus 1:7; Leviticus 26:9; Jeremiah 23:3; Ezekiel 36:11). Fruitfulness is consistently portrayed as a blessing, a sign of life, and a foundation for human flourishing. Yet many today believe the opposite — that humanity is a burden on the planet, that resources are scarce, and that fewer people means a better world. But reality is now contradicting that belief.

The Real Crisis: Population Implosion, Not Overpopulation

Global fertility rates have now fallen well below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman in most developed nations (UN World Population Prospects, 2024). Instead of facing an overpopulation crisis, wealthy nations are entering a period of population collapse that threatens economic stability, social systems, and national futures.

China as a Case Study in Rejecting Fruitfulness

China’s One‑Child Policy (1980–2015) was one of the most aggressive attempts in history to suppress fruitfulness.

An estimated 400 million births were prevented (UNFPA, 2015).

A severe sex‑ratio imbalance emerged due to selective abortion. Boys were selected over girls, leading to an exacerbation of the problem: fewer girls to have babies. When reality sets in that it was a bad idea.

The working‑age population began shrinking in 2014 and has since lost over 41 million workers (UN WPP 2024). This affects not only pensions, but a nation’s ability to care for the sick and elderly, produce goods and services, and provide the transportation and food production industries for the people to feed the other people.

China is projected to lose 100 million more workers by 2035 (IMF, 2024).

Rural schools are closing at a rate of 1,000 per year (China Education Statistical Yearbook, 2023).

China’s population is projected to fall from 1.4 billion to ~800 million by 2100 (Lancet GBD Fertility Forecast, 2024).

China has now reversed course. Their government officially ended the One‑Child Policy in 2015, adopted a Two‑Child Policy in 2016, a Three‑Child Policy in 2021, and finally removed all birth limits. Provinces now offer tax breaks, housing incentives, and extended parental leave. Yet China’s fertility rate remains around 1.0, far below replacement. The consequences of rejecting fruitfulness are proving extremely difficult to undo.

Some argue that fewer people means fewer resource demands. They say we are out of room and food to feed all these people. They think that fewer people will lead to an abundance for those of us lucky enough to win the birthday lottery. But the data shows otherwise.

We are not running out of space

Only 3% of Earth’s land is urbanized, and only 11% is used for crops (FAO, 2023). The entire world population could fit in Texas at New York City density, or in Australia and part of Canada, at rural density. This harkens the Christian back to the Tower of Babel episode, where the people refuse God’s command to spread out over the whole earth, and instead establish a city with a tower that would reach the heavens. This is where God divided people into diverse language groups, forcing them to depart from one another and fulfil God’s command.

We are not running out of resources

Modern agriculture produces 3–5 times more food per acre than in 1960 (FAO, 2023). This is not only astounding and a testament to human ingenuity given by God, but also a direct refutation of the predictions in the 1960s that said we would run out of food and have global starvation by the 1970s and 1980s. This theory, especially popularized by the author Paul Ehrlich, led many to work toward lowering the population through things like China’s One Child Policy.

Vertical farming uses 90–99% less land and can operate anywhere. The “Green Revolution” that industrialized farming has created a world where global poverty and famine have fallen, while life expectancies and food production have skyrocketed.

Desalination already provides water for 300+ million people (International Desalination Association, 2024).

The real problem is distribution, not scarcity

The National Academies report that resource strain is driven by poor governance and infrastructure, not population size (National Research Council, 2023). And this in no way should be read to be a ploy for a kind of Marxist redistribution. History shows that that model doesn’t work at all for the distribution of resources (see any history of any socialist government ever attempted). Human innovation and mutual cooperation have been shown to be far better at redistributing resources within a supply-and-demand structure than government-controlled resource allocation. Where working for others benefits both the producer and the consumer, success follows.

Declining populations create far worse problems

Countries with low fertility are experiencing shrinking workforces, collapsing pension systems, aging populations, school closures, economic stagnation, and regional depopulation. These are the exact type of consequences Scripture associates with rejecting God’s design for life and fruitfulness.

General Revelation Confirms Divine Revelation

When God commands humanity to be fruitful and multiply, He is not burdening us — He is blessing us. History shows that when societies embrace fruitfulness, they flourish. When they suppress it, they decline. As we watch nations struggle with demographic implosion, we are witnessing general revelation — the natural consequences built into creation — aligning perfectly with divine revelation — God’s explicit commands in Scripture.

Reality is undefeated

And reality is now demonstrating that God’s design for fruitfulness is essential for human thriving. Humanity was made in the image of a creative, life‑giving God. It should not surprise us that we flourish when we reflect His nature — and falter when we reject it.

References

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2024). World population prospects 2024.

Vollset, S. E., Goren, E., Yuan, C. W., Cao, J., Smith, A. E., Hsiao, T., … Murray, C. J. L. (2024). Global fertility in 204 countries and territories, 1950–2021, with forecasts to 2100. The Lancet.

International Monetary Fund. (2024). Demographic headwinds: Implications for growth and stability.

United Nations Population Fund. (2015). UNFPA statement on the end of China’s one‑child policy.

National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2023). China statistical yearbook.

Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2023). China education statistical yearbook.

Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development. (2023). Pensions at a glance 2023.

International Monetary Fund. (2024). People’s Republic of China: Staff report.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2023). FAOSTAT statistical database.

International Desalination Association. (2024). IDA global desalination report.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2023). Population, land use, and environment: Research directions. National Academies Press.

United Nations Human Settlements Programme. (2023). World cities report 2023.

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Tony Williams is a retired police officer from Southern Illinois and currently lives in Kentucky with his family. He has been studying apologetics in his spare time for two decades, since a crisis of faith led him to the discovery of vast and ever-increasing evidence for his faith. Tony received a bachelor’s degree in University Studies from Southern Illinois University in 2019. His career in law enforcement has provided valuable insight into the concepts of truth, evidence, confession, testimony, cultural competency, morality, and most of all, the compelling need for Christ in the lives of the lost. Tony plans to pursue postgraduate studies in apologetics in the near future to sharpen his understanding of the various facets of Christian apologetics.

Originally posted at: https://bit.ly/4wuvIbx