1
00:00:04,620 --> 00:00:10,320
Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with the

2
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:15,119
Moment of Truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

3
00:00:15,539 --> 00:00:23,539
Today, can we say that the hysterical warnings about the population time bomb have finally

4
00:00:23,539 --> 00:00:29,859
fizzled? Ever since recorded history, man has been saying, there are too many people.

5
00:00:29,859 --> 00:00:36,060
We have to do something. And really, today is no different. For example, a renowned scientist and

6
00:00:36,060 --> 00:00:45,060
climatologist, Stephen Emott, says this, Earth is home to millions of species. Just one dominates it,

7
00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:50,460
us. Our cleverness, our inventiveness, and our activities have modified almost every part of

8
00:00:50,460 --> 00:00:56,340
our planet. In fact, we are having a profound impact on it. Indeed, our cleverness, our inventiveness,

9
00:00:56,340 --> 00:01:02,960
and our activities are now the drivers of every global problem we face. And every one of these

10
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:10,239
problems is accelerating as we continue to grow towards a global population of 10 billion. In

11
00:01:10,239 --> 00:01:16,480
fact, I believe we can rightly call the situation we're in right now an emergency, an unprecedented

12
00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:27,260
planetary emergency. Stephen Emott, a scientist and climatologist, can you hear the hysteria? We could

13
00:01:27,260 --> 00:01:34,700
replicate that voice dozens, hundreds of times over as the cacophony over the people problem grows in

14
00:01:34,700 --> 00:01:43,000
volume, frequency, and intensity with every passing day. But is it true? Does it have any basis in fact?

15
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:51,519
Or is it what I call the pharaoh fallacy? The pharaoh fallacy is that since the world,

16
00:01:51,620 --> 00:01:57,579
or even a certain portion of the world, is growing in population, that it ipso facto threatens me in

17
00:01:57,579 --> 00:02:04,900
what I have. They, the nameless, faceless mass of humanity, is growing so numerous and voracious for

18
00:02:04,900 --> 00:02:12,159
resources, I need, well, something must be done. There's an implied threat, a cord of fear,

19
00:02:12,159 --> 00:02:19,400
which is struck at the mention of overpopulation. The pharaoh fallacy is play on fear. Our first

20
00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:25,960
biblical example is that of Pharaoh, who saw a population time bomb ticking in Egypt with the

21
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:33,500
exploding number of Hebrews in his land. He was the first climate alarmist who devised a solution

22
00:02:33,500 --> 00:02:38,280
to overpopulation, right? The Bible tells us in Exodus chapter one,

23
00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:44,020
Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with

24
00:02:44,020 --> 00:02:50,139
them, lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape

25
00:02:50,139 --> 00:02:57,659
from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.

26
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:03,960
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad.

27
00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:09,259
And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of

28
00:03:09,259 --> 00:03:15,379
Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service. Oh, dear listener,

29
00:03:15,699 --> 00:03:22,759
such is the response to the fear of overpopulation. Additionally, the Egyptians began to kill the

30
00:03:22,759 --> 00:03:30,060
firstborn among the Hebrew women as a population control mechanism. The Bible goes on to say,

31
00:03:30,060 --> 00:03:35,300
when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son,

32
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:41,580
you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not

33
00:03:41,580 --> 00:03:48,620
do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. Unquote. Oh, behold, one of the

34
00:03:48,620 --> 00:03:56,259
earliest attempts at population control. But the Pharaoh is only the first in our rogues gallery

35
00:03:56,259 --> 00:04:03,639
of overpopulation alarmists. Did you know that Plato, the great philosopher Plato, was also one.

36
00:04:04,419 --> 00:04:09,800
This seminal philosopher had very specific parameters for population in his republic,

37
00:04:09,919 --> 00:04:16,279
his ideal republic. The ideal republic should have a balance, he said, between arable land and the

38
00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:22,000
people to till it and keep it. There must be enough resources to sustain, and I quote him now,

39
00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:30,639
a certain number of inhabitants in a moderate way of life. No more and no less. Well, Plato never defines

40
00:04:30,639 --> 00:04:36,819
too carefully what a moderate way of life is, but he did conclude that in his own day there were too

41
00:04:36,819 --> 00:04:42,439
many people on the earth to sustain his ideal vision of a republic, and that measures should be

42
00:04:42,439 --> 00:04:52,839
taken to reduce the population. Well, his successor, Aristotle, another profound philosopher, Greek

43
00:04:52,839 --> 00:05:00,240
philosopher, he was of the same opinion, and he modifies Plato's system. He adopts it largely, but he

44
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:07,839
modifies it by trying to attach a rigorous ethical template over it all. He also advocates abortion to

45
00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:14,259
control population, and I quote him now, if any people have a child as a result of intercourse and

46
00:05:14,259 --> 00:05:21,519
contravention of these regulations, abortion must be practiced on it before it has developed sensation

47
00:05:21,519 --> 00:05:30,600
and life, unquote. Well, Plato, Aristotle, Tertullian, too. Many of you have not heard of this Christian

48
00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:37,399
philosopher from the late second, early third century. Tertullian puts it this way. He says,

49
00:05:37,519 --> 00:05:45,160
our numbers are burdensome to the world, which can hardly support us, and very deed pestilence as a remedy

50
00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:55,399
for nations as the means of pruning the luxuriance of the human race. Even in his own day when populations

51
00:05:55,399 --> 00:06:05,439
were much less fruitful, that was the opinions of all of these men. And of course, Genghis Khan. Oh,

52
00:06:05,540 --> 00:06:11,000
yeah. Genghis Khan presumed the Mongols to be a superior race, and there were too many non-Mongol

53
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:18,279
peoples. It's estimated, according to the website Exploring History, it's estimated that Genghis Khan

54
00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:27,139
killed 40 million people, 11% of the then existing world population. And in fact, we have historical

55
00:06:27,139 --> 00:06:34,339
records that whole lands were depopulated. Exploring History even tries to make the point that he killed

56
00:06:34,339 --> 00:06:39,480
enough people to cool the planet. Now, I'm not sure how they calculate that, but it certainly

57
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:46,420
makes for a good point for the climate argument, doesn't it? And then, of course, there's Adolf Hitler.

58
00:06:46,420 --> 00:06:54,420
Adolf Hitler was also into population control. And I quote Hitler here at this point. He says,

59
00:06:54,740 --> 00:07:00,680
the annual increase of population in Germany amounts to almost 900,000 souls. The difficulties

60
00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:06,199
of providing for this army of new citizens must grow from year to year and must finally lead to a

61
00:07:06,199 --> 00:07:12,819
catastrophe unless ways and means are found which will forestall the danger of misery and hunger. Yes.

62
00:07:12,819 --> 00:07:20,259
And the biographer of Hitler, Brian Kaplan, says this then about Hitler. It turns out that

63
00:07:20,259 --> 00:07:26,480
at the root of Hitler's propensity to kill people was his belief that there are too many people,

64
00:07:26,639 --> 00:07:35,040
unquote. Well, finally, we conclude with somebody who may have heard if you took high school economics,

65
00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:42,759
and that is a man named Thomas Malthus. Thomas Malthus. He is perhaps the most famous representative of

66
00:07:42,759 --> 00:07:50,120
overpopulation hysteria. He is a British scholar and cleric, Thomas Malthus. And if you've ever heard of

67
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:58,959
the Malthusian theory of population, well, that is the guy. And his basic argument in his 1798 work,

68
00:07:58,959 --> 00:08:06,079
which was entitled An Essay on the Principle of Population, he says that populations grow in an

69
00:08:06,079 --> 00:08:12,120
exponential progression. If we begin with two, for example, and keep doubling after that, we go

70
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:20,339
from two to four to eight to 16 to 32 to 64. Populations grow in this manner, while food grows

71
00:08:20,339 --> 00:08:26,720
in an arithmetical progression. That is, if we start with two again, two, four, six, eight, 10, 12,

72
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:32,480
much slower growth. And one can see that even after five successive computations, the exponential

73
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:41,000
number is 64, while the arithmetical number is 12. Well, Malthus thus reasoned that if this growth

74
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:47,500
continued apace, then the population would soon overwhelm the food available and mass starvation

75
00:08:47,500 --> 00:08:55,299
and its attendant specters of war and disease would follow. He calculated that these positive,

76
00:08:55,299 --> 00:09:02,779
he calls them, positive forces, that is famine, disease, and war, they would reduce population,

77
00:09:03,279 --> 00:09:10,779
but also negative forces could also serve to reduce population with less misery. And those negative

78
00:09:10,779 --> 00:09:17,679
forces would be things like birth control, reduced family size, enforced, of course, and abortion.

79
00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:24,820
Well, Malthus thus became an advocate for the negative forces because they reduced the misery

80
00:09:24,820 --> 00:09:31,360
side of the equation. But regardless, to his way of thinking, population would be corrected either by

81
00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:39,600
nature in the ebb and flow of these positive forces we mentioned, war, famine, disease, or it would be

82
00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:46,200
reduced intentionally and purposefully through negative forces exercised by man himself to restrain

83
00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:53,759
population growth and to moderate human suffering and misery. Well, while most people have never

84
00:09:53,759 --> 00:10:00,019
or rarely heard of the previous thinkers on this topic, almost everyone has heard of Malthus, haven't

85
00:10:00,019 --> 00:10:06,059
they? Especially if you took a basic econ 101 course in high school or maybe college. I don't know if

86
00:10:06,059 --> 00:10:13,220
they still teach those topics today there, but I certainly did. And Malthus' essay was an immediate

87
00:10:13,220 --> 00:10:19,080
sensation, and it provoked a great deal of discussion, even legislation in the British Parliament,

88
00:10:19,519 --> 00:10:26,899
and his thesis was thought to be gospel in economic and political circles. According to economist

89
00:10:26,899 --> 00:10:35,200
Patricia Kutzer, Patricia Kutzer says this about Malthus. She says, Malthus laid the theoretical

90
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:42,500
foundations of the conventional wisdom that has dominated the debate, both scientifically and

91
00:10:42,500 --> 00:10:50,539
ideologically, on global hunger and famines for almost two centuries. Yes. In other words, Malthus

92
00:10:50,539 --> 00:10:59,460
was not only a preacher of religion, but of overpopulation hysteria. But is his thesis the gospel it is

93
00:10:59,460 --> 00:11:06,940
designed to be. It is trumpeted to be. Many voices have said no, but their voices have not been very

94
00:11:06,940 --> 00:11:15,320
well heard. Let me put before you three reasons why the pharaoh fallacy is just that, a fallacy.

95
00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:24,580
Number one, the pharaoh fallacy is a fallacy because the concept and the calculation is faulty. Several scholars

96
00:11:24,580 --> 00:11:30,360
have pointed out over the years that the second part of this equation, that food production grows

97
00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:38,419
arithmetically, has been made irrelevant. A classic example of anachronism by technology, which has

98
00:11:38,419 --> 00:11:45,100
enabled food production to keep pace with population growth over the intervening centuries since Malthus.

99
00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:52,399
Things like pesticides and fertilizers, rotation techniques, irrigation practices, and many other

100
00:11:52,399 --> 00:11:58,299
advances have rendered the arithmetical growth of food production a non sequitur. And consequently,

101
00:11:58,740 --> 00:12:04,679
his logical construct is rendered invalid. And additionally, even that first part of his

102
00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:12,139
equation, that human population grows exponentially, assumes a fatalistic pattern of behavior by a species

103
00:12:12,139 --> 00:12:19,240
bound by the laws of evolution. We can do nothing else than breed like rabbits, of course, according to

104
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:27,940
this first part of that equation. In fact, that was the condescending conclusion of one of the West's foremost

105
00:12:27,940 --> 00:12:35,399
evolutionary historians as well, Arnold Toynbee. The famous historian Arnold Toynbee puts it this way, and I quote him,

106
00:12:35,659 --> 00:12:41,419
we have been godlike in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been

107
00:12:41,419 --> 00:12:50,919
rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves, unquote. Well, in fact, Malthus's thesis was seized

108
00:12:50,919 --> 00:12:59,480
upon by both Karl Marx and Darwin to advance their theories of the inevitability of the triumph of

109
00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:05,460
communism, in the case of Marx, and the survival of the fittest, in the case of Darwin. And that forces us to

110
00:13:05,460 --> 00:13:11,279
ask the logical question, then, if Malthusian economics is invalid, and both Marxism and

111
00:13:11,279 --> 00:13:17,840
Darwinism is predicated in part upon them, does that make Marxism and Darwinianism invalid?

112
00:13:19,220 --> 00:13:24,940
Well, the answer to that question must be left for another day. But suffice it to say that Malthusian

113
00:13:24,940 --> 00:13:32,799
economic theory proves to be, in the end, invalid on its premises. Second reason, indeed, why

114
00:13:32,799 --> 00:13:41,399
the Pharaoh fallacy is indeed a fallacy is that, number two, it seriously underestimates the grace

115
00:13:41,399 --> 00:13:49,480
of God and the ingenuity of man. Underestimates the grace of God and the ingenuity of man. Once more,

116
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:57,340
if we were but mere animals blindly obeying the laws of nature, a case might be made for Malthusian

117
00:13:57,340 --> 00:14:03,799
economics. But we are manifestly more than this. And Malthus, as a preacher, should have known better.

118
00:14:04,580 --> 00:14:09,679
Humanity has been infinitely creative and innovative in dealing with burgeoning populations.

119
00:14:10,639 --> 00:14:19,120
Demand has been met, really, by supply on a systematic, calculable scale over the centuries.

120
00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:28,759
We have briefly touched upon that a few minutes ago. If the food sector of our economy is continued

121
00:14:28,759 --> 00:14:37,159
to let innovate and develop, well, we can continue to support a growing population. But when that is

122
00:14:37,159 --> 00:14:44,399
tampered with, and this is worth a whole nother show, because it does seem to be that our food

123
00:14:44,399 --> 00:14:51,480
supplies are being tampered with. And I'm not just a conspiracy theorist here on this. I'm a

124
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:59,440
conspiracy therapist when it comes to these issues. Because when our food is tampered with, then we

125
00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:06,120
have a problem. Bill Gates, for example, just one example. Bill Gates has been buying up farmland all

126
00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:13,779
over the United States, and he's been sequestering it so that it cannot be used to grow food. Some sources,

127
00:15:13,779 --> 00:15:23,399
they say, excuse me, that he now owns 270,000 acres and counting in farmland, and is already the

128
00:15:23,399 --> 00:15:30,200
largest private owner of farmland in the United States. Gates, too, is of the opinion that there

129
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:37,000
are too many people on the planet, and that one method for reducing population is reducing the

130
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:44,679
amount of food. Pretty simple, huh? And it's been simple with politicians and rulers from the very

131
00:15:44,679 --> 00:15:53,620
beginning. Food is indeed a weapon, as one of the Soviet ambassadors used to say when he would come to

132
00:15:53,620 --> 00:16:02,539
America soon after the Soviet Union came into being. Food is a weapon. Food is a weapon. But thankfully,

133
00:16:02,539 --> 00:16:12,980
his is not the only voice out there. Bill Gates, right? And Malthus. For example, Lyman Stone of Vox

134
00:16:12,980 --> 00:16:21,320
website, Lyman Stone says in a piece entitled, Why You Shouldn't Obsess About Overpopulation. I like that

135
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:28,940
title, Why You Shouldn't Obsess About Overpopulation. He says that clearly fear of overpopulation is

136
00:16:28,940 --> 00:16:35,759
widespread. But the truth is that overpopulation in the United States is not even close to a serious

137
00:16:35,759 --> 00:16:42,679
problem. And he emphasizes that. It is not even close to a serious problem. Even globally, he goes on

138
00:16:42,679 --> 00:16:51,659
to say, overpopulation is an overstated problem, unquote. And then he goes on to make his case. And he

139
00:16:51,659 --> 00:17:00,279
points out, for example, that we, the United States of America, is a net exporter of food. 25% of our net

140
00:17:00,279 --> 00:17:06,400
production is sold abroad. We could all use that at home if we needed to, of course. And he also

141
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:13,200
observes that both the United States and many parts of the world still can render vast swaths of

142
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:20,180
presently unused land and make it arable, increasing food production through, as he says, and I quote,

143
00:17:20,420 --> 00:17:27,720
technological advancement and managerial expertise, unquote. And this dovetails very nicely with Plato

144
00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:33,700
because it's precisely one of the recommendations that Plato makes for the establishment of the ideal

145
00:17:33,700 --> 00:17:42,819
republic. Yes, you render vast swaths of presently unused land. You render it arable, increasing food

146
00:17:42,819 --> 00:17:50,079
production. Well, in terms of population density, too, which is a big concern, isn't it, for the

147
00:17:50,079 --> 00:17:57,920
overpopulation hystericists, in terms of population density, Stone calculates that America, at least, could

148
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:06,720
still easily support 400 million people, which is 60 to 70 million more than our present population. And he

149
00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:12,660
shows how the climate change argument, that is, that overpopulation contributes to climate change, is

150
00:18:12,660 --> 00:18:19,859
fraught with fallacies and pitfalls as well. And after laying out the numbers covering carbon

151
00:18:19,859 --> 00:18:26,619
emissions, for example, and their relation to population, he concludes, there is only one way to

152
00:18:26,619 --> 00:18:33,759
effectively prevent, alleviate, or reverse dangerous climate change, technological, geographic, and social

153
00:18:33,759 --> 00:18:40,539
advancement. Population has little to do with it, especially not in the United States, unquote. Oh, dear

154
00:18:40,539 --> 00:18:47,099
listener, God has been good to us. He has given us hearts and minds to explore and innovate, for

155
00:18:47,099 --> 00:18:55,680
example. We are a curious, sentient, intelligent species. For example, the Royal Society used this

156
00:18:55,680 --> 00:19:03,940
Bible verse from Proverbs 25.2. The Royal Society, which was the first scientific society in Europe,

157
00:19:03,940 --> 00:19:12,000
the Royal Society used this verse from Proverbs 25.2 as a theme, and that is, it is the glory of God to

158
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:21,019
conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. Yes. We, as human beings, as sentient,

159
00:19:21,180 --> 00:19:29,079
curious human beings, find glory in searching things out. That is discovery. While we are not to be lazy

160
00:19:29,079 --> 00:19:35,000
or negligent, dear listener, or careless about providing for ourselves and for our families,

161
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:42,960
neither are we to be overly obsessed or anxious about it. Our Lord Jesus himself says this,

162
00:19:43,299 --> 00:19:48,859
therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or

163
00:19:48,859 --> 00:19:55,119
about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

164
00:19:55,119 --> 00:20:01,299
Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly

165
00:20:01,299 --> 00:20:07,859
Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a

166
00:20:07,859 --> 00:20:14,119
single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the

167
00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:21,160
field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not

168
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:26,759
arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and

169
00:20:26,759 --> 00:20:32,980
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore,

170
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:38,279
do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the

171
00:20:38,279 --> 00:20:44,480
Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first

172
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:51,220
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not

173
00:20:51,220 --> 00:20:58,200
be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own

174
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:04,720
trouble. Unquote, our Lord Jesus Christ. Wisdom, isn't it? In the population debate, dear listener, do not

175
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:11,980
underestimate the grace and provision of God. Well, thirdly, the third reason why the Pharaoh fallacy is

176
00:21:11,980 --> 00:21:20,240
indeed a fallacy? Well, it wickedly opposes God's command, which is the dominion mandate. Yes, the

177
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:26,859
Pharaoh's fallacy is a fallacy because it opposes God's command, which is the dominion mandate. One of

178
00:21:26,859 --> 00:21:31,700
the aspects of this debate that has really bothered me from the beginning is the sheer arrogance that we

179
00:21:31,700 --> 00:21:37,619
can determine the ideal number of people that should or shouldn't exist, and then control reproduction

180
00:21:37,619 --> 00:21:44,279
so as to arrive at that number and maintain it. Ah, it presumes the role of God and his purposes. Well,

181
00:21:44,759 --> 00:21:50,700
the express command given to Adam and Eve runs counter to those who would be as gods, and that command was

182
00:21:50,700 --> 00:21:58,500
from Genesis 128, God blessed them. And God said to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the

183
00:21:58,500 --> 00:22:04,900
earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over

184
00:22:04,900 --> 00:22:13,680
every living thing that moves on the earth. Yes. But in our own day, there seems to be a contempt and

185
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:20,480
revulsion among moderns to that notion, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, right?

186
00:22:20,980 --> 00:22:27,640
The energy and purpose of the modern progressive is 180 degrees counter to it, isn't it? Fully evil,

187
00:22:27,759 --> 00:22:34,740
as if to say, be childless, and depopulate, and empty the earth of our species, and let it run wild.

188
00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:40,680
Right? Instead of be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, the progressive mindset

189
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:47,019
of self-loathing will destroy us, dear listener, in the end, and there's nothing Satan would like

190
00:22:47,019 --> 00:22:56,119
more. Do you hear the hiss of the serpent there? Hath God said. Even many Christians have fallen prey

191
00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:01,619
to this siren song. We've been blocked and shadow banned from Bible knowledge on the one hand,

192
00:23:01,619 --> 00:23:06,619
and we've been reposted and propagandized with progressive misinformation on the other hand.

193
00:23:07,140 --> 00:23:13,200
Oh, there's too many people. There's too few resources. Overpopulation increases climate change.

194
00:23:13,619 --> 00:23:18,279
Oh, and you get the scowls at the grocery store if you've got more than one or two kids.

195
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:24,700
Oh, you'll hear something like, well, I don't want to bring a child into the world as it is today,

196
00:23:24,700 --> 00:23:32,960
right? Well, all of this is ignorant nonsense. We are wired for fecundity. We can creatively take

197
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:41,039
dominion of creation and make it produce for a growing, flourishing humanity without destroying

198
00:23:41,039 --> 00:23:47,400
it either. As biblical Christians, we do not waste the earth, but we do not worship the earth either.

199
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:54,779
The earth is not our mother. No, God is our father, and he has gifted us to wisely tend the garden which

200
00:23:54,779 --> 00:24:00,579
he has entrusted us. We are stewards, not stormtroopers in that garden. Our first parents,

201
00:24:00,900 --> 00:24:07,819
Adam and Eve, began in the Garden of Eden, a plush paradise created by God and meant to be extended

202
00:24:07,819 --> 00:24:13,960
throughout a howling wilderness, which was without form and void, as the Bible says, to be put under

203
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:22,500
benevolent dominion and made to flourish to the glory of God. It is evil to say that man should go extinct

204
00:24:22,500 --> 00:24:28,660
and earth return to the wild. That is the presupposition to one degree or another of the

205
00:24:28,660 --> 00:24:34,599
progressive population depopulation movement. It is not compassionate and loving, dear listener.

206
00:24:35,259 --> 00:24:43,559
It is not productive nor sustainable either. How can a death wish be sustained in a dying race as it dies

207
00:24:43,559 --> 00:24:52,099
out? The agenda of the progressive climate change depopulation movement will destroy the earth and

208
00:24:52,099 --> 00:24:59,460
it will put us on the road to extinction. But this is not our destiny, is it, dear listener? We will

209
00:24:59,460 --> 00:25:06,240
continue to multiply and fill the earth as we are commanded if we are obedient Christians, and we will

210
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:14,160
do so with productivity beyond our wildest imaginations. That is what we are destined for, dear listener,

211
00:25:14,299 --> 00:25:20,759
not only in heaven, but also here on this earth. And we will do it with God's help, and we will do it

212
00:25:20,759 --> 00:25:28,039
to His glory. The Bible has a beautiful picture of a man at peace and flourishing in God's creation.

213
00:25:28,539 --> 00:25:34,359
This is from Micah chapter 4, verse 4, and it's throughout the Bible too, but this is from Micah,

214
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:41,400
where he says, they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make

215
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:49,059
them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Every man under his vine and under his fig

216
00:25:49,059 --> 00:25:57,700
tree. Yes, that's the end goal, if you will, of the dominion mandate for the creature and to the glory

217
00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:05,779
and praise of the Creator, too, as well. May we all labor towards it in our own day, and may we be

218
00:26:05,779 --> 00:26:10,960
faithful as we do it. May you be faithful, dear listener, and take these things to heart and take

219
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:17,059
them into consideration. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

220
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:23,940
New Geneva Meets for Holy Worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. We invite you to join us to cross our threshold and

221
00:26:23,940 --> 00:26:30,220
meet us. Perhaps you've been thinking of doing that for some time. Oh, try it this Sunday. Come and see

222
00:26:30,220 --> 00:26:36,480
us. We worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard,

223
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:49,720
and you can call us for feedback or more information at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.