Tough Questions # 1

[Sudsy]

This thread is to initiate a possible series of questions (threads) that you think may be difficult for a Christian to answer or a question that you may have been confronted with regarding your Christian faith.

Try to stick to giving an answer to the question asked or begin a new question on a new thread titled 'Tough Question # X' and try to replace the X with the next sequential number in this series in this General Theology sub forum.

Question # 1 - why would a Christian couple pursue having children when there is any possibilty that even one of them may end up in endless torment in hell ? Is this not a selfish thing to do logically speaking ?

[RZehr]

This thread is to initiate a possible series of questions (threads) that you think may be difficult for a Christian to answer or a question that you may have been confronted with regarding your Christian faith.

Try to stick to giving an answer to the question asked or begin a new question on a new thread titled 'Tough Question # X' and try to replace the X with the next sequential number in this series in this General Theology sub forum.

Question # 1 - why would a Christian couple pursue having children when there is any possibilty that even one of them may end up in endless torment in hell ? Is this not a selfish thing to do logically speaking ?

Same reason God created mankind.

[Soloist]

Well I think if one considers philosophy long enough they can understand egoism and altruism.

With that being said, God commands, we obey.

Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Is it selfish, you are thinking on too small of a scale. Our children are on loan to us by God to be raised faithful servants to His glory.
We cannot bury our possibilities but rather use them to attempt our very best to be faithful and raise faithful.

[Sudsy]

Here is a thought -

If one believes in annihilationism, where people who aren't saved are destroyed utterly (i.e. blotted out of existence), then multiplying is arguably not immoral, because you give someone else the chance to enter paradise.

So, those who do not believe in ECT (Eternal Conscious Torment) would seem to me to have a more reasonable reason to have children. Personally, I lean more to an annihilation view so this would be more of how I view it.

[ohio jones]

On the other hand, if one believes in ECT, one or more of your children may end up rescuing others, perhaps even many others, from endless torment in hell.

It seems like a good thing that William Franklin Graham Sr. and Morrow Graham, for example, didn't decide not to have children.

[MaxPC]

I look at the message that Jesus taught. He knew that He would be tortured and killed, yet he continued to preach. Because God gave man free will, Christianity could have ended before 50 AD. Yet God also knows the future as He does the past and present; and He perfects all of man's bodge jobs to accomplish His perfect Will. He knows the future and I trust in that knowledge. At the end of the day and near the end of my life, I can say confidently it is all about trusting God and hoping in His Will.

[Judas Maccabeus]

This thread is to initiate a possible series of questions (threads) that you think may be difficult for a Christian to answer or a question that you may have been confronted with regarding your Christian faith.

Try to stick to giving an answer to the question asked or begin a new question on a new thread titled 'Tough Question # X' and try to replace the X with the next sequential number in this series in this General Theology sub forum.

Question # 1 - why would a Christian couple pursue having children when there is any possibilty that even one of them may end up in endless torment in hell ? Is this not a selfish thing to do logically speaking ?

No, because we have hope that they will choose the best. Hope is what the Gospel is all about.

[barnhart]

Question # 1 - why would a Christian couple pursue having children when there is any possibilty that even one of them may end up in endless torment in hell ? Is this not a selfish thing to do logically speaking ?

This type of ethical dilemma flows from limited, human-centric view of God and his work in the world. Neither the old or new covenants are primarily concerned with individual believers, rather the focus is the construction and growth of his rule and reign, commonly called the kingdom of God. Moses the great law giver and Paul the epistle writer both offered their eternal soul in exchange for the growth of the kingdom, this is incomprehensible from an individualist salvation view of God and his work. Similarly those who's hope and vision is in the kingdom are not sidetracked by theoretical scenarios derived from individualist salvation.

[Sudsy]

Some interesting answers to that question and the way they were answered so far. Some bring up some real challenges of restraint not to respond further on the views of others, so in my thinking and understanding of scripture, I'll move on to the next question. Thanks for the input so far it was quite interesting.