The “Lord God, created all things…spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth…and I created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them.” (Moses 3:5) All things were created spiritually before they were created naturally. When we contemplate the significance of that statement and to know that all the children born to earth were first spirit children waiting for the opportunity to be born with a physical body on earth, should be a thought changer. Then, God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. When Eve was presented to Adam in the flesh he declared, “This I know now is bone of bones and flesh of my flesh … therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” (Moses 3:22) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over it. (Gen 1:27, 28) With over seven billion people currently living on earth and the billions who have lived on earth since the creation, it is obvious that they have been fruitful.
Men and women are all created with four powerful characteristics, they include our ‘physical, emotional, mental, as well as our spiritual selves’. These characteristics cause us to want to pair-up with an opposite. Together, Adam and Eve were commanded, as well as, naturally wanting to be fruitful. Subduing and having dominion’ are important but were secondary goals of each couple. Their first instinct has been to work at being fruitful, to multiply and to replenish, to have children to help with the dominion part. That instinct has been modified lately as society changes. But in times past there were no methods of preventing pregnancy, there was no birth control medicines and/or procedures other than abstinence. Abstinence was hardly an option for two, physically healthy, red blooded young people in love.
Pairing is a difficult challenge in and of itself, but it would be an anomaly for an individual male or female not to have that innate desire to find a mate, someone to love, admire, to share life, thoughts and desires with, someone that they are able to claim as their very own. Individuals in a couple relationship take great pride in saying, “She is my wife” or “He is my husband”. Where there is not a feeling of ownership between a husband and wife, they are merely friends living together. There are people who have not found a mate for one reason or another. Yet many single individuals have found happiness with their birth families and friendships and with the feelings of worth coming by selecting work or volunteer services that have somewhat compensated for the lack of a companion.
To ‘multiply’ is a natural physical need, or inborn desire and it is built within most every human being, that desire to procreate. It may also have been built into our minds as an ‘inherited memory’- a memory of that commandment to multiply and replenish, that was given by the Creator and Father of us all, to Adam and Eve.
The desire to multiply may, in part, have come from a pleasant memory of one’s youth. Where we grew up in a household where father, mother, brothers and sisters shared love, life and all that may have been thrown at the family unit to make it stronger. Sometimes hardships, hilarity, love, and even the disagreements brought them all together in a tight knit family. A serious illness or death of a member caused so much pain and stress to the others. The family we were raised in, can be a strong incentive to want the same for our adult selves. It could also be a deterrent if that family was not a close and loving family.
The commandment to procreate can be a very steep and difficult path for many young couples to climb. The decision to have children or to not have them, can be made by themselves, or by nature, and sometimes even by the republic in which they live. Especially for couples living in heavily populated areas, such as China. “One Child Nation is a story of life and loss, brainwashing and corruption, and man’s capacity to engage in unimaginable cruelty at the point of a government gun. It is a story in which human traffickers represent some of the only protagonists, saving the lives of babies otherwise left for dead in marketplaces and on roadsides, lest their parents face the wrath of the authorities. The rationale for the policy, according to news accounts featured in the documentary, is the belief among the ruling CCP that China could not sustain rapid population growth, or people would starve to death. With some exceptions for sparsely populated areas, the CCP threatened families having more than one child with expropriation, property destruction and, where necessary, forced sterilization, abortions, and even the outright murder of newborns.”
The Chinese Government, had at another time, determined that only male babies could be born and to live. As a result, female babies were aborted or murdered after their birth. There are now millions of frustrated men in China without female mates. These are males who were born with a natural desire to mate.
When we are physically unable to have children by nature, it can sometimes leave emotional scars. But those couples could choose to adopt if their age and circumstances are such that children would be blessed and be a blessing. When it is by choice, it can also lead to emotional scars as the couple mature and grow old without a posterity. It would be a very difficult thing for a woman who wanted children to find out that she physically cannot conceive or for a man to learn that he cannot provide the seed for a couple to conceive. The reasons may come as birth defects or as a result of injuries.
The greatest social and spiritual problem that comes from the commandment to ‘multiply’, is the ‘contrary ability’ that couples have to block conception or to abort. Abortion has become so popular and brazen among a segment of our society that even a child born and breathing can now be included in the terminology ‘to legally abort’. From a spiritual point of view, to abort a potential human child is to murder that human and to block that spirit child of God from ‘experiencing earth’ according to the Plan of our Father. The commandment to multiply and replenish the earth was not given merely to satisfy the physical lusts of young couples but it was primarily to provide physical bodies for our Father’s (Gods) spirit children. Everything the Father does has a distinct purpose. In the Doctrine and Covenants we are made aware that ‘…marriage is ordained of God unto man….and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation. And that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation (spiritual creation) before the world was made.’ (D&C 49: 15,16,17) It is the very Plan He presented to us before the world was. I really don’t think that He will take oppositional behavior too lightly. We, the Father’s children can only experience a fullness of joy when we are complete. Meaning, having both spirit and body…receive a fullness of Joy” (D&C 138:17). Lucifer opposed the Father’s plan and was cast out along with a third part of the host of heaven who followed him. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth for those cast out, I believe there will be for those who commit ungodly acts of murder against born and unborn children.
As Jesus hung on the cross he was forgiving of the soldiers and said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Those who abort, some in ignorance, the Savior may be heard to say, ““Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”