The True Cost of Idolizing Prosperity

It’s troubling how much I hear about the declining birth rate and the concern it is for our global society. But if you read on, I am sure we can identify the thematic “Why?”. This won’t be a deep dive or an all encompassing statement, but it will definitely give some context to the heart of the matter.

First let’s look at one of the first commands God gave.

Genesis 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.

Now let’s call out the biggest reason people state they’re not having kids:

“We just can’t afford them.”

“We can’t afford to have more.”

“Kids are so expensive.”

Or the second most reason:

“They just don’t fit in this season of my life.”

As a society, as a global culture, we have come to worship prosperity.

This isn’t new.

Israel worshipped a god of prosperity. Baal. If you served him, he would let the sun shine and bring the rain so crops would grow and you would have…

…Prosperity.

But it goes further. We’ve become a people that worships sex. The choice of sex. The choice of sexuality. The choice of gender identity.

This is also not new. The logical progression from worshipping prosperity was Baal’s female counterpart: Ashteroth.

As fertility goddess, this worship involved male and female prostitutes,  sodomy, pedophilia, all kinds of sexual deviancy and depravity. This was how you worshipped her as you also worshipped Baal.

Biological fact: men and men and women and women can’t have children. They can’t be fruitful and multiply. So in the worship of sexuality we also don’t follow the first command of God to mankind.

Unfortunately, there’s more.

What if you had children? What if these children are keeping you from prosperity and pursuing your sexual freedom and desires?

Enter Molech. To worship him you had to offer your children on his superheated outstretched hands and then they slid down those burning into the fire below. Look for references in the Old Testament where “they made their children to pass through the fire”. That’s Molech worship.

So we desire prosperity more than we desire children. We desire sex rather than procreation. And if in our pursuit of self, we happen to make a child, we offer them to the modern day Molech on the altar of abortion.

And it is an age old deception. It is not new.

Satan’s deception of Eve was against God’s 3rd command. Do not eat of this tree. This ONE tree.

Ashteroth (no doubt a demon, a fallen angel) handles the 2nd command - the institution of marriage by perverting sexuality.

Genesis 2:24

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Both she, Baal and Molech all attacked the first command: Be fruitful and multiply.

Not multiply goods. Not be fruitful in material gain.

In procreation. In offspring.

But the master of lies has used and continues to use all three of these demonic gods to entice and drive us away from God’s very first command.

Tell me we haven’t moved from a Christian culture in western civilization to a post-Christian culture.

It’s actually worse than that. We’ve returned to a pagan culture. We’ve returned to Baal worship.

Unborn children are paying for it by the millions.

As a society we’ll pay for it when the younger generation isn’t large enough to sustain the older generations.

And it will be our fault. The result of Baal worship.

Like the early churches, we are living in a pagan society. We need to preach the gospel. We need to make God, family and community - the right community - our primary concern.

If we as Christians will go and make disciples, we as Christians can obey the command to be fruitful and multiply.

His first command.