Well being bound to your word doesn't make much sense. Just as promising something doesn't make sense. For example if I tell my wife we will grow old together, but then I die a month from now, my promise will be broken. Same with kids. You can promise them, but it doesn't mean things can't change. For example after marriage a man finds out his count is to low and he can't have kids. Does this mean he broke his promise? Nope. Just means life changes.
You are, of course, free to attempt to justify your beliefs to yourself, but if you're going to "teach" them to God's people as some kind of different "truth" (since what you believe/teach in this case stands in clear opposition to the very thing God commanded us to do), please remember that there are stern warnings imposed by God where teaching His word is concerned, especially when the thing you are teaching adds to/subtracts from something in the Bible.
You need Biblical and reasonable evidence to justify your claims, but nothing you've said so far in this thread has provided us with either one.
Your only evidence is a cherry picked verse based on a command for when earth had almost no one on it. My evidence already shows that verse needs to be taken in whole with the rest of the paragraphs around it. And furthermore you have not shown evidence where God says we must have children and that sex is only about children. Especially since sex is in the mix too. I'd just say you to should be careful about twisting Gods teaching to meet your views.
What is the purpose of marriage, if not to bring forth children?
Well it has many purposes. Legally it has benefits of course. Biblically its the only way you can have sex without sin. Because sex bonds a couple together on a higher level. Children are just the result of sex (if no protection is used). You don't marry to have sex so you can have kids. Because that would mean your only desire was not marriage or sex or whatever, just kids. If this is the case, no one needs to marry. Just adopt kids and stay single.
Actually that does bring up another good point. You won't see someone single adopt. Nor will you really see a married couple adopt. They want their own flesh and blood child from their dna. If children matter that much then why does it matter if the child is adopted or not? Are kids for adoption not worthy of being someones child? You could also talk about selfishness on this end of things too.
Worse case scenario for my wife and I is adopting a child from her country.
Procreation is part of the essence of marriage. You may as well ask "should someone think jumping off a cliff = falling to the bottom?"
Marriage is an institution ordered toward the good of the spouses and the rearing of children. If you are closed to the idea of having children, then by definition you don't really want to get married.
I think you mean the word sex. Not procreation. Sex is the essence of marriage (among things like closeness, love, support). Procreation would imply sex = pregnancy. But since sex doesn't equal pregnency, then sex is the primary function, pregnancy just stems from sex in some cases. Then again technically there are various forms of sex. And some don't involve pregnanacy at all because they have nothing to do with it.
I do realize some denominations believe you MUST have kids or else. Such as my friend whos first wife left him after a year because she couldn't get pregnant. The church said she had the right to do so because you have to concieve within a year or the marriage is not legit.
There's that 'c' word again. A strong desire for kids is not crazy...
Well perhaps its not the right word. But struggle turns into crazy when you tell someone they must have kids in order to marry. Or if you leave said person if they are unable to have kids later on. Maybe I could replace crazy for the word addiction?
Add this scenario to the rest of life's 'games.' Doesn't sound like a godly marriage to begin with.
I guess that was more of the point of this topic, the more complicated cases where the wife (or the husband) becomes nasty and vile about the fact the other spouse doesn't want kids.
If you're not a trained Christian marriage counselor, stay out of it, even if you have an opinion. They should never know your opinion. If you are, and they are good friends, stay out of it and refer them to someone else lest your friendship be destroyed for taking sides.
Actually I am at some point training to become a counselor in general. People are always asking for me to become one. Though marriage is a more complex subject to counsel people on. If I were given a case where I had to tell a couple something about a situation where one suddenly didn't want children, it would be hard to know what exactly to say. I guess I'd just say lifes not always fair. Sometimes we scarifice more then we ever wanted. But maybe God has other plans. Or maybe God is waiting on the kids subject until something else is resolved. One thing I would not do is mention leaving the pesron. I'd also mention they need to expand on why the one doesn't want kids. Maybe bring up adoption....etc.
I'm better at helpign those who struggle in life. Whether it be not understanding why they suffer or maybe sickness or things like that. While I am good at marriage counseling many people, the child end I stay out of for obvious reasons. I realize my views are in the minority.
Though all that aside, these people I see arguing I am talking about aren't like good friends or anything. Maybe more so just mutual acquaintances. Though when it comes to such things I tend to stay out of it as you can't give any advice based on outside views since people tend to hide views oe slant the truth.
I think perhaps it bothers you that you don't have as big a pool of women to choose as marriage partners.
This is true. I spent more then a decade searching. And no women would even consider why I didn't want kids. They just heard the words and backed out. In my case (if it matters) I didn't want kids because I am disabled and on government assistance. I also live at home (for now at least until my wifes job is better). I also have worries about passing on certain health issues. And on top of it I have migraines 15-20 times a month. I can't always be reliable (throw in my memory issues and other health issues) so I don't think I could handle a child. I love kids.... like REALLY love them. But things would have to be working out just right to consider having them.
My wife and I have agreed if the time is right, we will have at least one. A girl hopefully. But we also accepted if the time never works out right, we may not have any. Adoption is a possibility of course but its very expensive.
To add to the searching I had done, those who were okay with no kids or "maybe" also had those mile long lists. They mostly wanted someone like Brad Pitt. More of vanity things then anything else. So the few people I have dated were usually not "normal" in terms of how they look or health issues...etc. Because they, like me, realized that having kids would be hard to do.
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This "feminism is bad" trope keeps coming up, so let's look at it for a moment.
Yes, feminists pushed for no-fault divorce. Why? Because before that, the only grounds for divorce (in most places) were adultery or cruelty, and if someone, say, needed to get out of an abusive marriage, they would need to go through the difficult process of providing adequate proof for a court to rule in their favour.
Since no-fault divorce has come in, the divorce rate has gone up, but the domestic violence and female suicide rates have gone down. Seems to me that having the option to leave, in certain circumstances, saves lives. Why wouldn't feminists (or any ethical human being) think that's a good thing?
(And I'm still wishing people would hear some of us women saying not every woman wants children. Not all of us have that biological imperative. I certainly never did! The untrue generalisations are not helpful in this discussion)
Oh like I said there is nothing wrong with the old version of feminism. Such as wanting equal pay, fair employment, equal healthcare, rights to vote...etc.
