71 – Propagation

PROPAGATION

§ 71. The two human persons whom God made in the beginning, one man and one woman, were thus created and joined in wedlock by the Creator¹ with a view to the preservation and propagation of the human race by mediate action of the creative power of God² in the procreation of children from the substance³ and in the likeness⁴ of their parents.

1. The two human persons whom God made in the beginning, one man and one woman, were thus created and joined in wedlock by the Creator

Genesis 2:18, 21–24 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. (21–24) And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

2. with a view to the preservation and propagation of the human race by mediate action of the creative power of God

Genesis 1:27–28 Male and female created He them. 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.

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.

Job 33:4 The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

Psalm 139:14 I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

3. in the procreation of children from the substance

Genesis 2:24 And they shall be one flesh.

John 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

4. and in the likeness⁴ of their parents.

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.

I Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.