>Jeremiah 16 (NABRE) "This word came to me from the LORD 'Do not take a wife and do not have sons and daughters in this place,for thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, the mothers who give them birth, the fathers who beget them in this land:
Of deadly disease they shall die. Unlamented and unburied they will lie like dung on the ground.'"
Is it okay for a Christian to chose not to have kids, given that (1) this nation (America) has become so wicked and perverse that it will be nearly impossible to keep them out of hell or safe from God's likely oncoming wrath against the children of millennial, and (2) I've committed horrific sins and don't want this evil, or Earthly punishment for this evil, passed on to my offspring?
I've struggled a lot over the above verse. It seems to poke holes in the ideas that (a) God never rescinded the command to "be fruitful and multiply" and (b) that it's God's will every time a child will created. If he didn't want Jeremiah to have children during that age of incredible suffering, couldn't he just not have created them when Jeremiah had sex? But instead, he's saying "don't do it bro, because if you do, I'm gonna give you a kid and that kid's life is really gonna suck"
What do you guys think? I can't stop thinking about this verse. Is it valid to not want kids, out of love and fear for their well being, or should all men try to procreate?