How much is a "quiver full"?

Arkansas couple welcome their 17th child

Excerpt:

Among the "fun facts" listed on Discovery Health's Web page devoted to the Duggars: A baby has been born in every month except June; the family has gone through about 90,000 diapers, and Michelle Duggar has been pregnant for 126 months -- or 10.5 years -- of her life


Duggar family (official site) <---- site is slow to load (low bandwidth!) Wiki article

Quiverfull.com

Wiki: Quiverfull movement

Full text of Psalm 127

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
         The fruit of the womb is a reward.
 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
         So are the children of one’s youth.
 5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
         They shall not be ashamed,
         But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

Comments:

1. I do not believe the government should restrict family size (as China does for example)
   
2. It disturbs me when family largeness becomes a fundamental of the faith!
   
3. The way tax laws are written:
   
   
   
   1. I doubt this family pays any Federal or State income tax.
      
   2. These children will probably all be eligible for free college tuition (because the family's adjusted gross income (with this number of deductions) will undoubtedly put them under the poverty level)!
      
   
   

John Piper on the Quiverfull movement:

... just because something is a gift from the Lord does not mean that it is wrong to be a steward of when or whether you will come into possession of it. It is wrong to reason that since A is good and a gift from the Lord, then we must pursue as much of A as possible. God has made this a world in which tradeoffs have to be made and we cannot do everything to the fullest extent. For kingdom purposes, it might be wise not to get married. And for kingdom purposes, it might be wise to regulate the size of one's family and to regulate when the new additions to the family will likely arrive. As Wayne Grudem has said, "it is okay to place less emphasis on some good activities in order to focus on other good activities ...

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Warren Vanhetloo on "Believe" (Cogitations from 8/3)

The word “believe.” In Christianity, what we believe is of great importance. All of life is involved. The nature of our unending existence following physical death is involved. We probably do not face some heavenly test regarding the detail of what we believe, but we surely should be concerned about our answers.



Belief in the tooth fairy, in Santa Clause, in demonic spirits in the woods, in people being able to cast spells on others – for all such, we realize that “believe” may be only a gullible acceptance of improper instruction. But such belief is still present in our world. For instance, tall buildings have no thirteenth floor, catering to retained pagan beliefs. The object of belief is important to our understanding of the word.



Many times the word ‘believe’ is used only of preferences: I believe everyone should eat some meat / no one should eat any meat. There may be some basis for the preference, but the expression usually means only personal choice. Sometimes the expression is nothing more than wishful thinking: I believe there is some good in every man. Or, I believe a good God would not send anyone to everlasting punishment.



To most Americans, the word ‘believe’ conveys no more than choice or preference, usually without any basis in fact whatsoever. When they hear us say, “I believe in God,” they tend to consider that of no more importance than belief in a tooth fairy. To our declaration that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God, their reaction is that we have gullibly recited silly, outmoded ritual.



“I believe” for a Christian ought to certify truth we would defend to the death. Instead, we too degrade the usage of the word, saying “I believe one translation is better than another” or “I believe we should use the organ in church.” Preferences should be called preferences. “I believe the sun will come up tomorrow morning” has a solid basis, not just wishful desire. Whatever we “believe” should be based on having a Scripture verse to verify it. When we conjecture, we should call it pure conjecture. When we guess, we should speak of it as a mere guess. When we express a preference, let us be clear in speaking of it as only what we would like, not what we “believe.”