Will People Have Children in the Resurrection?

“When God created the world, he originally told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. In the resurrection, will people also be having children?”

Great question, Aya! It’s amazing to think about what our existence in the resurrection will be like!

When God created Adam and Eve, he also created marriage. One of the important reasons for marriage is so that moms and dads are in a lifelong relationship to raise their children together. In the fallen world, it doesn’t always work out like that, but this is God’s very good design.

One important place in the Bible to look for the answer to your question is Matthew 22.

The Sadducees were a group of Jewish people who didn’t believe in the resurrection or heaven or angels, and they had a situation that they thought would be a problem for anyone who believed in the resurrection. If a man died before his wife had children, the man’s brother was supposed to marry the woman and have children with her. They made up a situation where this happened with seven brothers, who all married the same woman and died without children. In the resurrection, whose wife would she be?

The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” (Matthew 22:23–28)

Jesus told them they were wrong because they were willfully ignorant and rejected the Scriptures. He said that in the resurrection, people will be like angels in one very important sense—they won’t be married or have children.

But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:29–30)

In the resurrection, there won’t be any marriage because the primary reason for marriage, having children and filling the earth, will be completed! We will spend eternity worshipping and serving God, probably including things we can’t even imagine in our sinful existence on earth.1

Do you have a question about the Bible? Ask your parents to help you submit your question today. We’d love to hear from you!

Footnotes

1. You can read more about heaven in the article “Let’s Talk About Heaven” at answersingenesis.org/bible/lets-talk-about-heaven/.