The first portion of God’s command was to “fill” the Earth. Adam and Eve were meant to make more adams and more eves. God made the first humans capable of making the rest of the humans, so humans could go on doing the things God required. Adam and Eve didn’t need to do their work alone. Their children were meant to help.
As we fill the Earth and subdue it, bringing dominion over the living members of Creation, we are civilizing the planet. “The ultimate goal set before humanity,” says pastor-theologian Tim Keller in Center Church, “… is that there should be an urban structuring of human historical existence.” We are extending the borders of Eden until this one hillock has grown to cover all continents, waterways, and boundaries; until everything is Edenic in the garden-city of God.
Adapted from Why God Died