Being Hit By A Truck ≠ Having Babies

Here is a summary of our thoughts on birth control.  If you are just curious about the comparison to getting hit by a car/truck, that part is at the bottom of this post.

Biblical Points Against Birth Control:

1. The Bible declares that children are a blessing (Psalms 127:5 ESV, Genesis 9:1, Leviticus 26:9, Deuteronomy 7:13; 28:4, etc).  We should always desire God’s blessing (Psalms 67, etc)
2. No where in the Bible is birth control permitted or allowed.
3. Birth control is explicitly condemned in the example of Onan practicing coitus interruptus (Genesis 38:10).
4. Birth control is implicitly condemned in the example of Esau profaning a blessing (Hebrews 12:16).
5. The Bible ties dominion, control over enemies, and legal success in courts to bountiful offspring (Genesis 1:28, 22:17, 24:60, Psalms 127:4-5 NIRV).
6. The Bible implies birth control is bad because it states the opposite (fruitfulness) is good (Genesis 17:6,16, 28:3, 49:25, Psalms 127:3, 128:3, 1 Timothy 5:14, etc).
7. The Bible implies birth control (barrenness by choice) is bad because barrenness is bad (Exodus 23:26, Deuteronomy 7:14, Psalms 109:13, Psalms 113:9, Hosea 9:14, etc).
8. Jesus implies godly people will normally want children except in times of extreme persecution (Luke 23:27-31).
9. God is sovereign over opening and closing the womb (Genesis 20:18, 16:2, 21:1, 25:21, 29:31, 30:2,22, Psalm 139:16, etc) and doesn’t need our help.
10. The Bible declares one of the purposes of marriage is procreation.  Birth control thwarts or limits that purpose (Malachi 2:15).
11. God says a reason He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16 NKJV) is that it covers our clothes in blood and gore, which in the context of the previous verse indicates future generations. Birth control has the same effect.
12. The Bible warns against leaving the “natural use” of gender opposite sexual relations (Romans 1:26-27).  Breaking or limiting the reproductive system is also against the natural use as God created it.  Leaving the natural use of other bodily systems (respiratory, digestive, muscular, etc) brings obvious results like death, gluttony, drug abuse, muscle atrophy, cancer, etc.
13. Fertility Awareness Methods of birth control (aka Natural Family Planning) violate the Bible’s prohibition against abstinence in marriage (1 Corinthians 7:5).
14. Birth control puts the user thereof “in the place of God” (Genesis 30:2).

Extra-Biblical Points Against Birth Control:

1. Is was once illegal to import “any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception” in the United States (Revised Statutes of the 43rd Congress SEC. 2491, 1873).
2. Acceptance of birth control has encouraged “indiscriminate immorality” and “sound[ed] the death knell of marriage” (The Washington Post, March 22, 1931)
3. It damages marriage and morality, degrades women, gives immoral governments a dangerous weapon, and gives man dominion which should be long to God  (Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae)
4. Onanism (coitus interruptus) and birth control in general has been condemned as a “kind of murder“, a “horrible thing“, a “great abuse“, “wickedness“, “self-pollution“, “vile actions“, and those who practice it “swinish monsters” by Luther, Calvin, Poole, Henry, Mather,  Wesley, and many other respected and influential men.
5. “Contraception Increases Rates of Divorce, Suicide, and Sexual Dysfunction” (Dominic Pedulla MD).
6. Birth control increases and supports abortion, from cultural and peer pressure not to have children, increased extra-marital intercourse, condom and barrier failures, the morning after abortion pill, and abortion-causing (abortifacient) hormonal products (aka “the pill”), etc.  When conception prevention fails birth prevention is a natural temptation. (Peter Baklinski, lifesitenews.com)
7. Birth control increases and supports obscenity (pornography) and abortion. (Anthony Comstock).
8. Birth control increases and supports homosexual marriage by divorcing pleasure from procreation (The Baby War).
9. Students of history say that once a population’s birth rate falls below replacement level the economy never recovers as a smaller population base struggles to support the larger populations that came before (Demographic Winter).
10. Birth control increases women’s health issues.  “More statistics are constantly coming to hand to prove that the more a mother breastfeeds, the less likelihood she has of getting breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or even fibroids and endometriosis…which is known as the ‘career woman’s disease'” (Nancy Campbell, Be Fruitful & Multiply, p. 107)

Yet Another Summary

This was originally a comment I wrote in response to a post on another blog.  My wonderful wife said it was Good, so I thought I should re-post it here.

We gave our fertility and future to God eleven years ago and have no regrets.

I like that you connect God hating divorce in Malachi 2:16 with the purpose for marriage in Malachi 2:15. But verse 16 says:

“For the Lord God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence”

For me this brings up an image of a soldier covered in blood and gore after killing many enemies in a battle. It makes little sense the violence is against the wife as divorce in itself is painful but not violent and the wife is only one person so it does not fit the image of covering one’s garment. I think the violence is against the purpose of marriage as you identified above: the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the generations to follow.

I believe our country is such a mess because Christians gave up our heritage. The gates of a city in old times directly correspond in many ways to political power in our society. Elders judged in the gates, commerce was controlled there, taxes levied there, gates provided for defense, etc. The blessing to Abraham (Genesis 22:17), the blessing to Rebekah (Genesis 24:60), and Psalms 127:5 all connect large families to control of the city gates.

In my mind NFP, barrier methods, abortifacients like the pill, and even abortion are all different shades of the same color. They all have the same end result (no children) even if the means are different. They all are actions that reveal our attitude of not wanting children or not trusting God. Is not wanting children profaning a blessing like Esau profaned his birthright blessing?

Let’s not forget Onan “the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him”.

There are many more verses to consider, a list from one study I did:

Be fruitful and multiply: Genesis 1:28; 9:1,7; 35:11;
Children a blessing from God: Genesis 4:1; 17:6,16,20; 26:4,24; 28:3; 33:5; 48:4,9; 49:25; Exodus 23:26; Deuteronomy 7:13-14; 28:4,11,63; 30:9; 1 Samuel 1:21; 1 Chronicles 25:5; 26:5; Psalms 127:3-5; 128:3-4; Isaiah 8:18; Malachi 2:14-16; Malachi 4:6; Matthew 18:5,10; Mark 10:14; Luke 1:25; Luke 23:29; 1 Timothy 2:15;
God in control of womb: Genesis 16:2; 20:17-18; 21:1-2; 25:21; 29:31,33; 30:2,6,17,22-23; Job 10:8; Psalms 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:5; Hosea 9:14; Hebrews 7:10;
Lack of children a curse: Deuteronomy 28:18; Job 15:34; 2 Samuel 6:23

P.S. For those that wish to play Devil’s Advocate the main point is that God should be in control. Making as many babies as possible through test tubes or avoiding breastfeeding to speed up the return of ovulation would be wrong in the opposite direction.

One of the comments a woman wrote on that blog still baffles us:

I don’t understand these arguments. I have my tubes tied. My husband and I have always said, if we are meant to have a baby, we’re pretty sure God can get around it. if we look both ways before crossing the street are we also taking power from God and putting it on us? We don’t want to be hit by a car, so we look. If we are supposed to be hit for some reason, then we will be no matter how much looking we do. But, no one advocates not being careful. We don’t want a baby. We’ve done what we can to make sure that doesn’t happen. I don’t think our marriage has suffered in anyway. I’ve told him, if he wants a baby I will get it reversed, but, he’s said he’s happy to just wait and see if God feels like “fixing” this, because he’s happy and I’m happy. I honestly don’t understand the argument that God can’t/won’t go around birth control.

Does she really believe God would have blessed us with our large family anyway if we had been saying “no” and using birth control all this time?  I believe it was Albert Einstein that said insanity was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  Anyway, my response was:

Of course God can, but he is not in the business of overriding people’s will whatever they choose to do good or bad right or wrong he gives us the choice.

Being hit by a truck is always a bad thing. Being given another child by God is a good thing, at least according to the Bible they are a blessing. I was never excited about children either, but after having children I am still amazed at the love God put in my heart for them. I wouldn’t trade any of them for anything.