Using Contraceptives in Marriage is Not Inherently a Sin (Concise Version)

Nothing said here is intended to justify birth control which ends an already conceived pregnancy. The Bible obviously condemns taking human life.

The teaching that it is a sin for married couples to use contraception to prevent pregnancy from occurring is not that uncommon. One variation of this is the Catholic Church’s doctrine that married couples are not allowed to use contraceptives yet are allowed to have marital relations deliberately timed according to the woman’s menstrual cycle with the intention of preventing pregnancy. Even if the Catholic Church were right to teach this, it would still demonstrate its disorder and hypocrisy- since only a small percentage of its members actually follow its teaching on this matter. The church teaches that all birth control besides natural birth control is a mortal sin- yet multitudes who partake of its communion use contraceptives.

Catholic apologists might justify this situation by saying that the people don’t have full knowledge of what they’re doing. That is really nonsense. And even if it weren’t, why are the members not taught well about this matter? And why are those who use contraceptives not rebuked and forbidden communion? Something of this nature is either not wrong or it is a violation of God’s moral law (which all people are aware of and which there is no justification for violating). This also proves that most Catholics don’t even really regard the alleged authority of their church and would be going to hell even if the Catholic Church is Christ’s church.

There are some who teach that even natural contraception is wrong. They might say that no measures should be taken at all to prevent pregnancy or that marital relations should be abstained from altogether. The so-called “early church fathers” made several claims which are not even consistent with each other in this matter (and in many others). Some of these even taught that it is sin for infertile people to engage in marital relations at all. That is indeed ridiculous. Yet several of these so-called church fathers- including Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius, and Augustine blatantly taught this. If all marital relations which aren’t intended to produce children and/or which can’t realistically produce children are sinful, then believe, practice, and enforce that within the church. If not, you logically have to disregard these so-called early church fathers altogether as any type of authority (and this would also mean rejecting the Catholic Church altogether- since the Catholic Church as a whole recognizes these as authoritative).

Many seek to avoid having more children so they can have more income when they have enough anyways and/or so they can simply live for the pleasure of the moment. Promoting contraception in the wrong context could be siding with the evil commonly associated with family planning. However, those who are attached to strict views against contraception might lump those who promote and/or use contraception for legitimate reasons with those who do for bad reasons. That is just plain unjust.

When God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, the populating of the world and man’s dominion therein depended on them doing that. The earth now has become full of people and the earth has been subdued by mankind. Adam and Eve also didn’t live in a world filled with the extreme multiplication of problems resulting from mankind’s sin which have since made having more children to not always be a good option for a husband and wife. In reading the Apostolic counsel concerning singleness and marriage in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, it is obvious that filling the world with people at that point was not an Apostolic priority.

I believe that if anyone were to point to the Bible to try to provide a definite proof against all use of contraceptives in marriage, the most logical place to go would be the account of Onan in Genesis 38:6-10. Yet Onan was supposed to beget a child which would legally be his deceased brother’s. At the very least, he had a duty to be honest in his refusal to do this and not marry his deceased brother’s wife Tamar at all. Onan knew that the child which would be born if Tamar conceived would legally be his brother’s rather than his own- so he deceitfully acted to prevent begetting a child which would legally be his brother’s. That is why God killed him. Since the story of Onan can’t logically be applied to the typical married couple, it couldn’t be teaching a general prohibition of contraception.

To say that all contraception ought to be natural, and that all use of contraceptive devices is wrong, it is altering the Christian prescription for righteousness set forth in the Bible. This in itself is disastrous and spiritually deadly.

Titus 1:14: “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.”

Deuteronomy 4:2: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought (any) from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”