The teaching that it is a sin for married couples to use contraception to prevent pregnancy from occurring is not that uncommon.  

There are variations of this teaching.  One variation is the Catholic Church’s doctrine that married couples are not allowed to use contraceptives but are allowed to have marital relations deliberately timed according to the woman’s menstrual cycle with the intention of preventing pregnancy.  Note that even if the Catholic Church were right to teach this, it would still demonstrate its 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 most who partake of its communion use contraceptives.  

It is normal for anything which the Catholic Church calls mortal sin (whether it is actually a sin or not in God’s eyes) to be justified by saying that perhaps the people don’t have full knowledge of what they’re doing.  That is really nonsense.  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 matter also proves that most Catholics don’t even respect the alleged authority of the Catholic Church- since the vast majority of Catholics believe that the church should indeed allow its members to use contraception which is not natural contraception.

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 marital relations should be abstained from altogether.  There may even be some who teach that it’s a sin for a young adult to delay marriage due to the lost time for begetting children involved in the delay.  

Even looking at the things which the so-called “early church fathers” said in relation to this topic shows that they made several amazing claims which are not even consistent with each other.  Listening to certain people, ancient and modern, gives you the evidently insane impression that it would be a sin for infertile people to even engage in marital relations at all.  That is indeed ridiculous, but if you think I am exaggerating listen to one of those so-called “early church fathers.”.

“To have coitus other than to procreate is to do injury to nature.” (Clement of Alexandria from his work The Instructor of Children)  Lactantius and Augustine taught the same.  

If all marital relations which aren’t intended to produce children and/or which can’t realistically produce children are sinful, then teach and enforce that.  If not, you have to disregard these so-called early church fathers altogether as any type of authority; and also consider that contraception might have a place even for fertile married couples.  We need to look at what the Bible, the true authority, actually teaches about this.   

We’ll soon look at common Bible passages which are used to claim that all contraception is evil eventually.  Understanding what such passages are teaching and whether they prove this claim is of utmost importance.  

It’s  important to be clear now that nothing said here is intended to justify birth control which ends an already conceived pregnancy.  The Bible obviously condemns taking human life.  

It is notable that many seek to avoid children so the wife’s job won’t have to be modified when they could survive well enough on the husband’s income alone.  They’ll seek to avoid children since the couple wants to live for the pleasure of the moment.  They might set aside a few years to maybe have a child or two- since one or two kids provide the perceived perks of parenthood and the fulfillment of instinctive desire to have offspring.  However, additional children demand more monetary sacrifice and further eliminate time to live in pleasure to the max.  This is obviously descriptive of an ungodly mentality.  Nothing said here about the legitimacy of contraception should be taken as an endorsement of this mentality or as an encouragement to imitate those with this mentality.

This has a lot to do with why family planning, especially in the western world, is often a wicked thing.  This is why 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, even to the point of opposing Biblical evidence, might lump everyone who promotes and/or uses contraception with those who do for inadequate reasons.

Now let’s look at some Bible passages which those who say that the Bible forbids contraception commonly resort to try to prove that:

Genesis 1:27-28: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Note that the command to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply was connected to replenishing the earth and subduing it.  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 the best option for a husband and wife.  

That’s not saying that schemes to depopulate the world are not extremely evil; and that’s not to say that children aren’t a great blessing from God even now.  Nevertheless, when you read 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.  The world had been filled with people by the first century AD when the New Testament was written- and there are perhaps 30 times more people on earth now.  

There was obviously something specific and personal in what God told Adam and Eve about being fruitful and multiplying that isn’t proper to use as a burden to every married couple afterwards-.  To say otherwise is to put a heavy burden upon people.  The Apostles of Christ didn’t do this in relation to having tons of children.  Sometimes righteousness is very difficult to walk in, yet there would have to be something more definitive in the Bible beyond these particular verses in order to justify the “no contraception” crowd.  The following rebuke applies to that crowd:

Luke 11:46: “And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers!  for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.”

The next passage may be the most commonly used one to promote the forbidding of contraception.  However, we’re going to look at it in its context.  The overall context shows why God actually killed Onan.

Genesis 38:6-10 (note beforehand that Onan was Judah’s 2nd oldest son): “And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.  And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew (that is, He killed) him.  And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.  And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.  And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also.”

Many also use this account to try to say that masturbation is a sin.  It is indeed a sin, yet this passage doesn’t prove that.  That is proven rather by principles given throughout the Bible; not by this incident.  

The practice of the brother of the deceased man who had no children marrying his brother’s wife, and their firstborn legally becoming the deceased brother’s, is a law which was codified for Israel later in the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 25.  Yet this was also evidently being practiced among the Hebrews well before that point.

Onan knew that the child which would be born if Tamar conceived would legally be his brother’s rather than his own- so he spilled it out on the ground to prevent Tamar from conceiving.  He deliberately worked to prevent begetting a child which would legally be his brother’s.  That is why God killed Onan.  

There is solid reason to believe that God would have killed Onan even if he had conceived the child yet gave it up for adoption afterwards due to not wanting to raise a child which would be counted as his deceased brother’s child.  

To claim that this account forbids contraception is reading something into it which is not warranted.  That is simply not communicated by what is written here.

Moving on, Psalm 127:3: “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”

Of course children are a blessing.  Yet we’ll soon look at some situations where not having more children could be a greater blessing.  This verse shows a general Biblical principle which doesn’t in any way state that all contraception is wrong.  Many other Biblical principles need to be taken into account in order to make a conclusion about if/when contraception is ever proper to use.

Now coming to 1 Timothy 2:15: “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”

This is obviously not teaching that all women who bear children will be saved.  It is not teaching that a woman must bear children in order to be saved.  Women are equal candidates for salvation in Christ who must be saved on the same terms as men despite the fact that the troubles related to mankind’s fall are in several ways harder for them to bear than they are for men- childbearing being the prime example in which a chief trouble related to the fall is experienced only by women.  This verse is simply not a commentary on the legitimacy or illegitimacy of contraception.

What would be the harm in teaching an overly restrictive prescription in relation to contraception?

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.”

I believe that if anyone were to point to the Bible to try to provide a definite proof against all practice of contraception (or all practice against contraception which is not natural anyways), the most logical place to go would be the account of Onan.  Yet Onan was obligated in his circumstances to produce a child which would legally be his deceased brother’s.  At the very least, he had a duty to directly refuse to do this- and therefore not marry the woman who had been his deceased brother’s wife.  Not only did Onan refuse to do what he could to produce the child,, he was also deceitful in his refusal to do this.  

Since the story of Onan can’t logically be applied to the typical married couple, it doesn’t teach a general prohibition of contraception  

To say that all contraception ought to be natural, and that all use of contraceptive devices is wrong, is also negating the Word of God through human tradition.  Why?  The Apostle Paul gave married couples the following permission in 1 Corinthians 7.  This permission obviously does not go away just because it is not wise for a couple to have another child at the moment (and even the people who say that only natural contraception should be allowed acknowledge that such circumstances exist).

1 Corinthians 7:3-6: “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.  The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.  Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency (i.e. lack of self-control).  But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.”

Then it is altering God’s Word and imposing a commandment which goes against God’s own verdict to say that the only lawful form of contraception is natural contraception.

Here are some situations where married couples should consider that it is not good to have any more children, at least for a time, where using contraception could be righteous:

A couple that is greatly struggling to survive financially already. 

The wife has already had several miscarriages.

The wife is still recovering from a previous birth.

The wife is in generally poor health.

There is already a house full of kids and it’s already very difficult to give quality individual attention to each child. 

A situation exists where having more children in the near future would cause circumstances where older children in the home would have to nearly or altogether become full-time parents themselves (it is common sense that parents have a right to request help from older children in taking care of younger ones, and common sense that they must comply in order to honor their parents; it is also common sense that parents are not treating their children properly should they force them to nearly or altogether become full-time parents themselves due to the parents’ unrestrained reproduction).

Another potential situation is that the husband already has great responsibilities outside the house which he can’t righteously be absolved from, and which are already making it difficult for him to give his family adequate attention.

The Bible does not teach that faith means the abandonment of common sense.  We should not just assume plans will work out nor neglect preparation in basic matters of life.  Deuteronomy 6:16 and Matthew 4:7 both say: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

There are times in which doing what God requires involves taking significant risk.  Yet undertaking an endeavor which is reasonable to conclude we cannot handle (financially or otherwise), and which the Bible’s counsel doesn’t require of us, is an unwarranted risk.  Having as many kids as nature will allow and/or adopting kids at a similar or higher rate is evidently an unwarranted risk in many, many cases.  God has not made promises in the Bible to back up those who attempt such endeavors like He has for those who take risks of faith in doing the things which His Word actually commands.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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