Birth Control and the Bible

[Katakalupto]

Someone posted this website in the Baptist forum, and I thought I would share it. It is very helpful in reaffirming my believe that I shouldn't use BC. It uses scriptures and goes through the history of the church and its stand on BC. Having made the decision to trust God with my fertility, I find the verses of scripture on this site very uplifting.

http://av1611.faithweb.com/catalog.html

 

[AutumnDreamer]

I did not like this article at all. For so many reasons. I do not believe BC is a sin, I do feel conviction for my family not to use hormonal BC. I do believe God made our bodies to work a certain way, to allow us to know when we can get pregnant so that we may have wisdom and guidance from Him on when to try and when not to try. I vehemnetly disagree on what this person said in regards to Onan and Tamar. I do not believe this had anything to do with BC, I do not believe the Lord would have struck down Onan had it been his wife in the story rather then his brother's wife, but I do believe that if the Lord specifically tells you to have a child and you use any type of BC natural or hormonal then you are sin, but not b/c of the BC but b/c of the disobedience. If not going forth and being fruitful and multipying was a sin, then I have been sinning everyday for the past 5 years as I have not been able to get pregnant. I just think that is ridiculous. I am all for the quiverfull attitude but I am totally against pushing that conviction on anyone else. BTW I am not saying that is what you were doing at all, it was just the impression I got from the man writing this article.

 

[Katakalupto]

Oh, I don't believe in pushing to try and make other's believe the same way either. Which is why I posted the link here and not somewhere else. I don't believe that using BC is a sin for all, but I feel that it would be a sin for me to use it in any way shape or form. Another part of the Onan Tamar story is that if you look in Matthew into Jesus's ancestry, Tamar is the first woman mentioned.
Sorry if the website offended you, I just liked the verses in it that tied into my beliefs.

 

[AutumnDreamer]

Oh, I don't believe in pushing to try and make other's believe the same way either. Which is why I posted the link here and not somewhere else. I don't believe that using BC is a sin for all, but I feel that it would be a sin for me to use it in any way shape or form. Another part of the Onan Tamar story is that if you look in Matthew into Jesus's ancestry, Tamar is the first woman mentioned.
Sorry if the website offended you, I just liked the verses in it that tied into my beliefs.

Don't worry I don't offend that easily LOL It was just this article and the tone I read it with. I am very convicted not to use any type of hormonal BC, I have fertility issues so natural family planning doesn't work for me either, I have no choice but to trust in God LOL but even if I was regular I would use my body's natural signs rather then hormonal BC.

 

[ACADEMIC]

The article is filled with all sorts of illogic and Scripture-twisting, as with QF ideology.

Consider this article:

The Bible and Family Planning by James B. Jordan

Go to page four of the source to begin reading the article.

 

[oliveplants]

The article is filled with all sorts of illogic and Scripture-twisting, as with QF ideology.

Consider this article:

The Bible and Family Planning by James B. Jordan

Go to page four of the source to begin reading the article.

OY! This guy said a quiver held 30 arrows!!! I don't guess any of us will ever get full, then. lol

I didn't read the whole thing; I do have 5 small plants to tend, after all. But I would say this guy is also QF, he just doesn't say it is a biblical command for everyone to have as many children as possible. ANd I'd probably agree with that. Some ARE called to singleness, etc.

 

[ACADEMIC]

OY! This guy said a quiver held 30 arrows!!! I don't guess any of us will ever get full, then. lol

I didn't read the whole thing; I do have 5 small plants to tend, after all. But I would say this guy is also QF, he just doesn't say it is a biblical command for everyone to have as many children as possible. ANd I'd probably agree with that. Some ARE called to singleness, etc.

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Of course, you are meaning the authors at the webpage posted by the OP. James B. Jordan is not QF.
[/FONT]

 

[Jehane]

My Academic, you do get around don't you? Fancy running into you here.

 

[ACADEMIC]

Jehane.

 

[oliveplants]

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Of course, you are meaning the authors at the webpage posted by the OP. James B. Jordan is not QF.
[/FONT]

Of course, you are gonna have to give your definition of QF if you are gonna make statements like that.

To me, QF recognizes that children are from God, and we welcome them when they come (in the simplest terms). It seemed like the article you posted agreed with this idea. But, like I siad, I didn't read all 80some pages. Feel free to correct me without being insulting.

 

[ACADEMIC]

Quiverfull is an anti-contraception ideology begun by numerous authors beginning in the mid-1980s. It has grown into a movement within primarly Protestant Christianity. A pretty fair overview of QF is at Wikpedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiverfull, to which I am a contributer.

The article by James B. Jordan is 13 pages long. It is contained in a journal 84 pages long. In the article, Jordan is attacking many of the illogical and Scripture-twisting elements of the ideology and movement, particularly its anti-contraceptive stances which most define the movement. Jordan thus cannot be said to be an adherent of QF ideology. Since this is very clear in the reading of him, I figured you had to have been referring to the articles posted by the OP, not Jordan.

 

[oliveplants]

Thanks for that. I guess I was too quick in giving my opinion of the article you posted. Knowing that it isn't the whole 84 pages, I may read it more in depth at a later time.

Is it safe to say that Jordan is not anti-children, but is against the teaching of QF as doctrine?

 

[oliveplants]

A snippet from the Jordan article:

The issue here is not whether or not
marriage is intended by God for fruitfulness.
Clearly it is, and though there
are other kinds of fruitfulness than
children, children are certainly one
normal manifestation of fruitfulness.
Having even one child, however,
manifests fruitfulness.
Moreover, the issue here is not
whether or not children are blessings.
Clearly they are, and so clearly Christians
should desire them. Other things
are blessings also, however, and
Christians should desire them as well.
Additionally, the issue here is not
whether or not Christians families
might have more children than they
normally do today. Secular propaganda
sometimes influences Christians
to be fearful of having very
many children, yet many Christians
could readily care for more children
than they think they can. But how do
we get Christians to see that this is
possible? By adding new laws to the
Bible? Or by creating a loving and
encouraging Church atmosphere?​

 

[ACADEMIC]

Definitely not anti-children.