Over everything in our lives, including our marital lives, God is the Lord. He therefore has some thoughts about family planning. However, what? How should family planning relate to our honoring of God?
Children are frequently mentioned in the Bible as a blessing from the Lord:
- “Now that Adam was married to Eve, she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain, declaring, ‘I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.'” According to Genesis 4:1.
- “As the LORD had promised, the LORD came to Sarah and did as he had stated. When God had spoken to Abraham, in his old age, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son (Genesis 21:1-2).
- “With you are these people?” “The children whom God has graciously given your servant,” Jacob declared in Genesis 33:5.
- “He makes the lady who is barren joyfully pregnant by giving her a place to live. Glory to the LORD! (Psalm 113:9).
- Psalms 127:3 states, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”
According to the Bible, it is improper to withhold God’s blessing on children in a marriage. Family planning is against God’s plan for marriage if it entails arranging to be married but not start a family.
Natural birth control
This does not imply that you should have as many kids as you can after being married. The church has long recognized natural birth control, such as abstinence, as a means of trying to manage the number and timing of pregnancies and not as a threat to God’s plan for marriage.
Contraceptives
However, the most common method of family planning is the use of contraception. Contrary to popular belief, the usage of contraceptives—albeit ineffective ones—has existed throughout history. The churches were unanimous in their rejection of them up until 1930. The Roman Catholic Church continues to maintain this stance. It teaches that having children is the inevitable result of having sex. Although refraining from that action is permitted, it is regarded as abnormal to reverse the act’s natural result.
This conclusion is also accepted by some Protestants. But today, practically every Protestant church views the use of contraception as a matter of Christian liberty. Since a conclusion based just on natural law—God’s design—is less definitive than one based on the Bible’s teachings.
Morality of trying to prevent pregnancy
One Bible passage, Genesis 38, is often discussed as possibly saying something about the morality of trying to prevent pregnancy while having sexual relations. Er died. His brother Onan married his wife Tamar, as the custom was in those days, and the children that he would get with her would be counted as Er’s. “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother” (Genesis 38:9). Traditionally, and still by Roman Catholic theologians, this was used as evidence that having sexual relationships without the willingness to conceive is a grave sin. Now most Protestant Bible scholars say that Onan’s sin was that he did not want to father a child in his brother’s name, so that the inheritance of his own children would become less.
Conclusion about this issue
It does not seem appropriate to enact laws prohibiting the use of birth control methods because the Bible does not explicitly condemn them. However, contrary to what most Protestants believe, the freedom of Christians to use contraception is not unambiguous. Therefore, every Christian couple will need to make their own decisions regarding this matter.
However, two things are quite obvious. First, using contraceptives to enable consequence-free sex outside of marriage is not advised. It is still true that the Bible teaches that a man and a woman’s marriage commitment should include sexual contact. The second is that, in God’s sight, [abortion as a family planning approach is totally immoral]. Since abortion involves the taking of an innocent life, it is considered a serious sin.
The science of family planning is imprecise. According to Proverbs 16:9, “the heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” has previously been experienced by many couples. As a result, every family need to be prepared to welcome as many or as few children as God sees fit—this immense blessing.
