The Reformers on birth control
My husband sent me the link to this book this morning. Very interesting. I'm planning to get a copy. Here's the description of the book:
Martin Luther once proclaimed that "the purpose of marriage is not pleasure and ease but the procreation and education of children and the support of a family.... People who do not like children are swine, dunces, and blockheads, not worthy to be called men and women, because they despise the blessing of God, the Creator and Author of marriage" (Christian History, Issue 39, p. 24).
Luther also said that birth control was the equivalent of sodomy (probably because of the likeness between homosexual wickedness and impotent sex).
John Calvin declared that birth control was the murder of future persons and the Synod of Dort issued a Bible commentary which stated that contraception was the same as abortion.
If you are shocked by the strong statements from these Godly men, that really is not too surprising, because Protestant opposition to birth control has largely been forgotten in our decadent 21st century.
If you want to know about Biblical principles which oppose contraception, or wish to know what the Reformers and their heirs thought about this important subject, we certainly hope that you will get this book!
You can listen to the entire MP3 audio files of the book here. (Please note: I have not listened to these myself or read the book, so do not take this as an endorsement from me.)
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:42 PM
17 Comments:
Hi Crystal,
I am so glad you posted on this subject, it is one that has been bothering me for quite a while. I believe that birth control should not be used, but I am wondering if it is okay in special circumstances. You see I have diabetes and if I got pregnant at at time that my blood sugar was not under perfect control I could cause brain damage to my baby within the first week, not to mention other health risks to both the baby and me. It breaks my heart to have to consider the use of birth control but I don't want to cause such damage either. If anyone has any helpful comments or insight I'd appreciate it. I'm 22 and going to be getting married next year.
This is a radical idea even to most Christians today.My husband is a Presbyterian minister and often says its only been the last 100 years that ANY church has accepted birth control. Now days to even mention contraception as being wrong condems you to harsh critism.
-Lela
Thank you, Crystal, for reminding us of what the Reformers believed about birth control. I was taught at an early age that birth control is spiritually,emotionally, and physically detrimental. After I was saved, I must admit that it was rather disconcerting to see how professing Christians used contraception. When one follows the folly of the world rather than the wisdom of God, he will reap horrible consequences.I cannot thank God enough for placing in my life so many Christians who constantly seek His Will for all things.
Thanks for sharing! I love the quotes!!!
Hi there - I stumbled across your blog and wanted to first tell you what an encouragement it is to me. Thank you.
About birth control, it seems like you are opposed to it - from what I gather, is that right?
I have been married for just a little while, 8 months come tomorrow in fact. I have been on birth control for almost a year. My husband and I greatly desire to have children, and we too don't like me being on the Pill, but please tell me, where do you draw the line when it comes to just starting out, when you are not yet established/with not much money? I know that this is all by faith, not just about having enough- every part of life is, and the Lord is the opener and closer of the womb. But I think that this is an issue that needs a little breathing room, a little grace, and lots of wisdom and looking to the Lord - Christian couples are going to look at this differently, and it doesn't necessarily mean that couple A is right and couple b is wrong.
We are almost ready to get off this Pill, and we look forward to it. It has done who knows what to my hormones - I am not saying that I like it, but it has helped us in pursuing preparations for future children. We also believe that we have needed this time to work through many adjustments with our new life together, money, our jobs, establishing traditions, and learning. My husband sees it kind of like an "engagement time" before the wedding - preparing for what is to come, trying to do this wisely.
I pray that we will have many, and I hope that we are not looked down on because we are on the Pill. Once we are off, that's it. Either way it goes, I believe my life is the Lord's, and my body is my husband's, and for bearing his children.
Thanks, Amy
Chelsea:
Thanks for commenting. Everytime I post something on birth control, there are always those who comment with special situations asking what I believe they should do in their situation. Here's my advice: Talk to your fiance. I can't tell you what is right or wrong to do in your situation, but I can encourage you to prayerfully bring this matter before the Lord with your fiance. God will give you both His wisdom through His Word.
Could you please address my question? I read your blog daily and was just wondering about your opinion. I'm curious about equating birth control with abortion. Could you explain this a bit better. Thank you. I know you don't always like answering these types of questions...but I am curious about what you yourself think.
Hi, Amy!
Thank you for stopping by and for commenting.
As far as what I believe for those just starting out in their marriage, I am going to copy and paste something I wrote as a blog entry in January. Some of this is really strong stuff, highly controversial, and -- to many people -- bordering on insane. I don't want you to feel that I am judging you or the choices you and your husband are making -- you need to follow your husband's desires for you. However, I encourage you to prayerfully consider this together in the light of Scripture. I also would encourage you to study the effects of birth control pills -- most people are very unaware of the harmful side effects of them in addition to the fact that the majority of them are abortive. I encourage anyone who is considering going on birth control or is already on birth control pills to study and research this out for themselves.
Here's the blog entry...
Dear Crystal,
So many young married women I know have said lately that they "can't afford to have children." I know that you and your husband have
managed to live and raise a child on $1,000 a month, with your husband in school. If you can do it, I think many more people could too. How poor is too poor for children? How much money does a couple need to have in order to feel "ready" to have a baby? I think your insight and experience with this could be encouraging to many women who desire to be mothers yet are afraid of the cost and their income situation.
-Becky
Hi, Becky!
Great question. I, too, hear many people say that they can't afford to have children yet or that they aren't "ready" for children. And how sad this makes me. What joys these people are purposefully depriving themselves of. They are choosing to miss out on one of God's greatest blessings -- and they don't even know what they are missing out on!
I have seen God do so many great and mighty things on our behalf. It is almost mind-boggling! He truly has done "exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think." And the glory alone goes to Him.
So many people say they aren't "ready" to have children. Who defines "ready"? I personally do not think anyone should get married until they are ready to have children. If you are not ready to have children, you are not ready to get married.
God will never give you anything you cannot handle. If you entrust your family size into His all-knowing, all-wise hands, He will give you just exactly the number of children you need, in His timing. And, He will supply everything you need to properly care for and raise those children. I think we so often limit God by putting Him into our man-made timetable.
Doing things God's way rather than relying upon our own understanding is so much better. I know because I've seen it in my own life. If anyone had looked at our budget and standard of living before we had Kathrynne, you can be assured that they would have told us we weren't "ready" to have children. After all, many months we lived on less than $1,000 (and much of that was going towards our housing rent). We certainly did not have excess money. But, God was faithful to provide for our needs and we didn't have anything to complain about.
Inspite of our meager income, we had purposed to welcome any and all children God would give to us, whenever He chose to give them to us. We struggled with infertility for the first 15 months of our marriage -- we longed for children and were earnestly beseeching the Lord for them. Of course, there were times when I wondered how we would afford to pay for the costs of actually having a baby if I did get pregnant, but I sought to leave that in God's hands.
When we found out we were expecting, we were so thrilled. What joy flooded our hearts! We knew that this baby was from the Lord and He would provide for our needs. And what an incredible job God has done!
Just few examples of God's provision for us:
I wondered how we would afford maternity clothes. I prayed and asked the Lord and He prompted five different people to send me a box of maternity clothes or buy maternity clothes for me. I ended up with some very nice, name-brand maternity clothes -- all which I got for free.
We wondered how we would pay for the birth. We prayed and God allowed our student insurance to cover the majority of the birthing center costs (By the way, using a birthing center or having a home birth will save you a lot of money -- our total costs for everything including all prenatal and postnatal care and birthing classes was about $3200 before insurance.). A few months after Kathrynne's birth, we received a check in the mail from someone who said God had prompted them to send it to pay for the rest of Kathrynne's birth costs. We also received a check from our church and a few other individuals. God took care of the birth costs over and above what they were.
I wondered how we would afford all the neccessary baby items. We prayed and God provided. We ended up having three showers (I didn't think we'd have any since we don't have a lot of friends in the town we live in) and receiving gifts from people all over the world -- many of whom we didn't even hardly know! We have received hundreds of gifts beyond the essential items -- so many items that we were able to pass on many things to other needy families. Four families gave us practically their entire collection of girl's clothes from newborn to 3T! We have boxes of clothes in our closet for Kathrynne for the next two years -- and it was only recently that we went out and bought her anything.
I could go on and on and share story after story of how God has provided for us since Kathrynne has been born. We have been blessed beyond measure.
One thing that I have learned is that God doesn't often provide grace for tomorrow. He provides grace for today. Before I got pregnant, we didn't need maternity clothes, baby things, or more income. But, when we needed those things, God has provided.
We serve a big God. If He's big enough to provide for me, He's big enough to provide for you. You just have to step out in faith and trust Him!
Hi, Anonymous!
For future reference, you may have better success at getting your comment or question posted or answered if you post your name. I have way too many anonymous trolls on this blog and am much more apt to delete any post which is left entirely anonymously. Just FYI.
As far as your question, both abortion and contraception are seeking to achieve the same end result -- the prevention of life. One kills life after it is created, one seeks to keep life from being created.
My husband and I look at our little daughter and think, how on earth could we do something to purposely keep from having another child? Who are we to decide when a life is at stake?
Hi,
I was reading your post about birth control and also the comments from others. I wanted to respond because of a couple of the comments made, in the hopes that my words might help the women who worried about pregnancy and their health or about not having enough money.
I will try to make this brief. My husband and I, as unbelievers, had 2 children 16 and 14 years ago. We conceived immediately each time. When our younger child was 2, we became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and decided that we had to trust him with the size of our family. We pitched the contraceptives and put our trust in Him, knowing that we weren't of unlimited means to support dozens of children. We trusted that what he gave, he would provide for. In addition, my health was not the best during the past 12 years (chronic fatigue, autoimmune issues, and a host of others), but we never once decided to prevent ourselves from having children as a result. And do you know what, we have NEVER conceived another child. Despite conceiving 2 children easily, we have spent 12+ years contraceptive-less and childless. We long for more children and have asked the Lord to bless, but so far the womb has remained closed.
My belief is that if the Lord does not want your body to have children for whatever reason (health, etc.), then He will not allow you to conceive. My husband and I are proof positive of that. And if he does want you to have a child, even if in difficult circumstances, then we are playing God to say "I don't want them now."
Bottom line, my husband and I see that the Lord opens wombs when it pleases him to do so, and he keeps them closed when it pleases him to do so. He does not need our help in any of that. (I wrote an article about this subject which was published in An Encouraging Word (published by Wisdom's Gate) last fall.
There are many things, just such as this issue, that the protestant church has NOT taught in the last couple hundred years or even more. SO MANY important things we just never knew. I wish we had known more...and had more faith NOT to use birth control. As it was I had to have a complete hysterectomy at age 35 and probably would not have had more than one or 2 more anyway. We have 3...but our youngest has been alone so much, how wonderful for her had we had some other children near her age!! I do believe that the scriptures teach compassion and doing what is best for the health of the mother too...our son has had "the surgery"...everyone fears that if his wife was pregnant yet again (after 3 stair- step children) and going down to only about 100 pounds and still not being able to regain that weight plus other health issues she has...we all felt that was the only solution as we do not want the children to grow up motherless!! Perhaps we are wrong...but life is seldom ideal and so many times we have to make very quick decisions too!! Thanks for sharing these thoughts!!
... this is one area, among many others, in which the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions have remained beautifully faithful in their typical resistance to cultural accomodation; and while no enyclical on topic would use Luther's characteristic vitriole ("swine!?"- please), the RC church has and does deem marriages that are not open to children as "unchaste."
Crystal, it would be awesome to see some positive suggestions as to resources for natural family planning methods, if it could be discussed discretely-
Amy,
Just over a year ago, I stopped taking the Pill. I had used it since just before getting married two years before. I found out last spring that ALL forms of hormonal birth control can have an abortifacient effect (can sometimes allow ovulation and therefore conception, but can prevent implanation of the newly conceived baby, causing death to the baby), I was horrified. I researched this in depth and presented what I found to my husband. He was very upset too. The thought that we could possibly have conceived and aborted a child in two years on the Pill without even realizing it made us grieve.
EPM has some thorough, well-documented information about hormonal birth control here:
http://www.epm.org/resources-birthcontrol_pill.html
Coming off the pill made my husband and me really consider the mindset behind contraception. We wanted to have children - lots of them, in fact! - but we could never figure out the timing and planning of when to start our family.
I was working full time, and he was getting his MBA, so we didn't think we could afford a baby. But as we prayed and studied the Bible, we realized that all throughout Scripture, God calls children a gift, a blessing, an inheritance, and in many places, children are equated with other financial blessings! If God calls a child an economic blessing, why do so many Christians call them an economic burden? God's economics don't make sense to worldly wisdom, but we decided that we'd rather trust Him than our own "wisdom."
This collection of verses really encouraged me:
http://www.visionforumministries.org/sections/home/versesofvictory/fruitofthewomb.asp
Once we stopped using any kind of birth control, it still took us six months to get pregnant. We believe that God's timing is perfect and that He desires for our daughter to come into the world this October! I am still working. My husband is done with school and still looking for full time work. To people around us, we look stupid for having a baby now, but we believe God will provide for us as we are obeying Him. The numbers don't work out on paper, but God will provide.
My husband just got a job offer yesterday and we are praying about whether he should accept it. Lord willing, I will be quitting my job to be a full time wife soon!
Amy, as you and your husband continue to seek God on this issue, He'll show you what to do, and He will meet all your needs!
-Becky
There have been a lot of comments and questions on this post -- many of which I've opted not to post because I don't want this to turn into a big debate or argument. Thank you to everyone who has taken time to comment, though.
I did want to make a comment on Natural Family Planning. My husband and I do not understand how this is any different than using birth control -- yes, it is more "natural" and the health consequences are definitely not there to worry about. However, it is done for the same result as abortion or other contraceptives -- it is to prevent life. I also think that Scripture is clear on this one -- abstaining is for the purpose of prayer and fasting and seeking the Lord, not to keep from having children.
Can God be trusted to be the Giver and Creator of life in His time or does He need our help? Can God be trusted to give us however many or few children He sees fit or do we need to help Him out? Do we truly believe in God or not?
Crystal does have a point about NFP. I never understood why Christians thought that was OK but not something like the barrier method. I don't agree with Crystal, but NFP never sat right with me. You are preventing pregnancy the same as if you were using something.
I'm not going to give my two cense about birth control and the Reformers because I have zero time to go there.
I looked into NFP and you would have to abstain for a long time each month with you period and everything.
A good topic! One to definitely discuss with your husband and God...kind of an intimate... and for some..painful topic to casually dismiss with nary a thought!
It is, in many ways, profitable to study the words of those who have gone before us. Martin Luther did great things...God he is not.
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