Part 1: Birth Control
Every married couple must face the question of birth control today, and modern society presents a wide variety of viewpoints. On the one hand, many in modern society find no moral problem with birth control, and use condoms and/or birth-control pills commonly in order to have sex while avoiding the fear of unwanted pregnancy.
On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church considers all forms of birth control to be morally wrong except periodically abstaining from intercourse during a woman’s fertile period each month (which is a “natural” as opposed to “artificial” form of birth control).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. . . . The refusal of fertility turns married life away from its “supreme gift,” the child.1
It is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life.2
Every action which . . . proposes to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil.3
Sacred Scripture and the Church’s traditional practice see in large families a sign of God’s blessing and the parents’ generosity.4
Among evangelical Protestants, a few support essentially the Roman Catholic position and oppose all forms of “artificial” birth control, but most believe that birth control is a personal decision for each family and that couples should be free to decide how many children they will have.
What does the Bible actually teach about birth control? That is the subject discussed in this section.
A. SCRIPTURE VIEWS CHILDREN NOT AS A BURDEN BUT AS A GREAT BLESSING
Some in contemporary society view children mostly as a burden, a huge expense, and an inconvenience that interferes with the happiness of a married couple. From time to time there are news stories that make the task of raising children seem frightfully expensive! In 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that the cost of raising a child from birth to high school graduation was $245,340. In more expensive areas, such as the Northeast United States, that figure reaches $455,000.
That does not include the costs for the college years, which were conservatively estimated by the College Board for 2016–2017 to be $20,090 (in-state) per year for tuition and housing at four-year public colleges and universities, and $45,370 for four-year private colleges and universities.5
But the Bible does not view raising children as a burden or as something that is financially or emotionally impossible to do. It consistently views children as a blessing from God. This positive perspective begins at the earliest point of human history, for the first command that God ever gave to human beings was a mandate to bear children:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:28)
To “multiply” implies having more than two children, because a couple with only two children will simply replace themselves on the earth, without multiplying the population.6
Other passages in the Old Testament continue promoting a positive view of children, even after Adam and Eve sinned:
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Ps. 127:3–5)
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord. (Ps. 128:3–4)
Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithles...
