Historical Protestantism and Contraception
(Excerpted from Protestant author Charles Provan's The Bible and Birth Control)
A Birth Control Quiz
1) What Church Synod issued a Bible commentary which stated that contraception was the same as abortion? What theologian declared in the 1500s that birth control was the murder of future persons?
2) What priest in the 1700s declared that taking "preventative measures" was unnatural and would destroy the souls of those who practiced it?
3) Who declared that birth control was sodomy?
4) What church group ruled in the 1600s that a church official found guilty of birth control was no longer allowed to hold his position?
5)What well known theologian said, "We do not believe in what is termed 'birth control'"?
If you think that the above statements were made by Roman Catholics, then your quiz score is "zero."
The answers are: 1. The Synod of Dort; 2. John Calvin; 3. John Wesley; 4. Martin Luther; 5. The Pilgrims; 6. Arthur W. Pink.
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Nine Reasons Why the Bible Prohibits Birth Control
#1. Be fruitful and Multiply (Gen. 1:27-28)
...this is a command of God, indeed the first command to a married couple. Birth control obviously involves disobedience to this command ... therefore birth control is wrong, because it involves disobedience to the word of God. Nowhere is this command done away with in the entire Bible; therefore it still remains valid for us today.
#2. Children are a Blessing from God (Ps. 127:3-5, 1 Chr. 25:4-5 & 26:-45)
What this has to do with birth control is plain to see: for birth control seeks to prevent children from being conceived, thereby preventing children from being born. This act prevents blessings of God from being given to people. Lest there be those who say, "those kinds of blessings I don't want," let us recall the story about Esau in Gen. 25:29-34 ... Genesis says that ... Esau "despised" the blessing of God. What does Heb. 12:16 have to say about Esau? It says that Esau was "a godless person."
#3. Childlessness is an Unfortunate Thing (Hos. 9:10-17, Ex. 23:25-26)
God views childlessness or less children than possible as a negative occurence, something which He uses as a punishment ... birth control brings about a lamentable catastrophe according to the Bible!
#4. The Onan Incident (Gen. 38:8-10, Dt. 25:5-10)
Some say "Onan was killed by God because he didn't show love for his brother by having a child. He should have had at least one child before practising birth control, and then God wouldn't have been angry." Deuteronomy eliminates this reason as a possibility, because it says that regardless of a man's motives for refusing to raise up seed for a dead brother, the man is not to be put to death. He is to be humiliated only ... Onan was put to death for what he did, while the man in Dt. 25 is not. As we compare the two Bible texts, we need to ask, "What did Onan do that the man of Dt. 25 didn't do?" ... the difference is that while Onan wasted his seed, the other man didn't!
#5. Death Penalties for Sexual Offenses (Lev. 20:13, 15, 16, 18, Gen. 38:8-10)
[Forbidden sexual relations in the Bible] may be divided into two categories: a) sexual offenses forbidden because of who the potential or actual sexual partner is (for example, adultery, incest, etc.) and, b) offenses which are forbidden because of the act itself. It is the second group on which we intend to focus. These offenses are evil no matter with whom they are committed .. a listing of these offenses is as follows:
Male homosexual intercourse (Lev. 20:13) Male/Animal bestiality (Lev. 20:15) Female/Animal bestiality (Lev. 20:16) Intercourse with a menstruous woman (Lev. 20:18) Withdrawal (wasting seed) (Gen. 38:8-10)
What is common to all these five sins? The answer is: they are all sterile forms of sexual intercourse ... so we can see that the reason that these sins are condemned by God is because they are almost 100% sterile, and oppose the command of God to "be fruitful and multiply."
#6. Castration as a Blemish (Lev. 24:19-20, 21:17-20, 22:20-22, 24-25)
Note that [in these passages that describe "defects"] in addition to blindness, crippledness, broken limbs, eczema and running sores, there also occurs bruised or crushed or torn or cut testicles! God here declares that damaged or destroyed testicles are a bad thing. We think that all would agree that the lists in the above verses are bad things; we have never seen anyone declaring the great benefits of being crippled or blind, or of having running sores! Once again, though, exceptions are made for birth control.
We are told in the news media and in sex manuals about the "quick and easy, virtually fool-proof method of birth-control - vasectomy." Once again, what is a bad thing in Scripture is a "good thing" in our culture. But we Christians should seek to find out what the Bible says, not what the latest point of view is. And the Bible says that anyone who gets a vasectomy is injuring themselves, something forbidden by the Bible.
#7. Seed as Semen or Children (Heb. 7:9-10, Job 10:8-11)
If a person looks up the word "seed" in the Old Testament, an interesting fact will pop up. Namely, the Hebrew word "zerah" is used of human seed in two different ways: a) semen (Gen. 38:9), and b) children or people after birth (Gen. 46:6).
The reason that Scripture uses the same word for semen and children is because all humans at one time existed in semen form ... viewing children as a continuous process, we can see that the word "seed" applies well to both stages of human life, before and after conception.
Those who practise birth control should realize that what they are doing not eliminates semen (which nobody seems to be concerned with), but thereby also eliminate future people.
#8. The Natural Function of Women (Rom. 1:25-27)
God here says that cultures which reject the worship of God are punished by God "giving them over to degrading passions." The road to these degrading passions begins when men and women exchange "the natural function of women for that which is unnatural." ... What is the ultimate result of rejecting the "natural function of woman" (i.e., bearing children)? Homosexuality and other like perversions.
#9. Childbirth and Salvation for Women (1 Tim. 2:11-15)
Is Paul saying that women can earn salvation by childbearing? By no means. Salvation is by grace and not by works. What Paul is saying may be summarized as follows: if a woman is truly saved, she will prove her faith and her salvation by pursuing good works ... the pathway of obedience, which leads to eternal salvation, is (for married women) accompanied by childbearing if possible.
Paul is saying that the pathway to salvation for married women is attended by godly childbearing. Those who reject childbearing (when they are married) reject the good works which Paul says accompany salvation.
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Protestant Theologians on the Onan Incident and Birth Control
"His sin was extremely heinous, not only as it proceeded from envy of his brother's honor, and contempt of the promised seed, but as it was horrid and unnatural in itself." (John Brown, Presbyterian, 1722-1787)
"This is always a shameful sin, yet much more atrocious than a case of incest or adultery: we call it a sin of the effeminate, indeed, even a sin of Sodomy .. therefore it was quite right for God to kill him." (Abraham Calovius, Lutheran, 1612-1686)
"The voluntary spilling of semen outside of intercourse between man and woman is a monstrous thing. Deliberately to withdraw from coitus in order that semen may fall on the ground is doubly monstrous ... if any woman ejects a fetus from her womb by drugs, it is reckoned a crime incapable of expiation and deservedly Onan incurred upon himself the same kind of punishment." (John Calvin, 1509-1564)
"The sin of self-pollution, which is generally considered to be that of Onan, is one of the most destructive evils ever practiced by fallen man. In many respects it is far worse than common whoredom, and has in its train more awful consequences ... God, and God alone, can save thee from an evil which has in its issue the destruction of the body, and the final perdition of thy soul! Whether this may have been the sin of Onan, or not, is a matter at present of small moment - it may be thy sin, therefore take heed, lest God slay thee for it." (Adam Clarke, Methodist, 1762-1832)
"God destests and punishes shameful acts. Shortness of life for the wicked is the punishment of sins. The sin of effeminacy and voluntary pouring out of the seed is contrary to nature: this in itself is compared by the Hebrews to homicide. Thomas argues that this is more serious than homicide." (Johann Gerhard, Lutheran, 1582-1637)
"This was so much the worse because the Messiah was to descend from Judah, and had he [Onan] not been guilty of this wickedness, he might have had the honor of being one of his ancestors. Note, those sins that dishonour the body and defile it are very displeasing to God and the evidences of vile affections." (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714)
"Onan's sin, a deadly wickedness, an example to be held in abhorrence, as condemnatory, not only of secret sins of self-pollution, but also of all similar offences in sexual relations, and even in marriage itself ... Onan's offence ... was a most unnatural wickedness, and a grievous wrong. The sin named after him is destructive as a pestilence that walketh in darkness, destroying directly the body and the soul of the young." (Johann Peter Lange, Reformed, 1802-1884)
"Onan must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel. This is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a Sodomitic sin ... that worthless fellow refused to exercise love. He preferred polluting himself with a most disgraceful sin to raising up offspring for his brother." (Martin Luther, 1483-1546)
"For the sin of Onan, it was most detestable, because it was unnatural to spill the seed given him for generation." (John Mayer, Anglican, 1583-1664)
"He who lies with his wife, as if with a strange woman, is an adulterer ... Onan's sin here was self-pollution, aggravated much by his envy that moved him to it." (John Trapp, Puritan, 1601-1669)
"Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet to the great abuse of his own body ... he refused to raise up seed unto his brother. Thos sins that dishonour the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile affections. Observe, the thing which he did displeased the Lord - and it is to be feared, thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displease the Lord, and destroy their own souls." (John Wesley, Methodist, 1703-1791)
"The lewdness of this fact was composed of lust, of envy, and murder .. [murder,] in that there is a seminal vital virtue, which perishes if the seed be spilled; and by doing this to hinder the begetting of a living child, is the first degree of murder that can be committed, and the next unto it is the marring of conception, when it is made, and causing of abortion ... his brother Er before, was his brother in evil thus far, that both of them satisfied their sensuality against the order of nature ... which may be for terror ... to those, who, in marriage, care not for the increase of children, but for the satisfying of thier concupiscence." (Westminster Annotations, Calvinist, 1657)
You've done your homework! Good job.