Birth Control

[inchristalone221]

I suppose I will have to consider the issue more when it comes to it. Marriage seems a long way off for me

I suppose this is one of those matters in which we must be tolerant of brothers with differing convictions. In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity. Thank you for helping me to think more about the issue. I respect your conviction and will consider your reasoning heavily when it comes time for me to decide this matter.

 

[strengthinweakness]

I suppose I will have to consider the issue more when it comes to it. Marriage seems a long way off for me

I suppose this is one of those matters in which we must be tolerant of brothers with differing convictions. In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity. Thank you for helping me to think more about the issue. I respect your conviction and will consider your reasoning heavily when it comes time for me to decide this matter.

You are certainly welcome, my brother in Christ! I respect you for your honesty and for giving the issue thought, now and in the future. Even just seriously thinking about it, alone, is more than what most evangelical Protestants are doing in this age (including, sadly, many Reformed Christians).

I agree with you (and with Augustine ) that in non-essentials, Christians do have liberty. The use or non-use of artificial contraception is not an issue which will determine one's salvation. I challenge you in love, though, in thinking through this issue, to do more research on the long-standing (pre-1930) testimony of the Christian church regarding this issue. The following book may help you, as it has me: Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception. In one section of the book, there are striking testimonies from throughout the history of the Christian church that show just how consistent the church was on this issue (again, by using Biblical reasoning) until fairly recent times. Other parts of the book include information about the Natural Family Planning method, and about how the authors' (a husband and wife) respective understandings of sexual intercourse, and its meaning and purposes within marriage, gradually evolved to a place of Biblical reasoning based on Biblical principles.

 

[battlepig]

Strenghtinweakness,

But we do not judge what is God's design and allowed use or modification of something by simply studying it, we have to get that from his commands in scripture. The bible is full of

God's regulations and rules for sex, ( limited to man and wife, homosexuality condemned, beastiality condemned etc etc )but never once does it touch on the subject of a married couple practicing birth control.

I do not think going against the puritans and reformers is a light thing at all, but from what i have read of them on the topic, i do believe this is one area the got wrong. They certainly start from biblical premises; children are a blessing, Marriage should result in children, etc to jump from that to the idea that any and all birth control methods are forbidden is making a jump of logic that the biblical foundations cannot support.

Friend, in this thread you have given one of the better cases against birth control i have heard. With respect to those who are my spiritual betters in everyway, i would even say it is more convincing than anything i have read out of church history. Even if we grant that birth control is sin, the idea that is adultery or fornication or murder is , imho completely outfield. When i hear them talking about 'seed' as if it was some divinely precious substance that, i really wonder how men who were so wonderful on so many other points became so extreme on this one.