Is it a sin to use contraception?

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Cristo Rei

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We are talking about the use of contraception within a marriage

I would first like to hear from others before putting my opinion forward
Is it a sin to use contraception? Why/why not?
Feel free to use the bible, reasoning, a churches position or anything else
 

Cristo Rei

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Im surprised this topic didn't draw much interest so i'll give my opinion and hopefully it provides some food for thought...

So, is it a sin to use contraception. I think it is. I refer to this bible passage...

"Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.”
But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also" Genesis 38:6-10

What was Onan's sin? What exactly was wicked in the Lord's sight that cause Him to take Onan's life?

In the Leviticus laws, when a man dies and leaves a widow his brother is obliged to take her under his wing and raise offspring
So, some people argue that the Lord killed Onan for not fulfilling his duty as commanded by the law of Leviticus

But there is a problem with that. The breaking of Leviticus laws are not punishable by death

I think the Lord killed Onan because he intentionally spilled his seed. U mite be wondering if this counts as contraception
Definition
the deliberate use of artificial methods or other techniques to prevent pregnancy as a consequence of sexual intercourse

I think its a sin, If you look at it from a natural point of view, there is nothing natural about contraception.

If u want to make love to your partners without the little cuddly surprise after 9 months then its a good idea to track her/your menstrual cycle so u know when shes/you're most fertile and least fertile...
 
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Stan B

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Im surprised this topic didn't draw much interest so i'll give my opinion and hopefully it provides some food for thought...

It is uninteresting because it is not a Biblical issue. Nowhere does Scripture forbid contraception, all the way up to abortion.

This is a Romanist political novelty that goes all the way back to the early Roman era, where they realized that the survival of the empire was dependent upon procreation to expand the empire. To that end, any male who did not have offspring by the time they reached 26 years, they lost all rights of inheritance. The same ethic adopted by the Romanist 'church' which realized that their future was also dependent upon propagation. So they manufactured their own unGodly laws, declaring that ANYONE who spills their seed without intent to propagate is a murderer!! A pile of insane total nonsense!!
 

Paul Christensen

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We are talking about the use of contraception within a marriage

I would first like to hear from others before putting my opinion forward
Is it a sin to use contraception? Why/why not?
Feel free to use the bible, reasoning, a churches position or anything else
Much more preferable to an abortion of an unwanted baby. Contraception is not listed as a sin in the Scriptures, but abortion is murder of babies created in the image of God.
 
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Josho

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Before this thread goes on further, please be careful of the way you reply, don't go into much detail.

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[*]No vulgar/obscene language or images. We are mostly adults here, but younger audiences frequent this forum as well. Please refrain from using offensive language in light of this. This is, by far not, just limited to swearing, and includes graphic language or content of sexual nature.
 
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Deborah_

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What was Onan's sin? What exactly was wicked in the Lord's sight that cause Him to take Onan's life?

In the Leviticus laws, when a man dies and leaves a widow his brother is obliged to take her under his wing and raise offspring
So, some people argue that the Lord killed Onan for not fulfilling his duty as commanded by the law of Leviticus

But the Levitical law (and its punishments) was not yet in existence. There are other considerations:

1) This was more important than just a mere family thing. It was Onan's duty to father the next generation of God's people. A whole tribe of descendants was depending on him!
2) He could have been honest and refused to do his duty - but instead he made a pretence of doing it.
3) What about Tamar? She was evidently willing to have sex with her brother-in-law in order to become a mother, but Onan was in effect using her for his sexual gratification without giving her the 'reward'.
 

farouk

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It is uninteresting because it is not a Biblical issue. Nowhere does Scripture forbid contraception, all the way up to abortion.

This is a Romanist political novelty that goes all the way back to the early Roman era, where they realized that the survival of the empire was dependent upon procreation to expand the empire. To that end, any male who did not have offspring by the time they reached 26 years, they lost all rights of inheritance. The same ethic adopted by the Romanist 'church' which realized that their future was also dependent upon propagation. So they manufactured their own unGodly laws, declaring that ANYONE who spills their seed without intent to propagate is a murderer!! A pile of insane total nonsense!!
I do think that - beyond traditionalist Roman Catholic circles - pressure for young Christians to get married young can play havoc on their lives, indeed. Within a Biblical framework, young believers or older should have the freedom to decide entirely for themselves when or whether to get married, or whether they really need to cease being single in a life consecrated to the Lord.
 

Stan B

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Much more preferable to an abortion of an unwanted baby. Contraception is not listed as a sin in the Scriptures, but abortion is murder of babies created in the image of God.
No! Abortion is not murder of babies. Abortion is merely discarding miscellaneous unformed fetal tissue, which having never been a living being, of course cannot be murdered.
 

farouk

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But the Levitical law (and its punishments) was not yet in existence. There are other considerations:

1) This was more important than just a mere family thing. It was Onan's duty to father the next generation of God's people. A whole tribe of descendants was depending on him!
2) He could have been honest and refused to do his duty - but instead he made a pretence of doing it.
3) What about Tamar? She was evidently willing to have sex with her brother-in-law in order to become a mother, but Onan was in effect using her for his sexual gratification without giving her the 'reward'.
@Deborah_ It was all bound up in any case with 'the duty of an husbands brother' in Old Testament Jewish practice; which is yet another piece of evidence that some of what we have in the OT is vastly different from the situation of New Testament believers - many of whom are from a Gentile background - today.
 

farouk

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Unless it is abortifacient, it is really up to the convictions of the couple. (FYI, hormonal birth control isn't abortifacient by design, but it is semi-abortifacient in effect.)

My wife & I are Quiverfull. So, our personal conviction was no medically unnecessary contraception.
@Sabertooth Local churches are not in any case in any position supposedly to "implement policy" when it comes to private issues like this. Within a Biblical local church, there will sometimes be widely divergent ideas and life situations among those who are sound in the faith.
 

Stan B

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Unless it is abortifacient, it is really up to the convictions of the couple. (FYI, hormonal birth control isn't abortifacient by design, but it is semi-abortifacient in effect.)

My wife & I are Quiverfull. So, our personal conviction was no medically unnecessary contraception.
Yeah, God gave us intelligence. :) When your quiver is full, time to make intelligent decisions. :)
 

Stan B

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@Deborah_ It was all bound up in any case with 'the duty of an husbands brother' in Old Testament Jewish practice; which is yet another piece of evidence that some of what we have in the OT is vastly different from the situation of New Testament believers - many of whom are from a Gentile background - today.

This law was given specifically to the Jews, where genealogy was absolutely vital to the purpose of Scripture, which is essentially a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the One Anointed, and then Scripture ends.

You can see from the genealogy of Jesus, recorded in Matthew, that His genealogy is recorded right back to Abraham. This genealogy is obviously copied from the very carefully maintained Temple records. Then after 1000 years, having recorded the essence of the purpose of those records, the Temple and it's records were destroyed, after the One Anointed was crucified.
 

farouk

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This law was given specifically to the Jews, where genealogy was absolutely vital to the purpose of Scripture, which is essentially a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the One Anointed, and then Scripture ends.

You can see from the genealogy of Jesus, recorded in Matthew, that His genealogy is recorded right back to Abraham. This genealogy is obviously copied from the very carefully maintained Temple records. Then after 1000 years, having recorded the essence of the purpose of those records, the Temple and it's records were destroyed, after the One Anointed was crucified.
I do in any case think it's not the role of local churches today to try implement so called "policy" on condoms to married congregants by appeals to a totally different Old Testament age.
 
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Sabertooth

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When your quiver is full, time to make intelligent decisions.
The shared view among QF is that God will quit when He is done (if we let Him). Quiverfull
@Sabertooth Local churches are not in any case in any position supposedly to "implement policy" when it comes to private issues like this. Within a Biblical local church, there will sometimes be widely divergent ideas and life situations among those who are sound in the faith.
I said that it was our personal conviction. We do not impose it on anybody else.

There are three general types of contraception,
  1. Abortifacient- allows fertilization, but aborts the zygote (ex. IUD);
  2. Non-abortifacient- effectively blocks conception by keeping the gametes separate (ex. condoms, rhythm method, [unreliably] withdrawal method);
  3. Semi-abortifacient- designed to work like #2, but has secondary qualities like #1 (hormonal contraception, Plan B pill)
Pro-Lifers who still use contraception tend to avoid #1 & 3, once they find out how they work.
 
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farouk

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The shared view among QF is that God will quit when He is done (if we let Him).

I said that it was our personal conviction. We do not impose it on anybody else.

There are three general types of contraception,
  1. Abortifacient- allows fertilization, but aborts the zygote (ex. IUD);
  2. Non-abortifacient- effectively blocks contraception by keeping the gametes separate (ex. condoms, rhythm method, [unreliably] withdrawal method);
  3. Semi-abortifacient- designed to work like #2, but has secondary qualities like #1 (hormonal contraception, Plan B pill)
Pro-Lifers who still use contraception tend to avoid #1 & 3, once they find out how they work.

@Sabertooth I can see that condoms would be regarded by not a few Christians as among the more straightforward devices; there are varieties of these, of course.

(Of course I wasn't suggesting you were imposing anything; mine was a general statement, really.)
 

farouk

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@Sabertooth Even without contraception, the proportion of eggs that are fertilized compared with those that actually go on to become fetuses is considerably greater, although most cease to become implanted in the womb tissue; and the fact that something happens naturally to stop this occurring isn't by any stretch of definition an abortion. In any case, I can see why condoms would be often regarded as more straightforward in terms of what they do and don't do to the process of fertilization.
 

Sabertooth

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Even without contraception, the proportion of eggs that are fertilized compared with those that actually go on to become fetuses is considerably greater, although most cease to become implanted in the womb tissue; and the fact that something happens naturally to stop this occurring isn't by any stretch of definition an abortion.
I know that fertilization isn't guaranteed, but I have never heard that failure to implant was naturally common. IUDs abort zygotes by design. Their failure to implant without such deliberate interference is not a willful act.