The following article is taken from a part of the book The Lost Cause Series (What Are You Fighting About?: Birth Control) by James W. Knox. I believe this article is in line with the much debated RH Bill here in the Philippines. I believe both parties are right in some aspects and wrong in some. Thus, we seek to find a balance through the scriptures since most of the grounds of the debate are covered in this area or somewhat related. Permission to re-post the article can be found here.
Turn to Hebrews 13 and 1 Corinthians 7. The matter of the beard may not touch your home, but if you have a family, it won't be long until someone is going to come along and tell you that if you are trusting God and living by faith, you won't take your life into your own hands and practice birth control. You will have babies as often as your wife can conceive.
For such people, the number of babies you produce is the means of determining the extent of your spirituality. Again, the Pharisees want a visible, outward symbol of sanctification in order to proclaim themselves spiritual, regardless of the condition of the heart.
If you believe in your heart that it is God's will for you to have a baby every ten months, and He enables you to perform such a feat, then by all means do so. But do not come into the church house and tell someone that God commanded him or her to do the same, when He did not.
If having a baby every year is a mark that your are spiritual and right with God, then how do you explain the fact that God made some saved women incapable of bearing children? Did God condemn someone to a life of disobedience to the scripture? He wouldn't do that.
You may say, "Why did you kill that man?" "I couldn't help it. God made me a murderer." Well, God did not make you a murderer. God said, Thou shalt not kill. You are a murderer by choice. You willingly transgressed God's commandment.
Someone says, "I couldn't help it. I committed adultery because God made me commit adultery." No, God said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. If you commit adultery, you are guilty of willfully transgressing God's word.
If it is sin for a man and woman not to have a baby every time the calendar changes, then God is guilty of sin, for He made some women unable to bear children every year and, in fact, some never.
The reverse argument is also true. Are there unsaved Hindus, Muslims, Roman Catholics and Mormons who turn out babies every year? Of course. Is this an advent testimony of their sanctification? Of course not. Production of children and a right relationship to God have nothing in common.
Now if you want to have twenty-two kids, praise God. Rear them all in church. Rear them all to live for Jesus Christ and to turn the world upside down for Jesus. But don't walk in to church with your twenty-two kids , look down your nose at that woman who is broken-hearted because she can't have a baby, and open your Pharisaical mouth and tell her that if she was right with God, she would have as many kids as you. That is not scriptural.
Back in the early 1960s, when Vatican II came out, President Johnson's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare got into trouble. Someone asked him what the government was going to do in response to the Vatican II ruling that it was still a sin for Catholics to practice birth control. This man made on of the greatest statements ever made by an American diplomat. He said, "Tell the pope, 'You no playa da game, you no makea da rules." Do you know what happened? He was forced to resign under pressure from the news media. That was a brilliant comment. He said, "You tell that fellow in Rome to stay out of my bedroom. He has no business here."
Now let me show you something from the Bible, not from a "we're such great Christians that we don't go to church" birthing manual. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge (Hebrews 13:4). This is what God said about the bed. If you are not married, I'm going to get you. If you are married, I am going to leave you alone. God said if the bed is a marriage bed, it is undefiled, and that is all He said. If it is not a marriage bed, He will bring judgement upon you. Don't you know if the God who said Thou shalt not steal had wanted to give you some instruction regarding how many babies to have or not to have, He would have said something a bit more specific than Hebrews 13:4?!
"Well Brother James, I think we ought to have all the kids we can." Well then, have them. But don't you dare have them and then make the taxpayers pay for their groceries because you are being spiritual. Don't bring twelve kids into this world, when you can't afford to feed but two of them, and then go down and get on the welfare role because you have all those kids and are "serving God." That isn't serving God.
If you have ever seen a woman with six children work to put food on the table, her parents paying her light bill because her husband was worse than an infidel and wouldn't get a job, and then heard that same man criticize Christian women for not having more children, then you know how disgusting some of these folks can be.
Look at 1 Corinthians 7:1-2. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Now, what is the context? A man an a woman are married to avoid fornication. There is judgement that come upon two people who touch one another outside the bonds of marriage, so they get married. For what? In order to engage in an intimate, physical relationship with the Lord's blessing. That is the context of the remark.
Now look at what God says. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the Lord. Now, that is now what it says: but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife (vv.3-4).
Did you see what the Lord said? "That is your marriage bed. When you go into that bedroom, I'll stay outside."
Why are these people arguing about ten kids versus five kids, or twenty kids versus two kids, or who is right with God based upon how many babies they made? The Lord said, "That woman's body does not belong to me. It belongs to her husband. And that man's body does not belong to me. It belongs to his wife. You two just make sure you stay true to one to another, and I'll be happy."
Here are two things you get in response to this truth. Number one, people say you have no faith. If you had faith in God, you would have a baby every time. It just happens that way. Yet, these same people will tell their seven children to be sure to brush their teeth before to bed. Wait a minute. Why don't they just trust God to take care of the kids' teeth? These same people put locks on their doors. Why? These same people tell their children to take baths. Why not leave the sweat and odor on your skin? To do otherwise is to interfere the way God made the body work.
Watch out for the man who calls doing what he wants to do faith, but when it is something he doesn't want to do, it is non-essential matter. You don't have a verse in the Bible on vitamins. You don't have a verse in the Bible on brushing your teeth. You don't have a verse in the Bible about learning to read. And you don't have a verse in the Bible on how many babies you are supposed to have. So quit fighting about it.
Here is the second thing you are going to be told. "Well, you know, God commanded Adam to be fruitful, to multiply and to replenish the earth." My friend, I think we are out of danger. Last time I looked, that has been taken care of. I don't think that human race is in any danger of being overrun by the lions and tigers and bears. Unless the space brothers show up, we are on the top of the ladder, and no one is going to get us. We can spray the cockroaches and shoot the snakes and cage the gorillas. We have made it.
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| The Lost Cause Series by James W. Knox |
WHAT ARE YOU FIGHTING ABOUT?: BIRTH CONTROL
Turn to Hebrews 13 and 1 Corinthians 7. The matter of the beard may not touch your home, but if you have a family, it won't be long until someone is going to come along and tell you that if you are trusting God and living by faith, you won't take your life into your own hands and practice birth control. You will have babies as often as your wife can conceive.
For such people, the number of babies you produce is the means of determining the extent of your spirituality. Again, the Pharisees want a visible, outward symbol of sanctification in order to proclaim themselves spiritual, regardless of the condition of the heart.
If you believe in your heart that it is God's will for you to have a baby every ten months, and He enables you to perform such a feat, then by all means do so. But do not come into the church house and tell someone that God commanded him or her to do the same, when He did not.
If having a baby every year is a mark that your are spiritual and right with God, then how do you explain the fact that God made some saved women incapable of bearing children? Did God condemn someone to a life of disobedience to the scripture? He wouldn't do that.
You may say, "Why did you kill that man?" "I couldn't help it. God made me a murderer." Well, God did not make you a murderer. God said, Thou shalt not kill. You are a murderer by choice. You willingly transgressed God's commandment.
Someone says, "I couldn't help it. I committed adultery because God made me commit adultery." No, God said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. If you commit adultery, you are guilty of willfully transgressing God's word.
If it is sin for a man and woman not to have a baby every time the calendar changes, then God is guilty of sin, for He made some women unable to bear children every year and, in fact, some never.
The reverse argument is also true. Are there unsaved Hindus, Muslims, Roman Catholics and Mormons who turn out babies every year? Of course. Is this an advent testimony of their sanctification? Of course not. Production of children and a right relationship to God have nothing in common.
Now if you want to have twenty-two kids, praise God. Rear them all in church. Rear them all to live for Jesus Christ and to turn the world upside down for Jesus. But don't walk in to church with your twenty-two kids , look down your nose at that woman who is broken-hearted because she can't have a baby, and open your Pharisaical mouth and tell her that if she was right with God, she would have as many kids as you. That is not scriptural.
Back in the early 1960s, when Vatican II came out, President Johnson's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare got into trouble. Someone asked him what the government was going to do in response to the Vatican II ruling that it was still a sin for Catholics to practice birth control. This man made on of the greatest statements ever made by an American diplomat. He said, "Tell the pope, 'You no playa da game, you no makea da rules." Do you know what happened? He was forced to resign under pressure from the news media. That was a brilliant comment. He said, "You tell that fellow in Rome to stay out of my bedroom. He has no business here."
Now let me show you something from the Bible, not from a "we're such great Christians that we don't go to church" birthing manual. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge (Hebrews 13:4). This is what God said about the bed. If you are not married, I'm going to get you. If you are married, I am going to leave you alone. God said if the bed is a marriage bed, it is undefiled, and that is all He said. If it is not a marriage bed, He will bring judgement upon you. Don't you know if the God who said Thou shalt not steal had wanted to give you some instruction regarding how many babies to have or not to have, He would have said something a bit more specific than Hebrews 13:4?!
"Well Brother James, I think we ought to have all the kids we can." Well then, have them. But don't you dare have them and then make the taxpayers pay for their groceries because you are being spiritual. Don't bring twelve kids into this world, when you can't afford to feed but two of them, and then go down and get on the welfare role because you have all those kids and are "serving God." That isn't serving God.
If you have ever seen a woman with six children work to put food on the table, her parents paying her light bill because her husband was worse than an infidel and wouldn't get a job, and then heard that same man criticize Christian women for not having more children, then you know how disgusting some of these folks can be.
Look at 1 Corinthians 7:1-2. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Now, what is the context? A man an a woman are married to avoid fornication. There is judgement that come upon two people who touch one another outside the bonds of marriage, so they get married. For what? In order to engage in an intimate, physical relationship with the Lord's blessing. That is the context of the remark.
Now look at what God says. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the Lord. Now, that is now what it says: but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife (vv.3-4).
Did you see what the Lord said? "That is your marriage bed. When you go into that bedroom, I'll stay outside."
Why are these people arguing about ten kids versus five kids, or twenty kids versus two kids, or who is right with God based upon how many babies they made? The Lord said, "That woman's body does not belong to me. It belongs to her husband. And that man's body does not belong to me. It belongs to his wife. You two just make sure you stay true to one to another, and I'll be happy."
Here are two things you get in response to this truth. Number one, people say you have no faith. If you had faith in God, you would have a baby every time. It just happens that way. Yet, these same people will tell their seven children to be sure to brush their teeth before to bed. Wait a minute. Why don't they just trust God to take care of the kids' teeth? These same people put locks on their doors. Why? These same people tell their children to take baths. Why not leave the sweat and odor on your skin? To do otherwise is to interfere the way God made the body work.
Watch out for the man who calls doing what he wants to do faith, but when it is something he doesn't want to do, it is non-essential matter. You don't have a verse in the Bible on vitamins. You don't have a verse in the Bible on brushing your teeth. You don't have a verse in the Bible about learning to read. And you don't have a verse in the Bible on how many babies you are supposed to have. So quit fighting about it.
Here is the second thing you are going to be told. "Well, you know, God commanded Adam to be fruitful, to multiply and to replenish the earth." My friend, I think we are out of danger. Last time I looked, that has been taken care of. I don't think that human race is in any danger of being overrun by the lions and tigers and bears. Unless the space brothers show up, we are on the top of the ladder, and no one is going to get us. We can spray the cockroaches and shoot the snakes and cage the gorillas. We have made it.
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