Excellent article..I think it demonstrates some of the common ground that Conservative Catholics and Evangellical protestants share .
I am flagging to the non RC's for comment..I would guess there is a diversity of opinion on birthcontrol among us..
I'm not sure why controlling with one method is acceptable, but controlling with another method is not acceptable. It seems that no matter the method you are attempting to control the "origin of life."
"To suggest that birth control is evil or perverse," Mr. Van Leeuwen wrote, "because it undermines God's sovereignty
is to underestimate God's sovereignty and reject our responsibility to serve Him wisely.
Excellent article..I think it demonstrates some of the common ground that Conservative Catholics and Evangelical
protestants share .
I am flagging to the non RC's for comment..I would guess there is a diversity of opinion on birth control among us..
22 posted on 7/13/02 7:46 AM Mountain by RnMomof7
If a couple wish to worship the God of LEXUS or Range Rover
or cable tv, eating out to fancy restaurants, and vacations in Europe.
instead of Worshiping the One True G-d and they practice either NFP or contraception, it is WRONG.
Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character
than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with
great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if
what Paul said was true.
Chuck <truth@YeshuaHaMashiach>
I disagree with the arguments using birth control is resisting God's will. We could also make the same arguments about anything else we do: flying to the moon, having a dentist fill our teeth, taking aspirin for a headache, or removing a tumor from a brain. "If God had meant for us to...(fill in the blank)"
As far as many people having many children, I think about that as I would anything else: one must be responsible for what God has given them. Not all people have much wealth, either, but all must prove responsibility for what is in their care, especially children. I think of this parable from the Lord, about what is given and how we are to be responsible with those gifts:
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability...So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, "Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.' His lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." Mattthew 25:14-15a;20,21
I do not see where the Bible states that birth control is a sin. What God would have one couple do might differ from what He would have another couple do in an “ideal marriage,” but not doing so does not make it sin. Paul also wrote he believed it was “ideal” that we not marry so we could be more focused and have more time to do the Lord’s work because having a spouse and family is a prime responsibility. But being unmarried might lead one to sin, because of lack of self-control as pertains to sex…so better to marry and have sex than to have sex without marriage and sin.
My understanding of how we are to live is that if the Scriptures clearly condemn a thought or behavior, then it is sin to all (i.e., murder). However, where it is unclear, where there is doubt or ambiguity, then God shall lead us by our conscience and then, if one goes in direct contradiction to his/her conscience, then that individual has sinned. See all of Romans 14, verses 1 - 8 are follow:
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord." Romans 14:1-8.
Now, the Catholics and some Protestants would have us believe that, since the ultimate aim of sexual intercourse is reproduction, then anything that prevents that would be sinful.
But the Scriptures indicate otherwise. In Genesis 2:24, it states "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." For what cause? It is integral to the relationship between man and wife.
Now, if we look in I Corinthians 7, we see marriage encouraged to prevent sexual immorality ("But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.") And the sexual act is commanded to Christian couples ("The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.... Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.")
The Catholic is forced to tell married couples unwilling for financial or other reasons not to bear children to completely abstain. But that is unbiblical -- the act is even commanded of married couples lest they stumble into sexual immorality.
I'm just considering the irony -- a single guy writing to a grandmother about Christian sexuality.