Is Birth Control Sinful In Marriage?

[Kathi]

True, but that's the case with most pills--like the ones I take that help me manage my cycle (not birth control). Even my dog's flea control meds--the vast majority of dogs on it were fine (including my dog), others nearly died or did die from taking it. It's a risk you take with OTC drugs.

There are side effects to all meds you put in your mouth.

 

[evenifigoalone]

There are side effects to all meds you put in your mouth.

True.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

I would propose the modern birth control may not have even been invented if that attitude of sexual pleasure without kids didn't already exist. We can't blame our attitudes on modern birth control methods, that's just plain silly. Men and women both had been trying to keep from getting pregnant for thousands of years for many different reasons.

I'm well aware that it is sexual pleasure in the first place that has always driven the desire for more effective and convenient birth control, but I firmly believe that with each success comes a renewed longing for even more effective and convenient birth control, all in the name of ever-increasing, unhindered sexual pleasure. My vasectomy is what fueled my own desire for free, unhindered, ready on demand sex. Surely a desire that existed beforehand to some degree (thus the reason to get the cut in the first part) but which only got worse after I got it. It increased my distorted attitude that sex is about pleasure and should be unhindered, and not about kids. I got the T-shirt on this one folks--been there, done that.

And I think Reba will back me on the point about this present attitude about sex is in fact a very modern attitude. For young people today, child bearing and sexual activity are more disconnected from each other than in my or previous generations. And it's because we have purposely made it that way for them. Each generation knows less and less about the intentional connection that God made between having sex and his purpose in us having kids and each progressive generation gets angrier and angrier and more demanding about free sex and acts as if they are being treated unfairly when they are suddenly faced with the reality that the two aren't as disconnected as they have been deceived to believe.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

There are huge risks of birth control pills especially if a person is a smoker for blood clots.Some have died from that.

I'm no medical doctor (granny does the doctoring in the family, I does the cypherin') but I think it has become well known that prescription hormones can have very dangerous side effects. Apparently, anytime you manipulate hormone levels through prescription drugs you are taking very real risks for dangerous side effects, like cancer if I'm not mistaken.

 

[th1b.taylor]

Most here know that I am not bashful and once lived a ridiculously self-centerd life but even this can give knowledge and knowledge, wisdom. What Jethro suggested, early on, is very, very, wise, the rhythm method. Always remember that women are not but men always are visually, sexually, excited. When teen girls began to wear shorts that showed two more cheeks that needed powdering they did no one a good service except the perverts.

In the mid to late sixties the Playboy rag did an article on the sex life in Denmark because of the Left Wing Liberal view on porn and Paid Sex. The noted, over all, effect on men was the early loss of their drive and the psychologist/author noted that there is a direct, early, reduction of sex drive in men due to the increased visual stimulation. Because of the enormity of this result, as the trash spread to the US Doctors began to develop shots for when we want to have sex and they invented hydraulic inserts and today they have pills to accommodate.

If people will practice the rhythm method I would suggest that it is unlikely that a married couple's excitement level will remain more natural and will not require implanting $10,000 devices because that family is living to honor God and God will provide for them.

 

[Kathi]

I'm no medical doctor (granny does the doctoring in the family, I does the cypherin') but I think it has become well known that prescription hormones can have very dangerous side effects. Apparently, anytime you manipulate hormone levels through prescription drugs you are taking very real risks for dangerous side effects, like cancer if I'm not mistaken.

Cancer is a side effect of taking hormones.Depending on what kind.

 

[Deborah13]

I'm well aware that it is sexual pleasure in the first place that has always driven the desire for more effective and convenient birth control, but I firmly believe that with each success comes a renewed longing for even more effective and convenient birth control, all in the name of ever-increasing, unhindered sexual pleasure. My vasectomy is what fueled my own desire for free, unhindered, ready on demand sex. Surely a desire that existed beforehand to some degree (thus the reason to get the cut in the first part) but which only got worse after I got it. It increased my distorted attitude that sex is about pleasure and should be unhindered, and not about kids. I got the T-shirt on this one folks--been there, done that.

And I think Reba will back me on the point about this present attitude about sex is in fact a very modern attitude. For young people today, child bearing and sexual activity are more disconnected from each other than in my or previous generations. And it's because we have purposely made it that way for them. Each generation knows less and less about the intentional connection that God made between having sex and his purpose in us having kids and each progressive generation gets angrier and angrier and more demanding about free sex and acts as if they are being treated unfairly when they are suddenly faced with the reality that the two aren't as disconnected as they have been deceived to believe.

Do most secular people know that when they lie, cheat, steal, or gossip that they are sinning against God? The answer is no they don't think about it that way. So why in the world would they connect sex and having babies to God?
No one is being deceived by having access to birth control. The deception is that they don't need God in their lives.
Faced by what reality? I think they are very much aware of what having sex may bring into their lives and that is not just children but diseases that have no cure.

I think it is rather hypocritical to say that if someone uses the rhythm method to not have children it is fine but to get a vasectomy is not. The intent is the same, not to have children.
What I hear you saying is that a man should deny himself and do penitence if he doesn't want to have children. Does his suffering and self sacrifice make his decision to not have more children less of a grievance against God? One needs to just make up their mind if they are going to join the Duggers having a many children as they can or not. Because a vasectomy changed your attitude does not mean it affects all men the same.

 

[Obadiah]

On subjects like this where we are not really told one way or the other in scripture, we have to be careful not to allow our own personal convictions between us and God to spill over into condemning others as being sinful or less faithful just because they do not have the same convictions.

 

[th1b.taylor]

On subjects like this where we are not really told one way or the other in scripture, we have to be careful not to allow our own personal convictions between us and God to spill over into condemning others as being sinful or less faithful just because they do not have the same convictions.

You have pegged the issue! I, having lived as I did, must always be careful not o impose on others what God has convicted me of. All I have for anyone on an issue this personal is advise and how they deal with it is their issue because I, unlike God, cannot see their hearts. And so much of this is a heart issue.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Most here know that I am not bashful and once lived a ridiculously self-centerd life but even this can give knowledge and knowledge, wisdom. What Jethro suggested, early on, is very, very, wise, the rhythm method. Always remember that women are not but men always are visually, sexually, excited. When teen girls began to wear shorts that showed two more cheeks that needed powdering they did no one a good service except the perverts.

In the mid to late sixties the Playboy rag did an article on the sex life in Denmark because of the Left Wing Liberal view on porn and Paid Sex. The noted, over all, effect on men was the early loss of their drive and the psychologist/author noted that there is a direct, early, reduction of sex drive in men due to the increased visual stimulation. Because of the enormity of this result, as the trash spread to the US Doctors began to develop shots for when we want to have sex and they invented hydraulic inserts and today they have pills to accommodate.

If people will practice the rhythm method I would suggest that it is unlikely that a married couple's excitement level will remain more natural and will not require implanting $10,000 devices because that family is living to honor God and God will provide for them.

I think psychologists call it 'the law of diminishing returns'--the more you get, the more you want. And I will add my own observation to this fact of human nature that this only happens when you abuse what you're getting.

A few years ago I was having a discussion about movies (which I rarely watch) and, as usual, I had to explain as politely as I can that I only watch movies where the women keep their shirts on (google IMDB to know about the movie ahead of time). One of the people commented something like 'it's only boobs'. Only boobs! I thought. But without going into detail I knew this person was probably jaded by a history of viewing hard porn.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

No one is being deceived by having access to birth control.

Misguided, deceived young people get the news that they're going to be a parent and it's like 'this isn't supposed to happen!' What's wrong here!'

I think it is rather hypocritical to say that if someone uses the rhythm method to not have children it is fine but to get a vasectomy is not.

I think I was careful to say that is my ADVICE. (If I was not, I apologize to all the men reading this.)

I advise men to consider NOT getting one and I explain why. The rest is up to them. I will be honest with you and admit that I think it goes in one ear and out the other given how thoroughly saturated and preoccupied our society is with sex, and how unreasonable it comes across to suggest that one might curb a supposedly inalienable right to have and enjoy sex. Paul is the one who woke me up. The concession for the spouse to not deny the other is because of lack of self-control, not because we all have some kind of unbendable, inalienable right to have it wherever and whenever we want. Sheesh! (as Reba would say).

Here in Western society we keep ramping up the level of what is acceptable in regard to what is right and expected behaviors we can indulge. This is happening with sex. It seems we think more and more that everyone is entitled to this fundamental right to have sex when and where they want and to not have the 'problem' of making babies that God attached to that sex hindering the pursuit of that inalienable right.

You are certainly entitled to pursue the gratification of sex. It's just that when you make that decision you HAVE to consider how God has placed responsibilities on that decision, among them being that you accept the biological fact that it's how babies are made...and that you raise them when that happens.

 

[Deborah13]

Misguided, deceived young people get the news that they're going to be a parent and it's like 'this isn't supposed to happen!' What's wrong here!'


I think I was careful to say that is my ADVICE. (If I was not, I apologize to all the men reading this.)

I advise men to consider NOT getting one and I explain why. The rest is up to them. I will be honest with you and admit that I think it goes in one ear and out the other given how thoroughly saturated and preoccupied our society is with sex, and how unreasonable it comes across to suggest that one might curb a supposedly inalienable right to have and enjoy sex. Paul is the one who woke me up. The concession for the spouse to not deny the other is because of lack of self-control, not because we all have some kind of unbendable, inalienable right to have it wherever and whenever we want. Sheesh! (as Reba would say).

Here in Western society we keep ramping up the level of what is acceptable in regard to what is right and expected behaviors we can indulge. This is happening with sex. It seems we think more and more that everyone is entitled to this fundamental right to have sex when and where they want and to not have the 'problem' of making babies that God attached to that sex hindering the pursuit of that inalienable right.

You are certainly entitled to pursue the gratification of sex. It's just that when you make that decision you HAVE to consider how God has placed responsibilities on that decision, among them being that you accept the biological fact that it's how babies are made...and that you raise them when that happens.

This thread is about is birth control a sin in marriage.
Hypothetically speaking....
If sex is only for the reason to have babies then all types of birth control are sin.
Ergo....
Having sex for any other purpose is sin.
It doesn't matter what kind of birth control one uses including the rhythm method.
To say the rhythm method is OK but other methods are not is hypocrisy, the intent is the same.
To have sex with a pregnant spouse is sin.

However, God did not make us like He did the other mammals He created.
The other animals know, usually by scent, when the female is ready to conceive.
Only then do they pursue sexual contact.
Once the female has conceived the male stops his pursuit.
He does not pursue her again until nature tells him that she is once again fertile.

In the Bible is there anywhere where God says He changed the way animals and man would be sexually motivated? Is there anywhere where God says He changed animals or man physically other than that they would not live forever?

Paul says, don't get married unless you cannot control your sexual behaviors. If sex in man was only for the purpose of having children then Paul, by saying this, is telling people to defy God and not reproduce, ergo, Paul's method of birth control. This cannot be true.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

This thread is about is birth control a sin in marriage.
Hypothetically speaking....
If sex is only for the reason to have babies then all types of birth control are sin.

Isn't it interesting how one little word, 'only', can so change the argument being set forth?

Ergo....
Having sex for any other purpose is sin.

...and lead to erroneous conclusions and rebuttals.

To say the rhythm method is OK but other methods are not is hypocrisy, the intent is the same.

The rhythm method does not abort an implantation or fetus. That's the point. And makes out of control men and women take responsibility for their bodies the way God intended in the beginning.

To have sex with a pregnant spouse is sin.

Well, since you have changed the premise of the argument with the word 'only' we can discard this argument.

In the Bible is there anywhere where God says He changed the way animals and man would be sexually motivated? Is there anywhere where God says He changed animals or man physically other than that they would not live forever?

Paul says, don't get married unless you cannot control your sexual behaviors.

Just make sure your spouse knows that you're getting married because of a lack of self-control. The far better spiritual answer being to learn self-control, the beginning of which, IMO, is to understand that sex is intrinsically connected to having kids, by God himself, and reproducing your kind. And so in that sense that's what it's all about. It's not the only thing about sex, but it is what sex does by God's design and purpose.

"15 Has not [the LORD] made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring." (Malachi 2:15 NIV)

"A loving doe, a graceful deer-- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love." (Proverbs 5:19 NIV) (I think I'll make this my siggy :yes. What a beautiful thing God created for a man and his wife. Loving, pleasurable intimacy with your wife and beloved children as a result to increase and magnify the intimacy.)

 

[Brother Mike]

Scriptures already give a clear answer to this question. Is using birth control a sin. I get concerned because it takes 5 pages to beat around a bush. The devil is like this, He is the author of confusion and complications. He pushes our panic buttons in hopes for us to make a final choice before the Lord reveals what we need to do.

He introduces many elements to complicate simple instructions. He is the master of the balances scale where we sit the good and bad reasons to weight them. Things that should not even be considered, or placed on the scale. He gets us to reason out what the Lord said, and make the wrong choices. We later wonder why things are going wrong all the time, and are confused.

Worse of all, He uses us to complicate things for people. They look up to us because we might have their answer, but instead of the answer, we add things to the scale.

If we think of ourselves as helps for the Lord, then the only answer possible is thus saith the Lord, if the person is really wanting help and staying in the will of God.

 

[Kathi]

For some people who will not use birth control like the Amish for instance they can have as many as 10 to 12 kids.Just think of what it costs to raise just one child. 2

 

[evenifigoalone]

True, but to them more kids also means more help on the farm, y'know? Likely they don't limit the amount of kids they have.

 

[Kathi]

True, but to them more kids also means more help on the farm, y'know? Likely they don't limit the amount of kids they have.

Right and the cost is way less to raise them.Those kids do not want expensive $300.00 toys and they go to school only up to eighth grade.

 

[th1b.taylor]

I think psychologists call it 'the law of diminishing returns'--the more you get, the more you want. And I will add my own observation to this fact of human nature that this only happens when you abuse what you're getting.

A few years ago I was having a discussion about movies (which I rarely watch) and, as usual, I had to explain as politely as I can that I only watch movies where the women keep their shirts on (google IMDB to know about the movie ahead of time). One of the people commented something like 'it's only boobs'. Only boobs! I thought. But without going into detail I knew this person was probably jaded by a history of viewing hard porn.

Yes, they have not awakened, as of yet, and like me, they will, most likely, not wake up until they must go to the doctor for some sort of solution. I have found it is still a problem in the Church.

 

[th1b.taylor]

Now if only there were a brain between the ears to prevent the passage.

 

[th1b.taylor]

For some people who will not use birth control like the Amish for instance they can have as many as 10 to 12 kids.Just think of what it costs to raise just one child. 2

My Grandpa Schoenberg was Lutheran, a farmer/land owner and he and grandma Elsie had 10 before God closed the womb. Even so he passed over leaving Grandma 3/4 of a million and four farms. It looks to me that he profited much more than the cost of bringing that brood to adulthood. I only have four and live on my VA pension. I'm almost certain he did better than I.