On This Page:  Scriptural References & Quotes from Various Church Leaders. 

 

CONTRACEPTION AND SCRIPTURE: (All of the following information regarding scripture references comes from "The Bible vs Contraception" by Jason T. Adams, distributed by One More Soul of Dayton, Ohio.)

Pharmakos and pharmakeia in the New Testament (Galatians 5:19-26, Revelation 9:21, 21:8)    Some scholars (cf Kimberly Hahn in  Life-Giving Love) hold that these New Testament words represent, in context, a stinging condemnation of contraception and chemical abortion.  Usually translated as "sorcerer" and "sorcery," they refer more specifically to a mixer of potions or to the potions themselves, medicines that were commonly directed at preventing fertility or at achieving abortion.

Galatians 5:19-20   "Now the works of the flesh are obvious:  immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds...those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." 
Revelation 9:21  "Nor did they repent of their murders, their  magic potions, their unchastity, or their robberies." 
Revelation 21:8  "But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers,  idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

The Onan Incident:  Genesis 38:8-10: "Then Judah said to Onan, 'Go in to you brother's wife, and perform your duty as a bother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.'  And Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so it came about that when he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, in order not to give offspring to his brother.  But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, so He took his life also."  Though God was certainly displeased by Onan's disobedience to the Levirate Law: that is, the obligation of a man to sow children with his dead brother's widow, his punishment for Onan far exceeded the penalty mandated for such a crime.  According to Deuteronomy 25:5-10, the penalty is for the slighted widow to publicly humiliate the offender.  God's enactment of the death penalty for Onan indicates a heightened seriousness in the offense.  The only additional element to Onan's refusal to provide offspring is his choice to make the sexual act deliberately infertile by withdrawal.

Offspring are the supreme gift of marriage, a blessing from God through which God is revealed to the world:  Genesis 1:27-28 "God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.  God blessed them, saying: 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.'"                                     
Genesis 9:1  "God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: 'Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.'"

Offspring were considered the natural sign of a one-flesh union:  Malachi 2:14-15  "...the Lord is witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have broken faith though she is your companion, your betrothed wife.  Did he not make one being, with flesh and spirit: and what does that one require but godly offspring?"

The great dignity of the vocation of motherhood and its indispensable role in the plan of God for the salvation of parents:  1 Timothy 2:15  "She will be saved through childbearing, provided she continues in faith and love and holiness-her chastity being taken for granted."

In large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity: Psalm 127:3-5  "Behold sons are a gift from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth.  Happy the man whose quiver is filled with them; they shall not be put to shame when they contend with the enemies at the gate."                                                                                                                                                                     
Psalm 128:1-4  "Happy are those who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!  For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; happy shall you be, and favored.  Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table.  Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord."                       
Exodus 23:25-26  "The Lord, you God, you shall worship; then I will bless your food and drink, and I will remove all sickness from your midst; no woman in your land will be barren or miscarry; and I will give you a full span of life."

Children as a natural blessing and a transcendent blessing for fidelity to the covenant: Deuteronomy 7:13-14 "As your reward for heeding these decrees and observing them carefully, the Lord, your God, will keep with you the merciful covenant which he promised on oath to your fathers.  He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb...You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless..."

CHURCH LEADERS SPEAK - CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANTS, ALIKE

Pope Paul VI, in 1968, in his encyclical , Humane Vitae:  "Responsible individuals will quickly see the truth of the Church's teaching if they consider what consequences will follow from the methods of contraception and the reasons given for the use of contraception. They should first consider how easy it will be to justify behavior leading to marital infidelity or to a gradual weakening in the discipline of morals.  Not much experience is needed to understand human beings, especially the young, are so susceptible to temptation that they need to be encouraged to keep the moral law.  It is wrong to make it easy for them to violate this law. Indeed, it is to be feared that husbands who become accustomed to contraceptive practices will lose respect for their wives.  They may come to disregard their wive's psychological and physical equilibrium and use their wives as instruments for serving their own desires.  Consequently, they will no longer view their wives as companions who should be treated with attentiveness and love.                                                          

    And then let reasonable individuals also carefully consider that a dangerous power will be put into the hands of rulers who care little about the moral law.  Would anyone blame those in the highest offices of the state for employing a solution, contraception, considered morally permissible for spouses seeking to solve a family difficulty, when they strive to solve certain difficulties affecting the whole nation?  Who will prevent public authorities from favoring what they  believe to be the most effective contraceptive methods and from mandating that everyone must use them, whenever they consider it necessary? And clearly it will come about that Men who desire to avoid the difficulties that are part of the divine law, difficulties that individuals, families, or society may experience, will hand over to the will of the public authorities the power of interfering in the most exclusive and intimate mission of spouses.

   Therefore, if we do not want the mission of procreating human life to be conceded to the arbitrary decisions of Men, we need to recognize that there are some limits to the power of Man over his own body and over the natural operations of the body, which ought not to be  transgressed.  For these limits are derived from the reverence owed to the whole human body and its natural operations, according to the principles acknowledged above and according to a proper understanding of the so-called principle of totality, as explained by Our Predecessor, Pius XII." (Humanae Vitae, 17)

John Calvin, founder of Calvinist churches, in his Commentary on Genesis 38:8-10:  "Besides, he (Onan) not only defrauded his brother of the right due him, but also preferred his semen to putrify on the ground, rather than to beget a son in his brother's name....The voluntary spilling of semen outside of intercourse between man and woman is a monstrous thing.  Deliberately to withdraw from coitus in order that semen may fall on the ground is doubly monstrous.  For this is to extinguish the hope of the race and to kill before he is born the hoped-for offspring....in this way he tried, as far as he was able, to wipe out a part of the human race.  If any woman expels a foetus from her womb by drugs, it is reckoned a crime incapable of expiation and deservedly Onan incurred upon himself the same kind of punishment, infecting the earth by his semen, in order that Tamar might not conceive a future human being as an inhabitant of the earth"  (The Bible and Birth Control, by Charles D. Provan, Zimmer Printing, Monongahela, PA 1989, p.68).

Martin Luther, founder of Lutheran Church, in his Commentary on  Genesis 38:8-10:  "But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.  And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and He slew him also. Onan must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel.  This is a most disgraceful sin.  It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery.  We call it unchastity, yes, a Sodomitic sin.  For Onan goes in to her; that is, he lies with her and copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen, lest the woman conceive.  Surely at such a time the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed.  Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful crime to produce semen and excite the woman, and to frustrate her at that very moment.  He was inflamed with the basest spite and hatred....Consequently, he deserved to be killed by God.  He committed an evil deed.  Therefore God punished him....That worthless fellow refused to exercise love.  He preferred polluting himself with a most disgraceful sin to raising up offspring for his brother." (Same source as quoted above, pp. 80, 81)

John Wesley, founder of Methodist Churches, in his Commentary on Genesis 83:8-10:  The next brother Onan was, according to the ancient usage, married to the widow, to preserve the name of his deceased brother Er that died childless.  This custom of marrying the brother's widow was afterward made one of the laws of Moses, Deut. 25:5.  Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet to the great abuse of his own body, of the wife he had married and the memory of his brother that was gone, he refused to raise up seed unto his brother.  Those sins that dishonor the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile affections.  Observe, the thing which he did displeased the Lord--And it is to be feared, thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displease the Lord, and destroy their own souls. (Same source as quoted above, p. 91)