When I first started researching this topic for myself, I found I pretty much agreed that the “be fruitful and multiply” could be taken purely as a BLESSING, not a COMMAND. God was blessing Adam and Eve (and later Noah) and there were no other people at the time so there was also a need to multiply. BUT as I looked further into this issue, I found the verse in the NT that convinced me once and for all that artificial birth control is a sin. It is in Galatians 5:19-21. It says, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, SORCERY, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” The word “sorcery” comes from the Greek word “pharmakeia” and refers to the pagan practice at the time of taking “potions” to render temporary sterility or to cause abortions in women. There is more evidence in the Didache that this is what sorcery is really referring to. I immediately thought of the “pill” and how it can cause abortions by rendering the womb unreceptive to a fertilized egg. This totally changed my mind on the subject.
