Where in the Bible does Christ forbid contraception?

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Our adult son wants to know where in the Bible that Christ taught that contraception is immoral. :confused: I realize that Jesus did not directly address this subject, but I think our son wants to know when the Church first taught this. Can anyone assist me, please?
 
Go read the story of Onan. He practiced withdrawal = contraception. He died for his act. And don’t try to tell me that the broke Levitical Law. This event happened long before Moses got the law.

The pill is an abortificant. Abortion in the eyes of the church = murder.

Just my 2 cents.
 
foundthelight said:
Go read the story of Onan. He practiced withdrawal = contraception. He died for his act. And don’t try to tell me that the broke Levitical Law. This event happened long before Moses got the law.

The pill is an abortificant. Abortion in the eyes of the church = murder.

Just my 2 cents.
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I have read interpretations, that Onan was only reacting to ‘that moment’ and not meaning to insinuate a form of birth control. He ‘spilled his seed’ to avoid the task that God was asking him to do. I don’t think that specific scripture would be enough to cling to why contraception = an abortion mindset. I am against birth control, but just wanted to point out that I don’t find that scripture a compelling enough support to the Church’s stance on contraception…It could be, but it isn’t compelling enough, especially when there are other interpretations out there, that that scripture specifically was what the RCC built its anti-contraception view on. It could be one reason, but not compelling on its own. Just my thoughts.
 
Christ accepted the Hebrew scriptures condemnation of contraception, as in the book of Tobit:

Tobias 6:17, 6:22

[Tobias becomes afraid because he has heard that Sara has been married seven times; every time on her wedding night each husband was killed by a devil. The Archangel Raphael then says to him:]

“Hear me and I will show you who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power.” He then instructs Tobias to “…take the virgin [his wife] with the fear of the Lord, **moved rather for love of children **than for lust: that in the seed of Abraham thou mayest obtain a blessing in children.”

So this passage shows that sinful lust within marriage equals having no love for children within marriage. That would clearly condemn contraception.
 
Genesis 38:8 “Juda, therefore said to Onan his son: Go in to thy brother’s wife and marry her, that thou mayst raise seed to thy brother. He knowing that the children should not be his, when he went in to his brother’s wife, spilled his seed upon the ground, lest children should be born in his brother’s name. And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing.”
 
reggieM said:
Christ accepted the Hebrew scriptures condemnation of contraception, as in the book of Tobit:

Tobias 6:17, 6:22

[Tobias becomes afraid because he has heard that Sara has been married seven times; every time on her wedding night each husband was killed by a devil. The Archangel Raphael then says to him:]

“Hear me and I will show you who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power.” He then instructs Tobias to “…take the virgin [his wife] with the fear of the Lord, **moved rather for love of children **than for lust: that in the seed of Abraham thou mayest obtain a blessing in children.”

So this passage shows that sinful lust within marriage equals having no love for children within marriage. That would clearly condemn contraception.
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🙂 Thanks everyone for the story of Odan, but that didn’t convince our son at our last discussion. 😦 However the verses from Tobias are very concrete and something that our son will have a difficult time refuting! 👍

Please keep Matt (not his real name) in your prayers. He very much buys into all the talk about evolution and atheism being truth. But we are blessed because he’s willing to discuss these issues.
 
whatevergirl said:
I have read interpretations, that Onan was only reacting to ‘that moment’ and not meaning to insinuate a form of birth control. He ‘spilled his seed’ to avoid the task that God was asking him to do. I don’t think that specific scripture would be enough to cling to why contraception = an abortion mindset.
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We are supposed to be fruitful and multiply (This is stated 6 times in Genesis both for animals and humans). Onan wanted to avoid this. He wanted the physical benefits of sex without the “fruitful and multiplying” part, which means he disobeyed our heavenly father. He also chose to disobey his earthly father. He was destroyed for his disobedience.

I don’t think it can get any clearer than that.
 
foundthelight said:
We are supposed to be fruitful and multiply (This is stated 6 times in Genesis both for animals and humans). Onan wanted to avoid this. He wanted the physical benefits of sex without the “fruitful and multiplying” part, which means he disobeyed our heavenly father. He also chose to disobey his earthly father. He was destroyed for his disobedience.

I don’t think it can get any clearer than that.
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If you reread, I state that it by itself, is not enough, but others posted additional scripture, which I think make a more compelling argument. With non Catholics, we need to look to compelling scripture for what we follow, when sharing our beliefs with them. Catholics not only follow Scripture, but also oral tradition, and oral teachings–but non Catholics typically follow the Bible, only. So…it is helpful to have additional scripture to support it.
 
I think the most compelling reason is that God specifically commanded that we be fruitful and multiply. “For this purpose a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.” Gen. 2. The idea of cleaving and one flesh is the physical joining of husband and wife. This coupled with the command to be fruitful and multiply along with the repeated assertions that children are blessings and blessed unto themselves, would indicate that any sort of coupling with deliberate contraception would be mortal sin.

It is also my personal experience, as a hard-boiled sinner in the past, that when I sought to deliberately not conceive I was doing so so that I might enjoy what God had ordained for the purpose of joining man and wife, and consequently the family, into union and then blessing that union with fruitfulness without the consequences that come with it and certainly apart from the bonds of marriage for which it was intended. Any such behavior which is so utterly selfish in nature is bound to be sin.

Again this is my experience and is not meant to accuse anyone in any fashion whatsoever.
 
I agree with all quotes thus far, but can your son show any verse where God supports using contraception? There aren’t any verses that show children as anything less than a blessing from God, from Eve’s prayer of thanksgiving for Seth through the rest of the bible. The verses in support of family and children are quite numerous.

The verses that God is in control are also numerous. We can’t really claim that we love God above all else and then deny Him the use of our bodies in His work. It truly shows a lack of trust in His plan. It also denies our spouses a part of ourselves, and that isn’t a “full and fruitful” love, nor is it “two as one flesh”.

Your family is truly blessed to be able to discuss this.
 
doglover said:
Our adult son wants to know where in the Bible that Christ taught that contraception is immoral. :confused: I realize that Jesus did not directly address this subject, but I think our son wants to know when the Church first taught this. Can anyone assist me, please?
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It’s an error to assume that all teachings of the authentic Christian have to be directly spoken by Jesus, isn’t it?

Yes, there are several instances of good teachings in Scripture that Jesus didn’t directly speak of.
 
doglover said:
I think our son wants to know when the Church first taught this. Can anyone assist me, please?
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Well according to these quotes, it was taught at the latest, 191 AD.

“Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted” Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 (A.D. 191).

“To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature.” Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:95:3 (A.D. 191).
 
savedsinner said:
Well according to these quotes, it was taught at the latest, 191 AD.

“Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted” Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 (A.D. 191).

“To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature.” Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:95:3 (A.D. 191).
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Okay does that mean if you can’t procreate coitus is sinful.?:eek:
 
juliamajor said:
Open yeah-possible- no:confused:
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“With God, nothing is impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

My brothers and I are living proof that God hears and answers the prayers of parents who can’t have children–my parents were supposedly “incapable” of producing children. There are also many accounts of this in the Bible.

If a married couple is open to life and desires children, and does nothing on their own part to stop the birth of the child (if sterility or barrenness is no fault of their own), there is no sin in the sexual act. Remember that intercourse is both unitive and procreative; it is not just for one or the other. Married people should try to have children, but if through no fault of their own they are physically incapable, then there is no sin because sin requires consent of the will to disobey God.
 
The problem with using the Tobit quote is that it depends what version, I can’t find it in my NRSV at all, even the verse numbers are different, because I think the Septuagint and Vulgate versions are very different
 
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