Cutting off a Godly Seed

I should have stated that clearer. I meant abstinence before marriage! I'm not married so I tend to think from a singles point of view. I think abstinence in marriage is birth control. If it's God's plan for a couple to have a child then they will and vice versa. If you don't use birth control and you have 5 children or no children, then that's his plan. There are no accidents.

 

I am against abortion. I do think there are good reasons why married couples can use birth control.

All that aside, I am interested in the consensus on this thread and many similar ones that God has a specified number of children in mind for each married couple and that they WILL have this number, no matter what.
All kinds of issues come into play here, including the difference between God's permissive will and His perfect will. Many non-Calvinists display a form of fatalism on this one issue of children. (I am not trying to say Calvinist = fatalism.)

No, I'm not an open theist. Just wondering about our thought process here.

Karen

 

That's my reasoning behind my opinion. Thanks for making that clear Karen. I couldn't find the right words!

 

Karen, I can't find the scripture right now but there IS scripture that says David's wife, Michael, refused to have him come in to her after seeing him dancing in the street and she 'missed the moment of her visitation' and remained childless.

 

Are we all invited to the wedding?</font>[/QUOTE]Alas, the location has a maximum capacity of 45 people

 

or if you prefer modern English

Paul only indicates one reason why you should abstain. In light of this passage, I am not sure you can view abstinence as a biblical method for married couples. There are also some applications of some OT passages regarding one other regular scenario that could be referenced for abstinence, but they are not regarding the avoidance of pregnancy, but are more related to the ritual cleansing laws of the OT.

 

I agree, I would have to say that I stretched that passage rather thin with my application.

The actual point I was making was that I have as much Biblical support for that not being an appropriate form of BC, as those who say that BC in unbibilical.

 

I would recommend birth control for a lot of couples; however, my recommendation would be based strictly on personal feelings. God forgive me for these feelings.

 

williemakeit--
QUOTE
"The Washington Times also recently ran an article regarding the birthrate in the red states vs. the blue states here in the US. The Northeast (predominately blue states) and the Left Coast (again, blue states) had the lowest birth rates, while the red states (especially in the South) had much higher birth rates. Personally, I believe Christians (especially IFB) should make it part of their Christian walk to abstain from birth control. It definately wouldn't hurt to strengthen our numbers."

It wouldn't help politically due to the electoral college willie.

Better that we add to the Kingdom by evangelism than to the vote count by reproduction.

MR

 

Yep, agree. I personally am looking forward to the golden state (as in golden streets).

 

Diane,

I looked for “missed the moment” and could not find anything resembling such. Nor could I find anything in the context (2Sam 6:16-23) to suggest that she refused his amorous advances. It seems from a plain reading of the text that her barrenness was God’s judgement upon her for despising David in her heart (vv. 16, 23). I looked at the parallel passage as well, but found even less detail there (1Chron 15:29). It may be somewhere else, but for now I can only say that your interpretation of her barrenness being the result of refusing David seems to be without warrant.

I now see that RSR has already addressed this as well.


All,

There is no solid Biblical evidence one way or another for or against some type of family planning scheme, whether a barrier method or rhythm or some other method that is not abortifacient. As one of the founders of a local CPC and long time board member here and in another state as well, there are many views on this and many claim to have the only Biblical position on the matter. Again, after many hours of working on this one, there is no clear Biblical statement on the issue.

 

Oh, and as far as the "fatalism" idea, while I certainly recognize God's sovereignty in the world, we can certainly influence what happens. The idea that you will have how many children God wants you to have is naive. Yet, I may have read it out of context.

If someone gets drunk, wrecks their car, and loses an arm, does that make it God’s will for their life? If someone goes to a party, gets drunk, and get pregnant (yes I know I left out some details there), does that mean it was God’s will for her to have the child of a man she did not even know and perhaps will never know?

When we talk about “God’s will” We need to distinguish between His PLAN and His DESIRE. Jesus prayed, “Father, let this cup pass from me”; yet, we know that He came to die. Did Jesus want to go to the cross or not? Yes, and no. It was His plan to provide atonement. It was not His desire to experience separation from the Father. Think about it. On the cross, the Trinity was literally ripped apart in order to provide for our salvation. Now, that is a pretty weighty thought.

God is the architect of a plan that includes sin and suffering, but I think we could safely say that this suffering was never His desire. Yet, we must also acknowledge that He did include it in His plan. This is something that should be kept in mind whenever discussing “the will of God”.