Fertility and Dominion. May 5th, 2025.

What is the scriptural teaching on birth control?

The question needs to be narrowed down a bit.

The raw reality of birth control could refer to anything from a man deciding not to marry,

which results in certain children

not being born, the use of artificial means to prevent pregnancy, which results in the same thing,

and resorting to abortion in order to kill an inconvenient product of conception. So let's narrow this

down. What are the options for a married Christian couple who have questions about their fertility,

as in some

particular thing they could do. The first thing is to get the theological framework correct. Too

many couples bypass this question go straight to the lawfulness or not of particular birth

control methods, but to do this without understanding the theological background first can distort

the whole picture, and usually

does distort the whole picture. So what is that theological framework? The place to start is with

the doctrine of creation. If we understand how God created the world, and if we believe what he said

in the creation mandate, Genesis 1.26, we begin with the understanding that fertility is a good thing and a great

blessing. A key aspect of taking dominion is found two verses later when God told our first

parents to multiply Genesis 128. So fertility is not part of the curse. We should not think that the Bible

is filled with instructions about birth control because it isn't.

We must start by remembering that scripture is crammed with passages about the blessing of children.

So are you saying that every couple should have as many children as they can, as fast as they can?

No, this is not how we take the responsibility of dominion in any other area.

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