What the Bible Says about Birth Control, Infertility, Reproductive Technology, and Adoption E-Book

Wayne Grudem

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: What the Bible Says about . . .
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

New from Bestselling Author Wayne Grudem Advances in technology offer couples wanting to have children more options than ever before—fertility treatment methods; prefertilization genetic screening; and embryo adoption. With all of these options available, plus the blessing of adoption, it can be difficult for Christian couples to determine which to consider when the Bible doesn't give explicit direction. Wayne Grudem applies biblical truth and ethical reasoning to help Christians navigate these questions as they seek to live out God's word in an ever-changing society.

Leseprobe

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

“As a physician and medical educator, I’ve seen patients and medical students struggle with the issues addressed in this book. Wayne Grudem’s work presents a perfect blend of ethical, moral, technical, and biblical approaches to these critical topics. It will provide understandable guidance for health-care professionals as well as the general public.”

Jacqueline Chadwick, MD, family physician; medical educator

“Psalm 119:105 reminds us that God’s word is a ‘lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’ In characteristic fashion, Wayne Grudem has thoroughly applied the word of God to many of the reproductive technologies available today. This book can be a lamp that brightens the path of many couples struggling with the physical and emotional pain of infertility. At the same time, it will illuminate an ethical pathway through the maze of reproductive-technological choices that health-care providers face every day as we counsel our patients.”

M. Lance Holemon, MD, board certified obstetrician-gynecologist

What the Bible Says about Birth Control, Infertility, Reproductive Technology, and Adoption

Books in This Series

What the Bible Says about Abortion, Euthanasia, and End-of- Life Medical Issues

What the Bible Says about Birth Control, Infertility, Reproductive Technology, and Adoption

What the Bible Says about Divorce and Remarriage

What the Bible Says about How to Know God’s Will

What the Bible Says about Birth Control, Infertility, Reproductive Technology, and Adoption

Wayne Grudem

What the Bible Says about Birth Control, Infertility, Reproductive Technology, and Adoption

Copyright © 2021 by Wayne Grudem

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Portions of this book have been adapted from “Birth Control” and “Infertility, Reproductive Technology, and Adoption” in Wayne Grudem, Christian Ethics: A Guide to Biblical Moral Reasoning (Wheaton, IL: Crossway: 2018), 746–83 (chaps. 29–30).

Cover design: Jeff Miller, Faceout Studios

Cover image: Shutterstock

First printing, 2021

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For a list of other Scripture versions cited in this book, see “Scripture Versions Cited”.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-6986-9 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-6989-0 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-6987-6 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-6988-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Grudem, Wayne A., author. 

Title: What the Bible says about birth control, infertility, reproductive technology, and adoption / Wayne Grudem. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2020014775 (print) | LCCN 2020014776 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433569869 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433569890 (epub) | ISBN 9781433569876 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433569883 (mobipocket)

Subjects: LCSH: Birth control—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Birth Control—Biblical teaching. | Human reproductive technology—Religious Aspects—Christianity. | Human reproductive technology—Biblical teaching. | Adoption—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Adoption—Biblical teaching. 

Classification: LCC HQ766.25 .G78 2021 (print) | LCC HQ766.25 (ebook) | DDC 241/.663—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014775

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020014776

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2021-01-07 11:26:38 AM

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Birth Control

Scripture Views Children Not as a Burden but as a Great Blessing

Objection: “The World Already Has Too Many People”

Birth Control for a Limited Time Is Morally Permissible

Morally Acceptable and Morally Unacceptable Methods of Birth Control

Husbands Should Be Careful Not to Deny to Their Wives for Too Long the Privilege and Joy of Having Children

An Alternative Viewpoint: All Birth Control is Wrong (or All “Artificial” Birth Control Is Wrong)

How Can a Couple Know How Many Children to Have?

Part 2: Infertility and Reproductive Technology

Infertility

Three Moral Principles to Consider in Relation to Reproductive Technology

Some Modern Reproductive Technologies Are Morally Acceptable

Other Modern Reproductive Technologies Are Morally Unacceptable

Part 3: Adoption

Adoption

Further Resources

Questions for Personal Application

Special Terms

Bibliography

Scripture Memory Passages

Hymns

Scripture Versions Cited

General Index

Scripture Index

Introduction

Should we think that birth control is morally acceptable?

If so, are there types of birth control that are morally wrong?

What birth-control methods are morally acceptable?

How do biblical principles help us evaluate modern reproductive technologies, particularly artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, embryo adoption, and surrogate motherhood?

Why does the Bible view adoption so positively?

This book discusses topics that are related to the conception of children. According to the teachings of the Bible, is it ever right to prevent a woman from conceiving a child? (This is the question of birth control.) On the other hand, what does the Bible teach about couples who are apparently unable to have children? (This is the question of infertility.) And is it right to use modern medical means such as in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and even surrogate motherhood to enable a couple to have a baby? (This is the question of modern reproductive technology.)

Finally, what are the teachings of the Bible about a different method of welcoming a child into a family—namely, adoption? As we shall see, there are important principles in Scripture relating to each of these questions.

Part 1: Birth Control

Every married couple must face the question of birth control today, and modern society presents a wide variety of viewpoints. On the one hand, many in modern society find no moral problem with birth control, and use condoms and/or birth-control pills commonly in order to have sex while avoiding the fear of unwanted pregnancy.

On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church considers all forms of birth control to be morally wrong except periodically abstaining from intercourse during a woman’s fertile period each month (which is a “natural” as opposed to “artificial” form of birth control).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. . . . The refusal of fertility turns married life away from its “supreme gift,” the child.1

It is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life.2

Every action which . . . proposes to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil.3

Sacred Scripture and the Church’s traditional practice see in large families a sign of God’s blessing and the parents’ generosity.4

Among evangelical Protestants, a few support essentially the Roman Catholic position and oppose all forms of “artificial” birth control, but most believe that birth control is a personal decision for each family and that couples should be free to decide how many children they will have.

What does the Bible actually teach about birth control? That is the subject discussed in this section.

A. SCRIPTURE VIEWS CHILDREN NOT AS A BURDEN BUT AS A GREAT BLESSING

Some in contemporary society view children mostly as a burden, a huge expense, and an inconvenience that interferes with the happiness of a married couple. From time to time there are news stories that make the task of raising children seem frightfully expensive! In 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that the cost of raising a child from birth to high school graduation was $245,340. In more expensive areas, such as the Northeast United States, that figure reaches $455,000.

That does not include the costs for the college years, which were conservatively estimated by the College Board for 2016–2017 to be $20,090 (in-state) per year for tuition and housing at four-year public colleges and universities, and $45,370 for four-year private colleges and universities.5

But the Bible does not view raising children as a burden or as something that is financially or emotionally impossible to do. It consistently views children as a blessing from God. This positive perspective begins at the earliest point of human history, for the first command that God ever gave to human beings was a mandate to bear children:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:28)

To “multiply” implies having more than two children, because a couple with only two children will simply replace themselves on the earth, without multiplying the population.6

Other passages in the Old Testament continue promoting a positive view of children, even after Adam and Eve sinned:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one’s youth.

Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Ps. 127:3–5)

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

within your house;

your children will be like olive shoots

around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

who fears the Lord. (Ps. 128:3–4)

Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. (Mal. 2:15)

In the New Testament, Jesus demonstrated a remarkably positive attitude toward children:

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away. (Matt. 19:13–15)

In addition, Paul’s directions to Timothy about how he should teach churches included this statement about widows:

So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. (1 Tim. 5:14)

These passages indicate that the first question couples should ask themselves when considering birth control is this: Do we agree in our hearts with the Bible’s positive view of children as a blessing from God, or do we agree with a modern secular view that children are an inconvenience and a burden?

This question is important because the Bible is unquestionably prochild in its perspective. The scriptural emphasis on children as a blessing leads me to think that married couples should, in almost all cases, plan to have children sometime in their marriages.7 In fact, my personal encouragement to most young couples would be to plan to have several children and to enjoy their large families for their entire lifetimes. (I have seldom if ever met couples who told me, “We had too many children.”)

Having several children is also a way of expanding the church. Although God’s kingdom on earth in the new covenant age is primarily expanded by having spiritual children (people who are born again), not simply through physical procreation, it remains true that the pattern we see in Scripture is that the children of believers ordinarily become believers themselves.8 Therefore, having several children is also a way for couples to expand the population of God’s people in the world, people who will ultimately glorify him for all eternity.