Should Christians Use the Pill?
00:00:00.000 | A few years back, Pastor John Piper was asked this important question.
00:00:09.140 | Should married couples consider using birth control pills?
00:00:12.200 | Why or why not?
00:00:13.840 | Some claim it is still, in essence, abortive.
00:00:17.040 | Here's what Pastor John had to say.
00:00:19.440 | Yeah, well, we did use contraceptives in the early part of our marriage, and my wife's
00:00:29.960 | father was a doctor, and we consulted with him about this because the answer is fairly
00:00:37.680 | simple to me at one level.
00:00:39.520 | If it's an abortifacient, if the egg is being fertilized and then being destroyed, it's
00:00:47.800 | not right.
00:00:49.760 | Because I think, I mean, there's just so much we could say here about the beginnings of
00:00:53.040 | life and how you understand the soul, but try to keep it short and simple.
00:00:59.160 | I think a child should be given the benefit of the doubt as to whether he exists or not.
00:01:05.840 | And when a child, an egg, has been fertilized and all the components there are now physically
00:01:14.520 | for a human being, we have every reason to treat it as a human being.
00:01:20.760 | And so we shouldn't destroy it.
00:01:23.560 | And if the pill destroys it, we shouldn't use that pill.
00:01:29.080 | Now, here's where the differences come, I think, because I have had people say to me,
00:01:33.400 | "You can't be sure," or "The pills all work that way," or "No, they don't."
00:01:37.360 | And so I would just say to the families, "Operate on this principle, namely that I'm not going
00:01:44.760 | to destroy a fertilized egg."
00:01:48.520 | And then do your best, by whatever research and consultation you can, to decide what means
00:01:54.720 | of conception control, I'm going to avoid birth control, it doesn't quite say it right,
00:02:01.880 | conception control you should use.
00:02:04.040 | Now that's at one level, okay, that's the abortion level.
00:02:08.280 | There's another whole level to this issue of people saying, "Well, if children are a
00:02:12.080 | blessing from the Lord, why would you get in the way, right?
00:02:15.560 | Have as many as you can, 15, 20."
00:02:19.400 | It'd be like, you know, Susanna Wesley and her parents.
00:02:25.520 | And there, it's another question, but I'll try to give you my short answer.
00:02:30.480 | I do think children are an amazing blessing from the Lord.
00:02:34.640 | I have five, and I'm glad I have five kids.
00:02:38.720 | And if I had to do over again, I'd have five plus, and I'd start adopting earlier, probably.
00:02:46.160 | So we had four of the biological kind and then Talitha, and we waited perhaps too long
00:02:52.800 | to have Talitha.
00:02:53.800 | No, we'll say we did.
00:02:58.520 | So they're a blessing, absolutely a blessing.
00:03:01.800 | To decide when and how many children to have, however, seems to me to be a legitimate kingdom
00:03:11.240 | decision because Paul himself said that he wished everybody were single like himself
00:03:19.800 | so that they could be utterly devoted to the kingdom.
00:03:22.200 | And then he paused and said, "But it is not sin to marry."
00:03:25.120 | And he said that, that he wished everybody were single even though the Bible says it
00:03:30.160 | is not good for man to be alone.
00:03:32.120 | In other words, marriage is a proper creation ordinance.
00:03:37.760 | Marry, it's normal, it's right, it's good.
00:03:41.000 | God ordains it, God plans it.
00:03:42.480 | And here comes Paul saying, "We should all be single because you'd be really totally
00:03:46.120 | devoted to the Lord that way."
00:03:48.480 | And that's Paul, I think, enunciating a qualification of creation ordinance with redemption ordinance.
00:03:57.880 | When the fall happened, death spread and lostness spread.
00:04:02.160 | And this world isn't the idyllic world where everybody can be married, have lots of kids,
00:04:07.520 | die, go to heaven, or have no death at all.
00:04:09.680 | It's now a fallen world.
00:04:11.600 | It's a world that desperately needs redemption and it needs suffering single people to lay
00:04:16.840 | their lives down with no distraction whatsoever to reach certain kinds of people.
00:04:21.280 | And so Paul waves that flag.
00:04:23.520 | And if he waves that flag and says, "We cannot marry for the sake of the kingdom," even though
00:04:31.000 | the Bible says it's not good for man to be alone, I think the same thing has to do with
00:04:36.440 | children.
00:04:37.440 | Do you see the logic I'm using here?
00:04:39.360 | That God says, "He who has his quiver full of them is blessed.
00:04:46.160 | Children are a blessing from the Lord."
00:04:48.280 | And yet, same logic, it may be wise to have two or three or four, not ten, if you're going
00:04:56.400 | to go to Guinea.
00:04:57.880 | In other words, I think kingdom issues, redemption issues, not just natural issues.
00:05:04.520 | You shouldn't just think in natural issues, like children are naturally good to have.
00:05:08.120 | Yes, they are.
00:05:09.560 | But there are other issues going on that should be redemptive.
00:05:12.720 | Now, one last comment.
00:05:15.080 | That's a redemptive issue, not a lifestyle, what, dink, double income, no kids, thank
00:05:22.920 | you very much, they get in the way kind of attitude.
00:05:26.520 | So I'll have my 2.1 children to keep the population afloat so the Muslims don't take over.
00:05:33.000 | But after that, I'm doing my own thing.
00:05:35.360 | Well, that's not where I am at all.
00:05:38.560 | I'm saying the criterion are not me and my own little world so that I can have a comfortable
00:05:45.440 | life, but rather, what are the kingdom issues at stake here in adoption and the kingdom
00:05:50.840 | issues at stake?
00:05:52.800 | One other thing comes to my mind.
00:05:54.280 | I was in Germany when we started having a family.
00:05:57.000 | It was 1972.
00:05:58.360 | In 1972, people my age were saying it's a sin to have more than two kids or some were
00:06:04.440 | saying it's a sin to have kids because population, blah, blah, blah.
00:06:09.080 | And I just thought to myself, okay, if you have more than 2.1 kids, you're putting a
00:06:14.480 | strain on the planet.
00:06:16.320 | I said to myself, I don't think so, because the kids I'm going to raise are going to lift
00:06:22.160 | a million burdens.
00:06:24.520 | You, Christian, you got to believe that bringing kids into the world and being brought up in
00:06:32.040 | the Lord makes them burden lifters, not burden adders.
00:06:38.560 | They are in the world to lift the world, to save the world, to love the world.
00:06:43.780 | You're not just adding dead weight to the world when you bring a child up in the kingdom.
00:06:48.860 | You're bringing up lovers of people and servants of the world.
00:06:54.380 | So I'm going on and on here.
00:06:55.680 | I'll probably just stop.
00:06:56.680 | I can't even remember what the question was now, but enough on that one.
00:07:00.160 | That was Pastor John Piper.
00:07:01.320 | Thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:07:03.000 | We will return soon with all new episodes, so please email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:07:09.320 | You can visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,
00:07:13.280 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:07:15.920 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:07:16.920 | Thanks for listening.
00:07:17.560 | [END]
00:07:18.060 | [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:07:25.220 | [BLANK_AUDIO]