A few years back, Pastor John Piper was asked this important question. Should married couples consider using birth control pills? Why or why not? Some claim it is still, in essence, abortive. Here's what Pastor John had to say. Yeah, well, we did use contraceptives in the early part of our marriage, and my wife's father was a doctor, and we consulted with him about this because the answer is fairly simple to me at one level.

If it's an abortifacient, if the egg is being fertilized and then being destroyed, it's not right. Because I think, I mean, there's just so much we could say here about the beginnings of life and how you understand the soul, but try to keep it short and simple. I think a child should be given the benefit of the doubt as to whether he exists or not.

And when a child, an egg, has been fertilized and all the components there are now physically for a human being, we have every reason to treat it as a human being. And so we shouldn't destroy it. And if the pill destroys it, we shouldn't use that pill. Now, here's where the differences come, I think, because I have had people say to me, "You can't be sure," or "The pills all work that way," or "No, they don't." And so I would just say to the families, "Operate on this principle, namely that I'm not going to destroy a fertilized egg." And then do your best, by whatever research and consultation you can, to decide what means of conception control, I'm going to avoid birth control, it doesn't quite say it right, conception control you should use.

Now that's at one level, okay, that's the abortion level. There's another whole level to this issue of people saying, "Well, if children are a blessing from the Lord, why would you get in the way, right? Have as many as you can, 15, 20." It'd be like, you know, Susanna Wesley and her parents.

And there, it's another question, but I'll try to give you my short answer. I do think children are an amazing blessing from the Lord. I have five, and I'm glad I have five kids. And if I had to do over again, I'd have five plus, and I'd start adopting earlier, probably.

So we had four of the biological kind and then Talitha, and we waited perhaps too long to have Talitha. No, we'll say we did. So they're a blessing, absolutely a blessing. To decide when and how many children to have, however, seems to me to be a legitimate kingdom decision because Paul himself said that he wished everybody were single like himself so that they could be utterly devoted to the kingdom.

And then he paused and said, "But it is not sin to marry." And he said that, that he wished everybody were single even though the Bible says it is not good for man to be alone. In other words, marriage is a proper creation ordinance. Marry, it's normal, it's right, it's good.

God ordains it, God plans it. And here comes Paul saying, "We should all be single because you'd be really totally devoted to the Lord that way." And that's Paul, I think, enunciating a qualification of creation ordinance with redemption ordinance. When the fall happened, death spread and lostness spread. And this world isn't the idyllic world where everybody can be married, have lots of kids, die, go to heaven, or have no death at all.

It's now a fallen world. It's a world that desperately needs redemption and it needs suffering single people to lay their lives down with no distraction whatsoever to reach certain kinds of people. And so Paul waves that flag. And if he waves that flag and says, "We cannot marry for the sake of the kingdom," even though the Bible says it's not good for man to be alone, I think the same thing has to do with children.

Do you see the logic I'm using here? That God says, "He who has his quiver full of them is blessed. Children are a blessing from the Lord." And yet, same logic, it may be wise to have two or three or four, not ten, if you're going to go to Guinea.

In other words, I think kingdom issues, redemption issues, not just natural issues. You shouldn't just think in natural issues, like children are naturally good to have. Yes, they are. But there are other issues going on that should be redemptive. Now, one last comment. That's a redemptive issue, not a lifestyle, what, dink, double income, no kids, thank you very much, they get in the way kind of attitude.

So I'll have my 2.1 children to keep the population afloat so the Muslims don't take over. But after that, I'm doing my own thing. Well, that's not where I am at all. I'm saying the criterion are not me and my own little world so that I can have a comfortable life, but rather, what are the kingdom issues at stake here in adoption and the kingdom issues at stake?

One other thing comes to my mind. I was in Germany when we started having a family. It was 1972. In 1972, people my age were saying it's a sin to have more than two kids or some were saying it's a sin to have kids because population, blah, blah, blah.

And I just thought to myself, okay, if you have more than 2.1 kids, you're putting a strain on the planet. I said to myself, I don't think so, because the kids I'm going to raise are going to lift a million burdens. You, Christian, you got to believe that bringing kids into the world and being brought up in the Lord makes them burden lifters, not burden adders.

They are in the world to lift the world, to save the world, to love the world. You're not just adding dead weight to the world when you bring a child up in the kingdom. You're bringing up lovers of people and servants of the world. So I'm going on and on here.

I'll probably just stop. I can't even remember what the question was now, but enough on that one. That was Pastor John Piper. Thank you for listening to this podcast. We will return soon with all new episodes, so please email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. You can visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening.