What about Natural Family Planning?

Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 09:57:14 -0500
From: William <SNIP>
Subject: Natural Family Planning

I thought I saw on the QF web page that members are against "Natural Family
Planning" or timing cycles and testing other bodily changes. Is this so? I
am in opposition to contraceptives (or at least God has been dealing with me
on this one) but I want further information about the opposition to "Natural
Family Planning".

William
Father of 3 "Glory Babies" and Christopher(5), Emily(21 months), Mason (6
months)

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Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 22:49:05 -0500
From: "David Crank" <SNIP>
Subject: QF & Natural Family Planning

To William (& others who may have a similar question),

Yes, I would say that most of us on this list are not in favor of "natural
family planning". Our convictions relate to much more that just opposing
contraceptives. I'll try to briefly explain...

There are many different reasons for leaving conception in God's hands. Just
to briefly touch on some of the major ones:

1) God is far better at planning our families than we are. He knows what the
future holds (when or if you will actually be able to conceive, how things
will change over the 9 months of pregnancy, and the whole future of the
child to be born). He alone knows the perfect time and the "perfect" number.
We are to trust God to provide for us in the necessities of life, can we not
trust Him with this part of our lives as well?

2) God commanded us to be fruitful and multiply. No where did He withdraw
this command or give any indication that we should try to limit our number
of children or "time" them. His commands concerning marriage (i.e. 1 Cor 7)
tend to come in conflict even with "natural" family planning methods. God's
commands to the Israelites concerning when a husband and wife were not to
come together, appear designed to maximize the opportunities for conception.

3) The Christian church and its leaders universally condemned birth control
prior to the 20th century (and many well into the 1st half of the 20th
century). Read some of the writings of Luther, Calvin and many others,
besides the Catholic Popes - ALL were in agreement on this matter. Their
reasons for opposition to birth control were not just due to "artificial"
methods. They were opposed to the idea of Christians trying to limit their
families and taking this matter out of God's hands! The modern acceptance of
birth control is the direct result of women's rights activists, especially
Margaret Sanger, who were very ungodly, opposed to Christian morality, and
advocated abortion as just another acceptable method of birth control.

4) Notice what the Bible says about conception - how often we read of God
opening and closing the womb. Look at what the Old Testament saints
believed - that conception was a matter under God's control. Conception was
not seen as just a matter of chance and when a man and woman came together.

5) If children are truly great blessings, as God's word says they are, why
would we WANT to limit our blessings? Even attempting to delay "blessings"
for a couple of years may sometimes result in preventing any future
blessings (we do not know how long fertility will last). When we see
children a bit more as God sees them - new precious lives to love and to
love us, that can be raised to be bring glory to God - we want as many as He
will give us, even if that means having a child at a very difficult time or
having one that requires a lot of extra care. Look at the attitudes towards
children portrayed by the Old Testament saints (Sarah, Rebekah, Leah &
Rachel, Hannah, ...). Look at the folks singled out for mention in the Bible
for how God had blessed them with a very large family.

Well, this topic could fill a number of books (and has filled a number of
good books - A Full Quiver, by Rick and Jan Hess, is one of the best in my
opinion). Hopefully the above is enough to at least give you a good start on
further considering this issue. You can also read more, in an article
focused primarily on point 5 above, at the following link:
http://unlessthelordmagazine.com/articles/valueof.htm.

In Christ,
David Crank
www.UnlessTheLordMagazine.com

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Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 09:33:34 -0700
From: "Shoucair" <SNIP>
Subject: Natural Family Planning

William,

I guess that my opposition to Natural Family Planning is that it is still a way for me to
think that I can better plan my life than God can. I am now expecting my 8th child and I am
wondering how many I would have if each had been planned by me with all of my worldly
requirements for an appropriate time. I may not have had more than one, yet God's timing is
perfect. I don't have any regrets. He hasn't made any mistakes yet. Just remember that God
is not trying to curse you. He blesses you with children. Also remember that, although He
gives us wisdom, we don't have the wisdom He has.

Peggy

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Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 07:06:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Southerland <SNIP>
Subject: Re: NFP

There was a question about "What's wrong with Natural Family Planning?" My answer is that I was just where you are as recently as last year in wondering about this. What the Lord has shown me through reading, and on this list, is that we should welcome all the blessings that the Lord will give us. It is absolutely true that if you are determined to prevent pregnancy, the only moral way to do it would be to prevent the sperm and the egg from coming together. NFP handles this nicely, without the danger of abortion typically caused by the pill and other chemical or mechanical methods. However, we must examine our hearts to see why we would want to prevent the Lord from blessing us again. To use any method to prevent pregnancy is to state implicitly or explicitly that you don't "want" a child. I'm finding that the road from BC to NFP to QF is a logical sequence that the Lord tends to bring many of us down. It was the physical hazards of BC that led most of us to NFP. It is mostly spiritual (for me anyway) reasons that have led me and my wife from NFP to QF.

Mike Southerland
husband to Sheri, Daddy to Brittney (8), Michael III (6), Brianna (4), and Justin (8 months)

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Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 19:54:03 -0600
From: "Kim Dasen" <<SNIP>
Subject: natural family planning

Hi,

My issue with natural family planning is that in the scriptures we are told not to withold
our bodies from one another (man and wife obviously), except by agreement for times of
prayer. So, my issue I guess is that there is a scripture concerning "planned abstinence",
and it says ONLY for times of prayer. God created women to be most, um, sexually interested
during their fertile time, so to plan every month to abstain, is, well, it would seem,
non-scriptural...... So, on top of trying to refuse God's blessings, we would be
intentionally going against a very direct scripture verse.....
Any input from anybody else on this is welcome...... I'm not very good at expressing myself
sometimes....

In Him,
Kim

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