1988 Issue 11
Not too long ago, while visiting an out-of-state church, I had a spirited discussion with a prominent woman who questioned me about my convictions regarding the legitimacy of birth control. She had read Mary Pride's book The Way Home and had become convinced that all forms of birth control are sinful. She cornered me and began to importune me with questions. How many children did I have? Did my wife and I use birth control devices? Did I plan to have more children? Where does God condone birth control in the Bible? What about Onan's sin in Genesis 38? Could I find for her anyone in the Bible that practiced birth control? Was I afraid of a large family? Did I not know that the purpose of marriage was procreation? Doesn't the Bible say that women will be saved through childbearing?
Gary North's critique of natural law is to the point, (Moses and Pharaoh, pg. 236-246):
"Such a conception of natural law rests on the assumption of a universal human logic, the universal applicability in history of that logic, and the universal recognition of this logic and its universal applicability by all reasonable men. It assumes, in short, the neutrality of human thought.
"The Bible explicitly denies any such neutrality. Men are divided into saved and lost, keepers of God's covenant and breakers of God's covenant. There is no agreement between the two positions. Human reason, unaided by God's revelation - untwisted by God's grace cannot be expected to devise a universal law code based on any presumed universal human logic. What mankinds' universal reason can be expected to do is to rebel against God and his law. Ethical rebels are not logically faithful to God.
The charge Jehovah brings against the church and state of Judah is that they have transgressed the Covenant He made with Moses, Exodus 19- 24. Therefore God will pour out on Judah the curses of the covenant described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
The purpose of this Mosaic Covenant of redemption by atonement, reconstruction by law and reconciliation by the Temple was to make Israel fully aware that she is God's property, of whom he is creating a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Exod. 19:5-6; I Pet. 2:5, 9.
This covenant has a central emphasis in Jeremiah's preaching: 3:16; 11:2-10; 14:21; 22:9; 31:31-33; 32:40; 33:20-25; 34:8-18; 50:5. Jehovah will judge Judah because she has disbelieved the promises and disobeyed the laws of this covenant.
What is Calvinism? Or the Confession of Faith in Harmony with the Bible and Common Sense. In a series of dialogues between a Presbyterian minister and a young convert. Dialogue XXI, Primitive Presbyterianism.
