This article was so interesting because it is even MORE Bible evidence showing that God just doesn't like contraception.
(yes, I am still working on that other post all about contraception. However it has now got so long and theological I'm gonna have to trim it down).
The 'sin of Onan' is basically 'coitus interruptus', also know as 'the withdrawal method'.
That is, the man 'withdraws' before 'completion of the sexual act'.
If you don't know what I mean then you are probably still sweet and innocent and I won't elaborate any further!
The withdrawal method is used by some as a method of contraception, and so the Bible doesn't just state that God really doesn't like this method, but the principles of it apply to all forms of contraception.
So, I want to summerise the main points in this article that provide much evidence that the withdrawal method (& so the general principle of contraception) is bad.
So, who is Onan?
Basically, Onan was a guy living a loong time ago. (Genesis 38:9-10).
He had a brother who had a wife called Tamar.
And one day, very sadly, the brother died, and Tamar was left as a widow.
It was Jewish custom at the time, that if a man dies and leaves behind a wife, the dead-man's brother should marry the widow and produce sons for his dead brother.
So Onan had to marry Tamar.
Genesis 38:8
"Unite with your brother's widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother's line."
Onan however knew that the children that would be produced wouldn't be his, and so, for whatever reason, decided he didn't want them.
Therefore during sexual relations with Tamar he didn't 'complete' the sexual act.
He practiced the contraceptive method of 'withdrawl' to avoid getting Tamar pregnant.
The Bible says he 'spilt (or wasted) his seed on the ground'
(seed means sperm)
Genesis 38:9
Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother's widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother.
and how did God feel about this?
Well, this really upset and angered God....and so God killed him.
Genesis 38:10
What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too
Does it seem harsh? Well, maybe that's because we've become so numb to sin that we don't see the same evil that God does.
So anyway, people argue about this case in one of two ways.
Since the early 1900s people have started saying that Onan was killed by God just because his disobeyed the Jewish rule to produce children for his dead-brother with his brother's widow.
They say that God killed him because his disobeyed this teaching.
It has nothing to do with the 'spilling of the seed', but just a punishment for a disobedience.
But, other people say that it has everything to do with the 'spilling of the seed', and that this contraceptive act itself was why God killed Onan.
I never really had much ammunition in my belt for arguing this latter case...untill now.
Here are some reasons (from the article), that prove that God killed Onan because he contracepted.
You can read them in full in the article, I have just summerised them below so that I can remember them and whip them out when needed in an argument!
1. Jewish scolars believe that this passage of Scripture condemns contracepted intercourse. That is pretty strong evidence.
2. The book of Deuteronomy in the Bible says what type of punishment a man should recieve if he refuses to comply with the law and produce children with his dead-brother's widow.
This punishment is just a relatively mild public humiliation in the form of a brief ceremony of indignation. The childless widow, in the presence of the town elders, would remove the sandal from her uncooperative brother-in-law and spit in his face for his refusal to marry her. The brother was then supposed to receive an uncomplimentary nickname—"the Unshod" (Deut. 25:8-10).
But what punishment did Onan get?
He didn't get a spit in the face, a slap with a sandal and a weird nick-name.
he got death.
I think we can all agree that that is a much more serious punishment, and so it is logical to come to the conclusion that his sin was a much more serious sin than just not wanting to have his brother's children.
He had sex, but tried all he could to prevent the natural consequences of it (as do people when they use artificial contraception).
3. If you've read the Bible you will have realised how delicately they deal with issues of sex. Good and holy sex are always referred to very purely; "knowing" one’s spouse (Gen. 4:17, Luke 1:34), "going in to" one’s wife (entering her tent or bedchamber, Gen. 6:4, 2 Sam. 16:22, 2 Chron. 23:7).
Whereas when the Bible uses somewhat more explicit language to refer to sex it is without exception referring to sinful, shameful sexual acts.
I think it is pretty clear that this passage about Onan is pretty explicit; it actually tells you exactly what Onan did during sex.
Onan withdrew from Tamar before the 'completion' of the sexual act, allowing his semen to be spilt on the ground.
This didn't happen by accident, he did it specifically because he didn't want Tamar to get pregnant.
He wanted sex, but not the natural consequence of that sex (i.e. babies).
(sex but blocking out about babies... sounds like all modern methods of contraception!).
(except natural family planning of course, which isn't really a method of contraception).
So Onan withdrew from Tamar during sex and spilt his semen on the ground.
This is a pretty yuckily explicit thing to tell us if there is no purpose for telling us.
Why would the writer of Genesis tell us such a specific explicit sexual detail if it wasn't important?
The reason we are told exactly what Onan did, is because it IS important!
It explains why he was then killed.
This tells us that there is something definitly wrong about what Onan did.
and not just what he failed to do (i.e. failing to produce children for his dead brother), but rather the WAY he went about doing that, basically having sex but contracepting, upset and agered God.
Also, it is interesting to note that the term 'spilling of seed' is also used in the book of Leviticus when referring to the terribleness of homosexual acts (which also deserved the death penalty)Lev. 18: 22, 20:13.
4. The text actually says that what Onan did was a detestable thing and that the Lord was not at all happy with it.
The fact that this comes right after the part which describes Onan's seed spilling means it is totally logical to see that it is referring to the seed spilling.
God didn't kill Onan just because he didn't want to produce children for his dead brother.
God killed him because of the way in which Onan went about doing this.
Onan didn't say "I don't want my brother's children and so I will abstain and NOT have sex."
Instead he said "I don't want my brother's children but I will have sex and use a form of contraception."
SUMMARY:
So although this part of the Bible (Genesis 38:9–10) does probably show that Onan did a very bad thing towards his dead brother by intentionally not producing children with Tamar, nonetheless it is the unnatural contracepted sexual act in itself that is presented as the most gravely sinful aspect of Onan's treatment of Tamar—the aspect for which God cut short his life.
That this passage explicitly shows God's unhappiness with contraception was supported by everyone; the Fathers and Doctors of the Catholic Church, by the Protestant Reformers, and by nearly all celibate and married theologians of all Christian denominations.
That is, until the early years of this century, when people started twisiting it and saying that that is not actually what it meant in order to be able to justify using contraception.
and now we have the contraception-rampant society that we do and are so blind that we can't see the evilness of this sin.
This is just one piece of evidence in the Bible that proves that GOD DOESN'T LIKE CONTRACEPTION!
There are many more instances! I promise I will write about them!
We shall give the last word here to Pope Pius XI, who, in quoting the greatest of the Church Fathers, summed up and reaffirmed this unbroken tradition in his encyclical on Christian marriage, Casti Connubii (1930). After roundly condemning as intrinsically contrary to the natural moral law all practices that intend to deprive the conjugal act of its procreative power, the Pontiff gave an authoritative interpretation of this biblical text, which not only confirms the tradition, but also is itself confirmed by impartial and historically well-informed exegesis: "Wherefore it is not surprising that the Sacred Scriptures themselves also bear witness to the fact that the divine Majesty attends this unspeakable depravity with the utmost detestation, sometimes having punished it with death, as St. Augustine recalls: ‘For it is illicit and shameful for a man to lie with even his lawful wife in such a way as to prevent the conception of offspring. This is what Onan, son of Judah, used to do, and for that God slew him’ (cf. Gen. 38:8?10)."
The full article is also a good read, what I have here is just my summary of the main points.
YOU CAN READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
1 comment:
Wow, great post, Antonia! Great article, too. Thanks for sharing!
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