📖 Biblical Definition
Scripture presents children as a blessing from God, not a burden to be prevented. "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward" (Psalm 127:3). God's first command to mankind was "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). The one biblical instance of deliberate contraception — Onan spilling his seed to avoid raising up offspring — was judged by God with death (Genesis 38:9-10). While Scripture does not address every modern method, its consistent witness is that fertility is a gift, children are a blessing, and the separation of sexual union from its procreative purpose requires serious theological reflection.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The term did not appear in Webster 1828. Conception was defined as the act of conceiving; the formation of the embryo.
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CONCEP'TION, n. The act of conceiving; the first formation of the embryo or fetus of an animal. Note: In Webster's day, the prevention of conception was universally considered immoral by all Christian communities.
📖 Key Scripture
• Genesis 1:28 — "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."
• Psalm 127:3-5 — "Children are a heritage from the LORD...blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."
• Genesis 38:9-10 — Onan's deliberate prevention of conception was judged by God.
• Psalm 139:13-16 — "You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Contraception has become an unquestioned norm, severing sex from procreation and children from blessing.
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Until 1930, every Christian denomination — Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox — condemned artificial contraception. The Anglican Lambeth Conference broke this universal consensus, and within decades virtually all Protestant churches followed. The pill, combined with the sexual revolution, severed the connection between sex and procreation that Scripture establishes in Genesis. The result is a culture that treats children as optional accessories rather than covenant blessings, and a church with birth rates indistinguishable from the secular world. Christians need not agree on every method, but they must recover the biblical conviction that children are a gift from God, not an inconvenience to be engineered away.
Usage
• "Every Christian tradition condemned contraception until 1930 — the modern acceptance of it represents a radical break with historic Christianity."
• "When Scripture calls children a blessing and a reward, the Christian who treats them as a burden has adopted the world's values, not God's."