As we travel the world and teach with Passion Life, we are often asked about what is the biblical worldview of procreation, marriage, children and family. How does God feel about these things? Well, those are great questions because they are not directly related to the issue of abortion, but they are immediately correlated to the issue of abortion. We have to think through all of those things to be able to have a holistic biblical worldview of how God wants us to deal with the problem of abortion in our world.

We don’t always have time to get into a theology of adoption in all of our teachings. If we only have a few hours, we may not be able to teach on the theology of adoption or the theology of contraception. We may not be able to teach the role of men in these areas. But all of those things are essential to understanding how God wants to eradicate abortion in this world and provide stability in a civil society. He wants to do it through loving and intimate relationships between men and women who are present in the lives of children, who value children the way God values children, who see children as a blessing and an inheritance, which is the way God sees children, and who sees family as central to being a stabilizing force in a civil society. Again, because of time constraints when we’re teaching on abortion, we don’t always talk about adoption.

In China, adoption is usually seen as a plan B. It’s seen as a second rate. You could never love a child quite as much if it’s adopted as you would if it were your own biological flesh and blood. We know that this is actually not true for many families. We also know from the book of Ephesians that we have been adopted by God and that it was plan A for him. It says in Ephesians that we were predestined to be adopted into the kingdom of the Son that he loves. It was always God’s plan to adopt us into his family and make us co-heirs with Christ in the kingdom. That’s an amazing thing.

You can’t eradicate abortion without adoption. Some women are simply not ready to be mothers, but that does not mean that they have to have an abortion. Adoption is a beautiful thing. We want to talk more and more about that. We want to talk more about the fact that we value men in the marital relationship and the role of fathers in the healthy upbringing of children. When either a father or a mother is absent from the parenting model children suffer. They have the best chance for longevity and stability in the family when mom and dad are both present.

Dads love the opportunity not to have to take responsibility for having a baby. When I say that I’m talking about men, in general, are rascals. They would love to be able to have no opportunity for there to be any ramifications that they have to take responsibility for. Men, generally, are pretty favorable when it comes to abortion. They like abortion. Susan B. Anthony, for example, was an early feminist who said, “No, we’re not going to let men escape their responsibility of raising children.” Early feminists, like Susan B. Anthony, were staunchly opposed to abortion because it allows men to take advantage of women.

We know that when men are not present in the pregnancy. The chance that abortion is going to happen goes way up. We also know that of the many women who have abortions more than half feel coerced or forced into having an abortion. Almost all the time it is a man that is putting that pressure on them. It’s a boyfriend, or a father, or a husband who is saying, “No, you are not going to have this baby. You’re going to have an abortion.” They’re being pressured.
Another thing that we often don’t have time to get into is contraception. Contraception is a controversial issue, especially within Christian circles, and there are various views on contraception. The Bible does not talk outright about contraception. It’s a little bit difficult to have a “here’s what the Bible says about contraception conversation” but here’s what we can all agree on: The Bible is pro-family, pro-children and pro-multiply and fill the earth. Contraception is often used as an escape from that or an alternative to that.

One of the results of contraception is it can bring a demeaning aspect to the sexual relationship. It makes it very self centered. It makes it an experiential thing rather than a providential, procreational thing to do. It’s something that I wish all Christians would think more about instead of just following whatever it is the culture says. Now, of course, there are all kinds of ethical concerns with the methodology of contraception, and there are many contraceptive methods that actually induce abortion. We know that this is true, and we try as a society to ignore the fact that this is true aside from the natural planning method or fertility awareness.

Let me put it this way, many people say, “Well, if you want the abortion rate to drop, then you just make contraception readily available.” Well, the statistics actually indicate that readily available contraception increases promiscuity. It increases sexual activity, especially among people who don’t want to have a baby. Because of the failure rate in all contraception methods, it often results in pregnancy rates going up rather than down. Contraception can contribute to unwanted pregnancies going up rather than going down in a community over time. Because of widely available contraception, we’ve seen the abortion rate goes up rather than going down because of widely available contraception.

The point in this entire conversation is to encourage us as Christians to stop and think biblically, critically and morally, rather than thinking culturally. Do not let the culture dictate how you see marriage, family and procreation. These are things that are dear to the heart of God. We see it over and over in scripture. The high value that God places on children, on marriage, on mothers and fathers having babies and discipling children to know Christ and to live out a biblical worldview cannot be overstated.

We at Passion Life are pro-family. We at Passion Life are pro-father, pro-mother, pro-marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that the Bible has made clear that these are the keys to longevity, stability, intimacy and fulfillment in the marriage relationship and in society at large. Follow Passion Life for more of our thoughts on these and other controversial topics. We look forward to sharing with you again soon.