I'm happy to announce the release of BART 0.2.1-d. You can get the code at
http://code.google.com/p/bartkjv/
BART is not (and may never be) ready for "consumer" use because it requires the ability to set up a Python environment. However, if you are are a Scripture researcher and would like assistance with setting up BART, please contact me and i will see what I can do to help.
If you are unfamiliar with Quiverfull and it's doctrine in opposition to birth control, you can check it out at Wikipedia (and quiverfull.com is their "official" web site). The movement was effectively started in 1985 by Nancy Cambell and Mary Pride. As with most errors in Christianity, Quiverfull supporters wrongly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15), and like most cults, they select only a few key passages from the Bible to support and defend their claims or doctrines.
If you're like most people, you probably haven't noticed the groundswell of quiet support for Eugenics resulting from misplaced concern over protecting the environment and the future of our planet. I am in no way advocating population control -- I believe marriage and children are a fundamental human right.
This is also not a defense of birth control or abortion where these endanger the health of the woman or mother.
Rather, it is an objection to the use of Holy Scriptures to engender error and enslave people to a "law" or "work" under the pretense that in so doing they are somehow more obedient or pleasing to God.
The command to "be fruitful and multiply" was issued three times (to humans) in the Old Testament.
The command of Genesis 1:28 was given to Adam and Eve at the dawn of Creation. The command of Genesis 9:1 was given to "Noah and his sons" after the Great Flood. In Genesis 35:11, Jacob is told " be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of you". Jacob is renamed to Israel in this same passage.
None of these events can (or should) be compared to the circumstances of our modern age, but rather are clearly contrasted with our time. Unlike the commands given to the nation of Israel (viz. the 10 commandments), these commands were given to specific people. Yet, Quiverfull believes the command to be fruitful and multiply is for all believers and the command has never been rescinded. Charles D. Provan says it is disobedience to use birth control because it "attempts to prevent being fruitful and multiplying".
By this same argument it would be disobedient for us to refuse building an Ark or sacrificing our first-born son -- commands specifically given to Noah and Abraham respectively, neither of which have ever been rescinded.
"Children are a Blessing from the Lord"
The principal passage that Quiverfull believers use is Psalms 127:3-5. The King James version has it as:
Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward. As arrows [are] in the hand of a mighty man; so [are] children of the youth. Happy [is] the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
However, other versions (such as the NIV) of the Bible change "Happy [is] the man" to "blessed is the man". Although you find many such references in external writings, there is no such passage in the Bible as "children are a blessing from the Lord". There is also no such passage as "children are a gift from God". All such references in support of Quiverfull (and similar notions) appear to return to Psalms 127:3-5.
That children are sometimes a blessing is the common experience of all faiths and cultures. That children are sometimes a shame to their parents is also proved empirically and finds much support in the Bible through example and direct reference (especially in Proverbs). Here are just two examples from Proverbs:
Proverbs (28:7) Whoso keeps the law [is] a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous [men] shames his father.
Proverbs (29:3) Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth [his] substance.
Consider this passage for a moment:
Proverbs (15:22) Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
Now this one:
Proverbs (29:12) If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants [are] wicked.
Clearly the implication of Proverbs 15:22 is that without good counsel, purposes are "disappointed". That is, not all counsel is good and that bad counsel is still bad even if you have a lot of it!
Likewise, parents, relatives and friends may rightly celebrate the safe arrival of a new born, but if experience and Scripture show us that children are not always a "blessing" (or "angels", for that matter) then either the Bible contradicts itself by showing that children sometimes bring shame OR the Quiverfull believers contradict the Bible by wrongly dividing its passages to support their beliefs.
We could also examine the reverse -- that is, if you can't have children are you being cursed by God? Have you done something wrong? Are you being punished because you can't have children?
And as [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man which was blind from [his] birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." John 9:1-3
There is no more a curse upon you for being childless than a blessing upon those that do not exercise any form of birth control and have lots of children. Our consolation in all of life's troubles is God's strength, wisdom, and love. See Romans 8:28. He is our strong tower (Proverbs 18:10) and His grace is "sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Quiverfull believers cite passages in the Bible where God opens or closes the womb (Genesis 20:18, 29:31, 30:22; 1 Samuel 1:5-6; Isaiah 66:9) as evidence that we should "let" God choose the timing and quantity of children. They believe that Christians should trust God "to provide them with the perfect number of children for their situation" (A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ, by Rick and Jan Hess).
I believe in the Sovereignty and Providence of God. I believe He works through means. I believe that He works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11) and according to His good pleasure (Philipians 2:13). I believe we should trust God because He is faithful and true. I also believe that "trusting God" does mean turning off your brain.
For example, I trust God to pay my bills. But that doesn't allow me to sit at home unemployed like the sluggard of Proverbs. It means that He knows my needs before I ask (Matthew 6:8) and that I work at a job so I can eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). I need my experience, intelligence, and reason to get a job and I need to actually and physically make the effort to go to interviews, show up for work, and so on. Like the young lions of Psalms, I seek my "meat" from God (104:21).
I could turn off my brain and wait for my "entitlements" or I can understand that the world that God has made is one of sense and means. As John Piper has said regarding the Quiverfull movement:
"...just because something is a gift from the Lord does not mean that it is wrong to be a steward of when or whether you will come into possession of it. It is wrong to reason that since A is good and a gift from the Lord, then we must pursue as much of A as possible. God has made this a world in which tradeoffs have to be made and we cannot do everything to the fullest extent." (emphasis added)
An example of pursuing a gift to the detriment of other "gifts" is the apparent fixation of the Corinthians on speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1-19). The Apostle Paul concludes with:
I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that [by my voice] I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an [unknown] tongue.
Does trusting God mean that Christians are to be mindless and nonsensical in their decisions? God forbid. Consider this related passage on the decision to give a daughter in marriage:
1 Corinthians (7:37) Nevertheless he that stands stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own will, and has so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, does well. (emphasis added)
The name of Christ is shamed by those who call themselves Christians and yet act like children who are unable to bear the meat of the Word (1 Corinthians 3:2). We should make decisions based on information and the power of the intellects that God has given us.
The Bible tells us to be careful ("anxious") for nothing, "but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philipians 4:6).
Sex is for More than Reproduction
In her book, The Way Back: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality, Mary Pride says that:
"God commanded that sex be at least potentially fruitful (that is, not deliberately unfruitful).... All forms of sex that shy away from marital fruitfulness are perverted."
I find no place in the Bible where God commanded that sex be "potentially fruitful". Even a casual read through the Song of Solomon shows us that one purpose for sex is pleasure. The idea that sex is only for reproduction is unscriptural and a hold-over from the prudish and puritanical days of Christianity. That sex is somehow immoral even in marriage is a false doctrine.
Hebrews (13:4) Marriage [is] honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
When the Apostle Paul discusses his own times (and perhaps our times as well, see 1 Corinthians 7:27-29), he says it's good if a man or woman can remain unmarried. Being unmarried means being without children. Is being unmarried therefore a sin because you aren't reproducing? But Paul recognizes the power of hormones and the necessity for sex in marriage with no acknowledgement or mention of pregnancy as a consideration:
1 Corinthians (7:5) Defraud you not one the other, except [it be] with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
1 Corinthians (7:9) But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
It should be clear that "to burn" has nothing to do with a desire for reproduction. It would have been a simple thing for the Creator to make humans with some unceremonious way for accomplishing reproduction, but He did not.
Without some form of birth control married couples are reduced to abstinence for the sake of family planning. Yet the marriage bed is undefiled and it is "better to marry than to burn". Natural forms of birth control have existed for thousands of years. The idea (and skill) of family planning and child spacing exists in so-called "primitive" cultures to this day.
Physiology (that God created) and common experience (which His providence provides) teaches us that exercising judgement and planning in pregnancy is prudent and wise not only for the mother's health, but for the well-being of the children.
In 1 Timothy 2:12, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy that he would not allow ("suffer") a woman to teach, nor to "usurp authority over the man". As my focus is purely on the Scriptural basis for Quiverfull, I must be careful not to attack the character of Cambell or Pride, but what I see from the very inception of the Quiverfull movement are women -- who no doubt have good intentions -- establishing doctrine and men accepting the result without question.
There are many things upon which we might agree; using the Bible to justify the prohibition of birth control is not one of those things.
In spite of claims of trust and faithfulness by Quiverfull supporters, I believe that refusing birth control is ultimately based upon the doctrine of "works" rather than our standing in Christ under grace. We are not under the Law of ordinances by which no man can be justified before God (Galatians 2:16). Christ has fulfilled the law of ordinances, nailing them to His cross (Colossians 2:14).
By ignoring both Scripture and vilifying common sense, the Quiverfull doctrine implies that there is a commandment that Christ did not bear on His cross and that something more is needed for us to be justified with God.
There was apparently a time when the the Appendixes to Bullinger's Companion Bible were available as a separate book. I liked this idea and almost purchased the only used copy available, but I thought it would be nice to have my own book that I had copied out myself.
Now, I was not interested in scanning and text conversion, but using various Web sites I've found with HTML copies of the Appendixes, I will be creating a book that's just the Appendixes. I may also look at adding some of the pre-chapter notes to this book.
