Conception Control: Avoiding Antinomianism and Legalism

by Phillip G. Kayser

Is conception control part of the Dominion Mandate? If so, are there limits to man’s dominion? In what ways did the Fall impact the conception portion of the Dominion Mandate? In what ways does Redemption impact conception? May a couple seek medical help in order to conceive? Are there limits to what medicine can ethically achieve in conception? Are there sexual practices within marriage that the Bible prohibits? How does one’s view of conception control and birth control impact other areas of life?

Genres: Theology, Marriage, Nonfiction, Family, Christian Living

214 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 29, 2021

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a fantastic read! Dr. Kayser gives an excellent biblical defense of the Biblically Limited Conception Control position all while graciously yet decidedly answering some bad theology from the No Conception Control crowd and the Antinomian Birth Control crowd. This is more than a book about sex and having babies, it's a look into scriptural principles for the blessed and wonderful purpose of sex (it's good!), reasons for having children and how many, a look into ancient Jewish practices for Conception Control, and some much needed critique and correction of church fathers erroneous teachings on sex, as well as a scientific look on various means of Conception Control and birth control. It's hard to believe this little book contains so much, it's full of biblical reasoning, as the author points out Christians must look to the Word of God as the authority for every area of life, even the enjoyment or sex apart from Conception and for Conception. If you are married I highly highly recommend you read this. If you are single and mature this is definitely a good read to consider before getting married, as I believe the implications of Conception Control are much farther reaching than you may think. If you want a godly, mature, gracious look at this subject Dr. Kayser is the one to read.

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phil Kayser is great. Seriously.

The Bible calls children a blessing. But does that mean man may never exercise any kind of care (or, ahem, dominion) over reproduction? This is mainly a corrective, and a really good, gracious, Biblical one, for the extreme reaches of the "quiverfull" movement. Very careful and closely reasoned.

Read it online here.

[Ben Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable and also understandable. Kayser takes a balanced approach to birth control and expands upon many topics including IUDs, the Pill, and various birth control methods in the Bible. He also does a remarkable job of critiquing the Antinomian Birth Control (ABC) crowd and the No Birth Control Crowd.

Well written book. I will add this to my Pre-Marital Section

[McKayla Driedger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to any married couple to read together! It covers everything you could think of from the negative long term effects that occurs to a woman who takes the birth control pill to an in depth look at why the spilling of Onan’s seed was a sin. Me and my husband have finally settled on our perspective of conception control after almost 7 years of being married because of the research displayed in this book and we are very thankful to have read it!

[Savannah Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly, highly recommend. I wish I had had this book when I first got married! The author does a great job of presenting multiple views on birth control fairly and then giving Biblical arguments for and against each. It was a very fair, very solid approach to such a sensitive topic.

[Stephen Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great presentation of the different positions on this issue, with clear arguments for why Dr. Kayser holds to his beliefs. His logic was fairly easy to understand throughout the book.

[Dorothy Vandezande · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I really appreciated some of the things the author brought out in his exposition of Scripture. I fully agree with what he has to say about the curse and conception, and his perspective on dominion over Creation was well defended and reasonable. However, the book itself is not well-written overall. He spent much less time covering some things that I deemed important and central to the theme of the book, than he did some things that were quite far-fetched and completely irrelevant to the topic at hand. I would cautiously recommend this to anyone who wants to seriously dig in to what the Bible has to say about the topic of birth control--God has more to say about it in His Word than many Christians believe, and He also offers more freedom in this area than some Christians will acknowledge.

[Ginny Goss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped me think through a lot of questions I’d had regarding what the Bible has to say about controlling the number of kids you have and biblical/non-biblical ways of going about that. The author was super thorough and very even-handed. Really good food for thought and lots of Biblical evidence to backup his points.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very niche 😅but worthwhile look at what the Bible says about children, controlling family size, and what it means to take dominion. (The best part of the book was on taking dominion imo). A lot in here I didn’t need or had never even considered but I have seen some of the beliefs he addresses in the extreme quiver-full movement.

[Katie Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Christian should read this book. In an age where abortion pills are a click away and everyone (including Christians) is putting off having children, Kayser condemns our disobedience and encourages wisdom in the liberty of Christ.

[Joshua Horn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This could be a quite helpful book for a very specific group of people - those who think that conception control is generally wrong, but are trying to figure out if there are exceptions. It is addressed to a bit wider audience than that, but I don't think he discussed the issues with contraception in general very thoroughly. For the right audience I think it could be very helpful. He gets into a lot of detailed arguments. Some of them get confusing, but I think they are valuable as there's not a lot of resources that talk about this topic to this level.

Some of his arguments I thought were very strong, some were ones that I'd never heard of before, but I'm not sure about, others seemed quite weak. You can decide for yourself.

One small stylistic note, I thought of myself as someone who liked long footnotes - this book made me question that. I think it might be a little overdone here.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some interesting points made, but this pamphlet just isn't very persuasive overall.

The author spends most of his time refuting "hyper-fundamentalist" arguments. It's just one reductio ad absurdum against an absolutist position after another.

In addition, his assumptions are questionable and he doesn't demonstrate them, he just asserts them. For example, he basically denies natural revelation entirely, which is not what sola scriptura means. This means that he's left cherrypicking a lot of Bible verses that don't directly relate to the issue.

Overall, this is an argument against the most extreme positions on this issue, and so it doesn't really address the more persuasive arguments that specifically apply to artificial methods and don't make consequentialist assumptions.

[Lindsey Stomberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is a great resource for educating Christians how to look at this topic through a biblical lens. Churches and Christian leaders are failing on this front. I didn’t agree with all of his interpretations of Scripture in this book, but I’m thankful I read it and will recommend to others. I learned a lot and it did help me to think more deeply about some matters which I had never thought of before.

[Beth Fluty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biblical approach to what reasonable “family planning” might look like in submission to God’s sovereignty. I liked seeing the three views of No Conception Control, Antinomian Birth Control, and Biblically Limited Conception Control compared. In a family where we already have some conviction on this topic it is helpful for me to see this intersection of biblical commentary and modern scientific studies to help navigate the world of modern “birth control”

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers a very balanced perspective on how much control we can exercise when it comes to procreation. I learned a good deal. Have as many children as you are lead to have. Apply biblical wisdom to the number of children to have. For example, can you afford them? Can you teach and discipline all of them in the love and admonition of the lord?

[Ben Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable and also understandable. Kayser takes a balanced approach to birth control and expands upon many topics including IUDs, the Pill, and various birth control methods in the Bible. He also does a remarkable job of critiquing the Antinomian Birth Control (ABC) crowd and the No Birth Control Crowd.

Well written book. I will add this to my Pre-Marital Section

[Jeremiah Jasso · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Kayser attacks the topic with rigorous logic.

[Jamie Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good argument!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this exegetical and properly explained and so much scripture!

[Kaetlyn Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much time spent discussing the obvious "well, duh"s and not enough about what Christians should really be questioning and doing differently from the pagans.

[Amy Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Didn’t agree with everything, and there was plenty that I’d already heard. There were a few things however that were new and gave me something to think about.

[Carolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some information is repeated, but it's a very helpful book for Christian couples deciding how to family plan.