Originally Posted by Davidius

It still boggles my mind how intelligent Christians on this board could take a statement such as "It is God who opens and closes the womb" to mean that pregnancy is something that magically happens by an immediate action of God on an individual, one that is not at all tied to empirically observable and scientifically understandable natural processes, and that to circumvent it for a time is to defy God Himself. Yes, God opens and closes the womb. If you look at the way this language is used in the Old Testament, it clearly has reference to God making some women barren and allowing others to have the ability to conceive. It has nothing to do with the individual opportunities of conception for a healthy woman. It has nothing to do with "trusting God" in the area of family planning and provision. The fact of the matter is that we know how pregnancy works. God gives us children in the same way He gives us basically everything in life, through secondary causes, natural processes, and our own use of our talents, abilities, etc. The bible is absolutely silent on this question, and I am absolutely tired of this non-biblical, non-confessional (for those of you who are very concerned about this being a confessional board) issue being one for which some here are allowed to call others sinners.