JOSEPH W. TKACH
PASTOR GENERAL

January 1988

Dear Friend:

Thank you for your recent inquiry.

You asked whether there is a scripture that states, "It is better for a man to spill his seed in the belly of a whore than to spill it on the ground."

There is no such statement anywhere in the Bible!

Possibly it is a corruption of the story mentioned in Genesis 38, beginning in verse 3: "And she (the wife of Judah) conceived and bare a son; and he called his name Er. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan. Lord; and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, THAT HE SPILLED IT ON THE GROUND, LEST THAT HE SHOULD GIVE SEED TO HIS BROTHER. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord (was evil in the eyes of the Eternal): wherefore he slew him also" (verses 3-10).

You will notice that the woman in the account was not a whore. She simply expected that the bachelor brother of her dead husband would give her a child to preserve the family inheritance as God had commanded (Deut. 25:5-10). God killed Onan because he disobeyed the command to father a child in his dead brother's name.

This ancient national statute was a part of the old covenant and is no longer applicable today.

Thank you for your interest. If we can be of further service, please let us know.

PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE DEPARTMENT