Hi, Mike

This subject is close to my heart as I have endured heartache because of taunts by some in our society. I was born out of wedlock. Is there such a thing as an illegitimate child?

God bless,
M____

Hi M____,
You ask: “Is there such a thing as an illegitimate child?” The answer is Absolutely not! We are all born, “Not by the will of man, or by the will of the flesh, but by the will of God”.

Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Parents of children do commit “illegitimate” actions, but even those are the “working of all things after the counsel of God’s own will”. So, yes, it is unscriptural to call anyone an illegitimate child. If anything is illegitimate, it is the action of the parents, and even those are caused by God. Here is how Joseph explained this doctrine to his brothers:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph’s brothers committed a terrible sin against Joseph by selling him as a slave into Egypt. But while Joseph twice causes them to give an accounting of that event, he does not hold them accountable or responsible for what they did. Instead he tells them and you and I that it was not them, but God who sent Joseph as a slave into Egypt.
Paul teaches us the exact same doctrine:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, i t is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

This is not “passing the buck”; it is simply telling the Truth that it is God who “creates evil… in the city”, and it is God who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [ you and me] for the day of evil [ within each of us].

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

So the sin of having you out of wedlock was not your parents’ doing any more than Paul’s sins were his or Joseph’s brothers’ sins were theirs. They will give an accounting, but they will not be held accountable or responsible for what God had written in their book before they were ever born.

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.(ASV)

I hope this helps you to see that God is “working all things together [ as only He can] for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose.”

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I hope you are granted to understand that “all things work together for good” includes the circumstances of your birth out of wedlock”. It gives you and opportunity for understanding for those you will meet that came into this world in the same circumstances. What comfort you will be able to pass on to them!
Your brother in Christ,
Mike