Last year, after we ran the article,

Does the Bible Forbid Family Plan-

ning?, by Jeff Meyers in the November
issue, we heard from several people
who objected to Jeffs approach, for one
reason or another. That some people
might disagree with us is understand-
able, but we could not understand the
point of objection expressed by several
of those who responded. It was clear
from their reactions that they under-
stood Mr. Meyers to be arguing the ad-
vantages and, indeed, a predilection,
toward small families. Nothing could
be further from the truth. I do not be-
lieve Mr. Meyers said anything to
indicate he believes small families are,
generally, to be preferred, much less
that he was trying to convince his read-
ers of such a preference.
The bottom line issue on this sub-
ject, as set forth by Jeff Meyers, in
response to the view of Mary Pride in
her book, The Way Home, is simply,
as expressed in the article's title, Does
the Bible forbid family planning? Mary
Pride seems clearly to believe that the
Bible does forbid any form of family
planning. In her view a married couple
should do nothing to either limit or
increase the number of children they
should have. Our view, as expressed in
Jeff Meyers article, is that we do not
find, from the Bible, a prohibition for
the Christian couple to exercise some
degree of family planning. We should
point out, however, that we do fmd in
God's Word a preference for large fami-
lies. Indeed, the Bible is clear that child-
ren are a blessing from the Lord.
I do not believe that Mr. Meyers
holds to a preference for small families,
nor that his article indicated such a
view, and we here at Chalcedon certain-
ly do not hold that view. As evidence of
this I have included, in this issue, an
article by Joe Morecraft, which was
first printed in The Counsel of Chalce-
Editor's Desk
don nearly a decade ago, entitled, Tht .
Bible on Large Fami/Us. That
article begins on page 9.
Beginning on page 11 of this issue,
the reader will find a review of Kenneth
L. Gentry, Jr.'s most recent book. TM
Beast of Revelation. This is an irnpor-
tant book. as it deals not only with the .
question of who the Beast is [was], but
it also deals with the dating of the book
of Revelation. This is a crucial question
which bears directly on the meaning of
what God has revealed in the book of
Revelation. Did the prophecies in Reve-
lation take place in the first century, or
at some time during the last 20 cen-
turies, or will they happen yet in the
future? These questions are addressed in
this book.
This review of Gentry's new book
was prepared, at our request, by Mr.
Martin G. Selbrede of Thousand Oaks,
California. This review is rather
lengthy, but I hope its length will not
discourage the reader from the benefits
which can only be known by reading it
in its entirety. When I first read the re- .
view I was convinced that Mr. Selbrede
did, indeed, need all of the space he used
in order to address all of the questions
which he felt needed to be addressed.
One of the pluses to the reader of this
review is the extraordinarily fine writ- .
ing style of the reviewer. In my
opinion we are dealing here with two of
the best writers, in terms of style, that
we have in the Reformed world today.
namely, Ken Gentry and Martin Sel-
brede. When you add to that the ex-
tensive knowledge they have of the sub-
jects of which they treat, you have a
great combination which can only lead
to greater understanding, and therefore
greater benefit, to their readers.
For the reader who is unfamiliar with
Mr. Selbrede, in addition to the bio-
. graphical statement on page 13, I would
add that he is the writer who convinced
Dr. Loraine Boettner of what he came
to consider the correct interpretation of
certain prophecies in the twentieth chap-
ter of Revelation, dealing, largely, with
the question of whether there will be a
brief time of apostasy just before the
Second Coming. So struck was Dr.
Boettner with Martin Selbrede's treat-
ment of this subject that he included
Selbrede's comments as a new last chap-
ter in the most recent edition of his
famous book. The Millennium.
I should perhaps say that, while I
found Mr. Selbrede's review most enjoy-
able, I do not think I would have under-
stood or enjoyed it as much if I had not
already read most of Ken Gentry's book.
I would suggest that, to obtain the max-
imum benefit from this review, one
should read the review, then obtain and
read Ken Gentry's book, and then read
the review again. In any case I believe
that both Ken Gentry's book and Martin
Selbrede's review must now be con-
sidered important contributions to the
literature on this crucial part of God's
revelation to His Church.
Ken Gentry, . having read a copy of
Selbrede's review which I sent to him,
has prepared a response in which he
deals with some of the questions raised
in the review. Selbrede's Review: An
Appreciative Reply, by Kenneth L.
Gentty, Jr. will, hopefully, be included
in our November issue.
The article, by Robert Michelson,
entitled, "From Russia with Glasnost,"
beginning on page 15, is particularly
t i ~ l e l y as this issue of The Counsel is
coming out close to the sixth anniver-
sary of the Soviet's shooting down of
the KAL 007 airliner and the subse-
quent death of our friend, Congressman
Larry McDonald, and 268 others.
Ken Gentry asked me to mention that
the obtuse meaning that may have
come across at the beginning of his
article on Adoption in the August-
, September issue of this magazine was
due, apparently, to some sort of com
puter glitch which appears to have left
something out between the first and
second sentences. ,Q
The Counsel of Chalcedon October, 1989 page 31