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« on: September 02, 2014, 06:22:40 am »

Bible Commentaries

This is from an email...

Updated and enlarged September 2, 2014
first published June 16, 2004

__________

Two common problems in using commentaries:


1. Leaning on them too much.


The Bible student should go to the Bible and dig it out for himself. For this, he must get a good understanding of how to interpret the Bible.


2. Despising them.


On several occasions I have heard people condemn commentaries. When I was a young Christian, I determined to read and study the Bible alone and to forgo consulting any commentaries or other extra-biblical sources. I did this religiously for a few weeks, and I can testify that the Lord made it plain to me that I need help from men and that He was not going to give me everything by direct enlightenment. It is not that the Bible is weak or insufficient; it is that I am only one weak man and can’t possibly know and understand everything without help. When I rejected the use of commentaries, I was left with my own meager resources. And though I have some gifts in understanding and teaching the Bible, I am at best only a very puny man with very limited ideas. Any man who is honest before God will acknowledge that most of his knowledge and understanding was gleaned from other men. God has ordained this. That is why we start life as a child and are dependent upon parents and tutors, and even as we grow older we remain very dependent upon the help of others.


This is why I believe in good commentaries. If I were shut up on a remote island with only the Bible, I am sure the Lord would give me everything I needed directly through His Word, but that is not His normal way of operation. He has given ministry-gifted men to the churches, and He uses them to edify the saints (Ephesians 4:11-14; 2 Tim. 2:2). I praise the Lord that some of the excellent teaching of past and present generations has been captured in print so I can possess it and consult it whenever I please. Such material is priceless.


Some preachers seem to be afraid of books. I once heard a preacher say, “We don’t need more books; we need more preaching.” Yet a good Christian book is simply good preaching. While it is true that there are many heretical books available in the average Christian bookstore (we have warned about that in our video presentation and free eBook “Dangers in Christian Bookstores”), it is not true that books themselves are wrong. God wrote a book! In Psalm 45:1, He said, “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” Indeed, God has a powerful pen, and what a Book He wrote! The apostles communicated with the churches and individual believers through writing, and if they had possessed printing presses, I have no doubt that they would have used them. Men of God through the centuries have valued the written and printed page. Charles Spurgeon advised the preachers in his Bible college to “sell your shirt and buy books.” Recently the History Channel made a survey of a wide range of knowledgeable people in various fields on the most important invention of history, and the majority picked the printing press.


Charles Spurgeon did not have a lot of patience with preachers who despise commentaries. He addressed the following statement to his Bible School students:


“Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have laboured before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others. My chat this afternoon is not for these great originals, but for you who are content to learn of holy men, taught of God, and mighty in the Scriptures. It has been the fashion of late years to speak against the use of commentaries. If there were any fear that the expositions of Matthew Henry, Gill, Scott, and others, would be exalted into Christian Targums, we would join the chorus of objectors, but the existence or approach of such a danger we do not suspect. The temptations of our times lie rather in empty pretensions to novelty of sentiment, than in a slavish following of accepted guides. A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of the giants of the past, might have saved many an erratic thinker from wild interpretations and outrageous inferences. Usually, we have found the despisers of commentaries to be men who have no sort of acquaintance with them; in their case, it is the opposite of familiarity which has bred contempt” (Spurgeon, Two Lectures Addressed to the Students of the Pastor’s College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, http://www.book-academy.co.uk/lectures/index.html).


SOME TIPS FOR USING COMMENTARIES EFFECTIVELY


1. Commentaries must be judged carefully by the Scriptures (Acts 17:11; 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:21).


No commentator is infallible. The wise Bible student will carefully test everything the commentator says by comparing it to Scripture itself. Beware of the presumption of commentators who try to add to the Word of God.


a. For example, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown comments on Genesis 4:3 “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD,” as follows: “Hebrew, ‘at the end of days,’ probably on the Sabbath.” In fact, there is nothing in the Hebrew to signify that it was the sabbath, and the KJV translation is perfectly fine.


b. In 1 Corinthians 1:16, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown comments: “It is likely that such ‘households’ included infants (Ac 16:33). The history of the Church favors this view, as infant baptism was the usage from the earliest ages.” In fact, this is unscriptural nonsense. Though Paul baptized “the household of Stephanas” (1 Cor. 1:16), there is no mention of infants. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16:15 we are told that this household addicted themselves to the ministry. This could not be said of infants. It is not legitimate to build doctrine on the silence of Scripture. Doctrine can only be established legitimately upon a clear “thus saith the Lord.” And what did the Lord Jesus teach: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mk. 16:16). It is obvious that an infant is incapable of believing on Christ as his Lord and Saviour and is not therefore a proper candidate for baptism.


c. In his commentary on Noah’s flood, Matthew Henry claims that Noah sent out the raven and dove on the sabbath. He says, “This intimates that it was done on the sabbath day, which, it should seem, Noah religiously observed in the ark.” In fact, Henry, one of my favorite commentators, was letting his imagination run wild, for there is not even a hint of such a thing in Scripture.


These are examples of presumption on the part of the commentator.


2. The Bible student should know the theological position of the commentator.


It is important to know the theological position of the commentator, as this will usually be reflected in his notes.


For example, Adam Clarke, a Methodist, inserts infant baptism into his commentary on Matthew 28:19, even though there is no mention of such a thing in the Scripture: “But, certainly, no argument can be drawn from this concession against the baptism of children. When the Gentiles and Jews had received the faith and blessings of the gospel, it is natural enough to suppose they should wish to get their children incorporated with the visible Church of Christ; especially if, as many pious and learned men have believed, baptism succeeded to circumcision, which I think has never yet been disproved” (Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible).


Along this line, most of the most widely-used commentaries are written from an a-millennial perspective. This is true of Matthew Henry, Jamieson, Fausset-Brown, John Wesley, John Calvin, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, Abbott, Matthew Poole, and John Gill.


We have published many Pre-tribulational commentaries in the Treasury of Rare Dispensational Commentaries, available as part of the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library (www.wayoflife.org).


SOME HELPFUL ONE-VOLUME BIBLE COMMENTARIES


BIBLE KNOWLEDGE COMMENTARY. This practical and helpful commentary on the Old and New Testaments was written by professors at Dallas Theological Seminary. It was edited by John Walvoord (1910-2002) and Roy Zuck. We are sorry that this commentary is based on the New International Version, but apart from the textual problems the comments are generally helpful.


THE CONCISE BIBLE COMMENTARY by James M. Gray (1851-1935). This is a Bible survey. Gray was a pastor in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a hymn writer, the third president of Moody Bible Institute (1904-34), and the editor of Moody Monthly. Gray was raised in the Episcopal Church but had a conversion experience in about 1873 while reading studies on the book of Proverbs by William Arnot. His testimony later appeared in his hymn, “Only a Sinner, Saved by Grace.” That year Gray left the Episcopal Church over theological liberalism and the Romanizing Tractarian movement and joined the new Reformed Episcopal denomination founded by George Cummins. He pastored the Reformed Episcopal Church in Boston for 16 years and joined Adoniram Judson Gordon in founding the Boston Bible and Missionary Training School, which later became Gordon Divinity School. He taught there from 1889 to 1904. Gray was very evangelistic, helping establish three new churches and working with D.L. Moody in campaigns in New York, Boston, and Chicago. Gray identified himself with the fundamentalist movement and was a dispensationalist. He was one of the editors of the first edition of the Scofield Reference Bible. The Torrey-Gray Auditorium at Moody Bible Institute was named in honor of Gray and his predecessor, and R.A. Torrey.


EXPLORE THE BOOK by J. (James) Sidlow Baxter (1903-1999). This is a Bible survey course. Baxter was born in Sydney, Australia, but grew up in Lancashire, England. His father was unfaithful to his mother, and she left him in Australia and returned to England with her three small children when James was only two. His mother was loving and godly and raised her children in the ways of Christ. She was a police court missionary, working with down-and-out sinners in jails, rescue missions, and slums. She taught the people about Christ and believed the only hope for such individuals is Christ’s life-changing power and not social welfare and reform. She taught her children moral and spiritual lessons from her work, warning them about the danger of liquor and illicit sex, encouraging them to trust Christ as some of her “ruined people” had done. Once she knocked on a door and a rough man answered whose legs had been amputated above the knees from a recent accident. When he took the tract she offered, he glanced at it and with quivering lips asked, “Missis, did you pick this one specially for me?” The title was “Not a Leg to Stand Upon!” and he trusted Christ as his Saviour! When James Baxter was five years old and dying of measles and meningitis, his mother prayed earnestly that he would live and become a preacher. The doctor had said the boy would not survive until morning, but the mother’s prayers were answered, and the doctor declared it a miracle. As a teenager he continued to attend church out of respect for his mother, but he was handsome and athletic and popular and had no real interest in Christ. At age 16 he was converted after reading a sermon on Charles Spurgeon and attending an evangelistic meeting. He became a Baptist and attended Spurgeon’s College in London and pastored in England and Scotland. “He authored twenty-six books and ministered in churches, Bible conferences, and missionary centers throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and around the world.” Baxter shows Christ through the Scriptures. He is dispensational. He defends the infallibility of the Scriptures against modernism (defending Genesis 1-11 as literal, Mosaic authorship of Pentateuch, Jonah swallowed by whale, etc.). His article “Our Bible: The Most Critical Issue” defended the infallibility of the Scriptures: “I have said it many a time, and am surer of it than ever, that the life and death issue of Christianity is the inspiration and authority of the Bible.” He spends considerable time on the typology of the Old Testament. In his notes on Revelation, he hints at the possibility of a mid-tribulation Rapture, but he is not dogmatic on it and passes over it quickly. He treats the first part of the book of Acts as a renewed offer of the kingdom of God to Israel, which we strongly disagree with. He presents a type of gap theory between Genesis 1:1-2, which we also disagree with. He also wrongly treats Ezekiel’s vision of the Millennial Temple as at least semi-allegorical. Originally this was a six-volume work. In 1960, Zondervan published a one-volume condensation.


EXPOSITORY OUTLINES ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT by Warren Wiersbe (b. 1929). Though Dr. Wiersbe is sadly committed to the New Evangelical philosophy, he is a gifted Bible commentator. His chapter-by-chapter Expository Outlines was completed decades ago when he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky (1961-1971). That was before he became so thoroughly committed to the New Evangelical path he walks today (as pastor of Moody Church, associate editor of Christianity Today, working with Youth for Christ, board member of the National Religious Broadcasters, preaching at Willow Creek Community Church and at Billy Graham’s “Cove” center in North Carolina, etc.). The edition of Wiersbe’s notes published by Thomas Nelson is titled Bible Commentary New Testament and Bible Commentary Old Testament. The Cook Communications edition is titled Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old and New Testaments. Wiersbe’s Outlines are available for some Bible software packages, such as Olive Tree. Wiersbe takes the position that the kingdom was offered again to Israel in the early part of the book of Acts, but we do not agree with this.


GUIDE TO THE BIBLE by Harold L. Willmington (b. 1932). This volume contains the heart of the Bible school course developed in the early 1970s by Willmington for Jerry Falwell’s correspondence school. As for 2012, Willmington was still at Liberty University. We do not recommend this school, and it is sad to see men who should know better aligned with that type of compromise (hosting a Promise Keepers conference, promoting Billy Graham and his ecumenical evangelism, promoting the most radical charismatic ministries such as The Rock Church in Virginia Beach, promoting Christian rock, etc.). In his Guide to the Bible, which was first published in 1981, Willmington warned about “Christ-dishonoring methods used by some” and among these he listed “rock-and-roll sessions” (p. 50). Yet today he countenances this type of carnal methodology at Liberty and at churches associated with Liberty. Be that as it may, Willmington’s Guide to the Bible is a helpful volume. It is divided into two major sections: A chapter-by-chapter commentary on or survey of the entire Bible, and a section on Bible doctrine. The doctrinal studies are thorough and practical (though I have not gone through them carefully enough to note my disagreements).


HALLEY’S BIBLE HANDBOOK by Henry Hampton Halley (1874-1965). He was a pastor and Bible lecturer who was ordained in 1898. Halley memorized entire books of the Bible and frequently quoted these in churches. He desired to see every Christian read the Bible daily, systematically, and fruitfully, and that is why he produced his Bible handbook. The first edition was a 16-page booklet, but it continued to grow until today it is 864 pages. It has gone through 24 editions. More than five million copies have been sold in many languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Thai, Russian, Greek, Tagalog, Cebuano, Indonesian, and Romanian. It contains a wide variety of helps in addition to the survey on the Old and New Testaments. These include maps and charts; archaeological notes; tables of weights, measures, and money; outline of Bible history; and comments on reading and memorizing the Bible. Halley approached Bible prophecy from a non-committal position, presenting the literal interpretation as well as other interpretations, but he leaned toward the non-literal.


THE UNFOLDING DRAMA OF REDEMPTION by W. Graham Scroggie (1877-1958). Scroggie was educated at Spurgeon’s Pastors’ College in London and at the University of Edinburgh (D.D.). To his credit he was forced to leave two pastorates because of his opposition to theological modernism. He had a wide-ranging itinerant ministry throughout the English-speaking world and spent his final years as lecturer in English Bible at the Pastors’ College. His survey of the Bible was first published in three volumes. It has since been made available in a one-volume edition. Scroggie traces the theme of redemption through the Bible, showing how each book and segment of the Bible fits into the whole. The commentary is concise but rich in thought. As with many of the other commentators listed here, Scroggie was off base on Bible prophecy. His approach to Revelation, for example, is half-way between the literal and the allegorical approach. In my opinion, he ends up with little of profit from either system. He says, “If one makes a creed of literalism he may miss the enriching power of larger views.” To the contrary, if one does not interpret Bible prophecy literally he has no firm basis by which to interpret it. William Tyndale was the translator of the first English Bible from the Greek and Hebrew in the early 1500s and was put to death by Rome for his noble work. He said: “Thou shalt understand, therefore, that the Scripture hath but one sense, which is the literal sense. And that literal sense is the root and ground of all, and the anchor that never faileth whereunto if thou cleave, thou canst never err or go out of the way. And if thou leave the literal sense, thou canst not but go out of the way. Neverthelater, the Scripture useth proverbs, similitudes, riddles, or allegories, as all other speeches do; but that which the proverbs, similitude, riddle, or allegory signifieth, is over the literal sense, which thou must seek out diligently…” (William Tyndale, cited by Charles Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, pp. 456-57).


UNGER’S COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT by Merrill F. Unger (1909-80). Unger was professor of Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary for many years and his commentary on the Old Testament is packed with helpful comments. One reviewer said, “The book will be most appreciated by those searching for a true grace-oriented scholar who glorifies the Lord, not himself, in his writings. Words cannot describe how inspirational this work is. Unger’s pedigree is outstanding, his scholarship supreme and his style easy-going and understandable.” It was published in two volumes by Moody Press in 1981 but was out of print by the 1990s. A one-volume edition was printed by AMG Publishers in 2002.


UNGER’S BIBLE HANDBOOK by Merrill F. Unger (1909-80). One reviewer said: “The New Unger’s Bible Handbook is not a random collection of miscellaneous facts. It is carefully organized to form a commentary on God’s Word, with an introduction, outline, and discussion of each book and its relationship to the complete biblical revelation. It gives a comprehensive yet concise introduction to the Bible, including its historical and archaeological background. It provides a history of the formation and preservation of the Bible, an outline of the intertestamental period, pertinent statistics, a synopsis of church history, and a survey of other religions.”


SOME HELPFUL LARGER COMMENTARIES


THE ANNOTATED BIBLE by Arno Clemens Gaebelein (1861-1945), a fundamentalist Methodist, is a helpful commentary series that was published in nine volumes in 1913 by Van Kempen Press of Wheaton, Illinois. It is dispensational, and we have found many of the comments to be thoughtful and helpful. The Annotated Bible is available electronically in the Treasury of Rare Dispensational Commentaries which is part of the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library available from Way of Life Literature.


COMMENTARY ON THE HOLY BIBLE by Matthew Poole (1624-1679). Poole was a Puritan. “He graduated from Emmanuel College in Cambridge in 1645, and succeeded the great Anthony Tuckney at St. Michael-le-Querne church. This was the only pastorate Poole would hold. A strict Presbyterian, he resigned his living rather than conform to the Act of Uniformity.” His commentary, which was originally called a “Synopsis,” required 10 years of earnest labor. He awoke at 3 or 4 a.m. and studied and wrote until the afternoon. His work was first written in Latin, and its translation into English was finished after his death. Poole’s commentaries are not as extensive as that of Matthew Henry, but the tone and approach is similar. It is a helpful, concise commentary on the entire Bible. Poole’s commentary was originally published in 1685, not long after the completion of the King James Bible. He ransacked the commentary material of his day, incorporating the best of it into his work. A lot of thought is packed into the concise language of this commentary. Charles Spurgeon wrote, “... having read Matthew Henry as I have, I would rather have none other commentary beside that of Matthew Poole.”


EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS by John Gill (1697-1771). Gill was a renowned British biblical scholar and Baptist pastor. For over 50 years he pastored the Particular Baptist Church of Horselydown, Southwark, London, the church that later moved its location and became known as the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle of Charles Haddon Spurgeon fame. His knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew was equal to that of the greatest scholars of his day, and he diligently searched out and studied ancient materials relating to the Bible. The Baptist Encyclopedia observes that “no man in the eighteenth century was as well versed in the literature and customs of the ancient Jews as John Gill.” Spurgeon ranked Gill fifth among all commentators of the whole Bible and stated, “He is always worth consulting. ... for good, sound, massive, sober sense in commenting, who can excel Gill?” Personally, we overlook Gill’s complete capitulation to the most extreme TULIP Calvinism and glean from the riches of knowledge he passed on via his commentaries. 


EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS by Matthew Henry (1662-1714). This set of early 18th-century commentaries (first published in part in 1708-10) remains one of the most helpful in print, in my estimation. In some areas we disagree with Matthew Henry’s doctrinal position (e.g., his allegorical interpretation of prophecy and his Protestant universal church), but rarely do we regret having consulted him. Henry, a nonconformist Presbyterian pastor, was a master of biblical languages and a diligent Bible student who ransacked the old commentary material of his day to pass the meat along to us. He had a lovely gift for organizing and expressing his thoughts. He died before completing the full commentary, having finished his work only through the book of Acts. The New Testament commentary from Romans to Revelation was completed by 14 other preachers of that day, all dissenters from the Church of England. We agree with Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon’s assessment of Matthew Henry: “You will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies, overflowing with illustrations, superabundant in reflections. Every minister ought to read Matthew Henry entirely and carefully through once at least. You will acquire a vast store of sermons if you read with your note-book close at hand; and as for thoughts, they will swarm around you like twittering swallows around an old gable towards the close of autumn.” Spurgeon notes that George Whitefield read Matthew Henry through four times during his life. All of this reminds us that men of God used to study the Bible much more than they do now.


AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE by Benajah Harvey Carroll (1843-1914). This 13-volume set of commentaries on the entire Bible by the famous Baptist preacher B.H. Carroll was edited and published by J.B. Carnfill between the years 1913-16. Carnfill, who was associated with Carroll for many years and who taught Bible for more than 30 years at the seminary level, said that Carroll was “one of the greatest Bible scholars and exegetes living in the world today.” The Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary says Carroll “was a powerful preacher, keen debater, ready writer, widely-read historian.” Carroll pastored the First Baptist Church of Waco, Texas, from 1871 to 1899. In 1894, he became the principal of the Bible department at Baylor University and was professor of English Bible there from 1901 to 1910. He was influential in creating the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1910 and was president of Southwestern until his death in 1914. He published 33 books, including a volume on Baptist Doctrine and many influential pamphlets on such topics as “Communion from a Bible Standpoint” and “The Modern Social Dance.” Calvary Publications in Fort Worth, Texas still carries 200 of Carroll’s sermons in booklet format. An Interpretation of the English Bible is long out of print and is rare. Sadly, Carroll approached Bible prophecy from the allegorical perspective.


IRONSIDE COMMENTARIES by Henry A. Ironside (1878-1951). These commentaries are devotional, practical, and Christ-centered. Ironside worked with the Salvation Army in his early Christian years, and he earnestly sought the “entire sanctification” experience promoted by the Army and the Methodists of that day. It was the turn of the century and a “holiness” fervor was sweeping across North America. The problem was that it was a false view of holiness that promised various degrees of sinless perfection. From this fervor, the Pentecostal movement arose in the early part of the 20th century. Ironside became so discouraged by his failure to achieve an experience of sinlessness that he ended up in a hospital with an emotional and physical breakdown. There God began to teach him the truth of biblical justification and sanctification through some literature that he found, and he was led out of the confusion and doctrinal error of the holiness movement. He joined the Plymouth Brethren and conducted a long and fruitful ministry as a pastor and Bible teacher. His experiences were recorded in the book Holiness: The False and the True. I have found Ironside to be especially helpful in the Old Testament prophets. Ironside held a literal pre-millennial, pre-tribulational approach to Bible prophecy in contrast to most of the well-known commentators. The Ironside Commentaries are available electronically in the Treasury of Rare Dispensational Commentaries which is part of the the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library available from Way of Life Literature.


JAMIESON-FAUSSET-BROWN COMPLETE COMMENTARY by Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Robert Fausset (1821-1910), and David Brown. First published in 1871, this three-volume set is frequently critical to the Greek Received Text and the King James Bible, but it contains many helpful thoughts. Spurgeon said: “We consult it continually, and with growing interest. It contains so great a variety of information that if a man had no other exposition he would find himself at no great loss if he possessed this and used it diligently.” It must also be noted that the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary is prejudiced against a fundamentalist position on doctrine and biblical separation. For example, in Romans 14 this commentary warns against “setting up narrow standards of Christian fellowship” and claims that we should overlook “lesser differences.” In fact, Romans 14 is only referring to matters on which the Bible is silent and is not talking about doctrine that is based on Scripture. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary also teaches that the believer can lose his salvation in 1 Corinthians 3:17.


KELLY (WILLIAM) COMMENTARIES (1821-1906) were published on most books of the Bible in the late 1800s and republished in the first half of the 20th century. Kelly was born in Ireland and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He was converted at age 20 and joined the Plymouth Brethren and became one of their most able preachers. He wrote boldly against a wide variety of errors, including Popery. One of his last statements was this: “There are three things real -- the Cross, the enmity of the world, and the love of God.” The commentaries are dispensational and fundamentalist, and we have found many of the comments to be thoughtful and helpful. The Kelly commentaries are available electronically in the Treasury of Rare Dispensational Commentaries which is part of the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library available from Way of Life Literature.


NOTES ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT by Albert Barnes (1798-1870), Frederic C. Cook (1810-1889), and James Murphy. There are 14 volumes in this invaluable set of commentaries. Barnes was a Presbyterian preacher and Bible expositor. He was brought to trial in 1835 for his rejection of the unscriptural doctrine of limited atonement. He advocated total abstinence of alcoholic beverages, was a soul winner, and promoted Sunday Schools.


THE NUMERICAL BIBLE by Frederick William Grant (1834-1902) was first published the late 1800s. It is dispensational and fundamentalist, and we have found many of the comments to be thoughtful and helpful. Grant was a Brethren preacher who was born in England but ministered in Canada and the United States beginning at age 21. Like the Brethren in general and John Darby in particular, Grant accepted the critical Greek text and corrected the King James Bible. Not long before his death he pointed to the Bible and exclaimed to a friend: “Oh, the Book, the Book, the BOOK!” The Numerical Bible is available electronically in the Treasury of Rare Dispensational Commentaries which is part of the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library available from Way of Life Literature.


JOHN PHILLIPS COMMENTARY SERIES. This series covers every book of the New Testament and 17 of the Old (Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). Written from a conservative, dispensational, Christ-centered viewpoint, the commentaries are practical and are filled with rich nuggets of spiritual truth. It is my favorite commentary series, and I only wish that Mr. Phillips could have completed all of the Old Testament books. At times he quoted unsound men such as C.S. Lewis, but the value of his commentaries far outweighs any problems. Born in Britain, Phillips served in the British Army in Palestine until the rebirth of Israel in 1948. After the war, he moved to Canada and later to the States where he obtained a Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary. He was assistant director of the Moody Correspondence School and also directed the Emmaus Correspondence School. Toward the end of his life he joined an independent Baptist church. He died in July 2010 at age 83.


SPURGEON’S EXPOSITORY ENCYCLOPEDIA by C.H. Spurgeon. This is the only collection of Spurgeon’s sermons classified by topic and alphabetically arranged. The 750 sermons are comprehensively indexed. There are also a number of other sets of Spurgeon’s sermons with indexes. Spurgeon has been called “the prince of preachers.” The main problem is his allegorical interpretation of prophecy, but he is always worth reading.


THRU THE BIBLE by J. Vernon McGee (1904-1988). This five-volume set contains the messages preached by the late J. Vernon McGee on his Thru the Bible radio broadcasts. Though I was saddened by McGee’s New Evangelical compromise in many areas, he always gladdened my heart with his warm, Christ-centered commentary on the Word of God. I particularly recommend his commentaries on the Old Testament prophets, because he maintained a literal pre-millennial, pre-tribulational approach in contrast to most of the well-known Bible commentators. It is not easy to find sound commentaries on the prophetic portions of Scripture.


UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE BY David Sorenson (2004). Dr. Sorenson labored on this project for over ten years. He is a third-generation fundamental Baptist preacher who in preparation for this work has read the Bible through over 200 times. He is a pastor, church planter, soul winner, church builder, and a widely-read author. Understanding the Bible was not written for scholars or academia but for pastors and Christian workers. Dr. Sorenson’s commentaries are conservative, practical, and dispensational. There is also an electronic edition of this available. Northstar Ministries 1820 West Morgan Street Duluth, MN 55811, 218-726-0209, davidsorenson@juno.com.
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« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2014, 07:40:16 am »

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Along this line, most of the most widely-used commentaries are written from an a-millennial perspective. This is true of Matthew Henry, Jamieson, Fausset-Brown, John Wesley, John Calvin, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, Abbott, Matthew Poole, and John Gill.

I have Henry's commentary - yes, he has the a-mill escatology perspective - pretty much his views on Daniel, Revelation, 2nd The 2(and other end times passages) do not make sense at all(ie-in Rev, he tries to over spiritualize and metaphorize the judgements, and places the 7th trumpet at around the time the RCC system started around the 6th century). Aside from this, the rest of his commentary was pretty solid.

Not trying to defend this particular group - but to be a bit fair, they grew up around the 1700's when Israel becoming a nation again was STILL a far aways off(so I can empathize with their unbelief at the time). I think if Henry had lived in the 1900's instead, he might have had a change of mind over this.

As for commentaries - I'm not a big fan of them, but at the same time the proper ones are OK to glean from. Let's not deceive ourselves into thinking we can just sit by ourselves and learn the bible from Genesis to Revelation all by ourselves(while spending the rest of our time living like hermits watching tv). Been there, done that - and can't tell you how many dead-ends I've run into. Even some of these videos on YT our good sources(not all of them, of course - but some of them like Bryan's, Jason Cooley's, Rick Jacoby's, Brian Moonan's, etc have been very good).
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