Most Helpful Customer Reviews
186 of 189 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent! And I am not even a Dispensationalist!, February 21, 2003
I have been admiring MacArthur for sometime. His passion for the Biblical truth still burns in him. His Study Bible is far better than all the other Study Bibles to date (including NIV Zondervan Study Bible and New Geneva Study Bible). Here are few reasons: 1. It has extensive study notes. This Study Bible has wealth of spiritual and Biblical information. It is practically a verse by verse expostional Study Bible. This alone merits high praise. 2. It has practical and devotional challenges. The study notes seem to have a goal in mind: holiness through knowledge of God. This particular element is clearly emphasized throughout the study notes. 3. It has useful addtional materials. Aside from maps, introduction and outline to each book of the Bible, it also contains very useful materials, such as: Topical Index, The Character of Genuine Saving Faith, etc.. They are very useful for both personal edification and teaching. NOTE: This Study Bible teaches premillennialism, pre-tribulational rapture, cessasionism and Reformed (in Soteriology). I am Pre-mill, post-trib, non-cessasionist, and Reformed. Despite these differences, I have found this Study Bible better than all others. I liked it so much, I bought it two more and gave them to my friends!
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104 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite Bible, February 2, 2004
This is a great study Bible. MacArthur presents a great deal of intelligent insights and background information, as well as outlining every chapter in the Bible. The outlines alone are worth the price of the Bible. His beginning-of-book summaries are the best I've seen, covering each book's author and date of writing, historical context, and even exegetical problems and theological issues.
About the New King James Version of the Bible: I started off as an NIV user (since that's the first Bible I ever really used). I had always felt the NKJV was sort of a crutch for people who couldn't understand the KJV but couldn't give up their King James forms. When I saw that MacArthur's study Bible was only available in the NKJV, that made me think again. Now I love this translation: it's both accurate and easy to read. I've read the evidence presented by King James Only advocates and, while I respect their sincerity, I am unconvinced that the NKJV is the Enemy's work.
For the reviewers who said that MacArthur only presents one point of view: isn't this what's expected? The whole purpose of a study Bible is that the author of that Bible's notes presents his understanding of Biblical passages, which you are then free to accept or reject (obviously, under wise council of other godly people and the control of the Holy Spirit). I have looked at many study Bibles, and they all do exactly that - Ryrie, Scofield, LaHaye, whoever. Does one expect LaHaye to provide evidence for preterism, or Ryrie for so-called "Lordship Salvation"? I am afraid that when other reviews say "he only presents one point of view" they really mean "he doesn't present MY point of view." Besides, in the beginning-of-book "theological issues" sections MacArthur at least deals with other points of view, something that most others don't do.
A perfect example is the reviewer who mentioned 1 Corinthians 14. Obviously this fellow doesn't agree with MacArthur. Might I hazard a guess that the reviewer is charismatic? MacArthur appears to be a cessationist. But the point is that a study Bible is not the place to cover the issues in detail: if the commentary is not to overwhelm the Biblical text in quantity, probably the best that can be accomplished is to give one point of view. My advice would be to get a good book that covers those types of issues in detail: Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology does a good job of that (while also taking a particular point of view, somewhat different from MacArthur's).
I should note that I am not a cessationist nor a dispensationalist myself. I believe Spiritual Gifts are for today and all history. But, unlike another reviewer, to say cessationism "borders on REAL heresy" is far beyond what can reasonably be concluded from Scripture. "Christianity" as taught by people such as Charles Capps and Frederick Price, yes: cessationalism, no.
In sum, if you're looking for a new Bible that you'll love for years to come, get the MacArthur Study Bible. Whether you agree with everything you read or not (I don't), you will find the notes well thought out and helpful.
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101 of 105 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Now Improved in Two Ways..., January 18, 2007
There are two main differences between the old and new NKJV MacArthur Bibles, and both are in the appendices:
(1) a CONCORDANCE (125 pages) is added, a glaring lack of the original MacArthur. So now the person who remembers a name or word but not the verse that includes it can look it up in the concordance and get the corresponding verse citation.
(2) the TOPICAL INDEX is rearranged for easy look-up. This is a huge improvement, because the previous MacArthur index was not at all user friendly, due to the hard-to-find way the topics were listed. Now the subtopics are classified under 10 clear theological concepts: The Holy Scriptures, God the Father, God the Son, and so on. To illustrate the improvement, previously there was a topic "Excellency and Glory of Christ," something I never would have thought to have looked for in those exact terms searching under "E," but now if I know I want to look up some attribute of Christ, I can just go to the "God the Son" section and search the subtopics there.
The Topical Index is now called Index to Key Bible Doctrines and is a bit shorter in length than before, and the order of appendix articles is changed, but other than that the Bible notes are the same as far as I can tell, which is mostly good, but in one way bad. My favorite of the retained features are three opening articles that are fantastic for new believers:
- Introduction to the Bible
- How We Got the Bible
- How to Study the Bible
What's not good is that MacArthur has not changed his explanatory notes to reflect his publicly announced change in position on the Eternal Sonship of Jesus, but with knowledge continues to misrepresent Jesus in that particular area. So though this Bible is "revised," if it's "updated" I'm not seeing it.
Of the various NKJV Study Bibles, this one's notes, book intros and outlines, and special features seem most doctrinally helpful. Other NKJV Study Bibles either are more applicationaly than doctrinally focused, skimpy in their notes, or indecisive, offering different interpretations even when the scripture is clear on a matter. Since John MacArthur and his team of Master's Seminary research scholars take well-supported doctrinal stances, the reader is protected from confusion and veering off into erroneous theology.
For those who know they want the MacArthur notes but are unsure of which of the two available translation options to get, consider both the pros and cons of the NASB vs NKJV and also visual appearance--that stylistically this revised NKJV has darker print and is without the annoying ornate touches of the NASB (no large shadowy letter "M"'s for ex). Regarding the translation, both choices are respected word-for-word ("literal equivalence") type translations, rather than thought-for-thought. Many would say the NASB is more accurate, particularly in Revelation, due to its reliance on older but more recently discovered original language manuscripts. But even if this is so, for some people this slight benefit does not outweigh the beauty of the NKJV, which still sounds much like the KJV minus the archaic language (though there are some more significant changes as well, such as "You shall not murder" instead of "Thou shalt not kill"). The NKJV does note when underlying translation manuscripts differ. The MacArthur Study Bible has the notes for serious students and has helpful introductory sections for the new believer. It also makes for a helpful reference tool.
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