Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

22 March, 2006   comments: (0) Back To The Bible   Is The Bible The Only Book That You Should Read? Last week I posted a Martyn Lloyd Jones excerpt which suggested that Christians should study their bibles and read the best books available, to get knowledge that is as deep and profound as possible. He was responding to Christians who say, 'I am saved, and all is right with me; I am not interested in anything else. I am not a theologian, I do not want to read great books on theology'. An anonymous commenter followed-up with: "The only 'reading material' a Christian needs is the BIBLE. Everything else is man's words". If you have similar views, here's a look at the gold mine that you may be passing by. Someone else was right to suggest that, anyone with these views should realize that their own pastor's sermons are a type of commentary on the bible. So if they object to bible commentaries, as an example, then perhaps they should also object to their own pastor's words - since he is "merely a man". I posted on the topic of bible commentaries once before and included a quote from Bernard Ramm's book entitled "Protestant Biblical Interpretation". In a nutshell, he calls "I have no use for man's books" an attitude of veiled egotism. Of course, if you don't respect the books of man to begin with, then what Ramm has to say is probably a moot point since it's coming from a book, right? Oh well. Anyway, this time around, I thought I would include a commentary example, to help me demonstrate what Christians with this viewpoint are missing. I'm not trying to plug this particular commentary per se; the idea is simply to show the depth of biblical information that you would not extract, by reading the bible on your own: Psalm 37 David wrote this psalm in his old age. It deals with a perennial problem, one that has puzzled people throughout all the ages. How do we account for the fact that the lawless are often prosperous and the godly often face the greatest possible hardships? David probably had the book of Job before him as he pondered the problem. Job shows that there are factors in God's government which are unseen by men and that things come out right in the end. But the end is sometimes so long in coming - sometimes it doesn't seem to come at all in this life. Two other psalms wrestle with the same problem - Psalm 49 and 73, but each of them takes up the problem from a different point of view. Psalm 37 emphasizes the Psalmist's discernment. He sees the problem in the light of man's true worth. He is not concerned with lesser things, such as money, and the things money can evaluate. Psalm 73 emphasizes the Psalmist's doubts. For the problem remains. We read Sir Robert Anderson's classic The Silence of God and C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain, but the problem doesn't go away that easily. No wave of a wand, no matter how magic, can dissolve the problem: why does wickedness seemingly triumph and goodness so often go seemingly unrewarded? David tackles the problem in an interesting way. He writes an acrostic psalm. The acrostic itself is almost perfect, but not quite. Most of the letters in this acrostic are developed in four lines to each successive letter of the alphabet. However, the fourth letter (verse 7), the eleventh letter (verse 20), and the nineteenth letter (verse 34) have only three lines each. Those three triplets are in structural order. One marks the seventh verse from the beginning; one marks the seventh verse from the end; and one marks the verse in the middle. In three instances (verses 14-15, 25-26, and 39-40) the acrostic consists of five lines. The last letter (toph) is missing, which may be a hint that the perfect answer has not been given because we have not yet arrived at the perfect state. To make the acrostic complete it is necessary to avoid the last verse as it is recorded in some versions. ... -- John Phillips' commentary on the Psalms, for Psalm 37 Of course, we have to concede that bible commentaries can be abused, and should not replace your own reasoning and prayerful reading of the bible. We also know that there is a sense in which even a child can glean a great deal from reading the bible alone. But all of that said, there are gold mines of information in the bible that you would likely never figure out on your own, with the above Psalm-excerpt being just one example. So if you want a deep and thorough understanding of the bible, get some good bible commentaries and reference books. I have listed some of my recommendations in the right column of OldTruth's homepage, under the heading of "bible software". There are some bad (even heretical) products out there, so be careful what you buy. Be sure to use several different commentaries, so that you don't rely too heavily on the opinions of any one commentator. For critical books like Romans and the Gospels, you may even want to have a half-dozen different commentaries. Lastly, be sure that you don't buy only the commentaries of modern authors. Instead, consider a mix of both old and new authors. More on The Importance of Books: Martyn Lloyd Jones' on the importance of theology books Read "No Use For Bible Commentaries" Al Mohler's thoughts on the reading of books Recommended Reading: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4 Spurgeon's advice on reading and his commentary recommendations Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.229   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism