A Review of, “The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God, What Honesty and Pain Taught Us About Faith, Family, and Forgiveness.”

June 27, 2015June 27, 2015 Bob SnyderLeave a comment

By Jep and Jessica Robertson, with Susy Flory

What can I say? I think the Robertson family is funny. I can’t help liking them. When I saw this book come up for review, I decided to read it, considering how much garbage is put out by Harper Collins. Harper Collins owns Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, and Westbow. Seriously, most of the books coming out of these publishers for Christian book stores are heretical, seeker sensitive, neo-liberal, drivel. That being said, this book was written by baptismal regeneration heretics. You could see them hint around a bit in the text of the book. Their beliefs seem orthodox, until you start understanding their take on baptism and regeneration.

Thankfully this book is not a work on theology. It is about their lives and in that area it was very informative, engaging, and entertaining. I read it very quickly and enjoyed getting to know how simple this couple is. Their unorthodox beliefs about baptismal regeneration aside, they seem like a couple of people who have had very similar struggles to many people you or I would know. Jep struggled with drugs when he was younger. He was molested by an older girl when he was a very young boy. This led to a pornography problem as an adult. Jesse struggled with self-esteem issues, was taken advantage of by an inappropriate older man who was her youth pastor, married him out of pressure, divorced within a year, and shamed. They share about how their relationship started, how their faith in God set their focus on Him instead of their own brokenness, and how they both came to believe in God.
If you’re a fan of the Duck Dynasty show, and would like to know more about the youngest brother, then read this book. It is a quick easy read, that will make you feel like you have known them for their entire lives. Don’t read this book for a theology lesson. The Church of Christ that they belong to needs to renounce baptismal regeneration.

cultural

No respect for the sanctity of marriage, family, or life.

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015 Bob SnyderLeave a comment

The way Satan has used liberal secularism to corrupt society.

Sin in the hearts of the spiritually dead and dark aligned with the will of their master have been at work in this world system for a long time. What we see here in America is nothing new, but it is new to us. During the sexual revolution in the 60’s and 70’s we saw rebellion against God in the form of sensual liberty come to fruition. It was fueled by men and women who desired sex without submission to God or commitment to a spouse. This of course lead to the popularization of the, “no fault divorce.” Some of the lawmakers meant well. They sought to fix a problem with corruption and lies used to get a favorable divorce. One of those lawmakers was Ronald Reagan, who later on referred to it as one of his biggest mistakes. Here is a link to an informative article about the development of divorce in America.

Whenever we think that we can get away with condoning a sin, culture wide, in the nation we are deceived. Look at the repercussions of divorce. It is obvious the damage it has done to our society since it has become an acceptable part of our culture. Then with it has come the alleged sexual liberation of women. This is a lie from Satan. Women have actually just tightened the bonds of their slave master. They have become even more oppressed by the enemy. His hatred for God and His creations is so palpable to the regenerated that we wonder why the world cannot see it. Of course we know that they are blind and dead in their sin. We do understand. We just find ourselves in awe of the depravity masquerading as freedom. Hasn’t that always been the method, inversion of the gospel, to make Satan the liberator? Satan in the garden questioned God’s word and ensured Adam and Eve that they would not die and that God didn’t want them to become like Him. He deceives us into thinking that we shouldn’t have to be subject to God and that we should do what we feel like doing.

After divorce came rampant sex outside of marriage otherwise known as adultery. Some of you might be saying, “Hold on there! Adultery is when you cheat on your spouse, not sex as a single person with other single people.” Well, you’d be wrong. If you read God’s word it is evident that marriage between one man and one woman is the only ordained and acceptable relationship in which to have sex. This is not a thing to be redefined by society. It is a command of God. Everyone who is having sex with someone they are not married to is an adulterer. Everyone who divorces their spouse for reasons other than adultery is an adulterer. Since society has made marriageless sex culturally acceptable. We can see the consequences in conjunction with divorce. There are millions of fatherless children, millions of single mothers, millions of deadbeat dads, and to deal with the consequences, or judgments from God, we don’t repent. Instead we make abortion culturally acceptable. That’s right, murder, infanticide, America’s best way to cut down the number of, “unwanted pregnancies.” Murder is murder no matter how you phrase it. As we experience judgment from God for our wickedness, we don’t repent. We just keep on piling on the punishment. Our national notion is, “Hey, now that we have progressed socially so much let’s progress some more. We have finally beaten those stupid, bigoted, cavemen. They are silenced now by anti-discrimination laws, so let’s get all of our agenda.”

Now we have the addition of the gay agenda and gender identity sin. Homosexuality is actually a judgment of God upon a nation. We have been given over to it because of our rebellion. America is under judgment right now. Things will get worse if as a nation we don’t come to God in repentance. People will be identifying themselves as animals and marrying animals. Pedophilia will become a protected minority. It is disgusting. How long will this go on?

The things that God has set apart, the enemy has been systematically taking apart. We just sit by and cry about our situation. We need to get off our hind ends and be the salt and light. We need to take the God’s honest truth out into the world and proclaim it at all costs. Preach the gospel with words to everyone you come in contact with. Take a stand for Christ and His gospel. If we don’t obey the great commission who will? How can we expect the situation to change if people’s hearts are still bound to the darkness and the enemies will? Preach repentance and faith in Christ and some will be reborn. They will go out and preach and more will be added. The country needs more gospel and less self. Don’t be ashamed of Christ before men or He will be ashamed of you before the Father.

Bible Reviews

A Review of the Holman KJV Rainbow Study Bible in Mantova Brown LeatherTouch.

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 Bob Snyder4 Comments

This Bible was shipped in a cardboard box and arrived undamaged. The retail box is a two piece box and should be retained for storage.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cover. Most synthetic covers feel very cheap and sometimes smell like chemicals. This one felt quite a bit like a cowhide cover, albeit very thin.

I was concerned about the quality of this Bible due to the Chinese manufacture.

Several of the Chinese manufactured Bibles I’ve received lately from various publishers have been poorly constructed and/or have been odoriferous. This one did not smell like anything. It was just lacking any noticeable odor. The construction was solid. It was not anything special as far as materials go, but they did a good job with what they had.
The inside cover is lined with brown paper to match the color of the cover.

The perimeter is stitched as well.

The spine is gilt with, “KJV” at the head, “Holman Rainbow Study Bible” under that runs parallel with the spine, “Every Verse Color Coded, Bold Line Edition” under that, and the Holman logo at the bottom.

There is one brown ribbon marker. The binding is sewn for durability and flexibility.

This is probably one of the more flexible inexpensive Bible’s I’ve seen to date.

It does need to be worked over a lot when you first get it. The page edges are gilt in gold colored foil.

The pages are all stuck together due to the liberal use of pigments on every page. This is not uncommon where publishers use a lot of color in a Bible. Once you get the pages separated, hopefully without tearing any of them, you can get down to using it. The paper is sufficiently opaque. Having every section of text printed in a colored field also helps cut down ghosting, while reducing contrast between the text and page.

I have mixed feelings about this. I like to have good contrast between the text and page, but I also like to have as little ghosting as possible. The colored fields correspond to their category at the bottom of the page. There are twelve categories.

I don’t find this particularly useful. I would prefer that they break down their categories into hermeneutical ones. For instance the categories they use are; Discipleship, Outreach, God, Salvation, Love, Commandments, Family, Faith, Prophecy, Evil, Sin, and History. I would have preferred something more along the lines of; Lexical-syntactical, Historical/cultural, Contextual, Theological, and Special literary. There could be a color for different lexical variations. There could be colors for historical and cultural differentiations. It would be great to see a color for poetic language, one for apocalyptic language, one for historical narrative, and so on. I hope you get the idea. I would find this immensely more helpful than the system that is employed. Not to mention that the bar at the bottom that acts as the key has many colors that are very subdued and similar. It is difficult to readily identify what you are looking at on the page. I am not color blind, I assure you. I do enjoy all of the maps and drawings dispersed throughout.

I found them informative and clarifying. In place of red letter text this Bible employs an underlining system and goes a step further. The words of God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all underlined giving them equal import and attention. Of course many of us end up underlining the entire Bible after we have had it for a while. So this would get in the way of your own underlining just like the colored background fields don’t lend themselves to highlighting.

Holman’s product information has this to say, “The Holman Rainbow Study Bible: KJV Edition has a unique color-coding system that allows readers to identify quickly and easily twelve major themes of Scripture throughout the text: God, discipleship, love, faith, sin, evil, salvation, family, outreach, commandments, history, and prophecy. The system also underlines all words directly spoken by God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Other features of this Bible include 12 pages of color maps with index, a Bible reading calendar, concordance, subject guide, Table of Weights and Measures, “Know What God Says,” “100 Popular Passages,” and “365 Popular Bible Quotations for Memorization and Meditation.”
I like when Bibles have reading plans in them. I also like to have a concordance. This one has those features and some extras like, some ruled pages for notes in the back. It is not your typical study Bible. It lacks all of the footnotes at the bottom of the page. It is not an overly thick Bible. I found it comfortable to hold and use. Because it isn’t very thick it also isn’t very heavy. The binding and cover make it easy to hold in your hands or lay on your lap to read. The font is also large enough to read easily. I did not get the font size from the publisher, but if I had to guess, I’d say it is 8-10 pt.

Overall, I really liked the form and layout. It is a double column, verse format, with center column cross references.

For an inexpensive KJV Bible with some interesting added features that remains fairly light and comfortable to hold, I don’t think you could go wrong with this Bible. My only concern would be uniform quality control from the Chinese manufacturer. As long as Holman can keep strict quality control they should have a winner here.

Make sure to check out all of the pictures on the flickr page 🙂

Format: Imitation Leather
Number of Pages: 1632
Vendor: Holman Bible Publishers
Publication Date: 2014
Dimensions: 9.25 X 6.25 X 1.5 (inches)
ISBN: 1586409115
ISBN-13: 9781586409111
Availability: In Stock

Bible Reviews

The NASB Pitt Minion Reference Edition NS446XR in Brown Goatskin Leather is the Best Compact NASB You Could Purchase.

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015 Bob Snyder17 Comments

In my opinion this is the number one, of the top ten compact/ultrathin NASB’s you will find on the market today. The top three are Cambridge Pitt Minions. First place, goes to the goatskin leather. Second place, to the calfsplit leather edition. Third place goes to the edition covered in black French Morrocco leather. Here is a picture of the brown goatskin Pitt with the black calfsplit one. They are both gorgeous.

I’ve reviewed Lockman Foundation Bibles. I’ve looked at cheaply constructed Zondervan’s. If R. L. Allan made a compact NASB, they would be the only serious competition on the market. That would only be true because Cambridge and R. L. Allan would be using the same printer and binder, the world famous Jongbloed of the Netherlands. They are the premier printer and binder of almost all the high quality Bibles available today. Chances are, if you have a luxury Bible it came from Jongbloed. It makes sense that the Cambridge Pitt Minions are the highest quality Bibles in this market niche.

The attention to detail and quality is what sets the Cambridge Pitt Minions apart. When you hear, “You get what you pay for.” Many times you disregard it as a sales pitch, but with Bibles it is usually quite true. I strongly urge you not to balk at the initial price. Consider how many cheaply made Bibles you will buy over the next sixty years of your life. This is assuming, of course, that you are a serious student of God’s word, and read it daily. Now, multiply the twenty to fifty dollars that you would spend on a glued together, poorly covered, mass produced Bible, times the number of replacements you would purchase of that sixty year period. Let’s arbitrarily say you’ll need to replace it 6 times, and that is a conservative estimate on my part. Thirty times six is one hundred and eighty dollars. That is less than the price of the top of the line Pitt Minion. Not to mention the amount of time and energy it will take to transfer your notes/highlights/underlines.

The Pitt minion can be handed down to your children and if taken care of I dare say their children. The Cambridge Pitt Minion comes with a lifetime warranty from Cambridge and I fully expect these Pitt Minions to outlast me. How loving would it be for you to hand down one of these to each of your Children with your personal highlights and underlines? They could read from the same Bible that you held lovingly in your hands each morning and remember how faithful you were. Your zeal for God and His word would be an inspiration to them.

My Pitt Minion arrived in a cardboard shipping box safe and sound.

The retail box is a clamshell design and should be retained for storage.

The first thing I noticed about this Pitt Minion when I removed it from the box was the brown goatskin leather cover. It has a simple elegant perimeter line, and a naturally soft and supple feel.

Goatskin leather offers the best of both worlds. It is tough and supple, sacrificing neither quality as you might see with other leathers. The leather covered Bible smells the way a Bible should. It doesn’t reek of chemicals. The brown reminds me of a milk chocolate color. It might be difficult to see in the pictures.

This Bible is a case bound one. It is not edge lined.

The spine is smyth-sewn. All of the pages are part of a group of pages called a signature. These pamphlets called signatures are stacked up and then sewn together offering a supremely flexible and durable Bible.

The corners are and the end pages are well done.

There is a simple, yet attractive presentation page in the front.

Decorative head and tail bands cap the ends.

The spine is stamped with, “Holy Bible” at the top, “New American Standard” under that, “Cambridge” at the bottom in gold.

The page edges are art gilt, with red under gold.

There are two brown ribbon markers. I appreciate when a Bible has at least two ribbons. Many of us read daily from both the Old and New Testaments. It is very convenient to have a built in marker for each. I don’t like using a book mark for one and the ribbon for the other. I wish all Bibles would come with at least two ribbon markers and a third for the Proverbs as devotional reading. Here is a picture of the Pitt Minion on top of my Clarion. The Clarion has red ribbons. The Pitt Minion has brown to match the cover. I’m not sure which I like more 🙂

Upon opening the Bible the texture and opacity of the Pitt Minion’s India paper was very impressive for a compact. It is uniform in texture and color.

The typeface is 6.75pt on 7pt Lexicon No 1.

Here is an excerpt from the products information page on Cambridge’s site,

…a stylish modern digital typeface which like its predecessor combines utility and elegance. It uses the Lexicon typeface, carefully chosen for its economical use of space. This is the font used for dictionaries and encyclopaedias because it accommodates a lot of characters in a small space. The result is a classic Bible for the twenty first century produced in a remarkably compact yet readable form.…

I agree with them, that it is very legible. It also employs line matching. The text on the other side of the page is printed directly behind the text on the other side. This dramatically reduces distraction while reading, which is especially important in a compact Bible.

The text is laid out in a double column, center column, paragraph format in this red letter edition.

Book and chapter are located on the upper, outer corners of the pages, with the page numbers on the upper inner page corners, making it much easier to look up passages as you flip through the pages.

It is remarkable to have a full reference Bible of this size, approximately 7.5″ x 5.25″ x 0.75″ that remains legible. It is a testament to the design work that went into the Pitt Minion. There is even a useful concordance in the back along with a map index and 15 color maps.

If you are in the market for an ultrathin or compact high quality Bible look no further. The Cambridge Pitt Minion is the only choice.

You can purchase your copy on;

evangelicalbible.com

Amazon.com

Christianbook.com

or also on Cambridge’s site

Make sure to check out all of the pictures I took of the Cambridge NASB Pitt Minion in Brown Goatskin Leather NS446:XR-B1168 on my flickr.com page.
ISBN:9780521604116

isbn: 9780521604116

evangelism · hate · sharing the gospel · Theology

Why do You Hate Me?

June 11, 2015 Bob SnyderLeave a comment

Is it because I give to the needy? Is it because I am compassionate to the undeserving? Is it because I help the sick at my own peril? Is it because I endure your ridicule? No, it is because of Jesus.
As a Christian who shares the gospel, I have experienced the hate of some. Don’t misunderstand me. There are some who will earnestly listen to the gospel. Out of those most don’t repent and believe, but at least they were genuinely interested in listening to what I had to say. There are others who feign interest. Some just walk away while they shake their heads and mumble. I’m not talking about any of these types. I am talking about the type who get outraged that you would even dare to mention the, “J” word to them! The people who get so angry that you are afraid they might punch you in the face. It is as if you burned their house down or something. These are the types I am talking about.

We all know that the Bible tells us we will be hated and mistreated, but until it happens to you it is difficult to grasp why. You might see yourself doing all kinds of benevolent things and loving on people like no bodies business, so it is a shock to you when someone hates you. Jesus said, “…32Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”…” in John 10:32-33 (NASB) This often sticks in my head. Jesus’ biggest offense was to claim to be God. Some of the Pharisees hated Him for this. It was a good reason to stone Him to death according to them. We can see this same attitude today towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. Think about it for a moment. All of the kind loving things you have done in Christ’s name, poof! Vanish in a moment out of the memory of the hateful person who recoils at the mention of Jesus. It is all fine and dandy as long as you are being benevolent, but mention the reason why you are being loving and merciful and watch out. The next thing you might see could be a rock headed for your noggin. It just doesn’t compute to us right off why someone would respond like that, but we have to look at some truths to understand. If a person is not saved they are a friend of the world. James 4:4 says, “…You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. …” So if you are God’s child how do you suppose the enemy will desire to treat you? In John 15:18-20 Jesus says, “…18“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.…” It makes me wonder if we aren’t too concerned with having easy or being well liked. I mean, nobody likes to get hurt or suffer right, but Jesus was pretty clear about capitulating and being a friend of the world. Cheer up though, if you are sharing the gospel in the face of this suffering Jesus also said this to His disciples, “… 21“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22“You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.

23“But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. …” If we learn from their example, we can see that all, but John was martyred for their testimony of Christ crucified. They persevered all the way to the end. We can to with God’s grace.

Bible Reviews

A Review of the Hendrickson 1611 Edition King James Version Bible with Apocrypha, in Black Genuine Leather, Hardback.

June 11, 2015June 11, 2015 Bob Snyder3 Comments

The 1611 KJV edition is not a true facsimile edition. It is a modern printing of a 19^th century typeset that changed the font from Gothic to Roman. It is still in early Modern English. Here is what Hendrickson has to say about it on their product information page,

“For 400 years, the Authorized Version of the Bible—popularly known as the King James Version—has been beloved for its majestic phrasing and stately cadences. No other book has so profoundly influenced our language and our theology. Over time, however, the text has suffered subtle and occasionally troublesome alterations. This edition preserves the original 1611 printing. Word for word and page for page, the text with its original marginal notes, preface, and other introductory material appears as it first did. The sole concession to modernity is a far more readable roman typeface set by nineteenth-century master printers.

“A valuable and essential addition to every Bible library.”

—John R. Kohlenberger III”

Here is a list of features from their page as well,

“FEATURES

• Original preface and translators’ notes

• Alfred Pollard’s classic essay on pre-1611 English translations and the history of the Authorized Version

• New essays on the enduring impact of the KJV and the Apocrypha

• Handsome page design with decorative initials

• Page-edge gilding and ribbon marker (genuine leather only)

• Clear type is convenient to read and reference

• Special logo on book spine and packaging commemorates the 400th Anniversary

• Includes the Apocrypha”

I was curious about the quality of the leather when I requested this Bible for review. I wondered what they were going to use. I was also curious about how and where they would have it printed and bound. I thought, “Perhaps because this is an anniversary edition they will give it special treatment? Surely for the steep price it has to be better built than some of the lesser Bibles I’ve seen recently.” Well, I was let down. When I opened the cardboard shipping box I was presented with a nice looking retail box.

I was hopeful it contained something well done. I opened the retail box hoping to smell leather. Nope! No pleasing leather aroma. That is not to say that the cover is not genuine leather. It most likely is. Hendrickson says that it is. That being the case, the only way they can consider it genuine leather is if it is pigskin leather. Pigskin leather is the cheapest, stiffest, thinnest, leather you can get. Any cheaper and they would be using bonded leather or synthetic covers. The leather covers hardback book boards. There is a nice looking cross decoration on the front cover. It is not tooled leather.

The next thing that struck me was the excessively wavy page edges. It looks as if when the text block was trimmed they used a dull blade or when they were finishing the text block they had a machine problem. I don’t know for sure. I have also noticed a reviewer on a large retail site had the same problem.

After noticing these two very big disappointments, I concluded that this must have been made in China. I opened it up. I looked for the publisher information page and confirmed my suspicions.

I really hope the publishers of Bibles realize they are dealing with God’s word, not just a retail product.

Those were the two biggest gripes I had about this Bible as far as obvious design and construction goes. I can’t criticize the typeset or layout as it is dictated by the 19^th century typeset they chose to utilize. I know some have complained the font to be small. It is a bit on the small side, but overall, not bad.

You have to remember what you are dealing with, an old typeset and layout, which includes the Apocrypha.

If you aren’t familiar with it, don’t feel bad. Most people have no idea what it is. It is a collection of non-canonical books the early Church used might have used (kind of like how we use other books in our studies) We don’t use them, because they aren’t inspired. If you are looking for a modern paragraph format Bible with side column references, then buy a modern Bible… That should go without saying. Alas, people are very indiscriminate when shopping sometimes. They can also be woefully ignorant about what they are buying. That is one of the main reasons I write these reviews. I hope to help shoppers find the perfect Bible for them. Then they can go out and purchase confidently without apprehension.

I opened the case bound Bible to see that even though it isn’t the quality I hoped for, they did at least do a decent job pasting down the corners and the end pages.

The paper and printing are next. The paper reminded me of cheap newsprint paper in color and texture.

It was a bit smoother and higher quality than newsprint, but definitely not up the standards of Hendrickson’s competition. The Spine of the Bible was rounded, which is a good thing.

The binding is sewn, giving it the ability to open flat and stay that way while reading it. The page edges were gilt, even if they were warped like a Ruffle’s potato chip. The ribbon markers were decent.

There are decorative head and tail bands. The print seemed consistent, even if it smudged a little. I love some of the Books and Bibles Hendrickson publishes, but this one doesn’t make the cut. If this Bible were only available at the suggested retail price I wouldn’t buy it, but you can pick it up online around the fifty dollar range. In my opinion, even fifty dollars is thirty dollars too much.
To see all the pics make sure to check out my flickr album of this Bible.

KJV Bible–1611 Edition: Genuine Leather, Black

ISBN-13: 9781565631625

Size: 5.25 x 8.25 inches; 8-pt type

Hendrickson’s page

Amazon

Christianbook

By Jep and Jessica Robertson, with Susy Flory

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)

Share this article :)