What do you think?
Rate this book
Bible Explorer's Guide
A getting started handbook that provides ground rules for interpreting God's Word and helps for applying its principles.
273 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2002
8 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
John Phillips
94 books17 followersDr. John Phillips was born in Britain. He served in the British Army in Palestine where he saw many of the events which led to the birth of the State of Israel. After the War he joined the Bank of Montreal and went to Canada. In the Canadian north-west he founded and pastored a small church in a bi-vocational capacity. He served as assistant director of the Moody Bible Institute's Correspondence School and became well known as a Bible teacher in the Moody Evening School and over the Moody Radio Network. For four years he directed the Emmaus Correspondence School, one of the largest in the world at that time with courses available in over 100 languages. Returning to Moody Bible Institute he traveled widely as an itinerant Bible teacher for the Institute's Extension Ministry. He is best known for his EXPLORING and INTRODUCING books. He has written on all the New Testament books and on numerous Old Testament books including EXPLORING GENESIS, EXPLORING PSALMS (2 vols), EXPLORING PROVERBS (2 vols) and EXPLORING THE MINOR PROPHETS. Dr. Phillips' resources have been the companions of pastors, teachers and Bible students everywhere who have turned to them for instruction, illumination, and illustration.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 28, 2023
2017 review
This book is toxic. It is what NOT to do in Bible interpretation. It's not just a little bit twisted. It is horrific. Run. Get away. Burn your copy. Remember the author's name and avoid anything he's written. It is truly terrifying, and deeply heartbreaking, that this book ever made it to print and that some people actually admit to approaching the Bible in the way this book describes. It is high treason against heaven and earth to do so and I am convinced many will suffer the greater condemnation for such wickedness as this book proposes.
In 2023, I was asked to elaborate on this review and will copy some of that here for any who might find it beneficial:
I opened the book up to refresh my memory and it fell to ch. 20, "Numbers in the Bible." This chapter is full of superstition masked as interpretation. He goes into the meaning of numbers and their derivatives. E.g. "In the Bible the number 9 stands for finality and judgement. It has similarities to the number six (3+3=6 and 3x3=9). The sum of the twenty-two letters which make up the Hebrew alphabet is 4,995 (5x999) so that the Hebrew alphabet is thus stamped with grace and finality." This has no value for understanding the Bible and is nothing short of biblical numerology.
The next chapter focuses on the hidden meanings of names and titles. The next chapter is "Christ, the Ultimate Key" where he spends the final four odd pages of his book trying to act like Jesus was central to it, even though he's hardly come up so far.
A quick flip through the rest of the book brought up KJV-onlyism, teaching dispensationalism as the only acceptable view, teaching the imputation of inherent righteousness rather than alien (Jesus') righteousness, works salvation, suffering necessarily implies God's judgement, his view of typology is untethered to any biblical evidence which means he tells us to see whatever we want to as a type. His writing is illogical, anti-intellectual, superstitious, and full of guesses and assumptions. He doesn't understand how the original languages relate to each other. He doesn't understand semantics or lexicography or genre or syntax or any of the key disciplines required to teach hermeneutics. My review probably sounds a bit hysterical, but genuinely, it's just an awful, awful guide.
This book is toxic. It is what NOT to do in Bible interpretation. It's not just a little bit twisted. It is horrific. Run. Get away. Burn your copy. Remember the author's name and avoid anything he's written. It is truly terrifying, and deeply heartbreaking, that this book ever made it to print and that some people actually admit to approaching the Bible in the way this book describes. It is high treason against heaven and earth to do so and I am convinced many will suffer the greater condemnation for such wickedness as this book proposes.
In 2023, I was asked to elaborate on this review and will copy some of that here for any who might find it beneficial:
I opened the book up to refresh my memory and it fell to ch. 20, "Numbers in the Bible." This chapter is full of superstition masked as interpretation. He goes into the meaning of numbers and their derivatives. E.g. "In the Bible the number 9 stands for finality and judgement. It has similarities to the number six (3+3=6 and 3x3=9). The sum of the twenty-two letters which make up the Hebrew alphabet is 4,995 (5x999) so that the Hebrew alphabet is thus stamped with grace and finality." This has no value for understanding the Bible and is nothing short of biblical numerology.
The next chapter focuses on the hidden meanings of names and titles. The next chapter is "Christ, the Ultimate Key" where he spends the final four odd pages of his book trying to act like Jesus was central to it, even though he's hardly come up so far.
A quick flip through the rest of the book brought up KJV-onlyism, teaching dispensationalism as the only acceptable view, teaching the imputation of inherent righteousness rather than alien (Jesus') righteousness, works salvation, suffering necessarily implies God's judgement, his view of typology is untethered to any biblical evidence which means he tells us to see whatever we want to as a type. His writing is illogical, anti-intellectual, superstitious, and full of guesses and assumptions. He doesn't understand how the original languages relate to each other. He doesn't understand semantics or lexicography or genre or syntax or any of the key disciplines required to teach hermeneutics. My review probably sounds a bit hysterical, but genuinely, it's just an awful, awful guide.
November 18, 2012
This well-beloved Bible teacher has really given us a worthwhile volume. Pitched at the S.S. teacher/layman level, it really brings concepts alive that some of the more scholarly volumes just can’t give us–at least not as passionately. Not the last word on the subject, but I would hate to be without it!
July 29, 2016
John Phillips is one of my favorite writers and commentators.
This book is a good guide to Bible Study.
A little deeper than basic, but not "technical".
This is a must for any serious student of Scripture.
This book is a good guide to Bible Study.
A little deeper than basic, but not "technical".
This is a must for any serious student of Scripture.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews