Review: MacArthur Bible Studies
March 9, 2010 by theAlley
If you are looking for some new materials to use in a Bible study, you might want to try the MacArthur Bible Studies series. In the Bible study I participate in, we’ve used 3 or 4 of the MacArthur Bible study guides and we’ve generally been pleased with them.
Each guide focuses on a specific book of the Bible and contains between 10 and 14 lessons. Each lesson starts out with “warm up” questions which serve to introduce the related theological points. MacArthur then presents the scripture for the lesson and provides helpful commentary on the language and context of scripture. After you read the scripture and the commentary, the guide walks through a series of questions which help drive a group discussion. Many of the questions contain reference scriptures that can be used to help tie the lesson’s scripture to other areas of the Bible. This helps to clarify and emphasize the particular point of the lesson.
In our group, each individual completes the lesson before we meet. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to work through the lesson on your own and about the same about of time for the work through the lesson as a group.
The MacArthur Bible Studies series does an excellent job explaining the scriptures and promoting discussion. The only thing I don’t care for in the MacArthur Bible Studies series is that MacArthur seems to prefer the New King James Version (NJKV) of the scripture, which I find more difficult to read and understand than the New International Version (NIV) or New Living Translation (NLT). Each study guide costs about $10.
To check them out for yourself, you can look at one of the lessons for James online at Amazon.com.
meet the reviewer: tim schmitt
Tim Schmitt has been attending the Alley since September of 2007, where he serves on the setup team, the A/V team, the communion team. Tim also organizes the Alley’s two bowling teams. Originally from Litchfield, MN, Tim moved to the Twin Cities area to attend college at Concordia St. Paul. Tim is an I/T professional and enjoys bowling and riding his bicycle on the various trails in the Twin Cities area.
