Bible Question

[carol v]

Probably Kat can answer this

In one of Ray's audios from last year he talks about a Bible that he uses that has a center column of references, costs 29.95, etc. He said it was his daily study Bible.

Then in the audios from the last conference, he again mentions a great Bible that he uses and I think I heard somewhere that it is the "Companion" Bible.

Is this the Bullinger Companion Bible that has a huge amount of positive customer reviews on Amazon? And is the Bible he was talking about in the recent conference the same one he mentioned last year.

Bullinger seems to have a lot of commentary and I normally try to NOT have commentary in my Bibles -- Scofield and Life Application both made me a little crazy and I put them away when I found myself scratching through and commenting on the comments.

Sorry to be so vague but that short-term memory loss thing is catching up with me

Thanks to whomever can answer,
carol v

[Kat]

Hi Carol,

I see this is your first post, I'm glad you have joined us 

Here is excerpts from the Mobile conference last fall.  I think this is what you are looking for.

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5815.15.html -----

                             Side note about Ray's Bible

If you are looking to get a new Bible, I would recommend the one I've got here.  It's cheap, I only paid 29 bucks for this.  It's leather, red letter edition, so it has the words of Christ in red, it has headings on all the different things, like 'The Triumph Entry Into Jerusalem.'  It has a heading, so you don't need to read twenty verses to find it, because there it is. 
Here it says, 'The Cleansing Of The Temple,' in Luke's account, then it tells you where to find the same thing in Matthew account - 21 and you find it in Mark - 11.  It has that right above it and that's really handy.   It has this center reference column.  There it gives you hundreds and hundreds of scriptures, where it will talk about cleansing the Temple.  It has a little a, b or c in the verse, then you look over to the margin for the a, b, or c and it will say, see Jer. 6:4.  You go to Jer. and you will read something about God cleansing the Temple.  This way you can do a whole Bible study just using the center references.  But when you buy this book you get it free. 
That's the work of theologians over 2 thousand years.  For 2 thousand years theologians would say, 'wait I read something like that in Jer. or Isaiah.'  So they would go back and start reading maybe 6 chapters to find it again and they would put a little notation in their Bible, see Isaiah 6:64.  Well he spent 5 hours to find to find that.  You have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds at your fingertips and you don't need to spend 2 minutes looking for them.  These are marvelous aids.
This Book I have also has a small concordance in the back and one version has maps.  There are lots of other things that make it so handy.  It's something like 1200 pages of fine paper, it's gold leafed and leather.  It's got all these little extra things.  In Revelation if you want to find the church of Laodicea it has them all numbered.  It has big headings that is so easy and quick to find.  It's great.  It has this little margin, I can put all the notes I want in just this little margin here, so it's big enough.  This is good, the Bible I use to use cost right at $200 and to me I would sooner have this one. 
[King James Bible: Nelson #1755 or #4505BG, Leather, Center Column Reference, Words of Jesus in Red, Concordance (preferably with maps).]
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                        Ray's Three Main Reference Bibles

My three main references and that's other than my King James, are the Emphatic Dioglott, a little blue book that the Jehovah Witness publish.  But I think you can buy it on Amazon books.  The Emphatic Dioglott is only the New Testament.  Concordant, you ought to be able to get on Google or Amazon too.  But you can get it at Concordant.org. and I hate to send people there though.  Because they are seeing all the other stuff and start reading and pretty soon they get into this 2 administrations - 2 gospels - 2 resurrections - 2 everything nonsense and I don't want people lead astray.  So sometimes I'll send them to Amazon and they'll come back and say, I can't find it.  Then I will say here's where you can get one, but don't get tangled up in their doctrine. 

The Concordant doesn't have the old Testament yet.  But they are working on it as we speak.  They do have it, but they don't have it in one volume.  So they either will put it in one volume or maybe they will put the whole Bible, Old and New into one volume.  Because right now you have to buy all of them separately, at least a dozen or more of the Old Testament books.  They are $6-$7 a piece, so they are over a $100 if you buy the New Testament and all the Old Testament books. 

This one you can buy at any Bible book store, Rotherham's Emphasized Bible.  That's nearly as good, in some ways it's better than Concordant and some ways it's not.  But it's very equal.  Same way with the Emphatic Dioglott, in some places it's better than Concordant and in some places not quite. 
If you say, 'well how can you make such a judgment?'  By studying.  When you study the word aion or something, as often and as long as I did, you learn a few things.  You can pretty much tell if somebody is either prejudice or lacking knowledge, when they say something. 
But I would say if you don't have an Concordant, at least get a Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, they are not very expensive.  But it at least will not have all this ever and ever, eternal and all that, it will have the right words.  All of those words are right.  In other words, I would say 99.99% of the Scripture are translated properly. 
Maybe in some places Concordant has it a little better and some places not as good.  But at least it's on target, I mean there are few places where they are flat out wrong.  But in the Concordant, Heb. 11:3, we were talking about that, "the things were made from things that do not appear."   I mean they just totally butchered that, you can just take the Concordant there and x it out, just put a big X over it, because it's pathetic.  It's just gobbled gook.  But mostly it's pretty good.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat

[carol v]

Thanks Kat and thanks for the welcome --

I'm not exactly a newbie as I was on the first forum several years ago before it moved under the name roxie. Then I was on this forum for quite awhile but got deleted when I didn't log in for 4 months.

I was mostly a lurker but posted sometimes. I come regularly to download Ray's audios and read the email section but had been doing that without logging in -- hence the deletion.

I first read the Lake of Fire series about 3 years ago I guess and it was a bombshell in my life. Glad to be welcomed again though. (Hi Susan...how's Lubbock?)

[Deborah-Leigh]

Hello Carol v

Welcome to the Forum!

It is wonderful to know that you have been engaged in the study of the Truths that are shared by Ray and that you have been studying and listening to the Truth.

I too am happy to see you here.

Peace to you

Arcturus

[gmik]

Hi Carol!

I bought the Concordant off of Amazon.  I really like it, tho I kept my RKJ next to me till I got used to the flow.  Its a bit different.  But unlike Ray, I just can't read a KJ anymore, I am so suspicious of it.

I also use the interlinear scriptural analyzer that you can download free-it has the greek/hebrew right there for ya.

For an easy, cup of tea reading, I like the Message.

[carol v]

Thanks for the welcome Arcturus and the help gmik. I was interested in remembering Ray's suggestion because I wanted the headings. I have the whole set of Concordant but agree with Ray that he KJV is just so much more poetic. I really liked his example of Psalms 23 in one of his conferences. The Concordant just kind of leaves that one flat. But I love the Concordant for comparison and study. I don't have trouble anymore with the hell/everlasting mistranslations -- I just kind of substitute it automatically in my head.

My current KJV has no study guide at all and I found I missed it. I wanted one that doesn't drive me crazy though like Scofield. I actually like the NIV study guide for a literal guide but don't like the NIV version. The Nelson and Companion both sounded like they have great study guides without too much drive-you-crazy commentary. We'll see. The Companion seems to really emphasize the original texts but also has some "baptist" commentary according to the amazon reviews but the overall reviews sold me on looking at it.

(When I wrote "CRAP!!!!!" one day in huge letters across the Scofield commentary I knew it was time to move on from that one.)

I ended up ordering the Nelson both in Giant print and the regular study version plus the Companion. I know it's silly, but I keep thinking that if the dollar crashes or we lose electricity and the counry is in chaos, I probably will also lose my glasses and need the giant print available for an emergency. That's kind of a joke but only a joke on me. It's probably a combination of my practical side, the worst-case scenario side and the very last vestiges of my end-times brainwashing. I'm sure I've seen way to many post-apocalyptic movies too. Haha. Just watched the original Planet of the Apes the other day but that's a whole other post because I had never noticed how much it makes fun of scripture before.

Anyway, it's great to be back at the forum and I look forward to fellowship with you all.

Carol