Archive - January, 2013

Why Every Single Endorsement Matters

  |  Wed, January 23, 2013   |  Company, Misc   4

Randy AlcornWe believe that Bible study is the center of the Christian life. It’s our privilege to equip pastors, students, missionaries, teachers, and the church at large with tools that make Bible study easier and more accessible.

That’s why each endorsement we receive, whether from well- or lesser-known ministry leaders or from home users, is important to us. Each confirms that we’re on track toward providing the church with the best Bible-study tools.

Here are a few of our most recent endorsements:

“I am absolutely thrilled with Logos 5 and the new enhancements it brings, especially searching for phrases. Overall, the program responds even more quickly, and using my Platinum Library, I could hardly believe that a search for ‘metanoia’ (the Greek word for “repentance”) yielded 424 results in 0.26 seconds and that a search for the phrase ‘dead to sin’ yielded 523 results in 2.27 seconds. And from there, once I’m reading one of the sources, I can click on a cross-reference within my library and, voilà, there it is on my screen. . . . All in all, Logos 5 is a remarkable and practical software system, beckoning me to deeper study and greater fruitfulness in the Lord’s service. Best of all, I can do this kind of study at 35,000 feet while traveling to India!”—Michael L. Brown, PhD, author, professor, and national radio host

“Logos 5 is an incredible tool that instantly connects me with everything and everyone I need to get the Word out, from its Timeline to smart searches to social sharing.”—Kirk Cameron, producer of Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure and star of the international hit Fireproof.

“It’s a simple truth that I forget far too often—to know God, we have to know His Word. . . . Reading the Bible in a year helps me do just that. It keeps me organized, disciplined, and reading parts of the Bible I wouldn’t otherwise choose to read on a normal basis. The Bible is a delicious feast, and reading it all the way through makes sure you aren’t leaving anything on your plate. You’ll miss some days, that’s for sure, and that’s fine—use Faithlife’s Read the Bible in a Year plan to bring yourself closer to your Maker and His Word.”—Jefferson Bethke, Christian blogger and spoken-word poet

“Logos Bible Software is an extraordinary tool for both the Bible teacher and the Bible student…. Its extensive and expandable library of resources, ingenious search capabilities, and user-friendly interface make Logos 5 an indispensable and delightful aid for every user. You won’t be disappointed!”—Ray Comfort, founder & president of Living Waters

“As an historian, I can attest that knowing the facts and how to get them fast is crucial—if you’re going to stand for truth and against the attacks on our faith and heritage—and Logos 5’s Bible Facts tool gets you exactly where you need to go. . . . History is all about being able to accurately make the connections, and so is Logos 5. Its Bible Facts connects every person, place, thing and event, from which you can select and pull up quick summaries and links to more information—including relationships, maps, photos, key passages and more—that appear with just a click. And with every event tied to an exhaustive 6,000-plus-year Timeline, you can virtually see history unfolding on the screen before your very eyes.”—David Barton, founder and president of Wallbuilders

We’d love to hear about your experiences with Logos 5, too. Leave us a comment and tell us how it’s helping you do better Bible study.

Still haven’t upgraded?  You can save up to 20% on a base package. But hurry—introductory discounts expire February 4. Upgrade now!

Why You Shouldn’t Wait until the Next Version to Upgrade

  |  Tue, January 22, 2013   |  Featured, Products   5

Logos Base PackagesWith many products, it makes sense not to upgrade with each new version that comes out. Whether it’s phones, tablets, or software, most people don’t need to upgrade to every new version.

As an owner of Adobe’s Creative Suite, I’ve often had to wrestle with the question of whether to upgrade or sit out a round. The only thing I miss out on if I skip a version is the use of the new features for the next year or two. When the next version comes out, I’ll get all the new features from both versions. I’ll have the same set of tools as the person who upgrades with each new version.

Some of you may be approaching upgrading to Logos 5 this way. On the surface, it seems like a good way to save some money. And while it makes sense in a lot of categories, I’d like to explain why it doesn’t make sense with our base packages.

In most cases, new products exclusively build on top of, add to, and improve old ones. They get thinner, lighter, faster, more space, longer battery life, more features, etc. When products merely add to the ones they replace, you can often get by fine with upgrading every other release cycle—assuming the new features aren’t essential for you to have right away.

But Logos base packages don’t work that way. We certainly add many new features, datasets, and books with each new release. But in order to make room for all the new books we add, we also take many books out.

We do this for several reasons. Sometimes we just want to freshen our packages up so people who upgrade can add more new books to their libraries. Other times publishers request to have their content removed and want to try selling it individually. Regardless of the reasons, the result is that each new generation of base packages provides a one-time opportunity to pick up thousands of dollars of content for about ten cents on the dollar.

Let me illustrate with Logos 4. People who sat out and didn’t upgrade to Logos 4 missed out on the opportunity to get the following content at base package prices:

Books # of Volumes Print Value Logos Price
Semeia: An Experimental Journal for Biblical Criticism 91 $2,195 $49.95
A. W. Pink Collection 40 $603 $249.95
Berkouwer’s Studies in Dogmatics 14 $450 $329.95
Pillar New Testament Commentary 8 $311 $249.95
The Encyclopedia of Christianity: Volumes 1–4 4 $300 $289.95
Great Doctrines of the Bible 3 $45 $29.95
Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament 3 $150 $139.95
Wuest’s Word Studies & Wuest’s Expanded NT 2 $99.95 $75.95
A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians 2 $59.98 $49.95
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 1 $49.95 $49.95
Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible 1 $45 $45
Bible History: Old Testament 1 $29.95 $29.95
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 1 $59.95 $59.95
The Teacher’s Bible Commentary 1 $50 $50

You could have purchased Logos 4 Platinum for less than it would cost you to just purchase these 14 selections at Logos.com prices (not to mention the more than 170 other volumes removed from Platinum). If this is content you’d ever want to buy, it certainly makes sense not to have skipped upgrading to Logos 4. In total, we removed over $6,400 worth of content from base package libraries. The same thing will be true with a different set of content in Logos 5 when the next version comes out.

Get Logos 5 now!

Act now and get thousands of dollars’ worth of books at a fraction of their Logos.com prices. This content might not be available in the next iteration of our software. It’s not too late to get an incredible deal on a Logos 5 upgrade, but you have to act soon. Our introductory discounts end February 4. Upgrade now!

Win Logos 5, an iPad Mini, and Books by Eric Metaxas!

  |  Mon, January 21, 2013   |  Misc, Products   216

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Bonhoeffer Tour, featuring New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas, begins February 8 in Williamsville, NY. To kick off this nationwide tour, Logos has partnered with Thomas Nelson, GototheHub.com, and Food for the Hungry to give you the chance to win Logos 5 Gold, an iPad Mini, and Vyrso editions of Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer and Seven Men!

iPadminiDietrich Bonhoeffer, a committed pacifist, left his native Germany in 1939 to avoid conscription, which would have entailed swearing an oath to Hitler and fighting in his army. He came to think of that decision as a sort of flight; after just four weeks, he returned to Germany on the last steamer to make the crossing. There he contributed bravely to the resistance; eventually captured, he was hanged on April 9, 1945. Bonhoeffer presents this remarkably orthodox theologian’s profound moral courage and extraordinary faith.

Seven Men profiles Bonhoeffer, George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Jackie Robinson, John Paul II, and Charles Colson. Metaxas asks: What does it look like to—as a leader, father, brother, husband, coach, counselor, change agent, or wise man—be a true role model?

Pick up Bonhoeffer and pre-order Seven Men today!

Entry closes April 6, and we’ll select the winner April 8. If you win and you already own Logos 5, Bonhoeffer, and/or Seven Men, you’ll get Logos.com credit in place of the prizes.

Enter now!

It’s time to upgrade to Logos 5. See the special pricing our Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator has for you.

* By entering the contest you are opting in to receive emails from Logos and Logos partners

Logos 5: Lexham Bible Dictionary

  |  Mon, January 21, 2013   |  Training   1

Today’s post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris, who has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos seminars, provides many training materials.

In addition to working with numerous publishers to make their print volumes into ebooks, Logos publishes its own resources under the Lexham brand. You may have noticed resources like:

  • Lexham English Bible
  • Lexham Hebrew Bible
  • Lexham Greek-English Interlinear New Testament: SBL Edition (try rapidly repeating that title three times!)

Another very helpful resource contained in all the new Logos 5 base packages is the Lexham Bible Dictionary (LBD). This topical encyclopedia, developed for digital rather than print delivery, contains thousands of in-depth articles covering a multitude of biblical subjects. In addition, new articles are being written and added to the book through Logos’ automatic “update resources” process.
If you’ve yet to discover and use this volume, try this:

  • Open your library 
  • Click Prioritize (A)
  • Type LBD in the library’s Find box (B)
  • Drag the resource from the left to the Prefer these resources list on the right (C) so that the LBD is the highest-prioritized English dictionary in the list
  • Close the library (D)

 

  • Open a Bible to a passage, such as Acts 18 (E)
  • Double-click a word, like Corinth in verse 1 (F) (the double click is the shortcut for the Lookup feature, which aptly means “look up my word in a dictionary”)
  • Notice that the LBD jumps to an article about Corinth (G)
     

 

As you use the LBD, you’ll discover that it arranges articles in a very user-friendly outline format so that you can easily see and navigate to specific information.

Since the LBD is relatively new, it doesn’t contain articles for every biblical subject (yet!), so make sure to prioritize your second-favorite Bible dictionary under the LBD in the library. This way, if the LBD doesn’t have an article about your topic, this backup Bible dictionary will open when you double-click a word.
Also, you can double-click words in more than just Bibles. Try double-clicking the names of people, places, and things in other resources, such as commentaries (H), and watch your Bible dictionary instantly open! (I)

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Introductory discounts for upgrading to Logos 5 end February 4. See the special pricing our Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator has for you.

Celebrate the 450th Birthday of the Heidelberg Catechism

  |  Sat, January 19, 2013   |  Misc, Products   0

Heidelberg Catechism

Today we’re celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism, one of the most important and enduring confessions to emerge out of the Reformation.

History of the Catechism

The Catechism was commissioned in 1562 by Frederick III, the elector prince of the Rhineland Palatinate. According to the original preface to the Catechism, published in 1563, Frederick had at least “three objectives for the Heidelberg Catechism: that is serve

  1. As a catechetical tool for teaching the children,
  2. As a preaching guide for instructing the common people in the churches, and
  3. As a form for confessional unity among several Protestant factions.”*

Work on the Heidelberg Catechism was begun by Casper Olevianus, but largely completed by Zacharias Ursinus, whom scholars now credit as the primary author. Frederick III sent the Catechism to the publisher on January 19, 1563—450 years ago today.

How the Heidelberg Catechism is structured

The Heidelberg Catechism is divided into three sections:

  1. The misery or sin of humanity
  2. God’s redemption
  3. Our gratitude

Within this framework, the Catechism covers the law, our need for salvation, the Trinity, justification, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and numerous other themes.

Because it addresses in compact form such a broad range of doctrinal and practical issues, it has played a key part in the formation of belief and worship in Reformed Christianity. In the early seventeenth century, it became one of the three forms of unity in the Dutch Reformed Church. In the mid–seventeenth century, the Westminster Assembly used the Heidelberg Catechism to develop its own catechism, which is now known as the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Celebrate the 450th anniversary!

To celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism, we’re making two collections of works on the Heidelberg Catechism available for pre-order.

The first collection contains two volumes from the Text and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought series published by Baker, both written by Lylie Bierma:

  • A Firm Foundation: An Aid to Interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism
  • An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology

The second collection, which is on Community Pricing, contains several classic works on the Heidelberg Catechism from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In addition to these collections, you can also pick up several works on the Heidelberg Catechism already available in Logos, including Ursinus’ Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism.

Explore the roots of Christian Reformed doctrine—come see our Heidelberg resources.

*Bierma, Lyle, “The Purpose and Authorship of the Heidelberg Catechism,” An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), p. 51.

If You’re Still in Logos 4, It’s Time to Upgrade

  |  Fri, January 18, 2013   |  Products   6

Logos 5If you’ve been on the fence about Logos 5, now’s the perfect time to act. Our introductory pricing window is closing fast—don’t miss this opportunity to save 15% or more on a Logos 5 upgrade. Here are some of the best reasons for upgrading to Logos 5:

You’ll get a discount tailored to your library

With our new Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator, your library is taken into account during the upgrade process. If you already own a commentaries, collections, or individual books that appear in the new Logos 5 base package you want, the Discount Calculator automatically discounts your purchase by the value of that resource. You never pay for the same book twice. It doesn’t matter if you’re upgrading from Logos 4, Libronix, or even Logos 1.0—you only pay for what’s new to you, and your discount is customized for you. Within this introductory pricing period, your minimum discount would be 15%, with a potential of 25% off! You really can’t afford not to upgrade. Personalize your discount with our Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator.

Use Logos 5’s newest features

With Logos 5 come a series of new and enhanced features to the software that help you do Bible study:

Get more, pay less

If you haven’t taken advantage of our easy-to-budget, interest-free payment plans, now’s your chance. A payment plan makes upgrading to any Logos 5 base package more affordable. This makes upgrading to any Logos 5 base package more affordable. Learn more about how surprisingly inexpensive upgrading to Logos 5 can be.

With only a little while left in our introductory pricing window, now’s the time to get Logos 5. Check out our Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator to see how big a discount you qualify for—it might be bigger than you think.

Upgrade to Logos 5 today!

Last Chance: Logos 5 Deals That Fit Your Budget!

  |  Thu, January 17, 2013   |  Misc   4

base packagesThis is your last chance to get introductory discounts of 15% or more on Logos 5. If you’re thinking about purchasing or upgrading to a new base package, it’s important that you do so soon!

Upgrading? In addition to the introductory discounts, you’ll get a discount for any content you already own.  If you’ve been acquiring books over the years, you might be surprised at your low price.

A limited budget doesn’t have to limit your learning.

A payment plan makes the library you want affordable by spreading the payments out. You’ll never pay interest, either—just a $5 administrative fee per payment.

You have one chance to save the most cash on a base package: the first time you buy. So why let a one-time price keep you from saving on the library you’ll want later? Take advantage of bulk savings now with a custom low price from the Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator.

Make it manageable—take up to 18 months to pay!

For every purchase over $1,900, we’re offering an extended payment plan: take an extra 6 months to pay! Get any of the biggest Logos 5 packages now and you can spread your purchase out over 12–18 months.

Get the Logos 5 base package you really want—use an interest-free payment plan today!

But hurry—the introductory discounts end February 4!

Last Chance to Save 33% on Timothy Keller’s Sermons!

  |  Wed, January 16, 2013   |  Products   1

Logos is proud to team up with Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church to offer the Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, a digital archive of more than 22 years’ worth of Keller’s expositional sermons. This exciting project will put over 1,200 sermons in your Logos library, allowing you to search the archive for different topics or Scripture passages and helping you in your personal studies, sermon preparation, and devotional reading.



Shipping soon!

This is your last chance to order the Timothy Keller Sermon Archive for the low Pre-Pub price—$100 off the regular price. Remember, the sermons will be released in five increments as we finish transcribing them—so you’ll get several years’ worth of sermons as soon as the archive ships, and the rest of the content will automatically update to your library as we finish it.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get more than two decades of Timothy Keller’s sermons for less than 20 cents each! Time is running out to pre-order, so get yours now.

We Messed Up, and We’re Sorry

  |  Wed, January 16, 2013   |  Misc, Products   4

Logos Base PackagesWe’re really sorry about the mess.

We admit it: things got confusing, difficult, and downright weird with Logos 5. We introduced all-new base packages with new names and prices. The website crashed. We threw in a completely new custom discount system. The Minimal Crossgrade came out. And it all went down during the busy holiday season!

That’s a lot to take in, and in the hullaballoo, you may feel like you missed out on the best upgrade opportunity:

The first few months of Logos 5 were crazy, and you’re wishing we’d given you a clearer upgrade message.

Did This Happen to You? Let Us Make It Right!

The confusion has died down. You’ve had time to play with Logos 5, explore the new and enhanced features, watch the videos, read the blog posts, and connect with other Logos 5 fans. You know more about the upgrade discounts than you did when you upgraded—and now you have a chance to get the base package you really want without missing out on that first-time-upgrade discount!

Just email our Sales Department and ask for the Second-Chance Deal, or call them at 1-800-875-6467. You’ll get a clean slate. You’ll get to pick your bigger, better Logos 5 base package and get the huge savings that come with it.

You deserve a shot at the best deal you can get during Logos 5’s introduction, and we’re sorry that we didn’t make all this easier to understand back in November. So seize this opportunity: contact Sales and enjoy the base package (and discount) you really want.

Email Sales for Your Second-Chance Deal!

Let’s Get John Owen’s Latin Works Translated!

  |  Tue, January 15, 2013   |  Products   0

John Owen, one of the seventeenth century’s most prominent Puritan thinkers, left a body of work that’s been guiding Christians toward God for nearly 400 years. Roger Nicole called him “the greatest theologian who has ever written in the English language.” But not all of Owen’s work was in English, and some of it has remained untranslated since the 1600s.

So we’re undertaking the exciting project of translating The Latin Works of John Owen, in English (3 vols.)! The collection includes John Owen’s massive historical theology, Theologoumena Pantodapa—current translations are very difficult to find—as well as his never-before-translated poetry and lectures, which appear in Latin in the 24-volume Works of John Owen, already available in Logos. The translator is still to be announced, but stay tuned for updates in the near future.

By pre-ordering these three volumes, you’re doing more than just reserving your copy at the best price; you’re helping kick-start a monumental translation project, and helping produce works that previously were available only to scholars. Pre-order The Latin Works of John Owen, in English (3 vols.)

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