Results tagged “books” from Logos Bible Software Blog

Jeff Straub, a seminary professor at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota, shares in two posts how he’s made (and continues to make) the transition from a print library to a digital library with Logos Bible Software and why he loves it.

It was a hard sell for me. After more than 25 years in ministry, tirelessly searching for books anywhere they might be found, hoping against hope to find good books at cheap prices, I finally switched . . . to a digital library . . . to Logos. And I love it! I travel a bit, sometimes overseas, and I love the portability of my digital library.

He goes on to talk about the “back-breaking task” of moving more than 100 heavy boxes of books to Minneapolis. I remember doing the same thing about a year and a half ago, but thankfully with only 40 boxes.

On the bright side, at least Jeff discovered Logos before his next move, and at least he didn't have as big of a print library as Rousas Rushdoony did. According to Wikipedia, Rushdoony had more than 60,000 books in his personal library (and read nearly half of them). Imagine what 1,600 boxes of books would do to your back!

Find out more about why Jeff is lovin’ Logos in these two posts:

• Lovin’ Logos
• Lovin’ Logos, Part 2

In an effort to increase subscriptions to Bible Study Magazine, we were planning on giving away a free download of Money Matters by Larry Burkett as an incentive to everyone that subscribed to the magazine in the month of May. Right now the magazine is on sale for only $14.95 for a full year, and Money Matters is a $20 book, so it was a pretty good deal.

After thinking more about the tough economic times we are in, and how much this book could be of use to so many people, we just decided to give it away for free to anyone that wants it—with no strings attached.

All promotions, marketing and freebies aside, we really encourage you to subscribe to Bible Study Magazine. It has something for all levels of Bible study, and is not only receiving rave reviews from the Christian audience, but the secular as well. In fact it was just recognized as one of the top ten of all magazines launched in 2008 by Library Journal!

Check out what Library Journal says in Best of 2008: Magazines.

"The best new magazines of 2008 have in common the potential to create a devoted readership able to sustain circulation... Each succeeds in presenting distinctive and visually appealing content, in some cases with remarkably creative design. These mags demonstrate that the art of graphic design is thriving. The Best Magazines of 2008 represent a range of target audiences, from general to special interest...

...Bible Study Magazine is a serious, clearly written popular mag that uses biblical scholarship to illuminate but not refute the principal beliefs of evangelical Protestantism. Content includes interviews with well-known evangelical ministers and reports of research by religious studies professors, historians, and archaeologists. ...this colorful popular pub is to Bible studies what Scientific American is to science or Psychology Today is to psychology. A thoughtful bridge between the work of scholars and laypersons looking for a deeper understanding of biblical texts."

We would be thrilled if you would subscribe to Bible Study Magazine for just $14.95 for the entire year, but you don’t have to. No strings attached, if you want Money Matters, go ahead and take it free of charge, just follow the simple steps listed below:

Step 1 Add Money Matters to your cart.

Step 2 Enter coupon code: BIBLESTUDYMAGAZINE at checkout.

Step 3 If you’d like, click "Add to Cart" to subscribe to Bible Study Magazine.

Step 4 Proceed through checkout, and notice that whether you added Bible Study Magazine to your order or not, you will still be required to enter a valid credit card. The system will be unable to process the order for your free book without a valid credit card being entered, even though your total may be $0.00 and you won't be charged at all.

Step 5 Tell your friends, and link to this post from your blog so others can take advantage of this free gift too!

Not all digital books are created equal. I regularly interact with people who have never used Logos Bible Software, and one of the most common things I hear goes something like this: “I already have ________ as PDFs. Why would I want to get the Logos version?”

I go on to explain all of the things that you can do with Logos resources that you can’t do with PDFs, and people get interested. Once they try it for themselves, they are blown away. One professor recently responded this way, “I can’t believe how fantastic this is in Logos—far superior to PDFs.”

One of the things that makes Logos resources so useful is all of the tagging behind the text. We put together a video recently that talks about the various kinds of links in our digital books. What is a red link, and how does it differ from a blue link? Did you know that just about every word is a link? Find out more in the video below.

For more videos, visit www.logos.com/videos or www.macbiblesoftware.com/videos.

Round 2 of Logos March Madness has closed, and we now have 16 titles (listed below) eligible for a 30% discount using the code MMR2. This code will expire on March 28th, so grab these books now.

Voting is currently open for the Sweet 16 round. Remember, the further a title advances, the greater the discount. Head over now and vote for your favorite titles.The grand champion of Logos March Madness will be offered at 75% off retail!

At Logos we tend to love books more than we love basketball. So, with March Madness starting today we thought we’d spin our own variation of the tournament and launch LogosMarchMadness.com.

The premise is simple—we’ve selected 64 of our titles and placed them in 4 divisions: OT, NT, Theology, and Popular. You visit LogosMarchMadness.com and vote for which titles advance each round. In each division, titles will compete based upon your votes. The highest voted titles advance until we have a grand champion.

To make things more interesting, we’re offering discounts on ALL the books in the tournament and YOU control how much the discount is. Every round that a book advances in the tournament, the discount increases. Discounts will be between 25% and 75%. That means that if you see a title you really want, it is up to you to spread the word and get people to vote. Post it on your blog, tell your Facebook friends, and tweet it on Twitter! If you want the discount, you need to get the votes. The discount is in your hands!

The tournament will run from March 19 through April 6 and will have 6 rounds. We’ve posted the full schedule and brackets on the site.

Opportunities like this don’t come along often, so don't miss out. Be sure to subscribe to the Tournament RSS feed to receive updates on what books are advancing and the all important discount codes!

Logos March Madness—When books move up, prices go down. Spread the word!

Last week we put 43 new titles on Pre-Pub from Wesleyan Publishing House. In addition to their 18-volume commentary series covering the entire NT and three OT books, there are resources on holiness, the church, worship, devotions, and a number of other personal and ministry topics.

Have a look at these five new collections:

• Wesleyan Bible Commentary Series (18 Vols.)
• Holiness Collection (8 Vols.)
• Wesleyan Ministry Collection (5 Vols.)
• Keith Drury Collection (6 Vols.)
• Stan Toler Collection (6 Vols.)

For other titles by Wesleyan, Methodist, or Arminian authors, check out these titles:

• Eerdmans Wesleyan Bible Commentary (7 Vols.)
• Systematic Theology by John Miley (2 Vols.)
• Wesleyan-Arminian Collection (81 Vols.)
• John Wesley and Adam Clarke Collection (85 Vols.)
• Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (12 Vols.)
• Thomas C. Oden's Systematic Theology (3 Vols.)
• Classical Pastoral Care (4 Vols.)

We'd love to hear from our Wesleyan, Methodist, and Arminian readers. What other titles would you like to see be made available? Leave a comment or send an email to suggest@logos.com to let us know.

Last week I read some advice that a seminary student was giving to potential Logos users. It went something like this: when trying to decide whether to invest in Logos, calculate the print value of the books that you think you'd actually use and, if that amount exceeds the cost of the package from Logos, buy it. But in your calculations make sure to exclude any books that are available for free elsewhere (e.g., from Google Books or Amazon's Online Reader).

I think the first part of the advice is generally* sound, but the second part has problems. While it's often a good idea not to spend money for something you can get for free, this is not always the case. The advice above leaves out two important factors: quality and convenience.

Quality

First, the advice above is not really comparing apples with apples. The quality of Logos digital books exceeds the quality of books available at Amazon's Online Reader, Google Books, and other places on the internet.

So it may very well be worth paying money for books that are available for free online, if you want the ability to perform incredibly powerful searches, copy and paste text into papers or sermons with automatic citations, get instant access to Bible passages with a hover or a click, jump to cited books and articles, and all the other things that make Logos digital books so valuable.

So the advice would have been better if it had said, "Exclude any books that are of equal quality and available for free elsewhere." But that still doesn't quite do.

Convenience

Second, even if we were comparing apples with apples, that is, books of equal quality—or let's assume you are the rare person who doesn't need any of the benefits I mentioned above—there is value in the convenience of an integrated digital library. When your digital library is spread across multiple platforms and websites (e.g., Google Books, PDFs and Word docs on your computer, Amazon, and other places), it takes time (1) to remember where you have access to x, y, and z books and then (2) to perform multiple searches on multiple websites and desktop applications. That extra time spent can be quantified in terms of value, so it may be worth the money for the added convenience and time-saving benefit.

Let's say you use iTunes for your music library. Numerous legal sources allow you to listen to music for free online, but you have to be connected to the internet and go to the website to listen to it. You can't download it and integrate it into your digital music library in iTunes—or listen to it on your iPod. Perhaps for many songs that would be fine, but the benefit of convenience may make it worth it to purchase some music that is available for free elsewhere.

So I think we could further improve the advice by saying, "Exclude any books that are of equal quality and available for free elsewhere in a medium that offers equal convenience."

Everyone has different needs and different financial abilities, and there are definitely times when it is financially wise to be content to use good secondary tools like Google Books and Amazon's Online Reader. But if quality and convenience are important to you, it may very well be worth paying for something you can get for free elsewhere.

* However, I think you could make a case for why it might be wise to buy Logos even if the digital cost exceeded the print cost, but that is perhaps for another day and another blog post.

It's no secret to regular readers of this blog that we favor our digital books over their print counterparts and consider them to be superior when it comes to things like longevity, usability, space savings, cost savings, time savings, and ease of shipping and moving. Many of you are already convinced and choose digital over print as often as possible, but some of you may still be a bit skeptical. A couple of weeks ago, I came across another perfect illustration of how investing in Logos is one of the best ways to protect your investment in a biblical and theological library.

Ryan M. is a Logos user. I met him a while back on the Logos newsgroups. Over the last several years, Ryan has acquired more than 4,000 Libronix digital resources. He chose to build his library primarily with Libronix books partly because he and his wife, Sandi, were planning to do full-time mission work in Quito, Ecuador (and partly, I'm sure, for some of the other reasons I mentioned above).

After a few years of deputation and raising their necessary support, the time had finally come to leave the US and head to the field. As they made their final preparations, Ryan and Sandi gave away most of their earthly possessions and carefully stored up exactly what they would need to take with them. They were set to fly out of Detroit on January 5, 2009 and head to San José, Costa Rica, where they would spent their first year in language school.

The night before they left, the vast majority of their belongings were stolen—everything that they had prepared to take with them, except for their overnight bags and laptop.

Here are some snippets from a email that Ryan sent me last week:

My parents drove us to the airport in Detroit—about 2-1/2 hours from our home in Grand Rapids—to save us having to rent a car (we'd already given ours away). They reserved a nice hotel room for them and us quite near the airport; we stayed the night, and when we awoke the van and all our possessions were gone. (We think the vehicle has probably already been chopped up and that our stuff is being enjoyed by the thieves. Our name, address, and eddress was in every box, so there's no secret about how to contact us to return any or all of it. But these were obviously evil people.)

. . .

Logos has been wonderful for us in this circumstance! The theft we experienced could have been even more damaging to our finances if I had packed a good number of paper books. I would also be without those ministry helps if I had been relying on paper resources. As it stands, I haven't lost my theological library, for which I'm extremely grateful. I even have a digital copy of numerous Spanish resources and a Spanish-English dictionary!

Though this is a horrible situation to go through, Ryan doesn't have to mess with the hassle and massive expense of trying to replace his library. And even if his laptop had been stolen as well, he could have gotten his entire Libronix digital library up and running with very little effort and at almost no cost. His 4000+ resources and all of his licenses are safe. But how easily could you replace your library?

Please pray for Ryan and Sandi as they adjust to a new culture, learn a new language, and try to replace all of the things that they lost. If you would like to be a financial blessing to them, you can donate directly through the HCJB Global website. (To help them in their immediate need, be sure to put "for personal use" in the "Add an Additional Note" blank.) You can read more about how you can pray for and help Ryan and Sandi at their blog.

Today Barack Obama takes office and becomes the 44th President of the United States of America.

In recognition of this important day, we are running a special on our American History Collection, which includes the following eight titles:

• Common Sense
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Federalist Papers
• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States (free update including the latest inaugural addresses coming soon!)
• An Outline of the American Economy
• An Outline of American Government
• An Outline of American History

Use coupon code 44PRESIDENT to take 75% off and get this 8-volume collection for under $5! The offer is good for today only.

Enjoy!

Update: The updated file for Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States is now available.

Today's guest post is from Jana Gering, Project Manager of the Electronic Text Development department.

The teaching pastor at a church I worked for a few years ago asked the staff for stories and ideas about an upcoming sermon dealing with a section of scripture on pride. The first thing to come to my mind was the chapter on pride from C. S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity. I looked up the chapter to find some quotes for my email response; I began by typing out a few of the quotes and ended by transcribing almost the whole of that incredible chapter! Lewis' pithy writing defies summary, so the email turned out be a list of about 15 lengthy quotes from the chapter. The pastor tried to summarize them, too, but the impact of the text was such that in the end, he posted all of the quotes on slides and discussed them during the sermon.

As the manager of the small bookstore at the church, I can testify that we sold out of all Lewis books and put in many backorders that Sunday. The power of Lewis' written words struck a note with many who otherwise may never have read them. The power of enduring authors—writers of fiction, playwrights, philosophers, and poets as well as theologians—can add a truly powerful punch to your studies and messages.

Right now, the massive 71-volume Harvard Classics and Fiction Collection, which contains a whopping 33,719 pages of classic writings, is on Pre-Pub for only $99.95. To quote from the product page, "When Charles William Eliot assembled The Harvard Classics, more commonly known as 'The Five-Foot Shelf,' and later the 'Shelf of Fiction,' he gathered this epic collection of key works which he thought would best represent 'the progress of man . . . from the earliest historical times to the close of the nineteenth century.'"

While C.S. Lewis' works are too new to be published in this set, biographies, philosophical and scientific essays, stories, plays, poetry, and whole or excerpted keynote works from throughout history are included:

"Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true." —Pensee 174

"The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is. . . ." —Pensee 194

—Blaise Pascal, Pensees

"A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires."

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"Avarice, envy, pride, Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all On Fire."

—Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

"Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times."

—Martin Luther

"Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation."

—Saint Augustine

"A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience."

"Alas! All music jars when the soul's out of tune."

—Miguel Cervantes

Imagine having not only your biblical and theological works at your fingertips through Libronix, but also a complete university course in the history of original authors from ancient times through the 19^th century!

French philosopher Étienne Gilson wrote that "history is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought." Secular or religious, fiction or nonfiction, prose or poetry, this classic collection gives insight into the history, culture, art, and consequences of ideas as expressed by the written word. And so, since "Brevity is the soul of wit," (William Shakespeare in Hamlet), and I've already passed up my word count (and probably my wit as well!), I'll leave you to discover the merits of the collection yourself at the Pre-Pub page.

Recently we've blogged about the many ways to read the Bible in a year using tools from Logos Bible Software. Within the application, one can make custom reading plans, or you can join an online community of people reading through the same plan using either Global Bible Reader or Bible.Logos.com.

But all of these solutions currently support a 66 book canon only. If you also want to read the Apocrypha, or Deuterocanonical books, either because your faith tradition includes such books or just to learn more about the Jewish writings that appeared during the time 'between the testaments' and were read by the early Church, some additional help is needed.

So I've made a little Libronix digital book that contains a list of daily readings to cover the Apocrypha in one year. It functions just like other daily devotionals, with a link at the top to jump directly to the current day's reading. It can also be loaded into your Libronix Home Page in the devotionals section.

This reading plan covers the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican deuterocanonical materials. The 'additions' to Esther and Daniel are interspersed within and around the protocanonical portions of those books, and Ezra, Nehemiah and the last chapters of 2 Chronicles are included just before the Esdras writings to provide important context for comparison. So if using this in conjunction with one of the other Bible reading plans, you might end up reading some of the books of the Bible twice, but we think this is a high class problem.

Because of some (temporary) limitations to how the Bible data type functions, this first release of the Apocrypha Reading Plan is hard-coded to the NRSV, so we've made it free to any customer that already has the NRSV in their Libronix Digital Library. The NRSV is included in all of our base packages, and is also available à la carte.

Updated Instructions:

1. Determine the folder that contains your Libronix digital books. The default folder is C:\Program Files\Libronix DLS\Resources. If you have changed the default folder, you can see the folders your system monitors for new books by opening Libronix DLS and clicking Tools | Options | General | Resource Paths.


2. Save, do not run or open the following link to the folder that contains your Libronix digital books. Save this file to your resource path.


3. Open Libronix DLS (don't try to click on the newly downloaded file). You may see a message in the lower right-hand corner that says "Discovering Resources" - wait a few seconds for this message to go away.


4. Open My Library and type 'NRSV Apocrypha Reading Plan'. If you already own the NRSV, this will appear unlocked, otherwise it will be locked. If Libronix DLS was open when you downloaded the file, you may need to press the F5 key to refresh your My Library view, or close and re-open Libronix DLS.


5. Enjoy!

There's no replacement for reading the Bible. But there are some very good supplements.

Last week Ryan talked about how you can read the Bible this year with people all over the world using our Global Bible Reader or the new Bible reading plans at Bible.Logos.com. Both are great ways to read the Bible while learning from and sharing with other believers.

If you just want to read by yourself or want to customize your own reading plan, there is the Bible reading feature in the Windows version of Logos. Rather than repeating what I wrote last year, I'll let you check it out for yourself if you want to learn some tips for creating a reading plan in Logos for 2009.

Another feature in Logos for Windows that I'd encourage you to consider using this year is the Devotions section on the home page. Books whose content is arranged by day of the year are automatically added to the list of available devotional readings that you can choose from.

Here's just a sampling of the scores of devotional books we have:

• Amazing Grace—366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck
• Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith by John MacArthur
• Everyday Blessings by Max Lucado
• For the Love of God, Volume One by D. A. Carson
• For the Love of God, Volume Two by D. A. Carson
• From This Verse by Robert J. Morgan
• Grace for the Moment by Max Lucado
• Into His Presence by Charles Stanley
• More Light on the Path by David W. Baker and Elaine A. Heath
• Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
• My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
• On This Day by Robert J. Morgan
• Truth for Today by John MacArthur
• Tozer on the Almighty God: A 366-Day Devotional by A. W. Tozer

To add a book to your daily devotional reading, simply click "Customize View" on home page, scroll down to the Devotions section, and check the box next to Devotions and any of the books that you'd like to read through over the next year. Every day the next devotional will be waiting for you. Just click it to open the current day's reading.

Some other devotional books that don't span an entire year but are worth checking out include John Piper's A Godward Life, Life As a Vapor, and Pierced by the Word.

We trust that God would encourage your faith this year as your read His Word and meditate on its relevance for your life.

Yesterday we started a two-part interview with astrophysicist and author Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons To Believe, whose books we are featuring in our nearly finished Hugh Ross / Reasons To Believe Collection (9 Vols.). If you missed the post, be sure to check it out.

As promised, here is the second half of the interview. Scroll down to start reading, or simply click on any of the questions to jump to Dr. Ross' response. Enjoy!

10. Can you tell us a little bit about the books in the Hugh Ross-Reasons To Believe Collection at Logos.com and how the material in them can help Christians?
11. If someone was to pick up only one of your books to read, which book would you recommend and why?
12. Do you have any new books in the works?
13. What current scientific developments are you really excited about?
14. At your speaking engagements on behalf of Reasons To Believe, have you seen a change in the questions people are asking now as opposed to, say, 10 or 20 years ago?
15. Why has the old-earth vs. young-earth debate become such a divisive issue among evangelical Christians?
16. What advice would you give to a young man or woman entering a secular university to study in a scientific field?
17. In your years of studying science and faith, are there any "ah-ha!" moments that really stand out?
18. Are there any questions you're currently wrestling with?
19. How can Christians better reach out to scientists, engineers, and other science-minded individuals?

Q10. Can you tell us a little bit about the books in the Hugh Ross-Reasons To Believe Collection at Logos.com and how the material in them can help Christians?

A. The Fingerprint of God was my first full-length book. It tells the story of how astronomers' observations of the universe led them, in many cases against their will, to a theistic model of the universe. In addition to explaining the astronomical evidences for the God of the Bible, The Fingerprint of God addresses the problem of evil, the origin of life and humanity, and the Genesis 1 creation account. In many respects, The Fingerprint of God laid the foundations for the rest of my books.

My second book, The Creator and the Cosmos (now in its third edition), greatly expands upon and updates the astronomical, physical, and geological evidence for a God who transcends and creates all matter, energy, space, and time and who has supernaturally and super-intelligently designed the universe and all its constituent parts for the specific benefit of human beings. Of my books, this one has brought more people to faith in Christ than any other.

The Genesis Question addresses the most problematic passages in the Bible for skeptics, namely Genesis 1-11. This book shows how the most maligned chapters in Scripture, in fact, provide some of the strongest proofs available that the Bible is the error-free Word of God, perfectly reliable and trustworthy, not only for faith, doctrine, and life practice but also for science, history, geography, and all the rest of the academic disciplines. It documents how the Bible repeatedly and accurately predicted future scientific discoveries, laid the foundation for the scientific method, makes a biblical case for a non-global but universal Flood, and addresses such questions as the identity of the Nephilim, pre-Flood long life spans, and the origin of the races.

Beyond the Cosmos describes the scientific breakthrough of physicists discovering six dimensions of space in addition to length, width, and height and the conclusion from the space-time theorems of general relativity that the Agent responsible for creating the universe at a minimum possesses the capacity to operate in the equivalent of two time dimensions. These extra dimensions explain why the Bible alone among the world's "holy books" contains doctrines that cannot be visualized within length, width, height, and time. It alone was inspired by the One who lives in and beyond the extra dimensions. In addition, Beyond the Cosmos describes how the transcendence of God into extra dimensions and beyond explains the great paradoxes of the Christian faith: why God is not created, how God can respond to billions of simultaneously uttered prayers, the Trinity, eternal security, human free choice and divine predestination, the atonement, heaven, hell, and the new creation. This book, more than any other from Reasons To Believe, strengthens the security and hope of the believer. It also won more awards than any other RTB book.

Because most scientists refuse to believe in the possibility of nonphysical reality, they are convinced that ETs are real and that UFOs do not exist. Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men shows how the scientific evidence warrants the opposite conclusion. While the vast majority of reported UFOs are explained by natural phenomena or human activity, there exists a provably real but nonphysical residual. This book explains that reality, describes the properties of real UFOs, and shows how only people with involvement in the occult experience close encounters with them. The occult connection also explains why these close encounters always results in harm. The proof of the book's thesis is that anyone who takes the described steps to remove the occult connection from his or her life will be freed from such encounters. This book helps those trapped in occult activities and equips Christians to help them.

Origins of Life presents the RTB biblical model for life's beginning in detail and compares its explanatory power and predictive success with naturalistic models. This book uses the latest scientific discoveries to demonstrate how the explanatory gaps for the naturalistic models have become dramatically larger while RTB's model has shown remarkable success in filling in and explaining knowledge gaps. It also describes the successes and failures in the emerging discipline of astrobiology for testing competing models for the origins of life.

Who Was Adam? tells the story of how scientific advances during the past decade resulted in a paradigm shift that caused the scientific community to abandon Darwin's descent of man hypothesis in favor of what is called in the scientific literature the Garden of Eden hypothesis. This book documents how DNA studies, the discovery of over a dozen independent narrow time windows for human existence, cultural "big bangs," and new fossil record finds brought about this transformation. Who Was Adam? also compares the biblical content on human origins, including the date of humanity's origin, pre-Flood life spans, the rapid post-Flood spreading out of humanity, and the birth of human civilization, with the latest scientific discoveries.

A Matter of Days seeks to resolve the controversy within the church over the age of Earth and the universe. In a context of biblical inerrancy, it explains the four different literal definitions for yôm. This Hebrew word is used for the creation days in Genesis 1. Only the definition of a long, but finite period of time permits a literal and consistent interpretation when integrating the 27 chapter-length creation accounts. A Matter of Days also reviews all the scientific age-measuring methods for the earth and universe, the constancy of the physical laws, the reliability of radiometric dating, time dilation, and the validity of young-earth scientific claims. It addresses, too, death before Adam, hyper-evolution in young-earth creationism, human origins, appearance of age, and restoration theology.

Creation as Science surveys the entirety of RTB's testable creation model. It compares the explanatory power and predictive success of this model with three others: naturalistic materialism, theistic evolution, and young-earth creationism. It also addresses two other creation/evolution participants that have not yet produced detailed models: the intelligent design movement and directed panspermia proponents. This book proposes a new way of handling creation/evolution issues that answers concerns expressed by legislatures and the courts and offers a resolution to the science education crisis currently plaguing both secular and sectarian institutions in America.

Q11. If someone were to pick up only one of your books to read, which book would you recommend and why?

A. I frequently get asked this question. My response is that it depends on the person. For someone looking for the most rigorous scientific evidence for the God of the Bible, I recommend The Creator and the Cosmos. If an individual wants to see the entire scientific case for the God of the Bible summarized in one book, I suggest Creation as Science. This book is also useful for Christians who want to become more effective in reaching out to non-Christians. For those who struggle with the claimed scientific and historical accuracy of the Bible, I advise they read The Genesis Question. A Matter of Days helps many non-Christians, who find young-earth creationism the biggest barrier to the Christian faith. Many Christians say that's our most liberating book. Beyond the Cosmos gives the greatest understanding of who God is and what our future holds is. This is the best book to give someone facing death. People who are caught up in the occult or who are fascinated by ETs and UFOs need to read Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men.

Q12. Do you have any new books in the works?

A. Yes. Baker Publishing Group released my latest book, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is, this past October. They fast-tracked my next book, More Than a Theory, so it's release will coincide (as closely as possible) with global celebrations of the Darwin anniversaries during 2009. Its release is scheduled for March. Right now, I am busy writing a book with the working title Answers in Job.

Why the Universe Is the Way It Is examines 12 different purposes for God creating the universe and answers challenges from atheist scientists who insist the universe is poorly designed. It also provides an answer to the problem of evil by explaining how the physical laws of the universe are optimized to help bring about a rapid, efficient, and permanent removal of evil.

More Than a Theory responds to both naturalism and theistic evolution by presenting a testable, falsifiable, and predictive biblical creation model. Rather than pointing out flaws in the evolutionary models, More Than a Theory presents a comprehensive case for creation and shows how the RTB creation model provides a more complete and consistent explanation of the natural realm and a better record in predicting future scientific discoveries.

Answers in Job will show how many of the most divisive creation/evolution issues, both inside and outside the church, find resolution in the book of Job. Answers in Job also will launch new apologetics disciplines pertaining to the origin of soulish features in birds and mammals.

Q13. What current scientific developments are you really excited about?

A. The top seven for me right now are (1) the hidden purposes in "junk DNA," (2) testing the unique designs of our solar system through the discovery of extrasolar planets and so-called solar twins, (3) testing human origins through the discovery and analysis of Neanderthal DNA and the DNA of long-dead humans, (4) determining the location and structure of exotic dark matter and ordinary dark matter, (5) the potential discovery of axions (a leading candidate for exotic dark matter particle) through measuring the cooling of white dwarf stars, (6) the possibility of a much more accurate measure of the scalar spectral index in the cosmic microwave background radiation (which would explain exactly what kind of inflationary hot big bang creation event brought about the universe), and (7) further experiments with bacteria such as the recent one performed with E coli to test the possibility of natural occurring repeated evolutionary outcomes (proved impossible). These developments and many more are discussed in my forthcoming book, More Than a Theory.

Q14. At your speaking engagements on behalf of Reasons To Believe, have you seen a change in the questions people are asking now as opposed to, say, 10 or 20 years ago?

A. The truth is that the big questions of life people typically ask pretty much stay the same. What has changed are my answers. That's because we live at a time in history when evidences for the Christian faith are multiplying at an astonishing rate. In taking advantage of these new reasons to believe, I try to give my audiences much more effective answers. This availability of new evidence probably explains one main difference I do see. I seem to be getting far fewer aggressive challenges from atheist skeptics, theistic evolutionists, and young-earth creationists. Many more people simply want help resolving apparent conflicts between the record of nature and the words of the Bible.

Q15. Why has the old-earth vs. young-earth debate become such a divisive issue among evangelical Christians?

A. Historically, the church persists in splitting over nonessentials. In the first century the circumcision issue was even more divisive, and certainly more violent. During that debate doctrine wasn't so much at stake as was the strong desire of many Jewish Christians to keep Gentiles out of the church. Likewise, I'm convinced many evangelicals want to keep scientists out of their churches. Telling scientists that they must believe in something with no more scientific credibility than the flat-earth hypothesis is an effective means for discouraging them from getting involved.

Another reason why this debate is so divisive is that many churches tend to ignore the controversy. In the book of Acts, Luke records that not until church leaders dealt with the circumcision controversy head-on did it subside.

Q16. What advice would you give to a young man or woman entering a secular university to study in a scientific field?

A. First, try to get into the best university for your particular discipline. In choosing the best, look carefully at the faculty who will be providing instruction in your area of study. Once school starts, watch for opportunities to assist faculty and senior graduate students in their research. Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't understand something, ask. As much as possible, read the periodical literature related to your discipline. For a Christian student wanting to be an effective witness, it is important to realize that the impact of your message will be proportional first, to your degree of humility and grace; second, to how well-prepared you are to give reasons and evidences for your Christian faith; and third, to the academic excellence you display.

Q17. In your years of studying science and faith, are there any "ah-ha!" moments that really stand out?

A. At Reasons To Believe "ah-ha" moments occur quite frequently. One in the biological sciences that especially comes to mind is a study published by Michigan State researchers proving that Stephen Jay Gould was correct when he claimed that evolution would never produce a repeated outcome. The hundreds of examples of "repeated evolutionary outcomes" seen in nature's record, thus, must be repeated creation outcomes.

A standout in the physical sciences is the recognition of how remarkably designed all the solar system planets are for the maintenance of advanced life on Earth. Another is the discovery that the laws of physics are optimally designed to facilitate a rapid and efficient conquest and removal of all evil.

An "ah-ha" moment that was a big factor in my committing my life to Christ was discovering that Genesis 1 answers the fossil record enigma: rapid and aggressive speciation before the advent of humanity and virtually none afterwards. Genesis 1 provided the answer: for six days God creates but on the seventh day, God ceased from His creation work. That day of rest began after God created Eve and will not end until evil is permanently removed. Genesis 1 also helped me understand why many scientists do not see God in their research studies. If their studies focus only on the era in which God rests, they won't find any evidence of His miraculous interventions in the natural realm.

Q18. Are there any questions you're currently wrestling with?

A. Yes. For my next book I am researching soulish designs. The Bible implies that all "soulish" life has been designed in distinct ways to serve and please humanity. Since these designs were established before humans even existed, no one can claim that soulish creatures (birds and mammals) naturally evolved such features. Some questions I am pursuing is to what degree can scientific evidence be developed to prove that each bird and mammal species was designed to serve and please humans? How distinct are the different means by which birds and mammals do that? And, how did different species help launch human civilization.

Questions of astronomical interest for me are what kinds of particles make up exotic dark matter and what kind of design will we uncover in their properties. In determining more precisely the geography of both exotic and ordinary dark matter, what kind of new arguments for supernatural design will be discovered? What will more accurate measurements of the universe's scalar spectral index and geometry tell us about the cosmic creation event, the universe's spatial size, and the universe's future? Likewise, what will the detection and measurement of gravitational waves tell us about the beginning and end of the universe?

Biblically, a question I continue to pursue is can I, with the help of my colleagues, build a stronger, more extensive case for showing how God's two books of revelation, the book of Scripture and the book of nature, overlap in their content and in that overlap completely agree? Can we continue to find more examples of the Bible accurately predicting future scientific discoveries and providing wisdom for guiding scientific research?

Q19. How can Christians better reach out to scientists, engineers, and other science-minded individuals?

A. For too long many American Christians have treated the scientific and engineering communities as enemies of the Christian faith rather than as mission fields to be won to Christ. What scientists tell me they want most from Christians is a positive rather than a negative overture. They want us to stop bashing scientists and "evolution." Instead, they desire public appreciation from Christians for all the hard work scientists perform in their pursuit of truth and understanding about nature's realm. They also would like to see us present a positive case for creation, one that can be scientifically tested.

Most scientists and engineers are not unwilling to consider creation as an alternative to their evolutionary paradigms. However, they are unwilling to abandon their evolutionary models until they see creation models that offer superior explanations of the record of nature. These models also need to demonstrate greater success in predicting future scientific discoveries. Scientists are waiting for such models to be produced. They are eager to evaluate the credibility and integrity of creation models and to suggest ways that better models can be improved and extended.

It's through engaging scientists and engineers rather than attacking them or ignoring them that we can win many to faith in Christ. I know this from personal experience. Of all the people groups before whom I have presented evangelistic messages within the United States and Canada, engineers have demonstrated the greatest receptivity. And, scientists were not far behind.

Thank you, Dr. Ross, for taking the time to share with our readers!

If you'd like to learn more from Dr. Ross, you still have a few days left to pre-order the Hugh Ross / Reasons To Believe Collection (9 Vols.) at a nicely discounted price.

Our Hugh Ross / Reasons To Believe Collection (9 Vols.) is nearing completion, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to talk to Dr. Ross about his area of expertise and the excellent resources in this collection.

The interview is lengthy, so we've divided it into two posts. The second post will appear tomorrow. If you have an interest in creation, science, and apologetics, I think you'll find it a fascinating read.

Here are the first 9 questions that Dr. Ross answers below. Scroll down to start reading, or simply click on any of the questions to jump directly to his response. Enjoy!

1. As an astronomer and a pastor of evangelism for more than 30 years, could you describe the importance of using science to help people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ?
2. For our readers who might not be familiar with you or your work, could you give us a brief introduction?
3. Can you tell us a little about your ministry, Reasons To Believe (RTB)?
4. Can you share a little bit about your conversion to Christianity?
5. You're an astrophysicist. What exactly does that mean?
6. What started your interest in creation science?
7. Why is testing so important?
8. How can the Christian worldview be tested for poor biblical interpretations?
9. How can science be tested for poor interpretations?

Q1. As an astronomer and a pastor of evangelism for more than 30 years, could you describe the importance of using science to help people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ?

A. The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects. When the record of nature appears to contradict the Bible, that conflict may prevent an individual from making a personal commitment to Christ. For Christians such perceived inconsistencies may stymie the motivation to share their faith.

A core doctrine of Christianity is that everything God reveals is true and, therefore, consistent. The Belgic Confession states that God gave us two books: the book of Scripture and the book of nature. Both are faithful and trustworthy. Thus, any conflict between science and theology must be due to either a misinterpretation of nature's record, a misinterpretation of the Bible's words, or both.

The Bible commands us to be diligent in integrating everything God reveals in its 66 books and in all scientific disciplines. Anomalies or apparent discrepancies should be welcomed as opportunities to dig deeper and broader in the quest to learn more of the truth God reveals.

Today, in some science disciplines, the knowledge base doubles in less than five years. Such new knowledge fascinates people. It also provides opportunities to put belief systems to the test. Whereas many non-Christians refuse to listen to historical evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead, they will listen to news about a recent scientific discovery. Thanks to the pace of science research, every weekday our Reasons To Believe (RTB) team is able to post a new reason to believe in Christ as Creator, Lord, and Savior.

Q2. For our readers who might not be familiar with you or your work, could you give us a brief introduction?

A. I completed my undergraduate degree in physics at the University of British Columbia and have graduate degrees in astronomy from the University of Toronto. My postdoctoral studies were completed at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where I researched quasi-stellar objects, or "quasars," some of the most distant and ancient objects in the universe.

Curious about the world's religions and "holy books," I found only one that proved scientifically and historically accurate: the Bible. Scientific and historical reality-testing convinced me that the Bible is the Word of God.

Communicating that God's revelation in Scripture and in nature do not, will not, and cannot contradict each other became my message and mission. My colleagues at Reasons To Believe and I keep tabs on the frontiers of research to share with scientists and nonscientists alike the thrilling news of what's being discovered and how it connects with biblical theology. In the process, I've written many books including: The Fingerprint of God, The Creator and the Cosmos, Beyond the Cosmos, The Genesis Question, A Matter of Days, and Creation as Science.

Between writing books and articles, making webcasts and podcasts (see www.reasons.org), and being interviewed by outside media, I maintain an extensive travel schedule with the hope of challenging students and faculty, churches, and professional groups to consider what they believe and why. I try to present a persuasive case for Christianity without applying pressure. Treating people's questions and comments with respect has opened many doors for me as a speaker and a talk-radio and television guest.

Q3. Can you tell us a little about your ministry, Reasons To Believe (RTB)?

A. It's a science-faith think tank founded in 1986. RTB focuses on the relationship between the words of the Bible and the facts of nature. We present reasons in writing or in talks at universities, research labs, churches, and elsewhere for confidence in the findings of science and in the authority of Scripture. Our scientists and theologians demonstrate how God's verbal revelation proves accurate and wholly consistent with the latest discoveries. Podcasts, webcasts, video clips, and articles, including Today's New Reason to Believe, show how scientific advance supports the Christian faith. Each can be accessed at www.reasons.org. Event information is listed there as well. We also maintain a science-faith hotline (626-335-5282) that operates daily from 5 to 7 p.m.

Q4. Can you share a little bit about your conversion to Christianity?

A. I was born in Montreal and raised in Vancouver, Canada. My parents were morally upright but nonreligious. I didn't know any Christians or serious followers of any religion while growing up.

Though my neighborhood was poor, its public schools were outstanding and its libraries well-equipped. By age seven I was reading physics books as fast as I could check them out. By eight I decided to make astronomy my career. In the next several years my study of the big bang convinced me that the universe had a beginning, and thus a Beginner. But, like the astronomers whose books I read, I imagined that the Beginner must be distant and noncommunicative.

My high school history studies disturbed me, for it became obvious that all people groups tend to take their religions very seriously. Knowing the European philosophers of the Enlightenment largely discounted religion, my initial response was to study their works. But I quickly discovered inconsistencies, contradictions, evasions, and circular reasoning.

The next step was to turn to the "holy" books themselves. If the Creator had spoken through any of these books (and I thought He probably had not) His authorship would be obvious: the communication would be perfectly true. I reasoned that if man invented a religion, it would reflect human error. But, if God communicated, His message would be error free and as consistent as the facts of nature. So, I used the facts of history and science to test each of the "holy" books.

Initially my task was easy. After only a few hours (in some cases less) of reading, I could find one or more statements clearly at odds with the historical and scientific facts. I also noted a writing style best described as esoteric and mysterious; it seemed inconsistent with the character of the Creator as implied by the facts of nature. My task was easy until I dusted off the Bible that the Gideons had given me as part of their distribution program in public schools.

The Bible was noticeably different. It was simple, direct, and specific. I was amazed at the quantity and detail of its historical and scientific (i.e., testable) accounts. The first page caught my attention. Not only did its author correctly describe the major events in the creation of life on Earth, but he placed those events in the scientifically correct order and properly identified the earth's initial conditions.

For the next year and a half I spent about an hour a day searching the Bible for scientific and historical inaccuracies. Finally I had to admit it was error free and that this accuracy could only come from the Creator Himself. The Bible alone described God and His dealings with man from a perspective that demanded more than just the dimensions (length, width, height, and time) we humans experience. Further, I had proven to myself, on the basis of predicted history and science, that the Bible was more reliable than many of the physical laws. My only rational option was to trust the Bible's authority to the same degree as I trusted the laws of physics.

By this time I clearly understood that Jesus Christ was the Creator of the universe, that He paid the price only a sinless person could pay for all of my offenses against God, and that eternal life would be mine if I received His pardon and gave Him His rightful place of authority over my life. I understood enough Scripture to know, however, that this commitment could not be kept secret. It had to be public, and that meant letting my peers, professors, and family know. I feared the contempt and ridicule that surely would come. So, for several months I hesitated.

During those months I experienced a strange sense of confusion. For the first time in my life, my grades dropped and I had difficulty solving problems. I was discovering the meaning of Romans 1:21, which says that when a man rejects what he knows and understands to be true about God, his thinking becomes futile and his mind darkened. The eventual consequences spelled out in the succeeding verses chilled me.

I knew what I had to do, but my pride seemed too great. One evening I prayed, asking God to take away my resistance and make me a Christian. I prayed this way for six hours with no apparent answer. Finally, I realized that Jesus Christ will not force Himself upon anyone, even if asked. It was up to me to humble myself and invite Him in. And this is what I did at 1:06 in the morning. I then signed my name to the "decision statement" at the back of my Gideon Bible, acknowledging Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Right away I sensed an assurance that God would never let me go, that I was His forever. My fears of ridicule from unbelievers subsided gradually, and day by day I began learning how to share my discoveries of spiritual truth with fellow students and faculty. However, a lack of fellowship with other Christians stunted my growth in Christlikeness.

Every once in awhile I'd visit a church only to discover a cult or a group who called themselves Christians but did not take the Bible seriously. On arriving at Caltech for postdoctoral studies, I finally met a serious believer, Dave Rogstad. Dave invited me to a seminar on applying biblical principles to daily living. There I sat with 16,000 committed Christians. I was overwhelmed to find that so many believers existed, and the things I was taught helped and humbled me.

Within weeks of that seminar I found myself not only attending home Bible studies but helping lead them. Dave challenged me to begin sharing my faith with nonscientists. I was surprised to observe that unlike scientists, who tend to struggle more with their wills than with their minds in coming to Christ, nonscientists tend to struggle more with their minds. If only they could see convincing evidence that God exists, that Jesus is God, and that the Bible is true, they would readily give their lives to Christ. What joy to know the truths that could help set them free!

I began spending more and more time sharing the evidence with others. Within a year I started serving full-time as the minister of evangelism for Sierra Madre Congregational Church. Ten years later, when breakthrough discoveries in the sciences virtually sealed the scientific case for the God of the Bible, a group of friends urged me to form Reasons To Believe. RTB communicates new scientific evidence for creation as widely as possible. It is my delight to report that for each year I have known Jesus as my Lord and Savior, my joy in Him and in sharing His truth with others grows greater. There is nothing in this world for which I would trade my relationship with Jesus Christ. [For an extended audio version, go to Hugh Ross' testimony (Real Audio, 50 minutes).]

Q5. You're an astrophysicist. What exactly does that mean?

A. An astrophysicist studies the physics of the universe and all it contains: cosmic voids, galaxy clusters, galaxies, dark matter, dark energy, gas, dust, stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, cosmic rays, etc. Decades ago, astronomers exclusively focused on making observations of the universe and its components while astrophysicists made theoretical interpretations of the observations. Today, however, virtually all observational astronomers spend much of their time making theoretical interpretations and virtually all theoretical astrophysicists are involved to some degree in making observations. Thus, the terms "astronomer" and "astrophysicist" have become interchangeable. This interchangeability explains why even universities with large numbers of graduate students in a wide range of astronomical sciences offer either astronomy or astrophysics degrees, not both.

Q6. What started your interest in creation science?

A. My parents said I did science experiments even before I could talk (though that didn't happen until I was five). By the time I was sixteen I recognized that astronomical observations favored the big bang model of the universe. A big bang implied a cosmic beginning and, hence, a cosmic Beginner. That realization prompted me to study different philosophical systems and religions to test whether their teachings matched the established record of nature. Thus, creation science played a crucial role in my becoming a Christian.

By the time I started postdoctoral research studies at the Caltech, I kept running into people who began peppering me with creation science and science-faith questions. The same thing happened at the church I attended near Caltech. My answers led to invitations to speak on the subject. And, my writing soon followed.

Q7. Why is testing so important?

A. Testing guards our minds and spirits from deception. The Bible warns us that legions of fallen angels and humans are determined to win converts to their rebellion against God. Rigorous, thorough, objective testing is a God-given tool that helps us discern truth from error. Testing is the chief means by which we can uncover more of the truth God wants us to discover and understand.

The Bible states that people perish for a lack of knowledge. But, not all knowledge is from God. The apostle John warns, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

Q8. How can the Christian worldview be tested for poor biblical interpretations?

A. The Bible is not one book. It is 66. Many Christians pride themselves on taking the Bible literally, but fail to take it consistently. A weakness of the modern American church is its failure to appreciate and practice systematic theology. The best way to check out and fine-tune an interpretation of a topic addressed by a particular Bible passage is to examine all the verses throughout Scripture that pertain to that topic.

A correct interpretation must be consistent with all the passages. However, there may be more than one such interpretation. The range of possibly consistent interpretations must be continually reevaluated as one's knowledge and understanding of the topic and the relevant Bible passages grows. These interpretations also must be evaluated in light of other related biblical topics and doctrines.

Another means for checking a particular interpretation are extrabiblical truths, for example, God's second book, the book of nature. The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy wrote in 1981, "We affirm that since God is the author of all truth, all truths, biblical and extrabiblical, are consistent and cohere, and that the Bible speaks truth when it touches on matters pertaining to nature, history, or anything else. We further affirm that in some cases extrabiblical data have value for clarifying what Scripture teaches, and for prompting correction of faulty interpretations."

Q9. How can science be tested for poor interpretations?

A. Science is the study of the entire record of nature. Through observations and experiments, scientists note that nature's record is contradiction free. This unfailing consistency yields a reliable test for any scientific interpretation.

Correct scientific interpretations must explain in a consistent and fully integrated manner all the scientific data accumulated in all scientific disciplines. The best interpretation develops a model with the most extensive, detailed, and complete explanation of the phenomenon under consideration.

A theologian can always learn more about a biblical topic. So, too, a scientist can always learn more about a scientific phenomenon. The lack of total knowledge implies that every phenomenon under investigation will exhibit anomalies that don't quite fit the available scientific explanations.

Anomalies provide another means for evaluating scientific interpretations. For poor interpretations anomalies will grow in number and significance as scientists learn more about the phenomenon under investigation. For good interpretations anomalies will shrink in number and degree of significance.

Gaps in knowledge and understanding yield yet another testing tool. If gaps grow bigger and more numerous as scientists learn more, the interpretation is likely incorrect. On the other hand, if the gaps shrink in magnitude and number, that's a sign one's interpretation lies on the pathway toward truth.

Finally, a good scientific interpretation will be consistent with what the Bible teaches. Scripture properly integrated, analyzed, and understood can correct faulty interpretations of nature's record.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for part two.

In the meantime, don't miss out on your chance to pre-order the Hugh Ross / Reasons To Believe Collection (9 Vols.) at a nicely discounted price.

It's 2:00 AM, and you can't sleep. You decide to browse the Logos website for books to buy. And you find the perfect book that you'd like to read right away before the need to sleep takes over.

So you add the downloadable book to your cart and purchase it. The only thing that stands between you and reading your new book is clicking the orange "Download and Unlock" button. Then you get a screen that says, "You have received an unlocking error. Please contact Customer Service at 1-800-875-6467 for further help." The only problem is that the Logos Customer Service team doesn't open until 6AM (PST). Alas, you return to be restless, forced to wait until the morning to dig into your new book.

This sad scenario can be avoided by making sure that your Libronix Customer ID has been entered in your web account prior to making an order.

Once you sign in to your web account, you will see a screen that includes your shipping and billing information. Below that, there is a section titled "Confirm Libronix Customer ID."

If this is blank (or has the wrong information in it), you will not be able to purchase any downloadable resources and you will get the infamous "unlocking error."

So what goes in this box? How do you find your Customer ID? Your Libronix Customer ID is usually either the email address you used when you first installed Libronix or, if you didn't enter one, an automatically created ID like LBXUSER948372.

Many customers put their current email address in as their Customer ID, but this may not be correct. To be sure, you should check in Libronix. Open Libronix and go to Help > About Libronix DLS.

After you've identified your Customer ID—in my case demo@libronix.com —make sure to enter it into your web account and click "Confirm." Now you will be able to successfully purchase and unlock books at Logos.com—even in the early hours of the morning when you can't sleep!

One more tip for Vista users: when you download a book file, it is usually best to save it to your desktop and then manually drag it to your Resources folder: C:\Program Files\Libronix DLS\Resources. If you're using the 64-bit version of Vista, the correct location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Libronix DLS\Resources.

Happy unlocking—and reading!

Our Pre-Pub system let's you decide which resources make it into production and which ones don't—or at least which one's make it sooner than other.

It works quite well for the most part. But for the Pre-Pubs that don't generate sufficient interest in a reasonable amount of time, perhaps our time could have been better spent working on titles that you want to see turned into Libronix resources.

You get a say in which titles go up on Pre-Pub by submitting your requests to suggest@logos.com and posting them in the suggestions newsgroup. While those suggestions are very helpful, we can't always license the things you want.

We're considering another way that you can help us decide which books to Pre-Pub and which ones to pass by or put on the back burner. We're tentatively calling it Pre-Pre-Pub. :)

Here's how it will work. Visit the Pre-Pre-Pub page, enter your full name, and then vote on as many of the titles as you'd like. After you're done, click the submit button at the bottom of the page. (Please vote only once.) After we've had enough people respond, we'll do our best to put your recommendations into action and put up a new list.

At close to 500 titles, our first list might be a bit too large. If you move quickly, you should be able to get through it in roughly 10 minutes. Feel free to skip the ones that don't interest you. A skip will count as a low vote. To help you navigate the list, we've arranged the titles in alphabetical order of the author's last name.

Thanks for your help! As always, we welcome your feedback on how we can continue to offer you more of the books that you want.

One of the features in Bible Study Magazine is an ongoing Bible study that focuses on the practical value of the book of Hebrews for Christians today. In conjunction with this series, we created a product guide of commentaries and Bible study tools on this important letter.

If you've ever wanted to see a list of most of the commentaries that we sell on the book of Hebrews—more than 35—now you can in our Hebrews product guide.

If you're planning to study or preach through Hebrews, you're sure to find some great tools to add to your digital library.

For more lists of resources, be sure to check out our other product guides. Have an idea for a product guide that you'd like to see? Drop us a note in the comments and let us know.

A potential customer emailed me his concerns about investing in an electronic library:

"I have had the desire to invest in an electronic library, but I am terrified of investing all of this money into one and then losing my money's worth because new computers will not be able to read them. How does Logos deal with this? Will my grandchildren be able to use my electronic library?"

This is a fear we hear regularly, but one that quickly goes away once we explain how Logos licenses the content, not the file-format.

It's true that digital data can be lost if it is not constantly migrated to new storage media and kept in up-to-date or easily parsed formats. Paper books can be lost, too — just look at New Orleans and the libraries lost to flooding and mold.

The key issue is, who is ensuring your continued access? With paper it's you — you have to keep it dry and away from fire, and you have to be willing to store and move it. (Most books are "lost" when people don't want to move them yet again.)

I can't make guarantees about the future; nobody can. But in Logos' case, we've got a 17 year track record, we're a strong business, and we've honored users licenses to the electronic books through various format, media, and operating system changes for more than a dozen years. That's a pretty good record.

Moreover, what we sell you is the license to the book, NOT the digital file. When we change formats (which we've done) you don't have to re-acquire a license. When music went from vinyl records to cassettes to CD's, you had to re-purchase the album each time. But we aren't selling you "today's format" — we're selling an electronic license. With Logos, it's as if you're provided the song free on cassette, CD, and then digital download, all because of your original vinyl purchase.

Can you loan the book, and can your grandchildren have it [see the clarification below]? No. But not because of the electronic format. It's because we offer a really good price in exchange for licensing to one user. We sell our electronic books (in collections) at a huge discount from list price.

The big question is, what is your goal? To have beautiful books on your shelf that you can pass as heirlooms to your descendents, or to get convenient, useful access to a large library of content with a powerful set of tools for searching and reports?

I can "acquire a movie" in several ways: $9 at the theater, $1.99 VHS rental later, $29.95 to own the DVD, or (maybe) hundreds of dollars to acquire a film print. Each format has strengths and weaknesses. The theater experience is the best way to see it, but when it's over, it's over. The rental lets me rewind and pause and watch it a few times, but it's on a small screen and later in the release cycle. The DVD is also on my home screen, costs more, and might still go obsolete years down the road. The film is physically simple — shine light through the film to project — and actually the "safest" format to ensure my descendents can watch it, but it's more expensive, more awkward, etc.

The biggest risk with our electronic books is that we go out of business and then, some years later, computers change in a way that doesn't let you run our software. We intend, of course, to stay in business, and (to the best of our knowledge) we're the largest and strongest player in Bible software. But still, A) virtualization technology will probably ensure the ability to run this generation of applications for a long time and B) we have a large enough customer base that even in a bankruptcy someone would probably acquire and retain our product line and/or customer relationships.

So is your investment in e-books a safe bet? I believe so. Plus, it's easier on the back when it's time to move your library.

We're excited to be able to make available on Pre-Pub 41 books in five collections from our new friends at Canon Press.

These collections cover a wide range of biblical, theological, and practical issues and are sure to be of help to average Christians, pastors, and scholars alike.

• Canon Press Theology Collection (9 Vols.)

• Canon Press Biblical Studies Collection (6 Vols.)

• Nancy Wilson Collection (3 Vols.)

• Peter J. Leithart Collection (6 Vols.)

• Douglas J. Wilson Collection (17 Vols.)

Canon Press is one of the literature ministries of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, which is pastored by Douglas Wilson, a theologian and prolific author—both in print and on his popular Blog and Mablog.

Wilson is also a powerful apologist in the tradition of Cornelius Van Til. I thoroughly enjoyed the six-part debate with atheist Christopher Hitchens hosted by ChristianityToday.com in June of 2007, "Is Christianity Good for the World?"

October 5, 2008 marked 305 years since the birth of Jonathan Edwards, who has been widely known as America's greatest theologian. Most people's birthdays don't get remembered by very many people after they die, but Jonathan Edwards is a notable exception.

John Piper on Jonathan Edwards

As I mentioned in Friday's post on Learning from Your Heroes' Heroes, John Piper is well known for his immense appreciation for Edwards. He's written or edited two books about Edwards, both of which are available in Libronix:

• God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards
• A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards

I'd strongly encourage you to listen to or read Piper's biographical sketch on Edwards, "The Pastor as Theologian," which was given at the first Desiring God Pastors Conference in 1988. Powerful and motivating.

As you might expect, Piper wrote a blog post about Jonathan Edwards' Birthday, where he had this to say about him:

I suppose, after the Bible, no theologian has a greater ongoing effect on me as Jonathan Edwards. There are few in the world who combine the sharpness of mind, the scope of thought, the allegiance to Scripture, the depth of insight, the intensity of affections, the height of imagination, and the power of expression that he brings to all his work. I thank God for him today.

Coming Soon to Libronix!

Soon you'll be able to have the standard 2-volume set fully searchable and tagged in your Libronix library. We announced Edwards' works on Pre-Pub at the end of March. I just heard from our Electronic Text Development department that we're not too far away from being ready to ship! If you haven't placed your pre-order yet, don't miss out on your chance to get our best price on the works of this eminently influential theologian. Place your pre-order now.

A Birthday Special

What would a birthday be without a birthday present? To celebrate Edwards' 305th birthday and the soon arrival of his works in Libronix format, we have two specials for you, our blog readers:

1. Get a taste of Edwards now by downloading A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections for free! Use coupon code EDWARDS during checkout to get this Edwards classic for no charge.
2. Save 40% on the two Piper books on Edwards mentioned above by using coupon code PIPER-EDWARDS.

Both specials are good for one week, so take advantage now and spread the word!

Update: This offer has expired.