New English NWT Bible released as Annual Meeting is leaked online

Watchtower’s much-anticipated 129th Annual Meeting was held today at the Stanley Theater, New Jersey. In an unprecedented move, the event was streamed live to 1,830 locations – a global audience of nearly 1.5 million Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Sadly I was among those without an invitation. The Governing Body does not tend to welcome with open arms those like me who are critical of some of their teachings and policies.

But thankfully I have not been left entirely in the dark, and neither has anyone else for that matter! One brave blogger going by the name of “DrJohnChrist” who attended one of the streaming locations has provided a running commentary via a thread on the Reddit social network.

Much of the hype leading up to the Annual Meeting surrounded the fact that there has been a far-reaching shortage of New World Translations over the last few months, with congregation stocks running dry. This led to rumors that a new version of the English New World Translation was in preparation – and it seems these whispers were not wide of the mark.

It fell to Governing Body member Geoffrey Jackson to announce the new release. Revised into 21st Century English with a grey cover and silver edges, a revision of the New World Translation bible has been released today with the PDF version available on Monday 7th (presumably on JW.org). This is what it looks like…

On-Screen Bible: Now on Quick Screen

When you subscribe to Proclaim, you don’t have to wait for the “new version” or buy additional software. When we create new features, you get them for free. In December, we announced the On-Screen Bible–a new tool that draws attention to your Scripture references with subtle animations and sends app Signals.
Now we’ve added the On-Screen Bible to your quick screen, so you can be even more prepared for last-minute adjustments and spontaneous Bible references. When you take Proclaim On Air, the quick screen appears next to your current slide, so it’s right there when you need it and out of the way when you don’t.
 
Click on the “OSB” (On-Screen Bible) slide,

Why Preach through Books of the Bible?

I had a conversation with a minister friend who had been involved in discussing what pastors were preaching in their churches. While most seemed to agree that exposition of the biblical text must have priority in the church, few thought it wise to preach consecutively through books of the Bible—particularly with series that extended beyond twelve weeks. I understand the challenge of longer series but also see the value in the long run. The forty-four sermons that I preached through Ephesians in 1990–91, literally transformed my life, theology, and congregation. Eight or ten sermons would not have sufficed to uproot faulty theology and set us on a right course. The fifty-two sermons in Hebrews in 2000–01, sharpened our understanding of the gospel and its application to the whole of life.

What would you say had you been involved in the discussion? Here are a few thoughts that I’ve ruminated on since that conversation.

(1) Pastors have the responsibility to preach the whole range of biblical revelation. Paul told the Ephesian elders, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27). He could not simply address his favorite issues but intentionally sought to address the issues of God’s will for sinners and for the redeemed. Do we address the range of God’s will for the Galatians or to those who first received First and Second Samuel, by picking one or two texts to expound to the neglect of the others?

Virtual recordings of the Bible — from anywhere in the world

When Faith Comes By Hearing first started recording Audio Bibles in the languages of the world, two or three recordings a year was considered successful. With digital technology improvements, the ministry now releases 90-100 new recordings annually.

Taking the next step in recording technology, we’re introducing Virtual Recording, which can potentially handle hundreds of recording projects simultaneously on the internet. An online presence, VirtualRecording.com, opens up participation in Scripture recording to anyone with a computer, microphone and Internet connection.

Siesta Summer 2014 Bible Study: Anybody Game for “Children of the Day”?

Hey, Everybody!

It’s almost May and, around here, that means it’s time to announce our Siesta Summer Bible Study for those who are itching to take a journey together. In all these years of doing summer Bible study together here on the blog, we’ve never gone through one I’ve authored. The biggest reason is that I really love to go through other authors’ courses with our blog community. That’s a refreshing blast of Holy Spirit-breath to me and you can count on us doing that again next summer.  The other reason is that the launch date of one of mine never coincided well with the beginning of summer.  With Children of the Day (an in-depth study of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians) coming out in May, the timing works out perfectly. I ask you to trust my heart on this and know that we’re not doing the study this summer so that I can drive up sales. I can’t prove my motives to you but I give you my word. That’s all I know to do. Any of you who still find it uncomfortable can, by all means, choose another Bible study by a different author and feel completely welcome to formulate your group right here in the comment section to this post. Just start your comment with the words in all caps “ANOTHER OPTION” and get together on line and choose which Bible study you’d like to do. There are so many fabulous ones available. You have my complete and joyful blessing to use this community to put your group together. Any way we can serve you is a tremendous honor to us.

For those of you who would like to do Children of the Day with our community this summer, here are a few important facts:

* We’ll start Tuesday, June 3, 2014. Around here at Living Proof, we formed the habit of Tuesday Bible study over the years so that’s why we choose it as our gathering day but you are welcome to commit to any day of the week that works for you. Simply adapt the instructions to that particular day.

* Children of the Day is an 8-week study so we will wrap it up on Tuesday, July 29, 2014.

* As we’ve done in past summers, we’re only asking you to commit to “gather” with us and/or with your group every other week since summers are so busy. We will still stay on schedule for each week’s homework but you’ll only need to check in once every 2 weeks.

Children of the Day Online Bible Study Week

Welcome back to online Bible study as we study Children of the Day by Beth Moore. We have about 700 women participating in this online Bible study so remember to pray for our leaders and the women participating in your groups. By now everyone should have their study books and hopefully you’ve started working through the book. A few women accidentally ordered the leaders book (28 pages) instead of the study guide/member book (240 pages) so you’re a tad behind on the lessons from where the rest of the group is right now. Please don’t worry about this if you are one of these women. Just pick up the book where you are today and move forward. You’ll make progress one page at a time and before you know it you’ll be on track with the group again.

What an absolute privilege to be joining you in this Bible study on Thessalonians! This study was just published and already has many positive reviews. Like any Bible study, it also as a few challenges as we get started and you might even feel like you’ve gotten in over your head! To overcome these challenges our leadership team has created this list of suggestions:

1. Pray before you begin your lesson each day and the Holy Spirit will lead you and convict you in your daily study

The Bible is Full of Real People and Places!

There are real people in the Bible! They lived in, travelled to, fought and fell in love inreal places!

 

The Bible is not Star Trek ,Star Wars or even Galaxy Quest . Those are detailed, science-fictional stories about fictional people in fictional places. Granted, they are interesting stories about interesting though unreal people—if, like me, you like that sort of thing.

We can envision the fictional drama of their made-up lives, and most importantly, we can relate to those made-up folks. Sometimes we can see a little of ourselves in their characters. We can imagine their lives that led to the vignettes in the books and films. It’s like our minds filled in the gaps of time and space so we can see and hear what they saw and heard. We reason and feel what they thought and felt. We like those stories in part because we can envision the characters and places in our minds’ eye.

Behold the Bible!