Free e-book available -- Does the Bible Really Say That?

The above graphic is the cover of a free e-book. To know more about the background text used in that cover, you can use the graphic as a link.

During 2012, it was my privilege to lead a small group, at my church, on the theme of “Does the Bible really say that?”

Since then, much of that material has found its way into an ebook, or e-book, of the same title. As of March 13, 2013, this book is ready to distribute, free to anyone who wants it. If you wish, you may distribute the book to others.

The topics covered, some in more depth than others, some with a rather firm conclusion, some not, are as follows:

►The culture of Bible times and understanding the Bible
►Genres of Biblical literature
►Was praying for sinners important in the early church? What are the types of prayer, and what did the early church pray for?
►Must the husband always be the spiritual leader in a home?
►Must marriage ceremonies be conducted in church?
►Is homosexuality the worst sexual sin?
►Is prophecy easy to understand? How certain is prophecy about the tribulation, the rapture and the anti-Christ?
►Can a believer lose her salvation? What does the Bible say about the characteristics of believers?
►Do we go to heaven immediately upon death? Do resurrected believers have a body?




Some of the material in the book was previously posted to this blog, and I thank all readers and commenters.
 
The World English Bible, which is in the public domain, is quoted extensively, which is fitting, since what the Bible has to say is more important than what I have to say. Besides being in the public domain, the language is mostly understandable to 21st-century readers. (No believeth, hath, thee, etc.)

The book is available as a Word document (a little over 100 pages, with quite a bit of space, and in 13-point type) as an .html file, as a .PDF file, as a Kindle document, and as an epub file (the Barnes & Noble Nook uses such files, as do some other e-readers.)There are links to all five of these formats on this page.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 390

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: An astronomical object, 20 million light-years in length -- that's really long -- has been discovered, according to Wired.

Scientists in Italy have been convicted of not giving sufficient warning about an earthquake, according to The Daily Beast.

Dinosaurs probably had feathers, and the feathers may have been colored, perhaps used in courtship displays, according to reports by National Public Radio and the Scientific American. See here and here.

Philosophy: Do plants have rights? Some think that they do. (Some don't!) NPR reports.

Computing: You may think you own books, and other media, that you obtain from Apple, Amazon, and other commercial sources. Not so. Furthermore, Wired reports that all the content you have paid to use may be removed. Whoops.!

Christianity: Project Gutenberg has recently released the public domain Rand-McNally Bible Atlas by Hurlbut, in several versions. There is an abundance of maps and charts. I took the HTML version and went to the large version of a couple dozen maps or so, and saved them for later use. I also took the Windows Snipping tool (any screen capture tool should work) and saved some of the charts, some of which were on subjects I had never thought of, such as how much land each tribe got, under Joshua. I also hope to use the Kindle version. There are more versions.

Image source (public domain)