FREE/BARGAIN — Christian Interest

[GtrsRGr8]

I was on the fence about where to post this. There are some bona fide books, of interest to Christians, among these. But, there are also a lot of charts and small booklets, too, which would normally go on the Media thread.

Anyway, I think that this may have been mentioned before but, if so, it's been a while. Answers in Genesis, the apologetics website, offers some free downloads. It looks like there are about 2 -3 dozen at the present time.

I think that this link might work for you to see what's available. However, if it doesn't, you probably will need to set up an account or log in to one that you already have in order to access that webpage or some other one which lists the downloads that are available.

Annoyingly, these downloads, as far as I can tell skimming through the list, require several different, particular devices, readers, etc. in order to be able to open them. A few require the Answers in Genesis mobile application (I didn't even know that they had one--that's all that we need is one more proprietary ebook app. ). If you do not have that particular app, which is the most likely scenario for you, I feel sure that Answers in Genesis offers it for free somewhere on their website.

If you haven't checked into Answers in Genesis' free downloads in a while, why not give them a look-see?

[Ricky D'Angelo]

This book is free in paperback version. . the only catch is you have to request the free paperback by messaging the author on facebook. . . I requested my copy a few weeks ago and it came in the mail the other day.

****admin***
I resized the picture to make it smaller however the attachment (paperclip) tool is not working so I posted the original picture. If the pic is too big please delete and I will repost w/o picture. Muchas gracias.

[TrevorViking]

^ I'm usually all about anything free, but looking at that man's Facebook feed has me ignoring this offer.

[Little.Egret]

By the way, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th edition (2005) by Metger and Ehrman (OUP) is available for free online.

https://ia800307.us.archive.org/32/i...ent4thEdit.pdf


Other formats

https://archive.org/details/TheTextO...stament4thEdit

Print edition and reviews

https://www.amazon.com/Text-New-Test.../dp/019516122X

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

By the way, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th edition (2005) by Metger and Ehrman (OUP) is available for free online.

https://ia800307.us.archive.org/32/i...ent4thEdit.pdf

Great find. Thanks.

There are a lot of great books on the Internet Archive which are still in copyright. This is one of them. For one reason or another, the copyright holder has allowed the books to be published on the Internet Archive and to let people freely download them. Unfortunately, I know of no way to ferret out the worthwhile books from those which are not. Nor do I know of anyone who actively tries to do so or any website where there is an active effort to do so.

[GtrsRGr8]

The source from which I learned of this markdown says that the $2.99 price is good through tomorrow (sorry I'm so late in the day today seeing it).

I haven't purchased the book yet. I need to do a lot more reading through the preview pages. I've read enough to know that this is no light read; if you're looking for something like that, you probably should pass this one up. Some people will appreciate the meatiness, however.

If I understand correctly, the author argues that our culture is not moving toward, but already has moved, from the worldviews that he calls "Twoism" to "Oneism (I don't know that I've ever heard anyone else use those words).

I don't know that I exactly agree with his premise, which seems to be that there has been a widespread cultural shift from Twoism to Oneism. Maybe there has been a shift to some degree in the last few years but, if so, it seems to me to be small, and, if so, it is by no means a unique one: the counterculture of the 1960's embraced pantheism (very simply put, the idea that "all is god"), which is a type of monism (the same idea as the author's "Oneism"?). It's the idea, again very simply put, that "everything is of one essence" (god or whoever or whatever). The New Age Movement of, say, the late 1980's and early 1990's, with its roots in the Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, also embraced pantheism. So, I may not agree with the author's premise; however, I may be willing to hear him out.

The Other Worldview: Exposing Christianity's Greatest Threat. By Peter Jones. Rated 4.5 stars, but from only 11 reviews at Amazon at the present moment; rated 4.08, but from only 13 ratings at GoodReads at the present moment. Print list price $14.95; digital price $10.99; Kindle price now $2.99. Kirkdale Press, publisher. 272 pages. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZD5XJAU/.

Book Description
A cataclysmic change has occurred as our culture has shifted toward belief in "Oneism."

Every religion and philosophy fits into one of two basic worldviews: "Oneism" asserts that everything is essentially one, while "Twoism" affirms an irreducible distinction between creation and Creator. The Other Worldview exposes the pagan roots of Oneism, traces its spread throughout Western culture, and demonstrates its inability to save.

"For bodily holiness and transformed thinking . . . we depend entirely on one amazing thing: the incredibly powerful message of the Gospel to a sinful world, which is the ultimate expression and goal of Twoism. The only hope is in Christ alone."

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The Other Worldview: Exposing Christianity's Greatest Threat. By Peter Jones. Rated 4.5 stars, but from only 11 reviews at Amazon at the present moment; rated 4.08, but from only 13 ratings at GoodReads at the present moment. Print list price $14.95; digital price $10.99; Kindle price now $2.99. Kirkdale Press, publisher. 272 pages. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZD5XJAU/.

Book Description
A cataclysmic change has occurred as our culture has shifted toward belief in "Oneism."

Every religion and philosophy fits into one of two basic worldviews: "Oneism" asserts that everything is essentially one, while "Twoism" affirms an irreducible distinction between creation and Creator. The Other Worldview exposes the pagan roots of Oneism, traces its spread throughout Western culture, and demonstrates its inability to save.

"For bodily holiness and transformed thinking . . . we depend entirely on one amazing thing: the incredibly powerful message of the Gospel to a sinful world, which is the ultimate expression and goal of Twoism. The only hope is in Christ alone."

I had a chance to read a teeny bit of this book earlier this year and I wanted it! I remembered it again recently when I browse-read Ellis Potter's 3 Theories of Everything.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

I had a chance to read a teeny bit of this book earlier this year and I wanted it! I remembered it again recently when I browse-read Ellis Potter's 3 Theories of Everything.

Thanks for letting me know. I was afraid that it would be so "deep"/esoteric that there wouldn't be anyone who would be interested.

It's interesting that Jones argues that there really are only two worldviews, but Potter argues that there are actually three. There are plenty of arguments and information among the two books to ponder . . . .

[Ricky D'Angelo]

Primitive Christianity: its writings and teachings in their historical connections all formats is free.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1138...e_Christianity

I like this source because if you choose send to kindle the book will be sent immediately to your ereader.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

****admin***
I resized the picture to make it smaller however the attachment (paperclip) tool is not working so I posted the original picture. If the pic is too big please delete and I will repost w/o picture. Muchas gracias.

Just as an FYI for you or anyone else, you can't directly thumbnail an image like that. You need to download it to your computer or device and then upload it from there (which is what I've done). HTH.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

Primitive Christianity: its writings and teachings in their historical connections all formats is free.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1138...e_Christianity

I like this source because if you choose send to kindle the book will be sent immediately to your ereader.

CORRECTION/UPDATE/HUMBLE APOLOGIES:
I just downloaded the two different "editions" (as the Open Library refers to them). They may be two different editions, but they are also two separate volumes--Volume I and Volume II. The first one listed, Volume I, is dated 1965, and Reference Book Publishers is credited as the publisher: the second one is Volume II, with Williams & Norgate as the publisher, and dated 1909.

These books are not advocating primitive Christianity in the present day. Rather, they discuss what the author refers to as primitive Christianity--i.e., the history, basically, of the early church (the author demarcates that period as ca. 30-600).

Oh, and these books that I called "short books" . . . well, volume I is about 500 pages long; volume II is a little over 500 pages long. They looked like tracts or pamphlets to me, from the thumbnails of the book covers.



I really appreciate this post. This is a subject in Christianity that I really enjoy thinking (mainly) and reading about. I don't claim any special knowledge about it, however. In fact, I didn't recognize the name of the author of this little book, which I probably would have had if I were better read on the subject. I would like to share some thoughts that I've had on the subject, however.

I don't ever remember reading of any of the more prominent people involved in the Reformation Movement really taking the position that they wanted to restore primitive Christianity. In fact, the term "Reformation," if I understand it correctly, was used in order to convey the idea that "this movement is to reform the existing Church (the Roman Catholic Church) and not intended to start any new churches" (I've heard that the moniker "Protestant," even, did not come from the idea that people were "protesting" the Catholic Church, but from some other concept, which at the moment slips my mind). Many, maybe most, of the Reformers claimed to be Roman Catholic until the days that they died. Despite the Reformers' stated intent, the Reformation Movement did lead, directly or indirectly, to the creation of thousands of new denominations, sects, etc. of which most, if not all, are opposed to the Roman Catholic Church. Some of those arising in the latter part of the Reformation Movement may actually have now a desire and goal of being restorationist. Here my knowledge is especially weak, but I know that there are groups with names like the "Full Gospel" church, the Primitive Baptist Church, various "Apostolic" churches, et al.

There are actually several churches/denominations in the U.S., at least, that claim to be "Restorationist" (some of the ones that I mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph may actually have been "born" in the United States, I just don't know)--saying that they wish to go back to the way things were set up in the days of the apostles in the first century, in everything concerning the church, as well as in other religious matters. Off the top of my head, there is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and there is the "Restoration Movement" (often referred to as the Stone-Campbell Movement ("Stone" being Barton W. Stone and "Campbell" being Alexander Campbell)). However, over the years, denominations such as the Disciples of Christ, which had their historical roots in the Restoration Movement, seemingly have abandoned the Restorationist goal and mindset.

Then, there are denominations today which to me appear to be wanting restorationism buffet-style--picking this or that that they want to try to restore and, so, return to primitive Christianity in those particular matters, while leaving other things off of their plates, so to speak. Most denominations have traditionally not had the office of "elder" (or the office has been relegated to people serving as informal counselors within the churches) and their creeds and catechisms have nothing to say about them whatsoever. There is one person, in particular, who has started a movement to restore the position of elder to what it was supposed to be, i.e., according to the New Testament. But it seems like his desire, and certainly that of the movement, is limited to restoring that one matter. I've seen, in denominational/parachurch/ministry publications and on their websites, a "Head Covering Restoration" effort (the first few verses of First Corinthians chapter 11 instruct women to have their heads covered while "praying and prophesying"--they believe this to be an artificial head covering and that it should be worn in every worship service, in churches at least). All of this effort is seemingly to the exclusion of a sense of urgency to restore anything else.

Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts. I'm anxious to see what the writer of this little book has to say. Maybe something that I have written has piqued your interest and lead to you to download the book. If anyone wishes to make a discussion of this, please remember that it will have to be taken to some other forum (I think that there is a religious/political thread somewhere for just such topics).

[GtrsRGr8]

Give this a try. You should get 5 quality free books from it.

Let me mention, early on, that to use these books you will need to have the web-based Bible study app/software myWSB.com. If you have never set up an account with them, you will need to do that first.

Go to http://www.lifeway.com/pastors/2016/...ns-write-book/. You should get a popup ad within a few seconds (mine appeared on the far righthand side, near the top of the webpage, when the webpage was fully maximized on my screen).

The ad will say "FREE PASTOR'S LIBRARY. Subscribe and receive a FREE digital library from myWSB.com valued at $150." Then it will ask you to enter your first name and email address. Click on the bright red button that says "Sign Up." You will get a redemption code that you'll need to insert into a form that you'll be seeing.

What I received was five commentaries. I already had an account with myWSB.com, and already had some books in my library with them, so I don't remember now the exact titles that I received in this promotion. However, I do remember that three were in the "Christ-Centered Exposition" series (meh) and two were in the New American Commentary series. Again, I don't remember the titles, but the NAC series is an overall very good series-check the ratings, for example, at bestcommentaries.com. Almost all of the volumes are highly ranked; there are very, very few clunkers.

Let me make one comment. I have two or three standalone Bible study programs and have probably half a dozen web-based ones. Yes, I hate having so many Bible study programs and, with the annoyances, among others, of trying to keep up with what books I have where (on top of that, I have some in/with Kindle, Nook, Kobo . . . .). But so far I've been willing to bear the annoyances in order to own the books for free, in many cases, or at a low cost, in other cases (some companies sell books for use on their platforms substantially cheaper than other companies sell books for use on their platforms).

[GtrsRGr8]

The following is a free dissertation on the Book of Jeremiah and issues regarding the written word (Scripture).

The dissertation, seemingly without any major changes, was subsequently published by Eisenbrauns, an academic publisher, in 2009 (see their dedicated webpage for the book here).

Full disclosure: although the list price of the physical (hardcover cloth) book is (retails for) $44.50, the book is currently on sale for $31.15. It is available only in cloth at the publisher's and at Amazon, however, and is not available anywhere other than at DukeSpace in a digital form, to my knowledge.

Title: “See and Read All These Words”: The Concept of the Written in the Book of Jeremiah.
Format(s): PDF.
Author(s): Chadwick Lee Eggleston.
Publisher: Chadwick Lee Eggleston/Eisenbrauns.
Pages: xvi + 277/xiii + 194.
Ebook Rating/Number of Reviews (Amazon): None yet at Amazon; None yet at GoodReads. Review, via Eisenbrauns:
Several provocative conclusions emerge from Eggleston's work. First, if texts are composed by prophets and scribes as authoritative divine words, they are "an incipient form of scripture" (p. 168), and therefore one cannot conceive of canonization as a process of taking pre-existing, non-authoritative texts and enshrining them as divine. Second, the portrayal of scribes, the prophet, and YHWH himself as writers of authoritative texts implies that the book of Jeremiah does not view itself as emerging from the inspired prophet alone—as is suggested by conservative evangelicalism—but rather one must make room for some concept of "inspired redactors."

Eggleston's work is well organized and clearly written. . . . Christian interpreters who hold the Bible as inerrant have much to consider here, especially given the complicated process of prophetic communication and also the ways in which even at the moment of textualization biblical texts envision future audiences (cf. Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:11; 1 Pet 1:10–12).— Matthew H. Patton, Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Vandalia, OH in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 59 (2016): 834–36
Price: $0.00.
Lowest Price at (or through Amazon) if available from there: $44.50.
Book Description (Amazon):
Unusually for the Hebrew Bible, the book of Jeremiah contains a high number of references to writers, writing, and the written word. The book (which was primarily written during the exilic period) demonstrates a key moment in the ongoing integration of writing and the written word into ancient Israelite society. Yet the book does not describe writing in the abstract. Instead, it provides an account of its own textualization, thereby blurring the lines between the texts in the narrative and the texts that constitute the book. Scrolls in Jeremiah become inextricably intertwined with the scroll of Jeremiah.

To authenticate the book of Jeremiah as the word of YHWH, its tradents present a theological account of the chain of transmission from the divine to the prophet and then to the scribe and the written page. Indeed, the book of Jeremiah extends the chain of transmission beyond the written word to include the book of Jeremiah itself and, finally, a receiving audience. To make the case for this chain of transmission, See and Read's three exegetical chapters attend to writers (YHWH, prophets, and scribes), the written word, and the receiving audience.

The first exegetical chapter describes the standard chain of transmission from the divine to the prophet to the scribe, demonstrating that all three agents in this chain are imagined as writers and that writing was increasingly understood as a suitable conduit for the divine word. The second exegetical chapter attends to the written word in Jeremiah, especially Jeremiah's self-references (e.g., in this book , all these words ) as a pivotal element in the extension of the chain of transmission beyond the words in the text to the words of the text. Finally, the third exegetical chapter considers the construction of the audience in the book of Jeremiah, concluding that the written word, as Jeremiah imagines it, is to be received by a worshiping audience through public reading but delivered via textual intermediaries.
Comments: I believe this to be a legal free download, due to the fact that it is a dissertation of a student of Duke University. As such, it was deposited at DukeSpace, Duke University's repository of freely-accessible dissertations and other resources.
URL: http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace...pdf;sequence=1 (direct link).

[GtrsRGr8]

Fill out a quick survey, receive a free valuable book.

The book is Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God, by Joe Thorn (4.9 stars (28 reviews)). The digital version (Kindle mobi) at Amazon is currently $6.87.

Here's a little book description from the publisher Crossway:
What do you do when you’re at the end of your rope? For Christians, there is only one simple yet profound answer: turn to the triune God.

In Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God by Joe Thorn, you will find 50 down-to-earth meditations on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Overflowing with scriptural truth, pastoral wisdom, and personal honesty, this book reflects on common experiences of doubt, fear, and temptation—pointing readers to the grace that God provides and the strength that he promises.

Go here to fill out the survey and request the free book. The info on the webpage said that "all entries must be submitted by Friday, December 16; however, I just filled it out a couple of hours ago and had no problem receiving the book (I received the email about this only on the 13th of this month). Anyway, I wouldn't dilly-dally about completing the survey in case Crossway wants to end the promotion soon.

The survey probably won't take you 10 minutes. It is not very long; however, it addressed a subject that I had rarely given any thought to whatsoever--a "Custom Bible Program" (as I understand it, it involves copies of the Bible being tailored to specific ministries, churches, outreach programs, etc. So, I had to give the questions a little bit more thought than I usually do on these surveys.

Oh yeah, as Crossway has done before with this kind of giveaway, you can receive the book in PDF, mobi, or ePub, or even all of them, if you so desire!

[GtrsRGr8]

Suzy Cohen (info@dearpharmacist.com; www.SuzyCohen.com) is a Registered Pharmacist. However, she writes a syndicated newspaper column, called "Dear Pharmacist," in which she advocates the benefits of various natural herbs and such like, in lieu of some manufactured drugs.

Her column today was about medicinal herbs in the Bible. Did you know that frankincense, one of the gifts brought by the magi for the baby Jesus, is a really bad-smelling substance? Neither did I. I just assumed that it was something that smelled pleasant, maybe like a perfume. Well, that's one of the many interesting things that I learned from today's column.

Anyway, she is offering a free PDF ebook called "Medicinal Herbs from the Bible." To receive this free book, email her at ScriptEssentials@gmail.com and request the book. I sent an email to her about an hour ago, and have not yet received the ebook; it may be that the fulfillment service that she uses sends them out by batches.