The 25 million people worldwide who use the weekly Adult Bible Study Guide lessons produced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church have a new, online ally: a Web site that provides each weekly lesson, teacher's notes and other aids.
The 25 million people worldwide who use the weekly Adult Bible Study Guide lessons produced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church have a new, online ally: a Web site that provides each weekly lesson, teacher’s notes and other aids.
Although the lessons have been available online for many years via SSNet.org, a private Web site that operates with permission to use the copyrighted materials, the new Web site, http://absg.adventist.org is th,e first official site for the study guides, which celebrated its 150th anniversary celebrated last year (see ANN, Sept. 30, 2003).
“We want to make the quarterly more accessible, and reach as many people as we can,” says Clifford Goldstein, who is completing his fifth year as editor of the global publication. “The more access people have to the quarterly, the better it is.”
Adds Larie Gray, editorial assistant for the department, the new Web site is also designed to make a systematic program of Bible studies available to people outside the church who want to study the scriptures.
“There are people who say they don’t know how to study the Bible,” Gray says. “We want to let [non-church members] know the lessons are there. I know that reading the lessons helped me understand the Bible, and it still does.”
Gray says the site contains links to additional resources for students and teachers, with more planned. The added study notes and other items are a response to calls and e-mails received requesting such aids, she adds.
The quarterly lessons cover a range of Bible topics and themes. The 2004 calendar year ends with a study of the book of Daniel, whose prophetic message is of relevance to today’s believers, according to lesson author Dr. Gerhard Pfandl, an associate director of the church’s Biblical Research Institute. In 2004, topics have included the Gospel of John, the book of Isaiah and “Religion in Relationships.”
Approximately 500,000 copies of each quarterly are printed and sold in North America by Pacific Press, a Seventh-day Adventist Church publishing house in Nampa, Idaho, Goldstein says. Millions more are translated into more than 100 languages in countries around the world.
