From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Logos Bible Software has launched a new initiative that will increase its revenues by turning it into a willing missionary arm of the Vatican. The board of TeachingTheWord Ministries cannot, in good conscience, commend such an organization or its products to our readers and listeners.

July 5, 2011 - Some of our readers and listeners have asked why TeachingTheWord stopped offering Logos Bible Software in our Resource Store some time ago. Until now, we have responded to those inquiries privately, and with only limited information. We have hesitated to state all of our reasons publicly, because some of the information that led to our decision came to us confidentially. However, new developments at Logos make it possible for us to now state all of our reasons openly.

Initial Public Reasons

In recent years, Logos' new product offerings have included the works of open heretics. These include Federal Visionists Peter Leithart and Douglas Wilson, and New Perspective on Paul promoters James Dunn and N. T. Wright. This was reason enough for us to remove Logos Bible Software from our Resource Store offerings.

Logos' Bible Study Magazine, which was launched around the time we made our decision, has only confirmed it. From its premier issue onward, the magazine has been a theological Tower of Babel. Its editors are open to the inclusion of the apocryphal books in the canon of Scripture. They heavily promote translations based on the inferior Westcott-Hort Greek text for the New Testament while characterizing transations based on the Received Text as inferior. The overall tone of the magazine has been one that denigrates the Bible's own prescribed method of interpretation, grammatical-historical exegesis. Bible Study Magazine publishes articles by New Living Translation advocate Josh MacDowell; Emergent/New Calvinist pastor Mark Driscoll, whose "sermons" include cursing and vulgarities; theological and ecumenical compromiser John Piper; Manhattan Declaration signer Randy Alcorn; and Scriptural higher critic Mark Goodacre, among others.

Additional Reasons We Can Now Discuss

These were the public reasons why we stopped offering the Logos software some time ago. But at that time we had also received alarming but confidential information from Logos insiders about the company's planned future direction. We were told that Logos Bible Software's strategic business plan included new intitatives to cultivate the Roman Catholic market. The Logos management team sees this market as a potentially large - perhaps eventually the largest - percentage of its annual revenues. In support of this strategy, we were told, Logos intended to encourage ecumenical dialogue between Protestants and Roman Catholics, especially as it pertains to the Scriptures themselves, thus opening the door for sale of Roman Catholic theological materials to Evangelicals as well as Catholics.

Last week that faith-undermining strategy became public as Logos announced the hiring of Andrew Jones, a Roman Catholic, as their Catholic Product Manager. In a June 30th, 2011 article on the Logos website, Jones wrote this:

Logos has launched an initiative to increase our Catholic resources. As a part of this project, I've been brought on board as the Catholic Product Manager. Being a medieval historian by training, I have a prejudice (a delightful one, I think) towards ancient things. My ambition, however, is to work in what Pope John Paul II called the New Evangelization by bringing the traditional into dialogue with the contemporary. Logos products offer such an amazing opportunity to combine the venerable with the cutting edge, and I'm very excited about it!

Logos already offers significant resources of interest to Catholics and to those interested in understanding Catholicism, but there will be many more coming soon, including Catholic-oriented packages. These packages will bring together the full functionality of Logos [Version] 4 with Catholic Bibles, magisterial documents, as well as [Catholic] exegetical and theological works.

The rich Catholic tradition, with its intricate interplay of Scripture, liturgy, law, and theology is profoundly suited for study on the Logos platform. As the Second Vatican Council made clear, Catholics understand the Scripture as embedded in a living tradition, its meaning being revealed in history and the life of the Church. As we add resources from that tradition to Logos, the Bible - as understood by Catholics - will open up in a way only Logos software can make possible. I find this very exciting!

What's more, Logos' extensive collection of resources (almost 14,000 at last count) - from a wide variety of Christian traditions - makes a truly comparative study of Scripture possible.

It is my hope that by integrating more Catholic works into the Logos library these traditions and Catholicism might find a bridge to understanding in the Word of God itself.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam!

Andrew Jones¹

Ad majorem Dei gloriam ("For the greater glory of God") is the motto of the Jesuits, a virulently anti-Protestant religious order within Roman Catholicism.

Logos Bible Software's new initiative and future product direction will, it appears, turn it into a willing missionary arm of the Vatican.

Our Position

The board of TeachingTheWord Ministries cannot, in good conscience, commend such an organization or its products to our readers and listeners.

At this point we are not offering any company's Bible software in our Resource Store. The reason is this: None of the major Bible software publishers has been willing to guarantee us two things: 1.) that they will not offer the writings of heretics such as Leithart, Wilson, Dunn, Wright, and others [some already do]; and 2.) that they will not cultivate the Roman Catholic market or promote Catholic resources to Protestants [some already appear to be making moves in these directions].

We hope that we'll be able to find a Bible software product that we can unreservedly recommend, and perhaps offer in our Resource Store. We are seeking a product that truly honors the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ, from an organization that is unashamedly and exclusively Protestant; is available preferably on both Windows and Apple platforms; and is backed by an organization committed to upward compatibility with new operating system releases and to providing adequate user support. All we can say for now is, stay tuned for further developments "Y and we welcome any suggestions our readers may have.

References:

1. "Logos' New Catholic Product Manager: Andrew Jones" as viewed on 7/4/2011 at http://blog.logos.com/category/company/

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