Copyright Information
and Terms of Use
page for www.exploringgodsword.co
This page last updated December 20, 2018 and may be updated
anytime without any other warning or announcement
The
on-line version of Exploring God's Word is a publication
of David
G. Churchill and is made available to you by members of churches
of Christ; perhaps a congregation meets in your area. As
editor, I hope you will join us in our goals of studying the
Bible objectively for the facts and lessons it provides about
God's religion and then using those facts and lessons to improve
our own lives.
If you have suggestions for articles
or for improving readability, we want to hear them. Feel
free to write to us or to the congregations, especially about
any biblical questions you might have. EGW
is for you, our readers, and we want to meet your Bible study
needs as best we can.
Contact
Exploring God's Word editor or send in your Bible-related
question.
Copyright information and terms
of use: effective
December 20, 2018
Any viewing of the online
version of Exploring God's Word or submission of
content implies knowledge, understanding, and agreement with
the following facts and conditions. If you do not agree
to these facts and conditions, then you do not have legal permission
to use Exploring God's Word.
Exploring God's Word
is the design and product of David G. Churchill, 309 - 3rd Avenue
NE, Watertown, SD, 57201, USA. Its overall purposes
are (1) to encourage people to become Christians according
the pattern revealed in the New Testament; (2) to strengthen
and edify Christians in their knowledge and application of
the Bible; (3) to provide local churches of Christ economical
opportunities to promote themselves on the internet with local
information and a shared library of teaching materials.
All Scripture quotations
remain subject to the permitted-usage guidelines provided by
the publishers of the various translations involved. Authors
and other material providers are responsible for referencing
and crediting the Scripture quotations and translations they
use.
All articles and materials
presented with identified authorship are the properties of their
providing authors and/or agencies and used here by expressed
or pending permission. Exceptions that may be presented
without attempt to gain the authors permission are: (1)
articles and materials believed to be in the public domain; (2)
commonsensical observations and obvious conclusions based upon
generally available information; (3) materials containing
expressed or implied permission for reproduction; and (4)
quotations and references of reasonable length. Content
provided by a subscribing congregation, but without identified
authorship, is presented as the property of that congregation
until or unless the editor is informed differently. The
presentations of all other articles and materials are the properties
of David G. Churchill. Authors are responsible for their
articles being properly accredited and referenced.
The content of other websites
linking to or from any portion of Exploring God's Word
is solely the responsibility of those websites owners and
neither of Exploring God's Word, its editor or
staff, nor David G. Churchill. (This also includes the
site search engine powered by www.freefind.com and any advertising
presented by FreeFind in the search results.)
The content presented by
any subscribing congregation through its Exploring God's
Word website is solely the responsibility of that congregation.
Providing such content to the editor constitutes both (1)
permission to the editor to publish as is, to reasonably edit,
and/or to refuse publishing in the congregations EGW
pages, and (2) opportunity to the editor to request at his discretion
inclusion in the general library of material shared by all subscribing
congregations without further financial compensation.
Exploring God's Word
seldom publishes or remunerates unsolicited articles for inclusion
in the EGW shared library. The main reasons
for this practice have to do partly with economics, partly with
time constraints, and partly with the high expectation of accountable
biblical accuracy. Having said that, the editor at his
discretion may review for publishing in the shared library any
submitted article that presents solid facts from the Scriptures,
exercises clear and valid reasoning of those facts, and demonstrates
a measure of patient gentleness i.e. what's described
in Titus 2:1-9 and Colossians 4:2-6. Likewise, if you find
any genuine inaccuracy in any article available in the shared
library, even if just a typo, please let the editor know about
it in the same manner. If you submit by postal mail an
unsolicited article for publication, please include a self-addressed
stamped envelope for convenience either to return refused articles
or else to contact about accepted articles.
Neither site, articles, materials,
nor non-Scripture portion(s) of such presentations may be reproduced
in any digitized or non-digitized format without express permission
from David G. Churchill or the providing author/agency
limited permission is given here for Internet users to print
a copy of each article for their personal non-commercial use
(yes, if you misplace or give away your copy, you may print
another copy). Whether or not articles or materials
specifically express copyright protection, U.S. copyright laws
do apply. For more information about applicable copyright
laws, go to the U.S. Copyright Offices home page at "http://www.copyright.gov".
If you need multiple copies for group Bible-study or
classroom use, please contact the author / congregation directly
or else contact the
editor for permission / arrangements. Please note:
The authors and congregations GREATLY appreciate knowing who
is using their materials and they typically will give you
permission to make unlimited copies of their articles for non-commercial
use in group studies or the classroom. Some items promoted
via EGW are the commercial products of their authors
& publishers and may involve a purchase price, a limited
supply, or both.
Likewise, for similar reasons,
if you want to use non-Scripture quotations and references
of more than a reasonably brief length in your own materials,
please contact the author / congregation directly or else contact
the EGW editor for permission / arrangements. In
most cases permission is typically available, but conditional
upon full attribution (website address, article title, author,
date obtained, etc.) and upon approvable representation of
the quoted authors intent and contextual usage. Each
author / congregation may require satisfaction of additional
or fewer conditions before granting and/or maintaining permission.
If, as an individual, you want
to provide a link to the Exploring God's Word library,
please link to http://www.exploringgodsword.co
or else to a specific subscribing-congregations homepage.
You may not frame an exploringgodsword.co
link on your Web site without the EGW editors
express permission. The point of this is to preserve the
Exploring God's Word website and its subscribing-congregations
homepages as the main route of entry into the library. If,
as a congregation or business or individual, you want to provide
a link to the library, please consider contacting the editor
for information about subscribing and then offering a link to
your own EGW entry page to the library. A
lot of time, effort, and expense goes into researching, preparing,
and publishing these valuable online materials by helping
to recover those costs of providing the existing materials, your
subscription fee also helps in producing additional materials
for our readers.
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Special note: Recognition of
congregational autonomy
In the New Testament, churches
of Christ are presented both as congregations independently answering
to Jesus as their head and as groups of individuals seeking unity
subject to salvation and instructions offered by the written
word of God (Rom. 1:16-17; 2 Tim. 3:16 - 4:5) as recorded
through the inspired writers of New Testament. This fact of autonomy
is especially made clear by Jesus letters to seven churches
in Asia (as recorded by the apostle John in chapters two &
three of Revelation) Jesus evaluates, judges, and
rewards each congregation based on its own demonstrated obedience
or disobedience. This fact of unity appears to be the motivation
in the many examples of congregations sharing financial resources
in times of need and sharing experienced teachers to encourage
& edify.
Respecting the biblical tradition
of congregational autonomy, seeking unity based upon the Scriptures,
and understanding that every business relationship has some guidelines
and expectations, the Exploring Gods Word
website is neither a superior institution overseeing the subscribing
churches nor an authoritative governor dictating their efforts
nor a license agency certifying biblical compliance
EGW homepages with
their access to EGW s shared library are
simply tools provided via subscription at the discretion of the
local congregations leaders and/or private individuals.
A congregations subscription to a homepage should
not be misconstrued as a blanket endorsement by that congregation
of the other listed congregations, by them of it, or by the EGW
editor.
With those facts in mind, the EGW
editor reserves the right to refuse any requested subscription
or renewal if he believes doing so is in the best interests of
the website or of our readers.
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Editors note: I do not solicit or beg our readers
for financial support. I do not authorize soliciting or
begging our readers for financial support. I do contact
congregations and ask them to become subscribing sponsors. I
do reserve the option to make purchasable items available to
our readers and subscribed congregations, the sale of which replaces
my costs to provide such items and helps support Exploring
God's Word. I do accept donations from individuals
willing to help support Exploring God's Word. I
do reserve the right to refuse any requested subscription or
requested renewal or offered donation if I believe doing so is
in the best interests of the publication or of our readers. This
is as close as I come to soliciting our readers if you
want to donate funds for EGW, I recommend you do
so by sponsoring subscriptions for churches of Christ familar
to you. All reader correspondence and subscription inquiries
should be sent to the address at the top of this page. |