DBS: History

  • • September 2000: All-volunteer organization of software developers, missionaries, Bible students and Pastors forms in The Woodlands, Texas.

  • • February, 2001: Chinese Treasures 1.0 is produced and 2000 copies are distributed by train across China.History of the Digital Bible Society

  • • February 2001 – to Present: Duplication by an all-volunteer staff begins and continues in The Woodlands, Texas.

  • • September, 2001: The Digital Bible Society web site is launched and the “Free CD” distribution program begins.

  • • March, 2002: Digital Bible Society enters into partnership with the Chinese Christian Internet Mission(CCIM) as the trusted publisher of the worlds largest collection of digital Chinese Christian literature. Chinese Treasures 2.0 is completed for distribution.

  • • January, 2004: The Digital Bible Society reforms as a Texas non-profit corporation with 501(c)3 status.

  • • Chinese Treasures 3.0January, 2003 – October, 2004: Production of Chinese Treasures 3.0, a completely revised searchable web-based Chinese study Bible with built in Mandarin audio-recordings of scripture.

  • • January, 2005 – April, 2007: Chinese Treasures 5.0 (4.0) is undertaken, reworking the entire content of previous versions and building in some 200 additional books, music and video content.

  • • September, 2007-2008: The Digital Bible Society focuses energies on developing online Bibles embedded with audio and video for 50 languages.

  • • January - July, 2008: Digital Bible Society admitted to the Forum of Bible Agencies International (www.ifoba.com) and forms distribution partnerships with Ambassadors for Christ (www.afcinc.org), CCIC (Canada - www.ccican.org).

  • • October, 2008: The Digital Bible Society officially begins the process of developing an Arabic Christian Library .

    •December, 2008: Chinese Treasures 5.0 released adding several books, more Audio Scripture functionality and updating all media to more effectively work with new browser updates.

  • • To Present:

• Content contributors grow from 1 to 35 organizations.
• CD production exceeds 150,000 copies.
• Distribution community grows to 3000 members.

Robert Morrison 馬禮遜 (Scotland born 1782 -1834 died in Guangzhou) was a Scottish missionary, the first Christian Protestant missionary in China. After twenty-five years of intense work he translated the whole Bible into the Chinese language and baptized ten Chinese believers. Morrison pioneered the translation of the Bible into Chinese and planned for the distribution of the Scriptures as broadly as possible.

 

 

Robert Morrison was the first Protestant missionary to China, sent out by the London Missionary Society in 1807. Arriving in Canton, he moved into a cellar and was rarely seen in public, pouring himself into a study of the language. He made such good progress that he was hired by the East India Company as an interpreter and spent the next 25 years thus employed. This arrangement allowed him the opportunity of translating the Bible, tracts, hymnbooks, and prayer books from English into Chinese. He prepared an Anglo-Chinese dictionary and a Chinese grammar book.
During his lifetime, Morrison saw but three or four conversions, but his work paved the way for all the missionaries who followed.
He found Isaiah 43:2 as a young man on a voyage from Newcastle to London. He was on his way to school, and the seas were rough. Morrison suffered a bout of seasickness, but he nonetheless managed his daily intake of Scripture. He wrote his father:
I was happily surprised, when lying sick in the state room, by hearing a number of persons sing psalms in the cabin; and every night when the weather would permit, we had prayers and reading of Scriptures. The passage was very rough, in some parts of it; one night they let the ship drive, and another night pitched away her bowsprit, which last occurrence was very serious, as it endangered the loss of our masts.
I mention these circumstances to excite thankfulness to God, who brought us safely through. I pleaded the promise, in its literal sense, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,” and blessed by God, it was fulfilled.
It was a promise he was to claim many times to come.

Isaiah 43:1–7
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

 

From this verse : 365 scriptures that changed the world
Morgan, R. J. (1998). Thomas Nelson Publishers