'Largest' Christian Publisher Zondervan, is a Division of HarperCollins, which Publishes the Satanic Bible.

By Truth In Heart

The following history of Zondervan http://www.zondervan.com is given on their web site:

Our Growth

Zondervan was founded in 1931 in Grandville, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, by brothers P.J. (Pat) and Bernie Zondervan.

Zondervan first published the NIV New Testament in partnership with the International Bible Society in 1973 and the complete NIV Bible in 1978.

In 1988, Zondervan became a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, one of the largest publishers in the world.
....

See the following web page for these quotations:
http://www.zondervan.com/desk/about.asp?page=corpgrowth

HarperCollins http://www.harpercollins.com also mentions that they (News Corporation) own Zondervan:

Publishing Groups

HarperCollins is one of the leading English-language publishers in the world and is a subsidiary of News Corporation. Headquartered in New York, the company has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Its publishing groups include:

HarperCollins General Books Group | HarperCollins Childrens Books Group

Zondervan | HarperCollins UK | HarperCollins Canada | HarperCollins Australia

This quotation can be found on their website at:
http://www.harpercollins.com/hc/aboutus/imprints.asp

News Corporation

Description of Business

HarperCollins Publishers is one of the world’s leading English-language publishers, with headquarters in New York and operations in Canada, the U.K., Australia/New Zealand and India. Its publishing groups include the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children’s Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children’s books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, religious and spiritual books. The company has revenues that top $1 billion annually. In fiscal 2002, HarperCollins US had 106 titles on The New York Times bestseller list highlighted by 9 titles that reached the #1 spot, while HarperCollins UK had 46 books on the Sunday Times bestseller list, with 6 titles that went to #1. During fiscal 2002, HarperCollins enjoyed the runaway success of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Pamela Stephenson’s biography of comedian Billy Connolly, and the business book chart-topper Good To Great by Jim Collins, among many others.
Number of Employees: 3,000 worldwide
In Operation Since: Harper was established in 1817; Collins in 1819.


integrated marketing

News Corporation's success worldwide is attributed to teamwork, communication, creativity and determination. These skills, combined with the breadth of our assets, enables us to create customized media and marketing solutions that impact consumers one by one.

Our corporate integrated groups, News Corp One and News Corp Marketing are set up to provide you with a single point of entry to harness these opportunities from inception through execution. Come tap into our global content and distribution assets and watch your business grow.

See the following web pages for these quotations: http://www.newscorp.com/operations/books.html
http://www.newscorp.com/marketing/index.html
http://www.newscorp.com/management/harperc.html
http://www.newscorp.com/investor/index.html

What if all Zondervan books had who their owners were, or printed News Corporation on their copyright pages, and the same was printed on the Satanic Bible? It would be the same if Zondervan was on the first floor, and HarperCollins was on the second floor of the company building owned by the same News Corporation. Would there be any difference if the following advertisement was found at the back of an NIV bible that said:

"Our companies are also publishing the Satanic Bible."

HarperCollins sells the Satanic Bible which can be found on their web site with these words:

Satanic Bible
by Anton Szandor LaVey

Called "The Black Pope" by many of his followers, Anton La Vey began the road to High Priesthood of the (lurch of Satan when he was only 16 years old and an organ player in a carnival:

"On Saturday night I would see men lusting after halfnaked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing the organ for tent-show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday night they'd be back at The carnival or some other place of indulgence.

"I knew then that the Christian Church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out!"

From that time early in his life his path was clear. Finally, on the last night of April, 1966 -- Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival of the believers in witchcraft -- LaVey shaved his head in the tradition of Ancient executioners and announced the formation of The Church Of Satan. He had seen the need for a church that would recapture man's body and his carnal desires as objects of celebration. "Since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure," he said, "there would then be a temple of glorious indulgence . . ."

Imprint: Avon; ISBN: 0380015390; On Sale: 12/1/1976; Format: Paperback; Subformat: ; Length: ; Trimsize: ; Pages: 0; $7.99; $10.99(CAN)

This quote can be found at:
http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0380015390

We learned of this information on December 26, 2002, from the following web site:
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/john.txt

We did our own research and came up with the above links and quotes which were not given on the jesus-is-lord.com web site. Their new article claims that a certain John Wiser 'in charge of the bible section' was 'let go' from his job at Family Christian Stores http://www.familychristian.com because he asked them questions about these facts and relations. He apparently realized that Family Christian Stores was once owned by Zondervan as mentioned on their web site as quoted below:

Les Dietzman Retires as CEO of Family Christian Stores®
Retail Veteran Dave Browne Named as Successor

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, July 10, 2002 - National retailer Family Christian Stores®, Inc. today announced that President and CEO Les Dietzman will retire from the company effective in mid-July. Dave Browne, former CEO of Cincinnati-based LensCrafters, Inc., has been selected to serve as Dietzman's successor.

Dietzman, 59, will continue to serve on the board of directors for the 330-store Christian retail chain and consult with the Company. Dietzman joined Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Family Christian Stores® from Wal-Mart, Inc. in 1992 when the chain was owned by Christian publisher Zondervan. As CEO, Dietzman led a management buyout in 1994, changed the name from Family Bookstores to Family Christian Stores® and expanded nationally. Under Dietzman's leadership, the company quadrupled sales volume and grew from 125 stores in 1992 to its current 330 stores in 39 states, making it the largest Christian retail chain in the country.
....

This quotation can be found at: http://www.familychristian.com/corporate/retirement.asp

The details of John Wiser's relations with his employer's and their apparent responses can be found on the same website at: http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/john.txt

We have not verified that his emails received from Family Christian Stores are genuine as of yet.

However, it is obvious to everyone who shops at their stores that they sell many Zondervan products. And they do admit (above) that they were owned by Zondervan once.

We are not aware that Zondervan has given any public statement as to explain the apparent inconsistency of being part of a company that produces the Holy Bible and the Satanic Bible for profit. But another article showing a similar controversy about Zondervan was apparently published in the New York Times on June 8th, 2002, that may explain some of the reasoning:

Feature Articles - New York Times

Evangelical Sales Are Converting Publishers
Saturday June 8 9:05 AM ET

As surging sales are propelling avowedly Evangelical books to the top of mainstream best-seller lists, the major publishing houses are getting religion.

....

Two years ago, Zondervan, a Christian publisher and part of the HarperCollins division of the News Corporation, published "Paul," a novel by Walter Wangerin in which the Apostle Paul utters the phrase "G. D." Barraged with complaints from Christian stores, Zondervan reissued the book without the phrase, with Mr. Wangerin's reluctant assent.

Now Zondervan, the largest Christian house, is under fire again, for publishing a Bible translation with more gender-neutral language, and some Evangelical competitors think they see the influence of its secular parent, HarperCollins. "There is something going on there that is saying we need to turn a greater profit at a risk of compromising our beliefs as Christians," said John Thompson, vice president of marketing for Broadman & Holman Publishing, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. HarperCollins, he noted, also publishes books offensive to Evangelicals like "The New Joy of Gay Sex."

But Jane Friedman, chief executive of HarperCollins, which acquired Zondervan in 1987, said it operates with complete autonomy out of a separate headquarters in Grand Rapids , Mich.
....

This article was published on the following Yahoo website:
http://entertainment.yahoo.com/entnews/nyt/20020608/102355231004.html

But it also appears on the following websites with the author given as: David D. Kirkpatrick:
New York Times:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/article-page.html?res=9C03EFD6153DF93BA35755C0A9649C8B63
http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm/abfr/abfr0154.htm

 

It remains for the Christian community to individually decide whether they wish to support this alarming inconsistency or not. The implications are far reaching as Zondervan books are very popular; and the NIV bible is now the most sold and used version today. Each Christian must decide whether the apparent good that Zondervan does with selling the numerous editions of the NIV, and other books, outweigh or justify the spiritual problems of supporting a company with such profits that help publish diametrically opposite books like:

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror Heebie-Jeebie Hullabaloo.
Clive Barker's A-Z Horror.
Satanic Bible.

The answer to this question may reveal whether we personally believe honor and reverence to God are more important than publicity and profit from the world.

Apparently an important person in this controversy has addressed these kind of concerns before:

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:16-23.

Another important witness must also be considered in this Christian matter:

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Corinthians 6: 14-7:1

This article is copyrighted © 2002, 2003 by Truth In Heart, and is not to be copied onto any web page without our permission.
Disclaimer: These statements have not be encouraged or suggested to us by any business or persons, and are only intended as matters for spiritual and educational benefit. We have nothing to gain from displaying these facts, but only to loose. We have appreciated many works produced by Zondervan.