We are updating the statistics in lesson 1 of our Bible correspondence course.

When we decided to published the twelve lesson "Bible Study Course" of the United Church of God in German, we did not find lesson 1 of the English course all that attractive as an introductory lesson for German-language readers here in Europe. Instead of doing a one-to-one translation (which is what we did for the other eleven lessons), we rewrote the entire lesson by asking the question "Is the Bible still relevant today?", using material from various issues of our "Gute Nachrichten" magazine. Lesson 1 in German talks about the relevancy of Bible prophecy in today’s world, the Bible’s historical accuracy and how it was ahead of time for centuries with advice on medical practices like quarantining sick people. We also refer to what the Bible says about the future, especially concerning the Middle East and Jerusalem. We are now updating some of the statistics in the lesson as preparation for it being reprinted. One other difference between our 12 lesson course and the English one is that we also wrote three tests for the course, with a test needing to be completed after four lessons and a certificate of completion being issued if the course participant completes the course satisfactorily. We also wrote the tests. Readers can choose whether they will take the tests or not, so we do make all lessons available to everyone, regardless of whether they want to be tested on their progress.