Ok, this was once an article called "Phil Stone's Biography," but biography is a little to skewed to what you'd expect in Business. I do have a history, though, and this article covers some parts of it.
I've been a born-again believer in Jesus since October of 1979. Though I do remember going to church as a child, and again in high school, I don't remember enough of those experiences to count.
Because of various job changes and schooling I've been members of various churches, including Free Methodist, Foursquare, Presbyterian, Lutheran and non-denominational.
When I was called out that environment to work on Bible Time, and what has now become a cluster of related projects, I was an elder in a Presbyterian Church in the Seattle area. This was a strange time since I could not fully explain the "theory" and if it was wrong I risked damaging the young Christians around me. Being isolated was clearly the right place to be.
My home base, as far as Christian fellowship is concerned is a house church in the Goldendale, Washington, area which I attend monthly.
I also operate as a sort of "Prophet at Large" and often find myself on the road, sent to various individuals and church groups. Often there is a prophetic word to deliver, or set of covert prayer assignments that accompany this travel.
I hold Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Washington State University, 1982.
I also hold a Masters degree in Business Administration, from Seattle Pacific University, 1994.
I actually began working on an advanced degree through Fuller Seminary and attended there for 1 quarter. I was roundly rebuked by Jesus over this Seminary excercise, and have been in His school ever since.
When I was working a corporate job I was on the company's PhD hiring committee. There being so few computer related PhD graduates that my employer simply tracked every PhD student in the United States, sending members of the PhD hiring team out to each one. Our purpose was to convince them to work for us, not the other way around. My evaluation of various PhD thesis in that environment gives me the right to say that much of the Bible Time related work is clearly at or above the level of academically sanctioned PhD projects.
I've been a computer programmer since graduating in 1982 with a degree in Computer Science from Washington State University, Pullman Washington. While working in the computer industry I've held virtually all job categories related to development of commercial software including programmer, team lead, software architect, and manager.
My specialty has been in Graphical User Interface design and tools development with a focus on Object Oriented and Distributed Systems. Much of this technology catagory is currently covered by internet related technologies. When the Bible Time project began in late 1997 I was working as a Senior Software Engineer doing various technology and competitive analysis projects for senior management.
The last full year I was with the company, I spent most of my time doing technical analysis and writing business cases on what a corporate Linux strategy would mean to my employer. I was also involved in Java related strategy and projects.
Though I did not realize it until the end of 2004, most of the same principles undergirding the GNU family of software licenses, and open source licencing in general, are profoundly important to anyone working in full time ministry.
"Open Source" where ideas are freely shared, is the Biblically mandated model for ideas. Selling ideas, which so many Christian ministries want to do, is clearly not allowed by scripture. See my paper on for more details. Though I never would have considered it ministry related at the time, I had to have a thorough understanding of this area before heading into the Bible Time project.
The that caused Bible Time to exist happened late January, 1998. I've heard of others who had visions, but never had one myself. The encounter with Jesus was life changing, to say the least.
After much prayer it became clear that I was to quit my corporate work in order to devote full time to the Bible Time project. By the 15th of April 1998, I was working on this project full time. By the summer of 1998 I sold my Seattle area house and moved to a cabin in the shadow of Mount Hood in northern Oregon.
While in Oregon my understanding of this extensive topic grew considerably. So did my understanding of the scope. The initial visions were dealing with a thin strip, a narrow subset of information gleaned from the Bible. My understanding grew to the point where I now believe the entire text of the Bible weaves onto a standard time line that replays at various times in history in powerful, profound and prophetic ways.
My time in Oregon also gave me the chance to study prophetic headlines as they unfolded. This was an emotional roller coaster ride as certain headlines unfolded flawlessly, while others seem to have nothing happen. These down-side rides ended as I more fully understood the intricacies of the Bible as world-wide prophecy.
I ended up remaining in Oregon across a complete repetition of the Bible's stories from Genesis 11 through the time of the Babylonian deportation. This was an enormous time of learning, and I doubt anyone else has ever watched detailed day-accurate Bible prophecy unfold like this before.
I dare say no one in popular Christian circles, even those known to work in the prophetic areas, has ever been through something like this. Indeed, one of the lessons from Oregon was the realization that there is no model for living through this project. Nobody has ever seen or done this before.
While in Oregon I also found myself growing considerably in the spiritual gifts, especially the power gifts. Scripture teaches that signs and wonders will accompany those who speak his word. Those signs finally became evident towards the end of my time in Oregon.
I remained in Oregon until late in 2004. This time the call was to up and move to northern Idaho. A series of prophetic encounters nearly as profound as the first set from 1998, set in motion this move.
In 2004 I left Oregon for Northern Idaho. Since arriving in Idaho the scope of the project has widened considerably.
One of the most profound areas is the birth of the Book Order Bible project. This project reconstructs the inspired order of the books of the Bible. This "new" order provides a complete internally supplied commentary system. At times it profoundly upsets conventional wisdom on what the Bible actually says. At times it strongly reinforces what the Bible actually says, providing a basis for appologetics not seen before. It also provides considerable commentary for understanding the stories that show up on the Bible Time timelines.
I'm currently in the prepatory stages of what we're calling the Open Source Bible Project which is an audited translation of the Bible built in part to supply the underling databases needed for the other projects.
I'm also getting ready to re-tool the entire project so it can handle the amazing scope that has unfolded over the past 10 years.
I've done my best to be lead by Jesus in all things. This is ongoing, and at times quite hard. There are very few public models for this sort of activity.
People that you would expect to be models, people in ministry themselves, have been terrible models. Most are operating under vocational calls, just like I was when I first went to work for a computer company 25 years ago.
Most pastors are not lead by the Spirit in anything, spitting out sermons that they learned in seminary, operating as highly political animals in order to keep their congregants from fleeing. The exceptions to this general rule are very rare indeed.
There is also a great deal of corruption in the vocationally called members of the Body of Christ. Even the few good men in this area seem to have the unfortunate fate of having bad men on their elder boards. Their own fear of discovery prevents them from sharing their personal experiences in the mechanics of ministry.
They are not models for independent, Spirit-lead, lives of discovery and service. The only man I've ever met who IS a genuine, high quality, roll model for people starting their own ministry is Brad Long, currently executive director of PRMI.
Please pray that I would continue to walk out this amazing call to the honor of Jesus. Pray that I would be able to help others move more quickly through their own growth in Jesus. Pray that the message that Jesus has given me would develop into an easy to understand package that could be widely distributed and accepted.
In Jesus' service.