About Us

The Institute for Scripture Research was registered in South Africa by Dr. C.J. Koster along with 7 other board members as a non-profit Section 21 company for the purpose of fulfilling the expressed mission and vision of the ISR.

As chairman of the board Dr. Koster gave all rights to all his research and his book “Come Out Of Her My People” (originally entitled “The Final Reformation”, 1986) to the Institute for Scripture Research. This book is still available from the ISR in English, Afrikaans and Spanish.

The ISR published its first edition of “The Scriptures” in 1993. Our desire was that The Scriptures should be distributed freely and that it would be supported by donations from those who believed in the work.

Stocks of the original edition were quickly depleted, but sad to say, insufficient donations were received for the reprinting. That would have been the end of the ISR right there, and the hard work of Dr. Koster and all involved with him in producing this translation would have been in vain. This vital work of the ISR simply had to be kept alive, along with the vision of Dr. Koster to continue improving the translation.

After much anguish of heart Dr. Koster together with the rest of the board decided that rather than consigning the translation to the scrap heap of history, they would have to approach matters differently. They took a decision that while the ISR was to be an organization that did not exist for the profit of any persons, it may be necessary to charge a price for "The Scriptures", as well as the other publications, with any profits being ploughed back into the work of the ISR. This way the work could go on and perhaps even expand, thus fulfilling the ISR's original vision of spreading this vital Word as far as possible.

To our joy, we have been blessed to see Almighty YHWH honour this decision over and over again by making it possible for us to continue improving and expanding our outreach. That outreach has even reached areas where people were unable to afford any copies and a way was opened to present them for free because of funds generated from our current approach of distributing "The Scriptures" at an affordable price. This is not of course an everyday occurrence, or else we would quickly be right back where we started with no funding to continue the work. (If, however you would like to help in getting "The Scriptures" or any of our publications out to where they are needed, see How can I help? and also Bulk Purchasing.)

While the ISR is, and always has been a South African organization, we decided to open an office in the U.S.A. with a view to handling administration of funds and publications, thus facilitating distribution there. This agreement has now come to an end, and we have de-registered the ISR in the U.S.A., effective from 31 May 2012. Throughout this entire period the U.S. directors, as with all others in the ISR have been voluntary, receiving no remuneration for their services as directors.

The horizons of the ISR continue to expand as we look for further means to communicate the truth of YHWH to a world in need. We have sought to make the “The Scriptures” more user-friendly by the addition of notes, charts, maps, interlinear references and different book sizes and cover styles. Also we are currently engaged in making “The Scriptures” available through various digital applications. At the same time we are continuing our on-going endeavour to continually improve the quality of the translation of “The Scriptures”. In this endeavour we invite your help (see How can I help?) and prayers.