The Beginning of EWCRS
In my youth, I refused to believe in God because of the hypocrisy I saw in the churches my mother dragged me to. I would follow along in the Bible as the preacher emphasized his points. Instead of stopping where he stopped, however, I kept reading. I often discovered that the passage in context did not say exactly what the preacher claimed it said.
Every religious group seemed to say, “We are the chosen ones, and if you do not believe as we do, you are going to hell.” I wanted no part of that.
I lived life as I chose, including cheating people. Eventually, I rented an airless paint sprayer and moved to California. It was not long before I was arrested. While sitting in the back of that police car, I gave my life to Christ.
I told Yeshua that I was going to research the Bible for myself and believe only what I found supported in Scripture.
Back in the 1970s, after becoming a Christian, I took a chain-reference Bible and carefully wrote out the Sermon on the Mount. I then inserted every applicable chain reference into the text so the related Scriptures could be read together and understood in context.
I published the completed work as a small booklet titled Jeans Us Who? Using a dot-matrix printer, I printed copies and passed them out to others.
After I was ordained through the Lighthouse Gospel Fellowship, I started Oklahoma’s first Christian-themed Bulletin Board System, called Rock Island (on) Line 147/3. I also established an online discussion area called Cult Watch and invited everyone to participate and share.
As technology developed, I began using computer software to gather and organize related Scriptures in context. I published what I found without adding my own opinions, allowing Scripture to speak for itself.
That was the beginning of EWCRS—the Expand With Cross-References System.
From EWCRS to Scripture in Context V2
My work with ChatGPT began during the GPT-3.5 era in 2022. From those early conversations onward, most of my work with it centered on Bible research.
I was not simply looking for quick answers. I kept testing how an AI-assisted system could examine Scripture, follow cross-references, preserve the KJV text, explain uncommon language, and produce studies that remained accurate, spiritually useful, and biblically accountable.
Grok has also been used as an additional research and comparison tool while EWCRS has continued to develop and be evaluated.
From conversations to a repeatable system
Repeated Bible studies revealed the need for a consistent method. That method became EWCRS: the Expand With Cross-References System. Rules were added for structure, supporting Scriptures, quotations, Yeshua-centered terminology, authorized modernization, uncommon-word explanations, conclusions, and ministry-ready presentation.
From a system to an application
Each difficulty helped shape a feature. Scripture-reference mistakes led to reference checking and a packaged KJV. Inconsistent formatting led to validation and repair safeguards. Revisions led to Add or Revise, Undo, comparison, and revision history. The danger of losing work led to autosave and recovery copies.
The practical ministry workflow added Facebook preview and copying, saved studies, TXT, HTML, DOCX, and ZIP exports. Dictation, voice choices, Read Aloud, larger text, accessibility controls, image creation, guided mode, and searchable biblical references made the system more useful to more people.
Scripture in Context V2 is the result of that continuing journey: years of Bible research, repeated testing, correction, and a desire to create a dependable tool that supports careful study without replacing Scripture.
The app continues to evolve, but its purpose remains the same—to help people study deeply, verify carefully, and share faithfully.
