(Editors note: Following is a piece I wrote in February, 1974.  I thought you might appreciate it even today.)

 

Forty men, none of whom have been trained in computer sciences, awaken one morning with one thought in mind.  Not one of these forty persons has ever seen nor heard of the other.  None of them have ever done anything even closely resembling comparison of work or exchange of  information. Each comes from a different occupation or field of endeavor.  Some of these men are highly educated, some are not; some are professional men–doctors, lawyers, ministers–   while some are farmers, some are common laborers. Still others are engaged in government services.  They are in no way like one another.

 

The men awaken on this day, each with a different idea for an electronic part–each part different from the other.  Guided by the idea and an abiding enthusiasm for its assembling, each man sets about the task of building the part he has imagined.  One assembles a miniature circuit board, another a type of module, one a kind of transistor, still another a roller, and another a cord, or connecting part. On they go until each man–not even knowing the other–constructs the part he has envisioned.

 

Bear in mind, that none of these men is aware of what the other has done.  He knows only that he has an idea he has developed, not even realizing that it might fit into a plan for something far larger.  

 

One morning all forty men awaken with the sudden realization that their presence is needed in a distant city sometime during the coming week.  Following this impulse, each man takes the part he has constructed, and by various means of travel, makes his way to the city specified by his inspiration.  Each man arrives as the same hotel at various times during the week.  After the arrival, each proceeds to the central seeing room in the hotel.

 

The first to arrive assembles a large steel frame.  The second man–usually a farmer–inserts a small electric motor into the back of the frame. It fits perfectly, needs no adjustment.  One by one, each of the forty men brings his part to the machine.  To the surprise of each of them, his part fits perfectly into the whole unit.

 

Finally, the fortieth man enters the large room.  In the middle of the room is now situated a huge grey mass, obviously an electronic computer of some sort.  But what does it do? It sits stark still, but mute testimony to some great intelligence.  The little man wastes no time and sets about immediately to do his work.  Just how he fits into this intricate scheme, his is not quite sure, for his ordinary and seemingly has but little to offer.  He is, however, ready to do his part of what has to be done.  He strides briskly toward the back of the big computer.  He unfolds a long electrical cord he has constructed and plugs one end into the machine.  He then plugs the other end into the wall circuit.  

 

There is an immediate activity!  In a dull, swirling noise, the large machine begins to hum.  The man observes a print-out sheet evolving at the top of the machine.  He strides forward to read it.  It says: 

 

“Contained herein is the plan of God for man’s salvation.”

 

Do you think that story could actually happen?  How is it possible for such a happening to have occurred?  Only one way.  For this group of men to have done what this story affirms would require some sort of central intelligence which inspired and guided each of the men.  No other explanation is possible.

 

God guided forty men over a period of some 1500 years to write the communique we call The Bible.  That His mind guided these men is made obvious by the fact that these writers, like the men in the story, lived at different places in different time, had very diverse backgrounds, different educations, various occupations.  And most of the time had not heard of one another outside their own generation.

 

God caused the Bible to be written (II Tim. 3:16-17; I Pet. 4:11; I Cor.  2:1-10; Eph. 3:1-5).  He inspired the writing of it.  Your Bible is an inspired book.  It is God’s mind, revealed for mankind.  It speaks of God and who He is, His plan for man, of Jesus His plan for man, of Heaven, His plan for man.  Let us respect it, proclaim it, practice it, for it is the inspired word of God.