Volume 2 	            Lawrence, Kansas            	January 1962	  	       Number 1

The word Bible means "the book"; but we know that it is not just one book, but a library of books containing 66 volumes; 39 books composing the Old Testament, and 27 composing the New Testament. The first book, Genesis, was written by Moses 1500 years before the birth of Christ; while the last book, Revelation, was written by the apostle John about the year 96 A.D. Thus the Bible was some 1600 years in the process of being written; and it covers some 4000 years of human history. It begins with the eternity of the past and takes one into the eternity of the future.

Some 40 writers were employed in writing the numerous books that compose the Bible. They were men in all walks of life. Some were kings while others were shepherds and one a common fisherman. One was a tax gatherer while another was Prime Minister to a great oriental monarch. Few, if any, of them knew what others had written or would later write. These men were scattered in many parts of the oriental world, and it is a most remarkable fact that when their writings were put together they compose a harmonious volume without one single contradiction, and dealing with one great person, with one particular family and one central thought and one particular nation. The one person is our Lord Jesus Christ. He appears in the Old Testament in prophecy, as a great one to come with manifold blessing for all of mankind. He appears in the New Testament in person--first as the Babe of Bethlehem, then as the carpenter of Nazareth, then as the great miracle worker of Galilee, the famed teacher of Judea, and finally as the world's only Saviour and Redeemer, who on Calvary's cross paid the price of man's redemption. The central thought of the Bible is man's salvation. Through the sin of Adam and Eve in Eden, man lost his standing with God, and was separated from the tree of Life. For four thousand years God gradually unfolds his divine plan to free man from the blight of sin and prepare him for heaven. This plan is inseparably connected with Him, who came to seek and to save the lost. Like a golden thread this plan runs through the entire Bible.

The one family revealed in this book is the family of Abraham, through which God planned to bring into the world the great blessings of redemption; for the Lord had said to Abraham, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." - Genesis 12:2.

The one nation that is so pre-eminent in this book, is the nation of Israel, chosen of God to produce the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15, 16) the seed of Abraham (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:16), the seed of Judah (Genesis 43:10) and the seed of David (Jeremiah 23:5, 6) whose spiritual rulership would oppose the rebellion of Satan and bring man back to God.

If one will read the Bible with an open mind and an honest heart, he cannot help but be impressed by the fact that back of all these many writers was one mind directing them in all that they wrote. Truly this great book is not the product of many minds, but of One, who "spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, but hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." This book came from the divine mind of the infinite Father, whose great love impelled him to make all necessary provisions for man's moral and spiritual needs.

Suppose 40 different men, living in 40 different localities, were to be employed in making certain machine parts. No one knows what the other men are making. With skillful hands they machine these mechanical pieces, and years later when each piece is finished, someone comes along and gathers them all, and when they are each fitted together, they form a perfect motor, with nothing lacking, and not one piece too many. The motor is perfect in all its parts and performs with mechanical accuracy and precision! We know that such a thing could not happen unless each mechanic was directed by one mind who knew the needs of every part and the place it would occupy in the motor. Such is the book of God's revelation! When it was completed it enables the man of God to be perfectly supplied unto all good works. - II Timothy 3:16, 17. Peter declares that God, by "his divine power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." - II Peter 1:3. Every fact that a man must believe, and every command he must obey in order to save his soul, is clearly revealed in God's word. We need nothing more than what is supplied, and anything less will leave man with an imperfect knowledge of God's will.

To the extent that people accept nothing religiously except the Bible, and be guided by its holy precepts, then all religious people will be as unified as is this great book. The apostle Peter gives to all this divine command, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." - I Peter 4:11, and David declared, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." - Psalm 119:105. In conclusion let me state that we can know absolutely nothing of the will of God except as he has revealed it in his book. Accepting it as our only rule of faith and practice will enable all the people of God to be "perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement." - I Corinthians 1:10.