The men got to talking and found they shared a common faith and had both toyed with the idea of creating an evangelical association for Christian businessmen. They decided to give it a shot together. Knights, who suggested they name their organization after Gideon, an Old Testament judge who led a small band of men to defeat a much larger army. As the group expanded in its first few years, most of the new members were men who frequently traveled for work and spent many of their nights in hotel rooms.
They wondered how they might be more effective witnesses for Christ on the road, and hit upon the idea of providing Bibles to hotels. There was just one vacancy with two beds, and in keeping with the times, the men decided to split it. There were no plasma TVs or pay-per-view back then, of course, so once they checked in, the men had nothing to do but talk.
After awhile, they hit on a topic they were both passionate about— their faith. By the end of the evening, the men made plans to create an evangelical association for Christian businessmen. That man was William Knights, and what he lacked in numbers he made up for in ideas.
It took some ten years for the group to amass numbers, and most of the members were travelers just like its founders. The Gideons decided since they were already traveling the country, the best way to spread the good word was to put copies of the Bible in the hotel rooms they frequented.
I'd always wondered. The story starts in with a crowded hotel and two men weary enough to share a room with a stranger. There was just one vacancy with two beds, and in keeping with the times, the men decided to split it. There were no plasma TVs or pay-per-view back then, of course, so once they checked in, the men had nothing to do but talk.
After awhile, they hit on a topic they were both passionate about— their faith. By the end of the evening, the men made plans to create an evangelical association for Christian businessmen.
That man was William Knights, and what he lacked in numbers he made up for in ideas. He suggested the group call themselves "The Gideons," based on a story in the Old Testament, of a man leading a band of untrained men to battlefield victory. The Gideons International association is an organized group of business men that had its beginning in in Wisconsin. The founders were men of varying denominational backgrounds who had a common interest in advancing Christianity, as they viewed it.
Accordingly, these gentlemen organized a group of traveling professional men who would promote their message.
While we commend the motives of these gracious people—and certainly we are in agreement with the goal to which they aspire, namely, the widespread distribution of the Scriptures—we cannot but raise some objections:. The Gideons ignore many fundamentals of biblical truth, combining various denominationalists who agree to work together for a common cause, in spite of serious doctrinal differences.
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