The value of reliable testimony

The following illustration is made-up.

Let's say I get a phone call from a very solemn-sounding doctor who tells me that my 18 year old son was in a car-accident and arrived at the hospital three hours ago.  He tells me it took three hours to track me down and find out how to contact me.  Panicked, I tell him that I'm on my way to the hospital immediately.

As I'm throwing my shoes on, my daughter walks in the house.  I relay to her the phone call I just received and she replies, "That can't be, I just saw him at school less than thirty minutes ago."

The weight of fear that overcame me begins to lessen as a ray of hope breaks through.  "Are you sure?" I ask emphatically.  "Are you sure it was only thirty minutes ago?"

"Yeah, I just came from the school," she replies.

In that moment I have a decision to make about who to believe.  On one hand I have a doctor telling me something and on the other hand I have an eye-witness to something completely different.  I think it is fair to say until I actually lay eyes on my son I wouldn't have complete peace that he was okay.  However, my daughter tells me that he's okay and she seems credible because she saw him herself after the doctor says he was taken to the hospital.

The dilemma highlights the value of reliable testimony.  Intrinsically I have to decide what makes a witness credible and whether I should believe them over and against other sources of information that seem credible too, even if they say something completely different.

I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately because it relates in no small way to how we know who Christ is.  In 2 Peter 1:16, Peter says, "For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty."  Similarly, the Apostle John says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life." (1 John 1:1)  And then there's Paul, who wrote,

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  1 Cor 15:3-8

You can find a lot of smart people in the world today who will deny the divinity of Christ.  They may do it by poking holes in the virgin birth, or denying the historicity of the resurrection, or even trying to deny the existence of God altogether by laying out empirical evidence supporting evolution over creation.  But in the end, the question still comes down to this: do I believe Peter and John and Paul saw the Lord?  Did they see what they say they saw?  Because if they did--if what they testify to is true--then that overrides everything else and marginal issues like evolution become irrelevant to your faith.

Imagine the horror of standing before Christ one day and he asks, "Why didn't you believe me?  Why didn't you believe those who knew me firsthand?"  How unfortunate to have to respond, "Well, I saw this documentary on the History Channel that said the resurrection didn't really happen, and I believed it."  Or, "My college biology textbook said there was undeniable proof I came from a monkey, and I believed it."

Wisely consider whose testimony you choose to believe.