Instantly Swayed

So we studied 1 John 5:4-12 today.

One of the main points that came out of this passage is the idea that we trust the testimony of eye witnesses. If someone was there, we tend to trust their description of the event. Consider a car accident. If I only heard it, but someone else saw it, the one who saw it might be called to testify. But not me, necessarily. My testimony will carry less weight.

The Gospels are an eyewitness account of Christ's life, teaching, death and resurrection. Differences in the testimony can be attributed to viewpoint, such as the fact that Luke was a doctor. John was one of Jesus' best friends.

When considering who Jesus is, the recent movie, The DaVinci Code, made some pretty serious statements about who Jesus was and what kind of character he had. It amazes me that some will jump on this band wagon and believe the testimony of an interpretation of art over the testimony of those who were there.

It also stands to reason that the eyewitness accounts of America's founding are a more trustworthy source for accurate information than recent texts. An example of this is the Boston Tea Party. Many texts will report the event as a mob, a riot, an unruly bunch of hooligans. But if you look at the eyewitness accounts, which are easily found on the web and have sources provided, these recent texts are the opposite of the eye witness accounts.

How many of these newer accounts have been rewritten to teach an opposite viewpoint of the actual event? And what has this done to our understanding of our founding? What has it done to our understanding of God?

Many of us who teach the Principle Approach use source documents to establish the truth of an event. If I could use a megaphone on this blog I would shout out the necessity of taking this action. How can we know the truth that will set us free if we cannot find the truth?

Scripture tells us that, in the last days, we would be 'ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.' Taking the testimony of men over the testimony of God is one reason this is true - now. Taking the testimony of men who were not eyewitnesses is another reason. How many of us, Christians!, will accept every 'wind of doctrine' that comes along and allow ourselves to be swayed? How many times have I done it? I shutter to think. How can we be light and salt, if this is true? The early believers 'turned the world upside down' because they SAW it - they touched Him, they listened to Him, they watched Him.

Liberty of conscience addresses this issue quite clearly. We are free to operate according to conscience - the determination of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of an action or choice. That being the case, we can believe what we will. But isn't it better to trust the testimony of eye witnesses? How can our conscience properly lead us if it is deceived?

Take care, believers! Guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, so that you will not be 'instantly swayed' by words that simply 'sound right.'