…what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The Christian faith has at its foundation eyewitnesses to the truths it propounds. The God of the Bible does not call a seeker to blind, mindless ‘faith’. Such a perspective is not really even faith as the Bible defines it. Biblical faith is believing, being persuaded, that God is real, He exists, and that He can be trusted to reward those who seek Him. God is a real ‘person’. He can be trusted.
In searching for God, the seeker has at his disposal the historically validated testimony of eyewitnesses. Thousands of very early manuscripts record and validate these eyewitness accounts and letters, such as John’s, that speak in light of having seen and heard Jesus Christ Himself. No other book in all of antiquity carries the early manuscript, eyewitness weight of the New Testament. None even closely compare.
Obviously, faith is still required just as it is required for so many things to which we subscribe and submit. Any ‘non-physical truth’ (and even some truths that involve physical things) in which one believes implies faith. Even the atheist has faith that there is no God unless, of course, he doesn’t believe it and then I’m not sure where that leaves him. However, one cannot say with intellectual honesty that there are no real reasons to believe that Jesus Christ lived, died and was raised from the dead. There is ample evidence for these events. A person does not have to accept these historical claims or eyewitness accounts but one cannot credibly say these claims and accounts are invalid. The facts are available and prolific. The documents and events are historically valid and have been tested throughout the ages. They can be trusted as can the One to Whom they testify.
John saw Jesus, heard Jesus and walked with Jesus. Jesus Christ was a real man who lived and died and made amazing claims. As C. S. Lewis the great Christian apologist said, ‘He is either liar or lunatic or Lord’.
Jesus Himself asked His own disciples, ‘Who do men say that I am?’
This question remains for all serious men and women who seek truth. The answer to this question has eternal implications for all of us here on this terrestrial ball we call Earth. It is worth investigating.
As for me and my house, He is Lord and we will serve Him.
Seen and Heard – 1 John 1:3
Ventanas 