https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/The-Bibles-Witnesses.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Isaiah 43:8-13<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. The strength of any testimony depends on the quality of the witnesses giving the testimony<\/p>\n
A. In a court of law the witnesses are grilled as heavily as the defendants.<\/p>\n
1. An inconsistent witness is not a believable witness<\/p>\n
2. Thus the integrity of the witness matters<\/p>\n
B. God made use of witnesses – Isaiah 43:10-11<\/p>\n C. God gave evidence so that we could test the truth of His statements and see that\nthe Bible really came from God – Isaiah 46:8-11\n 1. By the time Isaiah was written, it was clear that God statements were\nalways right.\n
II. Expectations<\/p>\n A. It is an important point because by Jesus’ day, the Jews – God’s witnesses – were\nexpecting the Messiah to show up\n
B. Jesus didn’t just appear and say “believe me”<\/p>\n
1. There was the witness of John – John 1:19-34<\/p>\n
2. The Samaritans were expecting him – John 4:25-26<\/p>\n 3. Hundreds of prophecies given over a span of over thousands of years were\nfulfilled in Jesus – John 5:37-39\n
C. Compare this to other religions.<\/p>\n 1. Mohammed, who founded Islam, and Joseph Smith, who founded\nMormonism, both just appeared.\n 2. God challenges these and other man-made religions to put up or shut up –\nIsaiah 44:8-11\n D. The question that solidifies God’s position is whether we believe the advance\nwitnesses given by God – Acts 26:27\n 1. Too many don’t bother to examine Christianity’s evidence and don’t realize\nhow it excels against other world religions.\n
III. The Need for Questions<\/p>\n
A. Jesus expects us to question before committing.<\/p>\n
1. He did not expect us to take one man’s words – John 5:31<\/p>\n
2. The testimony of men is not enough – John 5:32-35<\/p>\n 3. What a person does reveals much more about who he is. Miracles are\nevidence not to be overlooked – John 5:36\n
4. The greatest is the testimony of God, yet sadly few accept it – John 5:37-38<\/p>\n 5. The witness of the Scriptures. Written evidence existing in advance – John\n5:39-40\n B. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, those writing the New Testament added their\nwitness.\n
C. There is even the unwilling witness of the Jews who chose to be enemies of Christ.<\/p>\n D. Consider that people can and have been duped by any single evidence shown\nabove.\n
1. People have been persuaded by charismatic men<\/p>\n
2. Supposed miracles can be faked<\/p>\n 3. But Jesus’ point is that you can’t fool people on all these points at once.\nThey can’t be all faked.\n
IV. The Character of the Witnesses<\/p>\n
A. Jesus noted concerning his followers – John 17:12<\/p>\n
1. Not one was lost, but the one so prophesied.<\/p>\n B. The witnesses of the Bible all suffered violence and most suffered violent deaths,\nyet they did so willingly rather than recant their testimony.\n
1. Can any other religion say the same?<\/p>\n
2. Is any comparable?<\/p>\n C. Let’s compare Mormonism as an example. Joseph Smith tried to reproduce the\nevidence given by the Scriptures for his own religion.\n 1. In the front of every Book of Mormon you will find two testimonies. One\nsigned by three men, the other by eight men. A total of eleven witnesses.\n 2. These men swore that they saw angels, saw golden plates, and stated that\nSmith’s weird story was true.\n 3. And virtually every one of these men fell away from Mormonism! Some\nwere even thrown out of the church and had to run for their lives!\n
D. Oliver Cowdery<\/p>\n 1. Was the primary scribe of the Book of Mormon. He was “second Elder” of\nMormon church, the position of “first Elder” was held by Joseph Smith. He\nwas also “Assistant President of the Church” from 1834 until he was\nexcommunicated in 1838.\n 2. On April 12, 1838, the church excommunicated Oliver Cowdery, all the\nliving Whitmers on the list, and Hiram Page, along with other non-witnesses. They became known as “the dissenters.”\n 3. What caused the rift? He disagreed with Joseph Smith’ policies, especially\nhis attempt to blend church and state. But worse is that Cowdery took\nSmith to task for an affair Smith had with a teenage maid living in his\nhome. This girl later became Smith’s first plural wife, but Cowdery\nopposed polygamy.\n 4. Then on June 17, 1838, President Sidney Rigdon preached a sermon calling\nthe dissenters, “salt that had lost its savor” and told the faithful to cast the\ndissenters out “to be trodden beneath the feet of men.”\n 5. Cowdery understood that this was a call for the Dannites, a secret vigilante\nsociety to attack the dissenters. So he fled the region.\n E. Martin Harris repeatedly and publicly that he wasn’t there when the angel came\nand showed the other two the golden plates, which he claimed as a witness. He\nclaimed he only saw the plates “with the eye of faith.”\n
1. “I never saw the golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state.”<\/p>\n 2. During a trial in Palmyra he told a lawyer who asked, “Did you see the\nplates and the engravings upon them with your bodily eyes?” He\nresponded. “I did not see them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with\nthe eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see anything around me –\nthough at the time they were covered with a cloth.”\n 3. On April 15, 1838, Stephen Burnett gave the following report. “I have\nreflected long and deliberately upon the history of this church & weighed\nthe evidence for & against it – loth to give it up – but when I came to hear\nMartin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural\neyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also that the\neight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that\nreason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave away . . . . I\ntherefore three weeks since in the Stone Chapel gave . . . the reasons why I\ntook the course which I was resolved to do, and renounced the Book of\nMormon. . . .I was followed by W. Parrish, Luke Johnson & John Boynton,\nall of who concurred with me, (sic) after we were done speaking M. Harris\narose & said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon\nfor he knew it was true, he said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box\nwith only a tablecloth or a handkerchief over them, but he never saw them,\nonly as he saw a city through a mountain. And said that he never should\nhave told that the testimony of the eight was false, if it had not been picked\nout of (him) but should have let it passed as it was.”\n
F. Hyrum Smith died in a gun fight beside Joseph Smith in the Carthage jail in 1844.<\/p>\n 1. These two Mormon founders were not “willing” martyrs! They are more\nlike John Wayne than Jesus!\n 2. Sometimes Mormons try to claim both Smiths were martyrs like the writers\nof the Bible. It is true that they were killed in a gun fight, but they were\ntrying desperately to fight their way out and escape.\n 3. Here is a Mormon account of such, “Brother Joseph as he drew nigh to\nHyrum, and, leaning over him, exclaimed, ‘Oh! my poor, dear brother\nHyrum!’ He, however, instantly arose, and with a firm, quick step, and a\ndetermined expression of countenance, approached the door, and pulling\nthe six-shooter left by Brother Wheelock from his pocket, opened the door\nslightly, and snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the\nbarrels, however, were discharged. I afterwards understood that two or\nthree were wounded by these discharges, two of whom, I am informed\ndied.” (History of the Church<\/i>, Vol. 7, p. 100, 102 & 103)”\n 4. The Mormons are rather proud that Smith killed two men before they got\nhim!\n
G. How different from the founders of the New Testament church!<\/p>\n
1. James, son of Zebedee, died about A.D. 44 by a sword stroke – Acts 12:1-2<\/p>\n 2. Most of the rest are based on Fox’s Book of Martyrs. It was written long\nafter the fact and it is not inspired, still it is probably as accurate as any\nother historical account.\n 3. Phillip of Bethsaida, died in Hieropolis, Phrygia, about A. D. 54. He was\nscourged, imprisoned, and then crucified.\n 4. Thomas, also called Didymus. He is the one often called “doubting\nThomas.” He died near Madras, India. They ran him through with a spear.\n 5. Nathaniel, also known as Bartholomew. This is the one Jesus called an\nIsraelite without any guile (John 1:47). In India, they tried to make him\ndeny Jesus by skinning him alive. They failed, so they beheaded him. – II\nPeter 1:16\n 6. Matthew, also known as Levi. Killed with a halberd in the city of Nadabah,\nEthiopia, about A.D. 60.\n 7. James, the son of Alphaesus, and James, the Lord’s brother. These two\nmen have often been confused in history. Eusebius, Josephus and Jerome\nrecord that one or both of them were killed by the priests between A.D. 64\nand 66. One of them was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple. The\nother seems to have been beaten or stoned to death at the hands of the\npriests as well. – Acts 26:25-26\n 8. Matthias who had replaced Judas. Stoned and beheaded in Jerusalem. – II\nCorinthians 2:17\n 9. Simon Peter. Crucified by Nero, upside down by his request so he would\nnot die the same way Jesus died since he thought he wasn’t worthy. – II\nPeter 1:13-14\n 10. Paul. Beheaded in Rome by Nero. Traditionally on the same day that Peter\ndied. He wasn’t crucified because he was a Roman citizen. – II Timothy\n4:6-8\n
a. Note that some of these men knew they were about to die.<\/p>\n b. They had plenty of time to think about it and went without a\nwimper.\n 11. Judas, the brother of James, also called Lebbeaus and Thaddeus. Crucified\nabout A.D. 72 in Edessa, Mesopotamia.\n
12. Simon the Zealot was crucified in Britain about A.D. 74.<\/p>\n 13. Timothy became an elder in Ephesus about A.D. 65, in A.D. 97, at the age\nof 80 he tried to stop a drunken pagan festival. For his troubles he was\nbeaten, dragged through the streets, and then stoned.\n 14. John Mark founded the church in Alexandria, Egypt. The local pagans\ndidn’t appreciate it. They drug him through the streets during the Passover.\nWhen the governor did do anything, they grabbed him the next day, tied a\nrope around his neck, and drug him to death.\n 15. John, son of Zebedee, brother of James. The only one to escape a martyr’s\ndeath – John 21:18-23; I John 1:1-4\n H. Given the hostile environment these men lived within, if they had cowered or ran,\nwe would have heard about it. But they didn’t!\n
V. Why? – II Corinthians 4:13-14<\/p>\n
A. And people think that Mormonism is just another church of Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n
B. Think again! Look at the evidence. Look at the witnesses.<\/p>\n
\n
Based on an article by Jerry Blount<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Isaiah 43:8-13 I. The strength of any testimony depends on the quality of the witnesses giving the testimony A. In a court of law the witnesses are grilled as heavily as the defendants. 1. An inconsistent witness is not a believable witness 2. Thus the integrity of the witness matters B. God made use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[219,709,687],"class_list":["post-61866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-bible","tag-evidence","tag-mormons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7924,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-constitutes-a-witness-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":61866,"position":0},"title":"What constitutes a witness in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Deuteronomy 17:6 and II Corinthians13:1, the passages refer to the \"two or three witnesses.\" I assume these are eyewitnesses. Does DNA count as an eye witness for justice biblically? So when individuals are convicted on DNA evidence alone for their crimes and incarcerated or put to death, is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93936,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-testimony-of-the-three-witnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":61866,"position":1},"title":"The Testimony of the Three Witnesses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Kenny Chumbley via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 3, September 1994 \"This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood, And it is the Spirit that beareth witness... there are three that bear witness in earth, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53317,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-resurrection-of-christ-and-the-inspiration-of-the-scriptures\/","url_meta":{"origin":61866,"position":2},"title":"The Resurrection of Christ and the Inspiration of the Scriptures","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert H. Farish via Gospel Guardian, April 14, 1960 The evidence by which the resurrection of Christ is proved is the testimony of the apostles. This testimony was originally given orally and later put into writing by the apostles. This testimony asserts not only the miracle of the resurrection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-confession-and-repentance-remove-the-death-penalty-under-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":61866,"position":3},"title":"Would confession and repentance remove the death penalty under the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If you break one of the Ten Commandments, does it mean that you sinned? Of course, the consequence, I believe, is death, correct? However, if you confess what you did and repented, then God forgives you and you don't have to die, correct? Answer: Each of the Ten Commandments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21222,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/john-and-witnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":61866,"position":4},"title":"John and Witnesses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford Most Christians probably appreciate the significance of Habakkuk 2:4 (\u201cThe righteous one will live by his faith.\u201d) to understanding the New Testament, but the significance of Deuteronomy 19:15 often escapes us. It reads, \u201cOne witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24661,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-give-testimonies-in-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":61866,"position":5},"title":"Should we give testimonies in church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is meant by a testimony? I've seen so many sharing their testimonies in churches. Can we share the testimonies like that? One brother asked me to share my testimony in their church. What can I say? 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