What do you believe?

1 John 1:1-4

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”

September 21, 2021

If I asked you what you believe and why you believe it, could you respond? I am not asking about whether you believe fish is better than chicken, because that is simply opinion.  I am asking regarding things that are fact, which you believe, could you offer why you believe those things?

For instance, do you believe there is such a thing as gravity? I would assume that you would say, “yes.” Thereby, you could answer, “I believe it because science has repetitively shown that gravity is the force of attraction between two objects, specifically the force exerted by a larger object, such as the earth, upon a smaller object, such as myself, which draws the smaller object toward the larger object.”

If I asked you if you believe and could explain that indeed 2+2=4, I would assume that you would say, “Yes, because if you add 2 items to 2 more items, the total items, whatever they are, add up to 4.” Of course we could always find caveats, like if I have two bags of 6 peaches and added them to 2 more bags of 4 peaches, you might say we have 20 peaches.  Yet, the number of bags of peaches added together remains 4 bags total.

How about if I asked you if you believe that Mount St. Helens erupted? In this instance, your response may depend upon your age.  For example, I would respond, “Yes, history has well recorded that indeed Mount St. Helens did erupt. But I did not experience it, because it erupted 1 month and 1 day after my birth.” However, someone else who born more than a few years prior might say that they remember it being on the news, or that they even remember the ash in the sky (based upon their proximity to the eruption).

Many people, when pressed on their beliefs about things like these would offer such responses. However, when it comes to things of scripture, they may struggle to establish a response of why they believe what they believe. John, in this epistle, offers an eye-witness account of Jesus, saying that he not only saw Jesus, but that he heard Him and touched Him as well.  We will often accept things in history based upon eye-witness accounts, such as George Washington crossing the Delaware River..

Why did John write this epistle? He did it to provide the same kind of first-hand account that others provided about George Washington crossing the Delaware, or Mount St. Helens eruption . . . so that those who never saw it could know the same thing he experienced.  Is it not reasonable to accept an eye-witness account that Jesus lived, taught, died, rose again, and ascended? And if someone were to say that John was a biased party and it was to his benefit to attest to these things, I wonder if we could respond to that as well? What benefit might he have in testifying that Jesus rose again? Potential persecution from the Sanhedrin . . . maybe even martyrdom. Benefit? – I think not.