RPG Adults
EYE WITNESSES
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
2 Peter 1:15-18
Psalm 44:1-9
“The proud have forged
a lie against me…”
EYE WITNESSES
It was the desire of Peter to see that the Church had a record of his testimony after his death (2 Pet 1:15). The Holy Spirit fulfilled this desire by inspiring him and other Apostles to write the New Testament. They had much to tell the Church. They had been eyewitnesses of the Lord’s actions. Peter, on the Mount of Transfiguration, had seen the Lord in His glory (2 Pet 1:16). He had actually heard the voice of God the Father from heaven (2 Pet 1:17-18).
And so the Bible is different from the many other religious books that have come and gone. The books of the Egyptian gods now gather dust in museums, their fables unheeded, their myths forgotten. The Mormons follow a book obviously copied, at least in part, from one such book. But the Holy Scripture was written by men who, with their own eyes, had seen the truth of which they wrote. The Apostle John spoke of seeing, experiencing, and handling the truth as it was revealed by Christ (1 John 1:1). It was that which the Apostles had seen concerning salvation that they wrote about (1 John 4:14).
Some say the Bible is a good book but the facts are not always straight. The disciples, they say, hoped so much that Jesus would live again that they really imagined that He did. But the writers of the New Testament claim consistently that they saw with their own eyes the entire ministry of Christ, including His death, resurrection and ascension. If the New Testament’s witness concerning Christ is not true, then by their own words the Apostles are not good men but liars and frauds (1 Cor 15:15). John finished his Gospel by writing these words: “This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true” (John 21:24). The Holy Scripture was written by eyewitnesses to the ministry and majesty of the Lord that we, His people, might follow Him in truth.
THOUGHT: What was the basis of the Apostle’s claim that their writings concerning Christ were true?
PRAYER: Father, I praise Thee for Thy Word was written by eyewitnesses of the Truth.