What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life--what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:1,3
Even in today's courtrooms in our country, the highest form of evidence permitted is the credible testimony of an eyewitness. Consider how the trial of OJ Simpson would have gone if there had been a credible eyewitness to the murder?
Such is the case with the life and ministry of Jesus! There are credible eyewitness accounts in the Bible of what Jesus did and said, as the Apostle John here proclaims. We have credible eyewitnesses because they did not change their testimony even in the face of suffering, persecution nor even death. They were not known to be habitual liars, nor were they known to have been controlled by substances that could have affected this testimony. The great jurist Simon Greenleaf, a Yale Law School professor who is known to have written the definitive book on what is admissible in a trial as evidence, examined this eyewitness testimony of the apostles in the Bible and found it to be easily admissible eyewitness testimony in a courtroom trial and wrote a book on this.
And just what does the eyewitness John say is the point of all this eyewitness testimony that he shares? That we have fellowship with him and Jesus and that this fellowship (sharing something in common, here Jesus' righteousness) cleanse us from our sins! (1 John 1:7)
We must be more aware that Christianity is a very historical religion based on the eyewitness testimony and the words and life of Jesus of Nazareth. As John proclaims the writing of his for us in John 20:30: "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
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