In the American legal system, conviction or acquittal of a crime requires a preponderance of evidence beyond reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt or innocence. The juror must apply standards of evidence dispassionately, without bias or prejudice. Eyewitness testimony to a crime is weighty enough to push the question of guilt or innocence into this region of beyond reasonable doubt. The mysterious deaths of witnesses scheduled to testify in court are themselves evidence of the importance of eye witnesses.
All things being equal, when we hear the testimony of another person about an event, yet remain unconvinced, we are standing on the grounds of neutral reason. When the weight of the evidence is against the testimony of the witness, we have the responsibility to disbelieve the testimony, even if it is tearful and heartfelt. Sometimes things that just don’t add up.
The Bible forswears the taking of bribes or the showing of favoritism in legal cases. Much of our current legal system is based on these foundational practices, and this is a good and right way to approach interactions with others in this dim world. People lie. They misremember. Stories change under duress. Palms are lined with wads of money. However, we make a mistake if we take the same approach to God. For He too is a witness.
Bertrand Russell, an atheistic philosopher, was once asked what he would say to God if he found himself standing before Him after death. “I probably would ask, ‘Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?’” Russell takes the position of the neutral juror, listening intently to the prosecution, really trying, but ultimately unable, to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that God exists. There simply wasn’t convincing evidence.
But when false memories or honest mistakes are ruled out, maintaining a position of unbelief of another’s testimony is to simultaneously call them a liar, of that ilk whose pants are on fire.
In the case of Christ, who is it that is presenting the evidence which validates Christ’s divinity? It is not Lee Strobel. It is God the Father. Here, let me show you.
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.
John 5:37 (ESV)
But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
John 15:26 (ESV)
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:31 (ESV)
God has some impeccable credentials to His name. You may know Him from some of His previous acts like creating the universe ex nihilo and directing the course of human history. But if one may need a bit more umph to believe God, to be certain He is not a supreme being who will fib, they may be helped by the fact that it is impossible for God to lie.
…he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Hebrews 6:18 (ESV)
Greek for “impossible” is adynaton, meaning literally “powerless, unable.” This is because God is truth, through and through – truth telling is what it means to be God; He can no more lie that a triangle can have four sides.
So if God is testifying, what is he testifying to and to whom is he testifying? He is testifying to us that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh – the chief witness in the trial that Jesus is the Son of God is God. He bears witness to this fact by miracles culminating in the greatest miracle, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. When we hear this good news and believe, what we are saying is that God is telling the truth. However, if this gospel is met with unbelief, we are saying that God is a big fat liar.
The Apostle John pulls back the real heinousness of unbelief.
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his son
1 John 5:10 (ESV)
This is a heavy accusation. Visions are evoked of a steely eyed hombre looking up from the poker table when his opponent accuses him of sleeving aces. You calling me a liar? But that is exactly what unbelief is – making God into a liar. This is the subtext of unbelief.
Now the temptation here is to explain away the unbelief as something other than calling God a liar. After all, can a person really be expected to believe in Jesus just because God vouched for him? Well, why not? Perhaps it is because we ourselves do not think God’s testimony is sufficient to obligate belief. Living post enlightenment, post scientific revolution, with all our proofs and forensics and pretensions and vast knowledge of the cosmos, we got in into our heads that God owes it to us to convince us through the senses, convince us of a truth that we have already decided to not believe. Because if Jesus really is the Son of God, it is we who stand condemned.
What this should do is create in us a change of direction. There are plenty of “proofs” for God’s existence, evidences of God’s handiwork; New testament scholars have an important job to verify the historicity of the texts, Egyptologists provide valuable extra-biblical evidence to buttress the validity of the Old Testament, and the are important apologetics which can steer truth around mental roadblocks. But the core of our gospel is that God has testified about Jesus and declared Jesus to be the Son of God. He is not trying to convince the world through petition, maybe eventually to get Jesus enough votes to be elected Son of God by popular demand. He is proclaiming the reality that Jesus is King. Christians, following God’s example, are declaring the kingship of Jesus, that is what it means to preach the gospel. The gospel is a proclamation of a reality, not a proposition that is made true by ascent.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord
Romans 1:1-4 (ESV)
Thought Butter 