Two or Three Witnesses

The Bible says that “in the mouths of two or three witnesses is the truth established” (Deut 19:15.) When Jesus was teaching, some of the religious teachers of the day challenged Him saying that His testimony was not valid because He was just one person speaking. The law expressed in Deuteronomy doesn’t say that the teaching of a lone witness is invalid, but that the death penalty couldn’t be imposed on the testimony of a lone witness. Jesus countered their argument in John 8:14 by saying that His testimony alone was valid because He knows where He came from. Yet, He said that He actually is not alone in His testimony. “I am one who testifies, and the other is my Father who sent me” (John 8:18.) Jesus and the Father have been witnesses and working with man since the day Adam was made.

After the resurrection, these two witnesses were joined by a third. Jesus said that when the Spirit comes, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement. So while the Spirit comforts and guides God’s followers, the Holy Spirit is also an agent of God that testifies to the world. John 16:8

There are many other occasions in which God used multiple witnesses to point others to the truth. Among them are the law and the prophets (Luke 16:29), the disciples, and signs and wonders (Acts 2:22; 2:43).

When there is a teaching that God wants to emphasize and prevent counterfeiting, He will speak it multiple times, and offer multiple veins of truth to establish the validity of the testimony.

He may begin with a promise, back it up over time with prophecy, He may provide signs and wonders, and if it is really important, He will take the time to create “types” and “shadows” which foretell something important yet to come.

For a really important teaching, this may be drawn out over hundreds or thousands of years.

Perhaps this is nowhere more apparent than in the message of salvation. This message began with a promise to Eve in the garden of Eden. It was followed by hundreds of promises, prophecies, and many “types” that foreshadowed something greater to come. For example, when God was showing Abraham what was to come, He asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and before he could do it, stopped him and taught that God Himself would provide the sacrifice. Then, many hundreds of years later, instructed Abraham’s offspring though Moses to institute sacrificial worship at the tabernacle (and ultimately at a temple.) Yet the blood of these bulls and sheep pointed to something greater to come. Jesus was asked “Have you come to do away with the law and the prophets?” He replied “I have not come to do away with the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” The sacrifice Jesus made was the fulfillment of all of the promises, prophecies, types, and shadows pointing to this great teaching. Jesus prophesied that the great temple would be torn down, and by extension, that the sacrifices offered at the temple would thereby cease too. The temple was torn down, and animal sacrifice has ceased. The promise was fulfilled. Let us give thanks to God for His great sacrifice — for the great price He paid to redeem us— and for making the teaching clear.