TWO OR THREE WITNESSES
Friend, do you regard the most important step for determining Bible truth? The Bible calls it the - ‘Two or Three witnesses’.
This spiritual principle was first given by God through Moses (Deuteronomy 19:15),
‘.. at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses, shall the matter be established.’
Confirmed by Jesus Christ in the Gospels (Matthew 18:16
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more,
that in the mouth of two or three witnesses EVERY WORD may be established.’
Later reiterated /re-confirmed to the Church through Paul (II Corinthians 13:1)
“In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall EVERY WORD be established.”
‘EVERY WORD’.. HOW ABOUT GOD’S WORD?
The thing to understand is that, every matter - legal, spiritual, Biblical, etc MUST be established by 2 or 3 witnesses.
Which then most certainly would include ‘an accurate understanding of the holy Scriptures’.
God did NOT LEAVE His Bible subject to ‘private interpretation’. He said so in II Peter 1:20:
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Knowing this when? → FIRST!
How much of the Scriptures..? → NONE!
Is of WHAT? → ANY private interpretation!
So then, we are NOT to interpret the Scriptures by ourselves. ..And that includes preachers.
Do you see it? If the least weighty matters on earth are not to be decided on the witness of ‘one’ ..how much MORE shouldn’t the BOOK OF LIFE be interpreted by multiple witnesses?
God WATCHES over His Word.
What He gave us to know is AVAILABLE to know;
What He wants us to understand is AVAILABLE TO understand;
WHICH IS WHY.. when the ‘WORD OF GOD’ - Jesus Christ - ascended into heaven - God sent the SPIRIT OF TRUTH into the world, to be with ALL of us at →ALL TIMES - to tell us what JESUS in the flesh would have told us.
OF COURSE HE DID! HOW ELSE COULD WE READ THE BOOK DAILY AND UNDERSTAND WHAT WE WERE READING?
THE holy spirit that God sent on the Day of Pentecost was to be in us AT ALL TIMES.
Therefore he is - an incredible COMFORT, like a blanket wrapped spiritually around us!
He is - our TEACHER - And we ALL have access to him.
He has a 3 fold mission - to
Lead us in ALL Truth; ALL TRUTH..
Remind us of whatever Jesus has said;
SHOW us things to come.
Additionally, he [the holy spirit] is called ‘PARAKLETES’.. i.e.. → a fascinating term. Here from Wikipedia:
Paraclete (/ˈpærəkliːt/; Greek: παράκλητος, romanized: Paráklētos) is a Christian biblical term occurring five times in the Johannine texts of the New Testament. In Christian theology, the word commonly refers to the holy spirit and is translated as 'advocate', 'counsellor' or 'helper'.
The English term Paraclete comes from the Koine Greek word παράκλητος (paráklētos). A combination of para ('beside /alongside') and kalein ('to call')
The word parakletos is a verbal adjective, often used of one called to HELP IN A COURT of LAW. Wonderful! Seeing as we’re in ‘trials’ all the time!
The Greek term paraclete is a translation of the Latin term ‘advocatus’ (Advocate) παράκλητος does not have any meaning of its own, it is in fact a calque for the Latin term advocatus meaning a person of high social standing who speaks on behalf of a defendant in a court of law before a judge.
(Guess who will be coming to court with me next week… :>)
The picture should be developing of a spiritual 1st or 2nd WITNESS,
..who is our Biblical interpreter,
..available at all times,
..and invaluable in knowing what JESUS would tell us, were he here in our presence.
Can you imagine then, trying to establish Biblical truth Without him? Whatever we hear, or read, or study ourselves, the spirit of Truth (paraclete) needs to be one of TWO or THREE witnesses that confirm the thing before we believe it, and most certainly before we TEACH IT.
Friend, this explains the existence of thousands of Christian denominations in the world. (Somewhere in the area of 45,000! If you can believe that!)
If so many denominations exist, the Church leadership are not following the Bible,.. For would the ‘Spirit of Truth’ give 45,000 different answers to the interpretation of a Scripture? Or, is it more likely, that questions are simply not being asked of him.
The Lord shared this point with me early on in my Christian walk. To where, when I hear or read a sermon, I ALWAYS take the lesson to the holy spirit for confirmation or rebuttal.
Even if it is the HOLY SPIRIT that teaches me something new while I’m studying the Scriptures, I will NOT TEACH or preach it, until HE CONFIRMS the lesson with Three OR MORE witnesses.
3 WITNESSES THIS SUMMER
A few months ago, I approached a wonderful Christian couple about a problem the holy spirit showed me in their house! When I paid them a visit, I was not looking for a problem, but the holy spirit FASTENED my eyes on something. That was 1 witness.
I said nothing. ( I neither say, nor publish, no preach anything based on 1 witness)
The next day, when we were all in church together, my mind was focused on the pastor’s message,.. But the holy spirit burned a Scripture upon my heart that pertained to what I saw the day before. (Witness 2)
I decided to see if I could find the obscure verse so I opened my Bible. The Book parted open on the PAGE where the obscure verse was written. (Witness 3)
3 WITNESSES of a Word from the Lord today
Lately I have been challenged repeatedly, like waves blown by steady winds, offering no respite in between. Feeling ‘tired’ of the contest today, I reminded God that I am just a woman, called alone, approaching my 7th decade, and needing ‘rest time’.
Sitting down at my computer, my eyes fell on a verse in the open Bible laying there. It had the word ‘WATCH’ in the verse. (Witness 1)
A moment later my eye caught a word on my screen,.. ‘WATCH’.. (top right) I clicked that tab and saw the word ‘WATCH’- 2 more times on the page. (Witness 2 or 3..)
Then I closed the page.. and the tab underneath had the word WATCH on it.. also 2x.. (Witness 3 or 4)
So what was the verse He showed me first, that He obviously wanted me to pay attention to? Here’s the verse my eye fell on.. (verse 13)
In answer to my fatigue, the Lord took me to II Corinthians 16:13
‘Watch ye,
stand fast in the faith,
quit you like MEN,←
BE STRONG.’
HAHA - I RECOVERED MYSELF FAST! And, well, lest we forget, in Him there is..
‘.. neither Jew nor Gentile;
there is neither bond nor free';
there is NEITHER MALE NOR FEMALE,
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus’. Galatians 3:28
Can you imagine, that if the Lord will happily supply multiple witnesses for such simple things, that He won’t do the same thing readily, to watch over His Word?
A LIFE CHANGING WITNESS
The most stunning example of multiple witnesses - that revolutionized my life, happened in 2018 - the lesson beginning January 31st and lasting initially 3 days. The Lord came to me and told me to study a topic that, even though I had an opinion on - like most people, I knew nothing about it - simply believing what I was taught.
The upshot was that the study I HE directed me to do, not only changed my beliefs 180 degrees… before the dust settled Jesus gave me FIVE THOUSAND witnesses of it.
I now believe and speak of this, and will present it on Substack very soon - for it involves the days racing at us.
What does all of this mean?
A SAINT HEARING A SERMON, OR READING THE WORD
It means that if you listen to what preacher ‘declares’ - though it may sound perfectly Biblical - but do not ‘check the Scriptures’ to see if these things are so’, you have only 1 witness - therefore nothing is established. And you may be believing error.
Not to mention, it discredits God Almighty to so little esteem His greatest WORK (Psalm 138:2) by letting anyone but HIM give you its true interpretation.
No matter how authoritative a preacher’s message may be, it is still ‘hearsay’. (welcome to 46,001 denominations)
LOOK AT JESUS WITH THE PEOPLE. After he preached, he would EXPLAIN what he said to THOSE WHO ASKED (called disciples) Where the MULTITUDES went home, having HEARD the sermon - but NOT UNDERSTANDING … NOT HAVING RECEIVED the Secrets of the Kingdom of God!
THIS, MY FRIEND, IS THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. TO TELL US WHAT CHRIST WOULD TELL US, WERE HE STILL STANDING HERE.
A ‘PROPHET’ SEEING A ‘VISION’, OR READING THE WORD
IF you consider yourself a ‘prophet’ (as so many today do), and you believe you have had a ‘vision from God’.. (As so many today do), even with a vision, you are obliged to have the Lord WITNESS to you the meaning of the dream/vision, even as Pharaoah and Nebuchadnezzar had a man of God do for them. They did not think to ‘interpret their visions alone’. THE ‘MAN’ IN THIS CASE, WOULD BE THE HOLY SPIRIT.
In Pharaohs case, he had the same dream twice which Joseph said ‘established it’.
Just now, when I also thought (witness 1) to look up the record about Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, my Bible opened to the exact page. (witness 2)
Was that a witness that a King seeking an ‘intepreter’ of his dreams - also applies to the ‘visions’ seen by ‘prophets’ today? That’s the conclusion I would draw. Though it is available to ask the Lord for yet more witnesses on any sticking point.
Frequently, Christians send me videos of people offering ‘prophetic words’.. to get my ‘opinion’ on the vision. Frankly, more often than not, the speaker says they ‘had a vision’, but go on to tell something that has no basis in Scripture. Meaning it lacks the PRIMARY WITNESS of the Scriptures themselves! And Christians who do not CHECK the Scriptures - are routinely deceived.
The “Spirit of Truth’ knows the Scriptures inside out and backwards. HE can give HIS opinion on any vision.
The ‘Courtrooms’ of heaven’ fad was one such example of a ‘vision’ told to a gullible church.1
Has that ‘seer’ sought the holy spirit to CONFIRM their own vision’s meaning, before he told it to the world as Gospel truth? Obviously not, but a few people have made a killing off of book sales…
Had the video watcher, sharing these video ‘prophesies’ with me, sought out a witness from the holy spirit rather than sending it to anyone else for a confirmation…?
I study the Scriptures daily, upwards of 50 years now. 48 to be exact. I am blessed to have learned HOW to study the Scriptures by a man of God - reviled by many (As men of God often are), but whose lengthy class on Bible Research has never been paralleled.
I owe everything I know about researching the Bible to him. But, interestingly, as the years passed, by allowing the holy spirit to ‘confirm/ and/or ‘deny’ what I learned, I came to the point where I determined which of this man’s teachings was Gospel truth - and what was error. For this - ironically - I am indebted to the same teacher!
There is a humility required of any man that will study the Bible, and be in awe of its author - GOD.
God is the Author of the Bible, though He moved ‘MEN of GOD’ to write as HE gave the revelations by INSPIRATION - which literally means ‘GOD BREATHED’.
Interesting isn’t it, that the Book of Life came to be, the same way that ADAM came to be, by the BREATH OF LIFE’.
That BREATH of LIFE - is THE BOOK;
No WONDER it is also ‘medicine to our flesh’. Personally, I can’t get enough of it.
How about you?
VJCB
In the Courtrooms of Heaven, a person supposedly transports themselves to a heavenly court, and gets a rapid answer or judgment to answer a crisis or problem. If such a thing were Biblical, so also would David, and Peter, and Paul, and many others not have suffered interminably as they did. How did they not know about this? In fact, it’s a devilish doctrine that used to be known as ‘Astral Projection’. If only the saints would seek out a 2nd witness from the holy spirit, they would not be fooled into such occult participation.