Truth Sleuth
By Ada Brownell
An excerpt from Swallowed by Life:
Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal
Truth often is
elusive, even when you have witnesses, testimony, and evidence. Courts wrestle
with determining truth.
Societies
historically tried many methods to expose a lie. In China, they used to fill a
suspect’s mouth with uncooked rice and he would be judged guilty if he could
not easily and quickly spit the rice from his mouth. The test was based on the
idea that people who are trying to avoid telling the truth don’t create saliva.
Other
ancient civilizations required a suspect to grab a white-hot metal rod and
carry it to a certain point.[1] If
the rod burned the person’s hands and they didn’t heal by a specific date, the
person was ruled guilty and punished.
Other
cruel and inaccurate methods of determining truth also were used.
More
recently, truth serum, an anesthetic or hypnotic such as thiopental sodium or
sodium pentothal, was believed to cause a person to speak only the truth. A
similar serum was introduced in the 1920s by a Texas obstetrician, Dr. R. E.
House. He believed a person under the influence of the drug scopolamine was
unable to tell a lie.
Today
we have the polygraph, which supporters say is 90 percent accurate, yet often
in courtrooms the results can’t be entered as evidence.[2]
In the days when
America was a Christian nation and witnesses swore an oath with their hand on
the Bible to “tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God,” the
swearing-in meant something. There was a day when Americans feared God. They
trembled at telling a lie and knew they probably would not escape being held in
contempt of court for not telling the truth. Today in many states, witnesses
have the option of swearing an oath or making an affirmation to tell the truth
to the best of their knowledge, without mentioning God or using a Bible.
The
best court cases depend on physical evidence and, hopefully, truthful eyewitnesses’
testimony.
I decided to go
to eyewitnesses’ writings contained in the Bible to determine the truth about
Jesus’s Resurrection, which is what gives Christians the hope of eternal life.
The
Bible is an amazing book, written by forty different authors with varying
occupations over a period of one thousand five hundred years, on three
continents, and in three languages. More
historical manuscripts are available on the New Testament than any book of
antiquity, and it’s difficult to doubt the divine inspiration of the Bible because
the forty authors all agree on hundreds of controversial
subjects, although they were imperfect humans.
In contrast, the Book of Mormon was
written by
Joseph Smith and the Koran by Mohammad, with some additions by his followers.
I read through
the New Testament and underlined every scripture pertaining to eternal life and
resurrection.
The Apostle Paul
wrote, “How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain”
(1 Corinthians 15:12–14).
When
Carolyn died, I had the advantage of having not only read and studied the Bible
for years, but having taught classes from Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict, a book that examines facts about
the Christian faith. One significant part of McDowell’s work is to determine
whether the Resurrection is historical fact or a mere hoax.[3]
The
author wrote, “After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, and
thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the ‘most wicked, vicious, heartless
hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most fantastic fact of
history.’”
When
a student asked McDowell why he couldn’t refute Christianity, the author
answered, “For a very simple reason. I am not able to explain away an event in
history--the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
McDowell’s first two books were his attempts
to refute Christianity. When he couldn’t, he accepted Jesus Christ as his
Savior and became a Christian.[4]
I
knew the Bible has several internal claims that it is the Word of God. For
instance, 2 Peter 1:21 says the Bible was written by holy men of God as they
were inspired by the Holy Ghost.
I’d already read
the testimony of many witnesses, but I needed to read them again. I decided to
look again at the Bible’s authenticity, at the divinity of Jesus, at His
miracles, and at why we can believe He was dead but came out of the tomb alive.
Several biblical
writers witnessed the dead raised to life and saw Jesus’ victory over the tomb.
I
noticed what John says: “That which
was from the beginning, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life was
manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that
eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us” (1 John
1:1–3).
Luke
also pointed out he was an eyewitness: “Even as they delivered them unto us,
which from the beginning were eyewitnesses…” (Luke 1:2).
The Apostle
Peter wrote: “We have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).
Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead? "If you will confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9NLT).
Belief Jesus died for your sins and walked out of the tomb alive is necessary to have eternal life.
You might as well put your faith in the most amazing thing available to man. Every idea or theory you embrace about how you got here, why you're here and where you are going takes faith--even atheism. To deny God is there you have faith everything and all the wonder in your body just happened.
Why not decide to follow Jesus today? He'll hear you when you pray and speak to you through His Word (the Bible) and witnesses. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
