Eyewitness Testimony

Thinking thru the validity of Eyewitnesses 

Q: Mark Matthew Luke and John; 4 Gospels; 4 different witnesses and 4 different stories. How would that even hold up in court? Theyre different so isnt someone lying?

 - Jew, seeking clarity

A: Differences are normal with Eyewitnesses.

Are you unaware of how eyewitness statements work? Think of 9/11. If you were alive. If not, go back to view the news videos.

One main big event, 100k thousand or more witnesses from then gave different eyewitness statements to that event. Even the news anchors talked about all the various eyewitnesses. Even the 8 billion people on earth that saw that unfold either live on the air or in news about it just right after, or later that day.

>> Even in the weeks and months after; the volunteers and govt agencies who tried to rescue people from the rubble, and their experiences in the clean up efforts. 

5 years later they asked people "Where were you on 9/11?"

I am an eyewitness to that event. This was a time before cgi was a thing and before ai so it wasnt a manipulated event. It was 2001. What we saw on tv happened. I even know of people who worked in the towers and barely managed to escape and they were there experiencing it happening. 

My statement: 

We never turn the tv on in the morning. We dont care about the news. However my husband turned the tv on by chance, and it was right when breaking news came on. He turned it on at home just after 6am on West Coast, right when it was reported. He called me to the tv immediately. We saw what eyewitnesses filmed and the high quality recordings the news got their hands on (probably from the tall buildings surveillance) and as it was live we saw the 2nd plane hit the tower. I was concerned because this was a muslim terrorost attack and I was getting ready for work. I worked in the twin towers in Los Angeles, and there was rumors it was also a target as was the tall library tower. So I called my boss and said for safety I would stay home, and he approved it. 

My husband will have a different memory because he called his job and his day was diff than mine. 

So think a minute here. This was a big event that changed History. A historic global event that changed the world. TSA exists because of it now. 

Just as Jesus Resurrection changed History and the Church exists now because of it. 

The witnesses on 9/11 greatly differ but are all the same...

Some saw the plane, others didnt. Sone saw the plane hit the building, others just felt what was like an earthquake. Some got down a stairwell after being told to flee, others went back up and died. Some inside saw and experienced differently than those outside did. Some saw debree fall watching on street, others in adjacent bldgs saw it collapse as did those on the ground. Some were injured others were not. Some caught in the debree dust that engulfed the city center, while others were safer in buildings and werent covered in debree. They are all legitimate eyewitnesses to same event. 

What do we learn from all of that? 

Eyewitnesses say different things. Even when cops get statements there are radically different accounts but they all do point out the main thing that happened, what they experienced, what they saw and who they encountered. The Gospels do that. 

The Gospel of John has 59 eyewitness pieces of evidences. Just like all the gospels and all the eyewitnesses of the Apostles who wrote across the New Testament, they were all found verifiable and reliable by the experts (then and now). Even today respected historians & archeologists (whether Christian, or are of other religions and atheist ones) agree; the Bible is reliable & the crucifixion & resurrection happened. 

Remember, Complimentary is Not Contradictory.

They simply tell different parts of what happened, as eyewitnesses do, based on their experience, and it was included by God, for the reason "that" Gospel was written. You might not know this but each Gospel was written for a different purpose and that is why we have 4 eyewitness accounts, which again includes what God wanted us to know for the purpose of that Gospel. 

"The time gap isnt between the events and the present day. Good evidence doesnt become bad evidence just because of the lapse of time. The "critical event" is the time gap between the events and the recording of those events. And in the case in the life of Jesus and his resurrection that time gap is extraordinarily narrow. We can push back even before the writing of the gospels and epistles of Paul by discerning the traditions upon which they relied when they wrote. And some of these go back to within 5 years of Jesus crucifixion; Paul wrote to the Corinthian church within 5 years of that event, such as the ones in 1 Corinthians Chapter 15. So we are on pretty good ground there with the earliest and multiplicity of our sources." - William Craig Lane

If you never heard or understood the Gospel before, check it out too.

Hope this helped 😊

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