Permit here a point that needs made in our day, and listen for one moment if you will: There are many things in life
I personally have not seen, but because of the credibility of those who have, I believe they exist -- without question.
There are times that I even make elaborate plans and expend significant monies to journey to such sights, or experience
such truths. It never enters my mind as I am preparing for this experience the possibility of the untruthfulness of their
testimony and non-existence of their claims. Must I do any less for a Truth that is eternally important for my soul? I think not!
So, when someone asks me why I believe Jesus was real and was who He claimed to be and did the things said of Him, I answer in
a very practical way: Because my father believed, and told me so, and his father believed, and told him so, and his father believed,
and told him so, and so on, until through time the father is reached who was there and witnessed first hand the reality of these claims,
AND HE BELIEVED. And as my father would not lie to me, neither did any of these have reason!
No, I do not have evidence that all my fathers by blood to the time of Jesus were believers, but I do have evidence that all the Jewish
fathers by blood had a father who was present at Sinai (even the handmaidens) and experienced what no other generation has experienced
since, and who to this day, several millennia later, remain among us
living proof of
that Transcendent Presence.
Their witness, those whom God has preserved by blood and as a race to this day, is proof enough for me of the Gospel Message of the
Old Testament -- that man, like Abraham, is to live unto this God by
faith.
(Why do you think evil ones have attempted to erase them in every generation, and whose existence at this moment hangs upon a tiny thread
of security attached to God's watchful Hand the object their present faith still fixed upon? God said He would preserve a remnant to
the end of time, and He is!) And one of these Jewish fathers (and Mothers) who was well respected among their own, who had a reputation
as my own father beyond reproach, raised a Son who excelled as no other; and there was not found in Him one shred of deceit that would
imply in the slightest that His character was any less than Holy. Even today's Jews look upon this Jesus as a great Holy man and teacher of His times.
In case you have not gotten my point yet, let me put it another way. That Jewish father at Sinai was not a liar. That Jewish father
at Jesus' birth was not a liar, and did not raise a liar. That Jewish father who was a member of this Council, who took Jesus from
the Cross and laid Him within the tomb, was not a liar. Mary at the tomb was not a liar. That Jewish father (Stephen) who permitted
himself to be stoned by this very Council rather than deny the Truth, was not a liar. And my father was not a liar. As he believed
the continuity of the witnesses of the fathers to the day of the Cross, and beyond, I believe! But, as with all who clearly are in
the wrong, who stand alone in their error, it is easier for them to continue claiming the preposterous and point a finger at the
masses around them who do believe than to deny their arrogant pride that keeps them from simply admitting that
they
are wrong! But, for me, they have the right to make that choice when confronted with the Truth. As did these blind Jews of Jesus' day.
