Numbers 35:30 (ESV)
"If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. When Israel were to put to death a murderer, or anyone who had done anything deserving of death according to God's law, they were to do it based on the testimonies of two or more witnesses. One witness was never enough to condemn a person to death. Life is too precious to place in the hand of only one man's perspective. One person alone may be in error or biased, but the witness of two or more agreed establishes a truth. And only based on this truth can sound judgment be made.
So important and universal is this rule, that even biblical truth cannot be established based on one verse or passage alone. All scripture is truth, no doubt, but if one part is pulled out and twisted to justify a sinful theory of a selfish man, it can truly be poison. This is what Satan did in quoting Psalm 91:11-12 to tempt Jesus to throw Himself off the temple:
Matthew 4:5-6 (ESV)
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ""He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"
And this is why heretics, cults and false teachers emerge. Just like the devil, they pick one passage or verse and runs with it, ignoring the rest of the bible, using it to justify their own depraved thoughts and their sins. These are those who steal God's words, and use His precious truths for their own gain. They mould and change God's holy word to squeeze it into their own evil understanding of God and the world. They are not willing mould, change and squeeze themselves into the narrow gate which leads to eternal life. Because they feel that God's truth is too holy, and because they are wicked and unrepentant, they pick and choose those verses which will accommodate to their sinful lifestyles, while maintaining at least an outward form of godliness. These commit grave sin, worthy of eternal hell.
Just because someone quotes a bible passage, those not mean the person is necessarily of the truth. The question we must ask is, Does the person agree to the truths that are universally agreed by the several witnesses within Scripture? Do they agree to the essential doctrines of the bible? Any demon can quote scripture, but demons hate truth. We must be lovers of truth, and test always all spirits whether they are from God, or no. And we must keep in mind all scripture primarily testifies of Jesus Christ. If a person quotes scripture, but confesses not of the excellencies of Jesus Christ as who He actually is, that man is worthy to be doubted:
John 5:39 (ESV)
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Acts 10:43 (ESV)
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
1 John 4:3 (ESV)
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
We may here also think about the judgment of God on the Last Day. 'Doesn't God need witnesses, then, to condemn us with eternal death?', some may ask. But on the contrary, God needs no witnesses. Read:
John 2:24-25 (ESV)
But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people [25] and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Hebrews 4:13 (ESV)
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
God Himself is Truth, and therefore needs no one else to establish for Him what is truth. He sees all things, and He knows all things. He judges all things based on His own understanding, and His judgments are always correct. He has no bias, as He is the standard of all truth. On Judgment Day, He will need no one to tell Him what we have done. He will know everything we have done, and all He will do is to see whether our account matches what He already knows to be true. We will be able to justify none of the secret sins we have committed. He Himself will accuse, and no one will able to contradict His accusations against us. And if anyone points the finger against God on that Day and dares to say, 'You have not enough witnesses to condemn me', then God will say, 'I am not only One, but I am Three in One, therefore my judgment of you is true. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are witnesses against you':
John 8:16-17 (ESV)
Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. [17] In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.
John 16:8-11 (ESV)
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: [9] concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; [10] concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; [11] concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
And not only the Holy Trinity, but the sinner will have a fourth witness: his own self. Firstly, his own conscience will bear witness to every time he had sinned against God, and it will agree with God when the judgment is pronounced. The sinner's own pricked conscience, the discomfort, the shame, the pounding of the heart he felt every time he had done anything that was against God's will, will be brought forth like a videotape before God as evidence for his damnation:
Romans 2:15-16 (ESV)
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them [16] on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
For those fools who chose to believe that God does not exist, their own intellects will damn them on Judgment Day. Creation itself will be brought in as evidence by God to prove to them for the last time that He does exist, that He was Creator of these intelligibly and intricately designed things. By this, God will also uncover their hearts to reveal that these fools knew that God existed all along, but that they had on purpose veiled their minds with a lie, that they may continue in sin:
Romans 1:20 (ESV)
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Not only the creation, but the joy and the blessings sinners received from God will also be brought in as further evidence that God existed, and also will magnify the sinfulness of their sins. The more good they received from God, the more will it blacken those times when they did not give glory to God and give thanks to God for their sins. The more joy and gladness they received from God, the more will it make evil those times they rejected the offer of God's salvation through Jesus Christ. The more riches they had, the more condemnation will be added to them for those times they had not used those riches for the glory of God but for their own pleasure. The more blessings they enjoyed, if they had not trusted in Christ, will be seen as abuse and misuse of God's precious resources. Every drop of rain given to them for which they did not give thanks will be brought in as witnesses against them to show how much they despised God, but gave credit to themselves:
Acts 14:17 (ESV)
Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness."
If these witnesses were not enough, God also has his angels who had seen the abominations done on earth and, at the least, He has other people to give witness of what a sinner had done. There shall be no escape for the sinner on Judgment Day. No advocate will be able to speak for him on the day, and everything that will be spoken against God's accusation will be shut down by a simple reading of the Law:
Romans 3:19 (ESV)
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
No man will talk back to God on that Judgment Day, but they will all simply fall to the ground and use their tongues only to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord:
Philippians 2:9-11 (ESV)
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Every sinner will freely accept the eternal sentence that Jesus Christ pronounces to them, and each shall go to Hell with their gnashing of the teeth and weeping, blaming no one but himself, while believers go to Heaven rejoicing and singing the praises of the Saviour. If such is the terror and the finality of the Judgment, should we not fear, and if we have been saved, tell others of this Day to come? Lord, grant us the opportunities to share with people of the great Day of Your wrath, and the only Way to escape it.
We tremble when we remember how Jesus Christ, our Judge, was condemned to death even though there was no agreement between two witnesses:
Mark 14:56-59 (ESV)
For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. [57] And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, [58] "We heard him say, ''I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.''" [59] Yet even about this their testimony did not agree.
Our Lord was judged unrighteously, accused by false witnesses who could not even get their stories straight. Christ had done nothing worthy of death. He had not killed any person, but actually, had raised people from the dead! Indeed, it was after the raising of Lazarus that the chief priests more actively sought to kill Jesus:
John 11:48-53 (ESV)
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." [49] But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all. [50] Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." [51] He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, [52] and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. [53] So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
And what is amazing is, when they had Jesus arrested, they sought to have a murderer to be released instead of Christ the life-giver. Therefore Peter accuses the Jews of this horrendous sin and contradiction they have committed against the Law of God:
Acts 3:14-15 (ESV)
But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, [15] and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
What sin had Christ then committed that was deserving of death? Nothing. He healed the lepers, made the blind to see, deaf to hear, and fed those who were hungry. Were they condemning Him for those good things? No. But what did they say?:
John 10:33 (ESV)
The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God."
Jesus Christ in the end died for telling the truth about Himself. He was God, so He confessed that He was, and He was condemned to death for it:
Matthew 26:63-65 (ESV)
But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." [64] Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." [65] Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.
What is interesting is that the Jews knew that Christ was coming, and that He would be called the Son of God, yet when Christ confessed that He was the Christ, and that He was the Son of God, they accused Him of blasphemy. It makes no sense. They had no reason to kill Him at all. They simply did not want to believe that Jesus was their Messiah and the Son of God. This wasn't their God as they imagined it. So because of their idolatry, they killed Him. What a perversion of justice did these Jews commit on that black day of history.
But we know why this innocent, life-giving, righteousness and Holy One had to die. To God's eyes, He was not considered a righteous man on that day. He was considered to be a sinner, though He was not. On that day, God treated Him like He desired to treat us, beating Him, spitting on Him, mocking Him, laughing at Him, torturing Him, and killing Him. God saw us when He saw His Son on that day. All the sins we committed was counted to be His, and God crushed His soul with His mighty fist of violence. Jesus Christ suffered this injustice that we may live, so that God does not have to crush us like that on Judgment Day, if we believe. Christ was counted to be as wicked as a murderer, and so condemned and cursed He was, that He died a quicker death than the two malefactors that were next to Him:
John 19:32-33 (ESV)
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. [33] But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
Was it unfair treatment that Christ received? But God calls the Cross His righteousness vindicated. It was because of God's fairness that Christ had to be so unfairly treated, that God may be forgiving and lenient towards us:
Romans 3:25-26 (ESV)
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Christ did it, so that He may not only be just towards us on this coming Judgment Day. Because He died, He can now be gracious with us on that Day, only if we trust in this awesome sacrifice. But if we choose to reject His offering, how shall we be saved? God will consume us forever with His wrath, and His eternal punishment shall burn our incorruptible resurrected bodies forever and ever. If Christ was so judged and He died a burning death, how shall we escape the judgment of God, if we refuse so great an offer from God? If we have not yet trusted in Jesus Christ, it is now the time to believe in this Good News of God. If we have believed it, we do well to believe it again. Only by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall we escape the condemnation of God. Let us ask Christ for faith, and believe on Him for life everlasting, that we may escape God's wrath that is coming upon the world.
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