We purchase merchandise based on unknown reviewers.
Why do we give credibility to people we’ve never met?
Watch our Truth in Two to find out why “reviews” and “resurrection” go together (full text below).
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Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
We often make purchases based on positive reviews, on the testimony of people whom we have never met. My pastor, Scott Dean, used this illustration about the eyewitnesses of Jesus in 1 John. Consider that we place more weight on the opinions of others, to purchase a product that will cost us money, than the weight we place on historic, eyewitness accounts of Jesus. For those who may be dubious about the connection, here is further explanation.
We have no problem pointing out when someone is in error about a product. But we have no interest in finding out that we might be in error about the factual evidence of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
We are quick to discount bad reviews when we have had a good product experience. But we continue to pass on irreputable comments about Jesus simply because we believe them.
We want our experience to be known about a product’s purchase. But we will discount the experience of a person who lived with Jesus just because we do not agree with their assessment.
We are anxious for immediate satisfaction from our purchased product. But we seem dissatisfied with hundreds of biblical witnesses and millions more who have believed since.
I will take the established, historical, documented, and well researched works of scholars such as Craig Keener as testimony for the biographies of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Keener’s unparalleled 700-page work Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels closes the door of doubt on the biographical reliability of the Gospels. And I will take the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and soon coming again, over a product, any day. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, bearing personal testimony to Jesus’ statement, “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believed.”