Article January 29, 2018 Issue

To be a true witness

Margaret Jane Seymour

In Isaiah we read: “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God” (43:11, 12).

One definition of witness is something that furnishes evidence or proof of something. With this in mind, wasn’t Christ Jesus the perfect example of a true witness to God? He presented to us the living evidence and proof of the perfection of God and His spiritual creation, which includes each one of us. In fact, he said to one of his disciples that if they had seen him, they had seen the Father (see John 14:6–11).

Jesus’ words and works teach that in order to be witnesses to God, we need to understand God clearly. This involves learning about God as Spirit, and man as being purely spiritual. It involves turning away from long-held beliefs about matter being real and substantial. Jesus knew that the material senses could not witness the spiritual truth of being, but could only testify to the supposed reality of matter. He knew, as Mary Baker Eddy came to understand and wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “So-called material existence affords no evidence of spiritual existence and immortality” (p. 356).