The word of witnesses – Sunday, December 20, 1959
In law we confirm a past occurrence with the word of witnesses. In scripture it is recorded “that in the mouths of two or three witnesses every word may be established.”1
History as it is recorded and read is also largely the word of witnesses. We ourselves did not see the sights and scenes or the people of the past, or the deeds that other men did.
We accept much on the word, of witnesses.
With this in mind we turn to events concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the Master of mankind, who was born of Mary in Bethlehem; whose birth was marked by unusual events; who reasoned with the learned in the temple, at the age of twelve; who, while yet a young man, emerged to perform the mission that His Father, the Lord God, had given Him; who walked the shores of Galilee, who chose His apostles from humble, teachable men; who went down into the water with John to be baptized in the River Jordan; who was tempted of Satan; who healed the sick, and comforted the sorrowing, and called to repentance the sinners; who blessed the children, who stilled the tempest, and walked upon the waters; who fed the multitudes; who made the blind to see and the dead to rise; who gathered many followers; was falsely accused, betrayed by one of his own, taken by armed guards in the Garden; tried, denied, condemned to death; cruelly nailed upon the cross, and died and was tenderly laid in a borrowed tomb, guarded by soldiers; and who rose and came forth from death to life on the third day, and appeared unto friends and loved ones, and a multitude of men, and was taken unto the Lord God in Glory, to take His place by His Father’s side, as Paul said, and as Stephen saw, and as seen of others also.
All this is recorded, all this is witnessed by the word of many witnesses and witnessed by the surer witness of the Spirit that speaks to our very souls; and by the transforming power of the Gospel that changes the lives of men and gives them peace and purpose.
“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of Him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of Him: that He lives!”2 “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”3
Whatever else may have been added unto it, this, essentially, is the meaning of Christmas: that Jesus is the Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Messiah—as witnessed by the word of many witnesses.
1 New Testament, Matthew 18.16.
2 Doctrine and Covenants 76:22.
3 Old Testament, Job 19:25.
December 20, 1959
Broadcast Number 1,583