Articles
The Apostles' Living Testimony
“For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. . . . To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13).
Critics sometimes assert that the apostles made up the gospel. The suggestion has obvious multiple flaws.
How did a handful of largely uneducated men conceive the greatest set of ethical principles ever known, many of which contradicted the most advanced thinking of their day?
How did they create the ideal character who perfectly lived those principles, again, in contrast to the ideals of either history or their own culture?
Why did they disclaim originality for the gospel? They insisted that they spoke as directed by God (Galatians 1:11-12), which was a blatant violation of the principles they extolled if it was not true.
Why did they suffer so for a cause they knew was fraudulent? Their preaching did not get them ahead in the world; it cost them everything they had, including their own lives. Yet even under the strongest duress, none ever recanted a single tenet he preached. Rational men do not make such sacrifices for what they know to be untrue.
No, the conduct of the apostles unmistakably testifies that they believed Jesus to be who He said He was: the Son of God who came to earth and died for our sins, offering proof by being raised from the dead, to which the apostles were witnesses.
