How will I know?

With so many faiths, so many denominations and churches, how can we know which will teach us to believe like God would like us to believe, to do what God would like us to do, to be what God wants us to be?

The pattern of multiple witnesses is one of the most frequently occurring, and most powerfully persuasive patterns God uses to teach us. It is one of the best indicators of true religion.

The Bible teaches and illustrates this pattern of God giving us multiple authorized witnesses. We see God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, humans, sacred writings, even objects and certain solemn actions identified as witnesses in the Bible. But it is the pattern here that is of most interest. Deity consistently uses multiple witnesses as something special—a sacred, solemn pattern.

The Bible itself is a source of multiple authorized witnesses. As a book, the Old Testament witnesses of God’s covenant with the children of Israel to make them, if they obey the covenant, a “peculiar” treasure—a nation of priests, or in other words, a nation of witnesses for God. As a book, the New Testament witnesses of the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. John the Baptist witnesses of Jesus at Jesus’ baptism, as does the voice of God, and the sign of the dove. The New Testament apostles are called as witnesses of the name of Christ and of his resurrection. The New Testament teaches that the believers are to become priests—witnesses for God. The Old and New Testaments together are multiple witnesses of God.
The separate books of the Bible were written over thousands of years by dozens of authorized witnesses of God. In Genesis we learn that Adam and Eve were witnesses for God, teaching their children, and their children’s children for generations of their dealings with God. Enoch walked and talked with God. Noah witnessed for God. Abraham, Israel, Moses, Elijah, Samuel, and many others talked with and were authorized witnesses for God.

The Bible teaches the sacredness of proper witnessing by solemnly forbidding us to bear false witness, and teaching that by the mouths of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Jesus himself taught and honored this sacred principle by his teachings about witnesses, and by deed when at important moments of his life other multiple authorized witnesses including His Heavenly Father, John the Baptist, inspired apostles, earthquakes, darkness, and the rent veil of the temple all helped to witness of His mission.

Of all the patterns of God in the Bible, one of the clearest is that he wants us to have multiple authorized witnesses. If we hunger and thirst after righteousness and light, we would do well seek after multiple authorized witnesses as one of the most consistent evidences of the dealings of God with mankind.

The Book of Mormon claims to be scripture. Joseph Smith Junior and three others solemnly witness an angel showed them the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and they heard the voice of God saying the plates were translated by the gift and power of God. Eight other witnesses testified they “hefted” the plates. The title page of the Book of Mormon says that one of its purposes is “. . . to the convincing of the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations . . .” It tells the story of some of the inhabitants of the Americas who were visited and taught by Christ shortly after His resurrection. One of the main purposes of the Book of Mormon is to serve as another authorized scriptural witness for God. The book itself has multiple authorized witnesses.

I invite you to ponder the significance of multiple authorized witnesses in Judeo-Christian scripture, to read and ponder the Book of Mormon, and to pray for guidance from God to know if it is part of His sacred pattern for dealing with mankind.