A Powerful Start

Luke 1:1-2 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 

One of the cultural myths that still is promulgated among the intellectual elites is that the Scriptures are unreliable because they were written long, centuries even, after the actual events. And then they were changed through the years to match the religious whims of the day. But nothing could be further from the truth.

We read in the opening verses of of the Gospel of Luke just how he came up with what he wrote down in his account. It is clear from the text that Luke talked to the eyewitnesses about what they had seen. That means Luke wrote his gospel within one generation of the events of the gospel. His source materials were the very people who witnessed the events.

So why does this make a difference? From a historians perspective, having eyewitness testimony of the events is key to understanding what actually happened. We know this if we watch any crime/detective shows. They always collect eyewitness statements. That is the first order of business after securing the crime scene.

So Luke has collected the eyewitness statements of Jesus’ life. This is what he used as the basis for writing his account.

But this isn’t the only qualification for acceptance of their accounts. They were also “servants of the word” that they had received. They were living the gospel out in their lives. The gospel they saw had become the gospel they were living. Their lives had been transformed by the very events that they had witnessed.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust someone who says they have been transformed by something, but then when I observe their life I don’t see the transformation. This was not the case with Luke’s eyewitnesses. They had become followers and livers of the gospel. They walked the walk.

So next time someone tries to foist on you some theory about the Scriptures being unreliable, bring them here to Luke. We can trust the Scriptures. They are God speaking to us and we can live our life based on them.