Cheryl

Hi Tiffany,

I have heard many times preached from the pulpit that every matter requires two or three witnesses to be established. In fact my own pastor just preached this exact same thing just a few weeks ago on a different matter. He quoted the exact same scriptures that I am going to quote to you and he confirmed that every matter and every law must have two or three witnesses.

This precedent is set in the Old Testament:

Deu 13:14 then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you,

How is a “matter established”? A matter is established by two or three witnesses. The Old Testament lists many places that two or three witnesses are necessary. Numbers 35:30, Deut 17:6, Deut 19:15.

In the Talmud, the Jews interpreted a witness as a person or a documented piece of evidence. A witness may be an oath that is written or it may be persons who testify.

Jesus also confirmed the Old Testament demand for evidence to establish a matter by saying that every fact is to be confirmed by two or three witnesses so we can see that it is vital that every judicial matter be established with the required witnesses. Jesus said:

Mat 18:16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.

Jesus then made it so important that every fact is established and confirmed that he said that not even his own testimony if it were alone would be considered valid without another witness.

John 5:31 “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true.

Jesus then goes on to establish his list of witnesses. He says that the Father is his witness John 5:37, John the Baptist is his witness John 5:33, the works that Jesus does are also his witness John 5:36, and the Scriptures testify about Jesus as witnesses John 5:39.

If Jesus himself accepted the need for a matter to be established with two or three witnesses even when it came to his own testimony, and he is the Son of God, then surely we can understand from the OT and the NT that a single witness cannot condemn a person because a matter has not been established by law. Paul said facts are repeated for our safety (Philippians 3:1) and the reason is because a matter that is not repeated can be misunderstood and misrepresented. It is then not safe. With the proper witnesses and the proper testimony a matter is established and the law is 100% established by the repetition of the charge of sin. If we have a “sin” that isn’t repeated and therefore it is not established as a charge of sin, then we need to ask ourselves why. Why would God break his chosen method of establishing a matter? Every single sin is documented in scripture with two or three witnesses and not even one has only one witness. If the “sin” of a godly woman teaching the truth of scripture to men is not established by a second witness, then God does not allow us to charge her with sin since it is not an established sin. It is not a safe matter to charge a woman with sin with only one scripture that has been taken out of its complete context. Scripture tells us over and over again that this is not safe and it is not allowed by God’s own law.

Deu 19:15 “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

I appreciate your feelings if you do not want to continue to dialog. That is certainly up to you. But know this for a fact, that a matter of charging sin against a woman is not accepted by God’s own written standard with only one witness. 1 Timothy 2:12 does not say that godly women are not allowed to teach. There would have to be a second witness to determine that Paul was setting a brand new law against all godly women who teach men. No such law existed in the OT and no list of “sins” contains this particular sin. There is no second witness that it is godly women who are being barred from teaching and this “law” that we have accepted by tradition and not by God’s standard of the charge of sin, is invalid.

Now if you can find another place in scripture where women in general (including all godly women) are barred from teaching the bible to men, then we can consider it as an established “law”. Until then it doesn’t pass as God’s law since it does not have the required two or three witnesses.

I have also encouraged people to prove me wrong on this matter. Find even one universal sin that is only mentioned once in scripture and which does not have a second or third witness. I have never seen such a law. Every law has been properly established and has been properly documented by more than one scripture thus more than one witness.

This certainly is a very important principle since aberrant doctrine and cults themselves base their doctrine on one scripture taken out of its context. There is no second and third witness to false doctrine nor is there a second witness to a false charge of sin. The scriptures are clear – a second or third witness is for our safety.