People believe in aliens from outer space. Some people have even claimed to have seen aliens. Are we to say that aliens exist based upon what those people claim?
Merely having apparitions does not prove anything. They are like historical facts that happened but cannot be proven because time has moved on and there is no longer any evidence. Just like a bug that existed before it was eaten, really. But nobody got to speak to the bug or catch the bird that ate it. Likewise, many an apparition has been seen before it disappeared. Nothing can be proven either way. One person saw the apparition. Now let another disprove it. Then we may learn one hundred people saw the same apparition. How do we disprove that? Unless the people are lying and confess to this, there is no means of disproving that an apparition was seen. Either we call them liars or accept their claims.
But did Jesus rise from the dead? According to the Bible, Jesus did rise from the dead. In fact, one person, who did not believe Jesus rose from the dead, wrote:
- For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
The Apostle Paul, to whom Jesus appeared, also wrote concerning things like apparitions:
- I must boast; there is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 12:1)
- Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. (Colossians 2:18)
Apparitions, visions and whatever a person might see, have nothing to do with substance. So what if a person has a vision. The Apostle Paul claims that there is nothing to be gained by them. Reality requires something of substance.
In a way, we can compare visions with pieces of paper called degrees. They are meaningless things. Irrespective from which institution they are obtained, a degree is meaningless if the person has no substance. Likewise, seeing a vision or an apparition is a meaningless thing, unless there is something of substance to be gained from the experience.
When Lord Jesus Christ appeared before me, this did not change my life. The joy that was imparted to me that affirmed the assurance of my salvation, which I experience every day, is what changed my worldview and my life with it. The experience that I had at that moment of time is long gone—merely an historical event; a fact: just like a leaf falling off a tree.
The reality of the present assurance within my very being is the substance that reminds me that what occurred back then, when Lord Jesus Christ appeared to me, was real and my memory is not playing tricks, even if I cannot prove that the event happened. But those who know me, would not identify me with a description of who I was before that event. However, I will testify that it was not the appearance (or if you like, the vision or the apparition) of Lord Jesus Christ that has changed me, rather the reality of the assurance I possess within my very person.
Because apparitions, visions, dreams and the like cannot be proven, we can be reasonably sure the this is the most probable reason the Apostle said that we are not to take our stand on visions. The reality of experiencing the power of God within one’s own person and the change it brings in one’s life is the testimony that counts.
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