Testimony — Before and After

The structural unit of evangelical Christianity is the testimony: this is who I was, this is what happened, this is who I am now. Paul gives the theology: 'If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!' (2 Corinthians 5:17). The blind man in John 9 gives the simplest testimony: 'I was blind; now I see.' Not a theological argument — a report of what happened. The woman at the well went back to her village: 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.' Zacchaeus came down from the tree and gave back four times what he had taken. Revelation gives testimony cosmic weight: 'They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony' (Revelation 12:11). Personal story is not mere sentiment — in the charismatic tradition, it is a weapon. I'm so glad He didn't leave me like He found me — that sentence is a testimony in twelve words.