This law is also valid in the new covenant. It is mentioned by Jesus Christ Himself as well as by the apostle Paul. “‘It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.’” John 8:17. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” 2 Cor. 13:1. This law is not only of importance in the public sphere, but it is constantly being used in daily life. By observing this law in all areas of life, we will obtain incredibly much good, namely the eradication of all slanderous stories—not only the worst of them, but also those that are less coarse. When a person comes and relates something bad about another person, all we have to do is keep faithfully to the word: “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” The one person who relates the story is obviously—even if he is a trustworthy person—not two or three people. Therefore what has been related is not established! In every instance it must be considered as loose talk, as unreliable words. This is a particularly practical, brief, and simple way of dealing with it. One could object that one cannot believe that the person who related the story was a liar. This can be answered quickly with: One is not two or three. We ought to keep to the Word regardless of what we might surmise or feel. Besides, the unreliability of what the one person related can be easily explained. What one person relates and claims can be incorrect because what is being said or done is the object of perception, and this in turn depends on the state of the person who perceives it. Furthermore, a person’s memory plays a tremendous role. There are numerous examples of different people perceiving the same words vastly different; they were so sure that they had remembered it correctly that they were prepared to lay down their lives for it even though they were demonstrably mistaken. This is the very reason God has established this law: that every word shall be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. What one single person relates or affirms shall therefore never be believed unless it has been confirmed by several more people first. And if there is reason to doubt the witness’s impartiality (because of kinship or other reasons), one should investigate the matter thoroughly. Deut. 19:18. How many stories will we believe from now on? Not a single one!!! God be highly praised for it! So then we are finished with this wretchedness, and it wasn’t soon enough! We should install a vertical drainage pipe into the sea of forgetfulness and death so there can be an end of all such unreliable acts as soon as they appear. On front doors in Oslo you can see signs with the following message: “Member of Association Against Begging.” This is how they get rid of beggars ringing the doorbell. I would recommend to my dear fellow brothers to become members of the “club” against gossip. However, the objection could be raised that “It could happen that it was true.” Yes, one would think so. Nevertheless, the terrible fact is that it is practically impossible to comprehend, remember, and repeat a story correctly. Even if one story out of a thousand were true, there is no label on it to identify it. Who knows which of the thousand stories is the true one? It is best to keep to the Word. No one can do better than that! Even if it were to be true when it passes you, you must be prepared for it to be partly perceived incorrectly or remembered incorrectly by the next person. Therefore: do not believe anything bad that is told to you and never pass it on. Let all such things drown in you. Sirach says that if you have heard anything, be quiet about it. It does not pose a danger to you. You will not burst. It is not enough that you should not believe a single story, but you should not be the first person to relate a true incident, because one must always assume that it will be repeated incorrectly. I must say that I am thankful to God for this Word, for this radical light, for this good and practical reminder, which makes it possible to put an end to a deep fountain of unspeakably much evil. I rejoice at the prospect of mass burials of gossip stories. People who have become used to smoking much for a longer period of time often become sick for several days after they stop using tobacco. However, that is only a short time of suffering, and then they are finished with it forever. Many people have become used to listening and passing on stories for decades; they have become used to gossip and have thus become addicted to this sinful enjoyment. Some people even become quite sick when they have heard a story and they cannot rest until they have told it further. Such people must be prepared to fall ill with a high temperature and a tingling in their members when they suddenly deny themselves all this “tobacco.” But it will soon be over. It is only a transition. There is no limit to how untrue the story and the claim can be, how dreadfully wrong one can perceive what has been said, how disastrous the consequences of one’s faulty memory can be, together with the bad consequences this can have. Once when I was speaking in Idrettens husThe meeting place of the church in Oslo at the time. I compared many believers who attended meetings in order to have a nice time but who, when they returned to their daily difficulties at home were the same as when they left them, to a man whose situation at home was terrible and who went out and got drunk in order to forget his cares. Of course it didn’t help anything. In both cases they returned to the same state of affairs. Among many others, there was a very intelligent, nice, believing lady present; she was a worker in a Christian organization. She perceived that I had said that those present should not go out into nature in order to pray to God but rather stay home and pray. I received a letter from her in this regard, so I have it in writing. She thought that it was so bad of me to speak like that since she had experienced many blessed times out in nature. Recently I visited the mother of a believing man. She had attended several of our meetings. She liked to hear my testimony because, among other things, I had told her (she said) that I was against baptism. This was extremely misplaced because I had just come from baptizing several people. But she was so “sure” that I had said it that she had shown a sister the door (she said) because the sister had contradicted her statement. I cannot remember the number of such stories that I have come across. One is worse than the next one. People take “x” for a “y” and a “6” for a “7.” It even happens that people will draw back from their friends because they claim to have heard things that were never said. Sirach says that one should ask for an explanation from one’s friend; perhaps he has not said it. One time a sister who was employed by a merchant looked into a brother’s account book. There she saw an amount that was the sum total of everything he had bought for almost an entire year. She supposed that this amount was the sum that the brother owed to the merchant even though there was a corresponding amount in a parallel column that was the sum of all payments during the same time. When she came home, she mentioned that this brother owed this large amount. Later on, one of the parents mentioned this among some friends, and one of them mentioned it in his home, and so the story took its usual course from one person to another. Of course the story was reliable and true because she had seen it with her own eyes! She had done that too. But she had seen incorrectly! Let therefore all of us become “members of the association.” If we can count up to 2 or 3 and keep to the above-mentioned scripture, we will spare ourselves and our fellow men much evil.Elias Aslaksen