"...eyewitnesses of his majesty"

In the 60s AD, Peter--the chief apostle of the Saviour and current leader of the early church--was nearing the end of his ministry. The Roman emperor Nero instituted state persecution of Christians in 64 AD, and Peter can likely be placed in Rome itself at around this time. During these troubling years, he penned 2 epistles to the saints in Asia Minor. In his second epistle, the Biblical book of 2 Peter, Peter clearly anticipates his looming death as a martyr for Christ's sake: "Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;/ Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me./ Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance" (2 Peter 1:13-15). In verse 16, he follows this prediction of his death with a testimony of his faithfulness to the true Christ and his words: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty"(italics added).
It had been about 30 years since the death and resurrection of Christ, and many of the eyewitnesses of his ministry were getting old and dying themselves. I'm sure Peter understood the danger of this, as evidenced by his warning of following "cunningly devised fables" of who Christ really was and what He taught. With this in mind, while in Rome, he probably directed Mark in writing what we now know as "the Gospel of Mark." A major theme of Mark is the eyewitness accounts of what Jesus did. Many of the stories recorded were probably told to Mark by people who were there, either Peter, bystanders, or recipients of the miracles themselves. This is significant because we get in Mark a preservation of truthful, first-hand accounts. Through Peter's insight and Mark's pen, we are better able to discern between true accounts of Christ and cunningly devised fables.
I had the opportunity on Tuesday to be an eyewitness to a prophet and hear eyewitness accounts of past prophets. President Thomas S. Monson, the living prophet on the earth, spoke to the students and faculty of Brigham Young University on Tuesday. I arrived an hour early to find the Marriott Centre--which has a capacity of around 23,000--more than half full. When President Monson entered the room, I felt the Holy Spirit confirm to me that I was indeed in the presence of a prophet. President Monson chose to speak about the legacy left to him by past prophets. He spoke of his personal experiences with prophets from the early 1900s. In essence, he was giving us a glimpse of what it may have been like for Mark to write his gospel from Peter's memoirs, though of course to a lesser degree since Mark was writing about the Son of God. In another post, I will list what President Monson told us of each prophet.
Eyewitnesses give us reliable accounts of people and events. I'm grateful for the efforts of the early saints to record the events of Christ's life, and also that I was able to experience in some measure what it was like to traverse the generations through the eyewitness accounts of another.