Even If One Were To Rise From The Dead, They Will Never Believe

   Some people will never be convinced of a case, even if all the evidence shows what is true. In Jesus' day, many refused to believe that He rose from the dead. They created a rumor saying that His disciples stole His body.

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Matthew 28:11-15 ESV

  If a person ends up in hell, he or she would want to make sure that their relatives do not end up there. There is a story in the Bible, in the book of Luke, which depicts such a story. It is about a rich man who was very self centered, who had a beggar who was sick and had sores all over his body. The beggar ate the crumbs from the table. 

Arabs for Christ / FreeBibleimages.org.

Arabs for Christ / FreeBibleimages.org.

Over time, both the rich man and the beggar died. The beggar ended up with Abraham, safe in his arms, while the rich man was in the flames of hell. 

Arabs for Christ / FreeBibleimages.org.

The rich man was in torment, and wanted out, and called out to Abraham. But Abraham informed the rich man that he deserved to be in hell, and that there was a great gulf between him and Abraham that could never be crossed. So, when the rich man realized that he would always be in hell, he wanted his brothers to be warned about going there. 

Arabs for Christ / FreeBibleimages.org.

Abraham informed the rich man that his brothers had the Law and Moses. Then Abraham said something interesting. He said that if the brothers would not listen to Moses and the Prophets, the brothers would never be convinced even if One were to rise from the dead. 

  We know Jesus rose from the dead, yet, there were people who refused to believe it. Instead, they gave money to the soldiers who knew about the resurrection, and told them to tell people that Jesus' disciples stole His body while the soldiers were asleep. Now the soldiers had a temptation; were they going to take the money and spread the rumor, and save their lives, or, would they tell the truth of what really happened at the empty tomb?

  Ever since the Fall of Man, as described in Genesis 3, people have construed lies and many had followed those lies. The interesting part of this is that, rather than being just tricked into believing lies, they chose to believe the lie. In other words, the supposed case comes first. It may not even be a true case, but it goes with a narrative designed by someone or by a group, and the followers choose to follow the lie or rumor, even when evidence comes forth that the story is a lie. 

  The truth can be right in front of us, and we can choose to believe the lie instead. It just goes to show that maybe, just maybe, we really aren't seeking after the Truth after all. We are just going with what we want to believe, even though evidence shows that our treasured belief is not true. It is a heart issue.