What is Harder to Believe?

“And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Lu 16:31 AV)

This is an incredible statement.  Imagine you are at the wake of your closest loved one.  They have been embalmed and now lie in an open casket.  They have been gone for several days.  You touch the hand of the departed, and it is cold as ice.  Medically, there is no way someone like that could rise from the dead.  All life-giving blood has been removed.  The dear one’s organs have been static and are hardening.  There is no possible reason to believe that someone in that condition could be reanimated and live among us again.  Next to the casket lay an open Bible.  The verse that is highlight is “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (Joh 14:6 AV) All of a sudden, the eyes of the loved one open.  A finger twitches.  You reach down and touch the hand of the one interred.  He is warm.  It cannot be.  You were at the hospital when the monitor flatlined.  You saw the death certificates.  You felt a cold corpse.  This could not be real.  You look at the Bible.  The words ring in your mind’s ear.  You are asked to believe both or none.  You choose none.  The word of God, being much easier to believe, is rejected.  No obvious miracle from God will change your mind.

I can imagine what rationalization this hypothetical observer might posit.  The doctors got it wrong.  My loved one didn’t really flatline.  After all, it monitor is not perfect.  Perhaps when we all left the room, he came to.  Maybe his heart beat so slowly the doctors never picked up on it.  When the morgue came to pick up his body, they took for granted the hospital did their job and assumed the person was deceased.  Maybe the mortician believed the deceased was of such a religious background that forbade embalming.  Perhaps they messed up and embalmed someone else.  Then, over the next three days, the body slowly reanimated.  The heart began to speed up.  The warmth of the overhead lamps warmed the body.  Maybe the precious person simply never fully died.  One can imagine the rationalizations the mourner might use to explain a miracle from heaven.  The same rationalization is used when rejecting the miracles of the Bible.  Men make mistakes.  Only the original writers wrote perfectly, and only in the original languages can the word of God be preserved.  Over time, things degrade.  How can the word of God be perfect?  Translation always loses meaning.  Therefore, then the word of God is translated to a non-original language, it cannot by definition be perfect.  I’ve heard it all.

The point Jesus is making is that if those who reject truth saw someone rise from the dead, they wouldn’t believe it either.  It is not a matter of rationalization.  It is not a matter of observation.  It is a matter of humility and faith.  If someone will not believe the word of God, then they won’t believe anything.  The written word is the easiest revelation of God to man by which man may know God.  If he will not believe the written word, he will believe nothing.  This is a sad truth.  Most of the world, including almost all faith traditions, does not wholly believe the word of God.  I can include most of fundamentalism is the same category.  They may believe the word of God for the most part, but if they believe the word of God, including translations, cannot be perfect and therefore, not completely trusted, then they fall into the same category.  Albeit not nearly as far as a fall.  Faith rests and falls on what we do with the word of God.  If we will not believe the entire book, perfect in inspiration and translation, it wouldn’t matter if the universe rearranged itself.  We wouldn’t believe the hand of God did that, either.