September 24, 2020
There are some things in the Bible which are hard to believe.
Very hard to believe I freely grant.
I don’t mean those things we usually associate with the objections of skeptics.
I don’t mean miracles.
If God exists then miracles are only the common places of God–at least the common places on His holidays.
He enforces “Natural Law” (which is really supernatural law) on His normal work days, and allows Himself miracles on His days off.
Of course I’m only being half-serious but I think you get the point.
And the point is that miracles are no problem for God.
It’s hard for me to formulate any sentence touching on the subject of God’s existence as a hypothetical. It’s like saying if the sky is really blue. If the grass is really green. If honey is really sweet. If rocks are really hard.
That would be a bit tiresome and lame wouldn’t it? But not nearly so lame as saying, “If God exists.”
Well I think you get that too.
Because God obviously does exist, what’s the problem with miracles really?
So I don’t mean to suggest that miracles are hard to believe.
The things I find most difficult to believe in the Bible are the reports of unbelief.
Pharaoh hardened his heart through 10 plagues, and then chased after the children of Israel anyway.
Chased them right down into the sea as a matter of fact.
Having thrown the babies into the river they drove their chariots into the sea.
It’s called sowing and reaping.
But it’s also a symptom of staggering unbelief.
Jezebel persisted in her rejection of the God of Israel even after the demons she worshiped were routed in the fire fall on Carmel.
And then there’s the case of Jesus of Nazareth.
In the generation of His ministry the lame were made to walk, the blind were made to see, the dead were made to rise and 5000 were fed on a boy’s lunch.
And yet unbelief persisted as a thing invincible.
When Lazarus rose the solution proposed by unbelievers was to make him dead again.
What do you think they would have done to Jesus if they could have gotten their hands on Him after HIS resurrection?
When the report of that resurrection reached the ears of the High Priests the favored solution was to bribe the guards to tell lies.
But the conspirators knew that Jesus had risen.
Just as they knew that Lazarus had risen. Just as they knew that 5000 were stuffed with a bit of bread and fish.
How then could they persist in their unbelief?
For one thing, strictly speaking, it wasn’t unbelief.
The fact is they did believe.
They simply opposed what they knew to be true.
They denied the evidence they sought to destroy.
Just as the devil knew the truth and opposed it.
The Chief Priests were actually quite religious.
The problem was they practiced the devil’s religion.
Unbelief in its own way is every bit as strong as Faith.
I admit that Faith is sometimes blind.
I insist that unbelief in the face of the evidence Jesus offered is always blind.
In fact, I find it unbelievable.