If a Man Were Raised From the Dead, Would They Believe?

From time to time, people have asked why God does not perform some great miracle and force people to believe in Him. Leaving aside the fact that God wishes for us to respond to Him of our own free will, the bible shows plainly that people have an almost infinite capacity to believe what they want to believe. In John chapter nine we find a good example of this. Jesus has given sight to a man who was born blind. As the Pharisees question the man, verses 28-34 says, “Then they reviled him and said, ‘You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.’ The man answered and said to them, ‘Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.’ They answered and said to him, ‘You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?’ And they cast him out.” This man pointed out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees; they claimed to believe God but refused to believe someone who was performing miracles that could only be done by the power of God. As Nicodemus said in John 3:2, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” In Luke 16 in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus illustrates the fact that to people who have no real interest in believing what God says, no evidence is ever sufficient. After finding himself in “torments in Hades”, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to his father’s house, “for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” (vs 28). “Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ” (vs 29-31). The truth of this parable is born out in John chapter 11. Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead and the response of some of the Pharisees is to plot to kill Jesus (vs 53), and not only kill Him but Lazarus as well (John 12:10-11). You cannot force someone to believe what they don’t want to believe. We also need to make sure we believe the truth and not what we want to believe.