Believing does not make it so

Luke 20:27-40

Titles often help, like Liberal, but one must understand its meaning, when I hear the word “Liberal” this comes into my mind; a person who has no absolutes, is a political progressive, and who puts faith in big government.  When I hear the word conservative, my mind goes to these thoughts; believes in absolutes, is traditional, has little faith in government and believes that taking something from the one who earns it and giving it to the one who is lazy, is criminal.

Words mean things and our culture is doing its best to change the meaning of words.  When someone tells a lie and they are in government and in the progressive party, the press calls it a great spin, and if they are in the non-progressive party it is a lie.  Two words used, but a lie will always be a lie, so if words mean something, then we need a true understanding of there meaning.

We have these Sadducees who came to Jesus and were asking about the resurrection, but Sadducees did not believe there was any life after the body dies.  So what was a Sadducee?  “The Sadducees were elitists, they were wealthy and powerful Jewish aristocrats who wanted to maintain the priestly caste, and they were also liberal in their willingness to incorporate Greek culture into their lives, something the Pharisees opposed. The Sadducees rejected the idea of the oral Law and insisted on a literal interpretation of the written Law; consequently, they did not believe in an after life, since it is not mentioned in the Torah. The main focus of Sadducee life was rituals associated with the Temple.  The Greek language was as well known as the native Aramaic, the Jewish leadership changed from the God-ordained priesthood to the Sadducee-controlled Sanhedrin, and the law of the land more closely reflected Grecian laws than those given through Moses.” (Taken from two sources with my editing - got questions and Jewish Virtual Library)

One must ask, what were they up to and what was the question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”  (Luke 20:28-33 ESV)

It very important to understand that what one believes does not make it so, and that is so true with many who call themselves Christian, and yet do not believe and trust Jesus Christ to do all that he has promised.  These Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection so they were not sincere in asking this of Jesus, could it be they were trying to set a trap?  This is Jesus’ reply: And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”  (Luke 20:34-38 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice