Acts 4:14-18 :
Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, “What shall we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can’t deny it. But so that this spreads no further among the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.” They called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
It is amazing to me how hard a man will hold on to his own beliefs in the face of obvious evidence. In this case, the Sadducees clearly didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, but they also could not deny that “indeed a notable miracle has been done.” Do you recognize this same behavior from scientists who try to defend Evolutionism?
If soft tissue is found in a dinosaur fossil, rather than saying that the fossil isn’t as old as previously thought, they say, “look how long this tissue must actually last.” It is pretty obvious to most people that if the fossil was as old as long as they say, according to known science, the soft tissue would have been long gone, but there it is. It stands as something “we can’t deny.”
The real reason why people don’t believe has nothing to do with the lack of evidence. The Bible tells us that the evidence has been made clear to mankind. The real issue is the desire of the heart. As mentioned in the last study, the continual violation of conscience is what is really going on. We know that we are doing something wrong. What we really need to know is what to do to make things right again before it ruins us.
When people fight to protect the evil that they are doing, they also fight to destroy others. We see that here when these leaders “commanded them not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus.” By denying people the message about Jesus, they deny them the knowledge about how to be saved from the punishment for sin. It isn’t just a matter of obeying authority at this point. This is a matter of life and death. In our world we see people fight for the right to have an abortion even though abortion destroys another person. This is not Christian freedom. It is an attempt to maintain a destructive lifestyle at the expense of others.