“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead’” (Luke 16:31 NLT)

This was Abraham’s response to the rich man who while in torment in Hades begged for Lazarus to return to warn his brothers of the reality of heaven and hell. This dialogue was the conclusion to a story that Jesus told to illustrate the way people would continue to doubt Him even after His resurrection. The intellectual pride of the skeptic cannot be overcome with persuasion or evidence. The agnostic’s resistance to the gospel is not so much intellectual as it is willful. It’s not that they “can’t” listen to the evidence. It’s that they “won’t listen.” Believing in the resurrection of Jesus involves not only intellectual assent but a submission of the will, so that we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9).