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Introduction:
Have you ever stumbled over any hard Bible questions? I know I
have. Perhaps the question had to do with seeming Bible
discrepancies. Perhaps with something I didn’t understand.
Perhaps with figuring out where to draw lines and maintain
consistency. Perhaps with something God did not specifically
reveal, but I thought was important to whatever I was studying.
Perhaps with a question of logic that I thought called some
scriptural point into question. Whatever the case, we all have
questions. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, people were
constantly asking Him questions. Some were sincere, others were
meant to trap Him. Luke
20:27-40 provides an example of the latter. The Sadducees
came asking a question. They were unprepared, however, for
Jesus’ wisdom. Examine this occurrence, not for the specific
question and answer, but to consider the nature of tough Bible
questions. My hope is this study will strengthen our conviction in
God’s word even while we continue to deal with hard questions. Discussion: I.
We can think of some tough questions. A.
In Luke
20:28-33, the Sadducees asked a hard question. The
Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection. Much of their time
was spent trying to prove that the Law did not teach one. For all
their study, their best argument was what they believed was an
unanswerable question. Deuteronomy
25:5 said
if a married man died childless, the man’s brother was to take
his sister-in-law as wife and raise up seed to his brother. This
particular woman had gone through seven husbands this way and
never had a son. Whose wife would she be in the resurrection? The
Pharisees, who had debated the question of resurrection with the
Sadducees for years were stumped. The Sadducees posed it to Jesus
to stump Him as well. B.
The fact is we can come up with some hard questions. Even
this week, I have been dealing with a question regarding how long
Israel stayed in Egypt (which is not as simple a question as some
might think). I have known people to lose their faith because of
hard questions. Once I studied with two brothers and their wives
who left the faith because they had a hard question about Genesis
3. God said that if Adam and Eve ate from the tree they
would die. They ate, but they did not die. What is up with that?
That is an interesting question. I believe Romans
5-6 provides the answer. But the point here is they found
a hard question only three chapters into the Bible. They were
convinced that meant the Bible just couldn’t be true. C.
We have to understand something about the Scriptures. God
did not reveal the Bible in order to spoon feed us His will. He
gave us the Bible to challenge us to maturity. Do you remember
what Peter, an apostle, said about the writings of Paul in II
Peter 3:15-16? He said Paul’s writings contained some
things hard to understand. If an apostle thought some scriptural
teaching was hard, why should we be shocked if we find something
hard? There are lots of hard questions. The reality is if you have
never found a difficult question, you just haven’t been studying
enough. II.
There are even some questions we are unable to answer. A.
Jesus answered the Sadducees’ question in Luke
20:34-36. However, what intrigues me most is where He got
His answer. Jesus said there is no marriage in the resurrection.
Where did Jesus get His answer? No passage in the Old Testament
gives the answer. He knew it because He was God in the flesh (John
1:14ff). He taught something completely knew in these
verses. B.
When we realize this, we understand why the Pharisees were
unable to answer this question. The Law never answered it. The
Israelites could not answer it. But Jesus, God in the flesh,
could. We will never be able to answer some questions, because God
has not revealed their answers. According to Deuteronomy
29:29, God has not revealed everything to us, but
kept some things secret. C.
Some people get very upset if they ask a question and the
person answering says, “Well, it could be one of three
possibilities.” They think the respondent is a hypocrite. After
all, don’t we always say the Scripture can only mean one thing?
How can we respond that there are multiple possibilities? Take the
differences in the genealogies of Jesus found in Matthew
1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. That is a hard question.
However, I recognize both of these books were written during the
lifetimes of Jesus’ physical brothers. Christians who saw a
discrepancy could actually ask the brothers and get a solid
answer. We can’t. We can only notice several possibilities that
would reconcile them. Some suggest one provides the legal lineage,
while the other provides the biological. Some suggest we see the
results of a leviratic marriage (one that was based on Deuteronomy
25:5). Some suggest one lineage is Joseph’s, the other
Mary’s. We can find possibilities that reconcile these two
passages, but we do not know which one is the right one. We have a
question we cannot answer because God has not given us the exact
answer. D.
Do not get me wrong. I am not saying we are unable to
answer any hard questions. We will answer many of the hard
questions through continued study. As Peter said in II
Peter 1:19, if we continue to study the prophetic word, on
many issues the day will dawn and the morning star will arise in
our hearts. That is, when we keep studying we will finally answer
some of the hard questions. But there are some questions we just
can’t answer. That does not mean there is no answer. It just
means the answer is one of the secret things of God. Who knows,
maybe when we get to heaven God will answer all those questions
for us—then again, maybe not. That is another one of those
questions God has not answered for us. E.
By the way, can I point out that preachers are no different
from anyone else on this issue? While preachers, by the nature of
their work, may have more time to study and more time to dig deep
and answer a lot of tough questions, we are just like you. A man
doesn’t become a preacher, or a Bible class teacher, deacon or
elder for that matter, and suddenly know all the answers. We have
to study just like everyone else. Many times we have to respond,
“I just don’t know.” Many times we have to change our
answers after more study. Please, don’t hold that against us. III.
Hard questions do not change the plain Scriptures. A.
Jesus went further than answering the Sadducees’
question. In Luke
20:37-39, Jesus cut straight to the heart of the matter.
He knew this question was not about marriage in the resurrection,
but an attempt to deny the resurrection. He closed the door on
this error by going back to the Scriptures. In fact, in the Matthew
22:29, Jesus explained that the Sadducees problem was that
they did not understand the Scriptures. Then He quoted Exodus
3:6. God told Moses, “I am the God of your father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jesus
pointed out that Jehovah was, at the time of Moses, the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of
the living. Therefore, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must have
continued on after they died in the flesh. There is a
resurrection. B.
We may come up with really difficult questions we cannot
answer. However, none of those questions change what is revealed.
Look again at Deuteronomy
29:29. God has kept some information secret, however what
He has revealed, He has revealed to govern us. We must obey. He
has not given us everything we want to know, but He has given us
everything we need to know to be equipped for every good work, to
be useful to Him (II
Timothy 3:16-17; 2:20-21). C.
I remember studying with a denominational pastor on whether
or not baptism is for the remission of sin. After looking at
several scriptures, his response was basically, “Look, I have
been studying this issue since before you were born and I could
ask questions about baptism that would make your head spin. You
can’t convince me baptism is essential to salvation.” At the
time, my response was, “Let me hear some of the questions.” He
refused. Now, I think I would turn to this passage and point out,
“You may have all kinds of really hard questions about baptism.
You may have questions I have never heard or could never answer.
However, no amount of tough questions can change what Acts
2:38 says.” We can come up with really hard questions we
will never answer. But in the end, what God has revealed is true
and our questions do not change that. We must simply study, learn
and obey. Conclusion: Ecclesiastes 3:11 is an interesting passage. If I understand it correctly, it teaches that God has made us insatiably curious—we have eternity in our hearts. That challenges us to keep pushing, keep asking and keep growing. Yet, at the same time, He has made it impossible to know everything. Questions and curiosity are great. God made us that way. However, just because we have a question we still can’t answer doesn’t mean God has no answer. Further, it doesn’t mean the Bible is faulty. It just means God has not revealed everything. We must obey what He has revealed. At least, that was the conclusion of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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