The challenge of those who won’t believe

I had known Calvin for many years. Although he lived in the small community where I served as pastor, he was not part of our church. In fact, Calvin publicly proclaimed he was an atheist.

I would occasionally write articles for the local newspaper about various religious issues happening in our area. Calvin would always write a rebuttal of some kind to those articles. I tried to create a friendship with him, but he did not seem interested. On one occasion, as I was trying to share the Gospel with him, Calvin said, “If I could see a miracle, then I’d believe.”

I sent him numerous testimonies of lives changed by the power of Christ. I even sent one of our church members who had miraculously survived a car accident to see him.

None of it had any effect. Calvin was unmoved. Years later when I moved away from that village, Calvin was still a committed atheist.

There are many people like Calvin in our world. They claim that if they see a miracle they will believe, but no matter what miracle God does for them, they still refuse to believe. We should not be surprised by this.

I was recently reading from John 11. The text shows how people responded to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. By the time Jesus performed the miracle, Lazarus had been dead four days. No one could question that he was actually dead. Likewise, no one could question that Jesus brought him back to life.

One would think all the witnesses would rejoice in the miracle and become adamant followers of Jesus. Many did.

But some took the opposite position. They went to the Jews and complained. They realized that if Jesus kept doing these miracles, even more people might follow Him and the non-believers would lose their places of power and influence. Instead of rejoicing at the miracle, they made plans to put Jesus to death. This scripture reminds us that even miracles won’t change the hearts of some.

God has called us to share our faith with an unbelieving world. We must boldly do that, not letting those who oppose our message discourage us from sharing the Gospel. Many will believe – we will rejoice and celebrate their salvation. But some will not believe, and we must accept that as a reality as well.

No matter what method we use to share the Gospel, and how effective it has been in reaching others, there are some people who will not respond to the Gospel positively, ever. This should not discourage us from sharing our faith, but it is something we must accept as part of the total evangelism picture. We must remain faithful in sharing our faith in the most effective ways we can and leave the results to the Lord.

Dr. Terry W. Dorsett serves as the executive director of the Baptist Convention of New England.