A person who does not believe in the existence of God, cannot believe in anything He created. This kind of unbelief is a dangerous kind, which will take one to the depths of ignorance and destruction. The famous French thinker, and mathematician Blaise Pascal said, Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists; In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t. If I believe in God and life after death and you do not, and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything. -Blaise Pascal.
Demonstrations of unbelief were shown by Israel when in their destiny to the Promised Land. And that is not inclusive to only few times, but many times during their existence, even today. Numbers 14:28-35 registers a time when the nation suffered greatly the loss of their sons from the age 20 and over because of their unbelief. The sin of unbelief was reckoned when they returned from spying the land with a grave report. With the exception of Caleb and Joshua, their reports were discouraging and devasting to the congregation. At that time, they were possibly not too far from conquering the land, when Moses sent a man from each tribe to check it out. However, this behavior displeased the Lord and even though Moses interceded for the people, God still punished those who committed the sin of unbelief against Him. At His words, How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me, for all the signs which I have performed among them? Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness- of all who were numbered of you, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me (Numb. 14: 11,29).
Even under God’s judgment, the people showed no change of heart, but pursued to do their ways, when they were chastened by the enemies. As a result of their unbelief, they died in the desert without seeing the land they were aiming to conquer, according to the words from the Lord. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said, As the Holy Spirit says: today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion and their provocation and embitterment in the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tried and tested and found stood their test, and they saw My works for forty years…accordingly, I swore in My wrath and indignation, They shall not enter into My rest (Heb. 3:7-9,11). The danger of unbelief is that where it exists, faith will not be. Without faith, the Bible says, It is impossible to please God; for in that, one denies His existence (paraphrased). The unbelief Israel demonstrated against their God in their wandering, did not disappear in the desert. It continued throughout their lives. We see it even in the time when Messiah came to live among them. YAHSHUA rebuked the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. He said, Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes; I tell you, it shall be more endurable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you (Matt. 11:20-21). Unbelief is a sign of the hardening of the heart toward the message. The Prophet Isaiah asked the question, Who will believe our message? In reference to YAHSHUA, His suffering and death. In the unbelieving heart there will be no repentance, and therefore, no forgiveness from God.
Pascal said, Faith is God perceived by the heart, not by reason. When we try to believe in God by reasoning, then unbelief will saturate our mind, causing the hardness of the heart, because our reasoning falls short of the true perception of Who God is. According to many, their perception of Whom God is, depends if prayers are answered or not. The immensity of the universe and its complexities in all created is overlooked; they choose to believe in the “big bang” instead, disregarding the orderly in which all was created, and the wisdom nature displays beyond men’s understanding. Creation, in its evidence and declaration, demands the belief that God and no one else is the architect of all things created. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork; day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge; there is no speech nor spoken word; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the world (Ps. 19:1-4). Nature does its part to confirm its Creator, but men refuse to believe their demonstration of truth. Created in the image of God, man has rebelled against his Creator by refusing to believe Him. Unbelief is the spirit of rebellion; the spirit of rebellion is ultimately idolatry. Idolatry is unfaithfulness to the only true God. The danger of unbelief also lies in the fact that God at the end time will send upon them (unbelievers) a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make them believe what is false, in order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe the Truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness (II Thess. 2:11-12).
The Apostle Thomas, when heard from the other disciples that YAHSHUA was alive, he doubted YAHSHUA’S resurrection saying, Unless I see in His hand the marks made by the nails and put my finger into the nail’s prints, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe (John 20: 25b). YAHSHUA rebuked him by telling him to touch his hands, His feet and His side and said, Do not be faithless and incredulous, but believe! (Then) Thomas answered Him, my Lord and my God! YAHSHUA said, to him, Because you have seen Me, Thomas, do you now believe? Blessed are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed on Me (John 20:27-29). My friend, do not be left at the wilderness of unbelief; believe in the Lord YAHSHUA and be saved!
THINK ABOUT IT!
Light from the Word 