{"id":6232,"date":"2015-01-13T00:05:18","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T08:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6232"},"modified":"2015-01-12T23:14:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T07:14:54","slug":"lazarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/01\/13\/lazarus\/","title":{"rendered":"Lazarus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tThere was once a rich man who wore expensive clothes and every day ate the best food. But a poor beggar named Lazarus was brought to the gate of the rich man\u2019s house. He was happy just to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man\u2019s table. His body was covered with sores, and dogs kept coming up to lick them. The poor man died, and angels took him to the place of honor next to Abraham. <\/p>\n

\tThe rich man also died and was buried. He went to hell and was suffering terribly. When he looked up and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side, he said to Abraham, \u201cHave pity on me! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and touch my tongue. I\u2019m suffering terribly in this fire.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tAbraham answered, \u201cMy friend, remember that while you lived, you had everything good, and Lazarus had everything bad. Now he is happy, and you are in pain. And besides, there is a deep ditch between us, and no one from either side can cross over.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tBut the rich man said, \u201cAbraham, then please send Lazarus to my father\u2019s home. Let him warn my five brothers, so they won\u2019t come to this horrible place.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tAbraham answered, \u201cYour brothers can read what Moses and the prophets wrote. They should pay attention to that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tThen the rich man said, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not enough! If only someone from the dead would go to them, they would listen and turn to God.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tSo Abraham said, \u201cIf they won\u2019t pay attention to Moses and the prophets, they won\u2019t listen even to someone who comes back from the dead.\u201d (Luke 16:19-31)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tAlthough the story of Lazarus and the rich man may give us some information about the nature of Hell, it was not the primary point of the story. Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees and Sadducees a lesson. They believed that because they were rich and powerful, they were blessed by God. They believed the poor and weak were that way because God was punishing them for their sins.<\/p>\n

\tJesus wanted the Pharisees and Sadducees to understand that external circumstances revealed nothing about how sinful a person might be. Abraham\u2019s warning, that even a resurrection wouldn\u2019t convince those who wouldn\u2019t listen to scripture, were directed at the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus had already raised several people from the dead. Soon Jesus himself would rise from the dead. But all the miracles that Jesus ever did were not enough to convince the Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected him. God has given us his words and the words of his Son Jesus Christ. Today we must choose to believe based on those words alone.<\/p>\n

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There was once a rich man who wore expensive clothes and every day ate the best food. But a poor beggar named Lazarus was brought to the gate of the rich man\u2019s house. He was happy just to eat the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6232"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6233,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6232\/revisions\/6233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}