Evidence Deniers
There are quite a few people in our country who have an extremely bad relationship with reality. No matter how much evidence you present to them, they choose to see the world through a particular set of lenses, living in denial and/or convincing themselves that their feelings and good intentions are reality.
I live in the State of Illinois. Our governor promotes sexual deviancy, the killing of babies, burdensome taxes, and the welcoming of illegal aliens as compassion. He inhabits an alternate universe where these policies will lead to peace and prosperity. He’s not the only one. Many other states are suffering under these compassionate policies. No matter how much evidence you present that these policies have never worked, they press on, undaunted by rising debts, producers leaving the state, the lack of replacement because of low birth rates, and a generally bad economy.
The same is true in the relatively recent high-profile public shootings. There is a well-established pattern now that trans individuals are becoming more violent. They perpetrate evil. However, government officials and others campaign to protect trans individuals against violence because they are somehow the victims of the people they murder. If one has no problem denying the reality of the distinction between male and female, I suppose it’s not too much of a leap to deny the reality that these trans individuals are not the victims but the perpetrators.
No matter how much evidence you present, some people will never be convinced because the problem is not the lack of evidence, information, or education. The problem is a disordered heart, a heart that hates God’s truth (aka “reality”).
John 5 records Jesus’ confrontation with the Jewish leadership in which he brings several witnesses to testify to his right to the title “Son of God.” The evidence is overwhelming, but the Jews wouldn’t see it.
The Father testifies of Jesus through several witnesses. John the Baptizer was a witness, preparing Israel for the Messiah, whose ministry received heaven’s public imprimatur at Jesus’ baptism.
The signs Jesus performed served as witnesses for the defense. Jesus demonstrated his power over the effects of sin’s death through healing. Nicodemus told Jesus that he and the rest of the Jewish leadership knew he was from God because of the signs that he did. No one could do these signs unless he is from God (Jn 3:2).
The Scriptures, which the Jews searched hoping to find the life of the age to come (“eternal life”) promised by God, testified of the coming Messiah who stood before them. He demonstrated through his signs that he is the one bringing this life to the world.
None of it mattered. They refused to see the evidence. Jesus told them, “But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life” (Jn 5:40). Their problem wasn’t intellectual or a lack of evidence. The problem was that they didn’t have the love of God abiding in them (Jn 5:42). They hated God. They hated his truth. They had a way God was supposed to do things, and Jesus wasn’t it. They wanted a God of their own imagination, not the God they claim to worship.
The condition of man hasn’t changed. Man is willfully blind and deaf. He hates reality and will do everything he can to resist it. He has a vision of how he wants the world to be, and he will try to impose his “feels” on reality to remake it. No one can convince him otherwise. Only a work of sovereign grace will change his heart.
Jesus shows us the way. Our responsibility is to be faithful witnesses with our lives and lips. We are to proclaim God’s truth, but the results are in God’s hands. If Jesus’ presentation of evidence didn’t convince his audience (for some mysterious reason of God’s sovereign plan), then we should expect that ours won’t always either. However, God does work through our witness to convert others. So, be a faithful witness. You never know what God might do through your witness.
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