There is a Bible passage many use to “prove” one’s soul survives death and immediately transmigrates to either heaven or hell – the parable of “the rich man and Lazarus.” And, of course, many would stop me right there and say, “It ain’t no parable!” I am going to allow God Himself to reveal the meaning of the 16th chapter of Luke to our minds and thinking.
Do you know how a concert pianist drastically reduces the chance that he, or she, will make a mistake during a performance of some difficult composition by Mozart, or Beethoven, or Handel? He practices. Again, and again, and again he goes over the piece, laboring hour after hour to memorize and then to strike the proper notes in the proper sequence with the proper force, holding each and every note for the exact time assigned them by the composer. That’s how he becomes proficient and amazes his audience as he plays so beautifully a most difficult composition. And how does one become proficient in the understanding of the Word of God? He studies that Word hour after hour, laboring day in and day out, reading and re-reading each line, each passage, each chapter, each book of the Bible. He cross checks his references and various passages, comparing what each and every Bible writer had to say on a given subject, even looking at the original Greek and Hebrew words in an exhaustive concordance like Strong’s, or Thayer’s, or Vine’s. And he LIVES by what he finds therein. He allows the scriptures to CORRECT his own life, his actions, his words, his thoughts, even his attitude and aspirations. He questions! He reasons!
In Isaiah 1:18, God implores: “Come now, and let us reason together.” God is immensely reasonable. He is fair. He is just. We need to keep this ever in mind when pondering some doctrine or teaching that tends to show God in a different light.
Let me ask you something, would someone who had just been run over by a Sherman tank ask for a band-aid or that a bit of iodine be applied to his broken body? How about a drowning man, would he ask for the cork from a champagne bottle be thrown to him in order to keep him from sinking below the water? Would he ask that a toothpick be thrown to him in order to keep himself afloat? Ridiculous questions, aren’t they? Someone run over by a Sherman tank, if able to speak at all, would cry out for morphine, a surgeon, immediate transport to a well-equipped emergency room. And a drowning man would cry out for a life preserver, a rope, a lifeguard, etc.
In the 16th chapter of Luke’s gospel account, Jesus Christ tells of a rich man who, in hell, cries out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame” (verse 24).
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Now stop and THINK for a moment: Of the three situations just described, which is the most desperate: 1) the man run over by the Sherman tank, 2) the drowning man, or 3) the rich man tormented in the flames of hell? Well, I think anyone with a functioning brain would immediately reply without any hesitation whatsoever, “Why it would be the rich man who was being tormented in the flames of hell!”
A question: Don’t you think Jesus Christ was an intelligent person, a very reasonable person, someone possessing great, eternal wisdom? Did He really expect the Pharisees to whom He was speaking to believe that a man being tormented in burning, searing flames would ask merely for a drop of water to be placed on his tongue??? Wouldn’t that be akin to the man crushed by the many ton giant tank asking merely for a band-aid or a bit of iodine? Wouldn’t it be similar to the drowning man only asking that a tiny cork or a toothpick be thrown to him in order to save him from drowning? Indeed it would. All three accounts are absolutely ludicrous, absurd, ridiculous – yes, even laughable. And Jesus knew He was making a ludicrous statement and painting a ridiculous picture. That was His intention. He wanted them to see how ridiculous and absurd was their concept of hell and the afterlife!
The 16th chapter of Luke, especially verses 19 through 31, is one of the most grossly misunderstood passages in the entire Bible. Many ministers, entire denominations, have built their entire concept of hell and the fate of the lost around this one passage of scripture while ignoring countless other passages of Holy Writ that deal with the subject in far greater depth and clarity.
There is much foundational knowledge that must be received into one’s thinking processes before he or she can even hope to understand what Jesus was trying to convey by the words recorded in Luke 16. I will now share with you some of what MUST be understood and realized before one can hope to understand the 16th chapter of Luke.
First of all, one must realize just WHO Jesus Christ was speaking to when He said what is recorded in verses 19 through 31 of Luke 16. Beginning with verse 1 of that passage, we read: “And He said also unto His disciples…” And then from verse 1 through 13 Jesus is clearly talking to His disciples. But then, beginning with verse 14, we read, “And the Pharisees also, WHO WERE COVETOUS, heard all these things, and they derided (mocked) Him. And He said UNTO THEM….”
Now notice, Jesus Christ is no longer talking to His disciples, men and women eager to learn, those who believed in Him, believed what He said. Now He is addressing Himself to murderous, Christ-rejecting Pharisees, who are ridiculing and scoffing at Him, men with closed minds who really do not want to hear the truth, men who even then are plotting to kill Him.
And now, before going any further, we need to understand, to know just how God, how Jesus Christ answers such people. In short, at this point we need a deeper understanding of the scriptures in order to comprehend the rest of the passage.
In Mark 4, beginning with verses 1 and 2, we read: “And He (Jesus) began again to teach by the seaside, and there was gathered unto Him a great multitude, so that He entered into a ship, and sat in the sea, and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And He taught them many things BY PARABLES, and said unto them in His doctrine……” And then, in verses 33 and 34 of that same chapter in Mark, we read: “And with many such parables spoke He the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. BUT WITHOUT A PARABLE SPOKE HE NOT UNTO THEM. And when they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples.”
Notice, the Bible says that THE ONLY WAY Jesus Christ spoke to the multitudes – to those who were not His disciples – was in parables. And this would most certainly include the Christ-rejecting Pharisees. (See Luke 15:1-3 where it specifically says He was speaking to Pharisees “and He spoke this PARABLE unto them). Is He addressing His disciples in Luke 16, beginning with verse 15? NO! He is addressing Himself to narrow-minded, truth-rejecting, murderous Pharisees. So what method is He then using in the following verses when He speaks of a man called Lazarus and a rich man? That’s right – A PARABLE. It matters not that Christ assigns a name to the beggar. It’s still a parable. He could have given him a street address, and it would not have changed the fact that He was relating a parable to these hardened Pharisees. We must put scripture with scripture. We MUST allow the scriptures to speak.
Some argue that the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke Chapter 16 can’t be a parable because Jesus says, “There was a CERTAIN rich man….” But read the 6th verse of Luke 13: “He (Jesus) spoke also THIS PARABLE, a certain man had a fig tree…” We had better forget clever human arguments and allow the Word of God to clarify these matters for us.
There is something else we need to understand before looking any further into this parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We need to consider something revealed to us by God through the writings of the prophets. Remember, the entire Word of God is actually a single unit. God speaks to us through ALL of the sacred word – not just the last one-fourth, that part commonly called the New Testament. And, speaking of the Hebrew prophets – the writers of the Old Testament – Peter writes: “the Spirit of Christ…was in them” (See I Peter 1:10-11). Jesus has ever been the Logos, the Word, the Spokesman for the God Family. It was Jesus Christ who inspired Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets to write what they did. With this in mind, look at the 14th chapter of Ezekiel, beginning with verse 1.
Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me (to Ezekiel), and sat before me, and the Word of the Lord (through Jesus Christ) came unto me, saying, ‘Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them (verses 1-3).'” God (Jesus Christ) asks His prophet, Ezekiel, “Should I answer such truth rejecting men?” (Now remember the Pharisees much later in time would approach Jesus Christ in Judea while He walked among them in the flesh with a similar attitude). And what does the Lord say to His prophet Ezekiel: “Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart and puts the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face (Pharisees fit this description), and comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that comes according to the multitude of his idols…I, the Lord, will answer him by myself, and I will set my face against that man…and if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I, THE LORD HAVE DECEIVED THAT PROPHET!” (See Ezekiel 14, verses 4,7,8 and 9).
Isaiah calls this God’s “strange work…His strange act” (See Isaiah 28:21). It is strange indeed that the God of truth would deceive men, yet read it with your own eyes: “I THE LORD HAVE DECEIVED THAT PROPHET!” (See Ezekiel 14:9).
This phenomenon is also spoken of in the New Testament. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2:11, “And for this cause GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE.” And verse 10 in that passage tells us why God does this: “Because they received not the love of the truth!”
Sounds like heresy, doesn’t it: God will deceive people! God, not Satan, will cause some men sometimes to believe A LIE!
When we don’t know the Word of God as we should, we can be shocked by some of the truths contained therein. I learned a long time ago that the average preacher really doesn’t know the Bible all that well. He knows his particular denomination’s beliefs. But he really doesn’t know the Word of God intimately well. Much of what he believes might be true, and might actually be what the Bible teaches on that particular subject, BUT MUCH OF WHAT HE BELIEVES AND URGES OTHERS TO BELIEVE IS WRONG – UTTER ERROR! This is especially true regarding the subject of hell and the fate of the unsaved.
The Pharisees were teachers, what the Bible calls “prophets.” And whenever these pompous, self-righteous spreaders of error and heresy approached Jesus Christ he answered them according to their idols of self and riches. (Remember, Luke 16:14 says they were covetous). He could be both sarcastic and ludicrous in how He answered them. HE DECEIVED THEM, GIVING THEM STRONG DELUSION! That’s what YOUR Bible clearly teaches. It might not coincide with what you would wish to believe, but it is the truth.
In Isaiah 66:4, God says, “I also will choose THEIR DELUSIONS, and will bring their fears upon them, because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes (God sees it all), and chose that in which I delighted not.” God can get offended, folks – real bad. He can get greatly offended when a puny, short-lived, rebellious son of Adam refuses to listen to His spokesmen or those anointed to teach in the body of Christ. We tread on very shaky ground when we turn a deaf ear to a “Thus saith the Lord….”
The Pharisees were not answering Jesus’ call to them to “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden…” When He spoke, they refused to hear – even worse, they mocked and insulted Him! So what was His reaction? “I will choose their delusions…” Remember HE CHANGES NOT. So that day when those sneering Pharisees approached Christ, hoping to trap Him in His words, you might say He was laying for them. He had a ludicrous picture to paint for them, and I would love to have seen the looks on their faces when He got through painting that incredible and unthinkable picture for them in the parable of a certain rich man and a poor beggar.
There is a note that Jesus Christ sounds again and again in the 16th chapter of Luke’s gospel account that contains the real point that Jesus was trying to drive home to these Pharisees all along. That note is sounded in verses 16, 29 and 31: “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presses into it (wants a part of it).” (verse 16).
What He was saying was, “I have given you an abundance of divine truth IN WRITING prior to John the Baptist appearing on the scene. Only then, with that superb foundation, has John and myself begun to preach the kingdom of God.”
“Abraham (in this parable) says unto him (the rich man in hell), ‘They (your brothers and everyone else) have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them'” (verse 29).
Again, Jesus sounds the warning: “You have the writings of Moses (the first five books of the Bible) and the prophets (again an abundance of divinely revealed truth). You had better read and believe what has already been revealed therein as it contains foundational truth to guide you and keep you from embracing great error.”
And then one last time in verse 31, Jesus cautions: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (verse 31). If someone rejects the truth of God given through Moses’ writings and the prophets writings, they wouldn’t even believe their own grandmother if she came back from the dead and said, “I was totally unconscious, dear. I knew nothing in death. It was as though I was in a profound sleep.”
Had these Pharisees known the Hebrew scriptures as they should have, they would not have embraced the errors they held regarding the state of the dead and their concept of hell. (The Pharisees believed one went to a burning hell or a glorious afterlife with Abraham immediately upon their death).
To the Pharisees, Christ said they were guilty of making the Word of God of no effect due to their inherited and then passed on erroneous traditions. (See Mark 7:13). They ignored what Moses and the prophets had written on the subject of death and the punishment of the wicked. It was Moses who wrote, “Thou shalt return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (See Genesis 3:19).
Why did the Pharisees ignore Psalm 115:17, “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence”? Why did they ignore Psalm 6:5, “For in death there is no remembrance of thee. In the grave who shall give thee thanks?” Why did they ignore Psalm 78:39, “For He (God) remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and comes not again (apart from a future resurrection)?” Why did they ignore Psalm 146:3-4, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth. He returns to his earth. In that very day his thoughts perish?” Why did they ignore Psalm 37:20, “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume, into smoke shall they consume away?”
When Jesus Christ told these Pharisees, “The law and the prophets were until John” He was saying, “For thousands of years God’s truth has been available to you,” and when He went on to say, “since that time the kingdom of God is preached,” He was saying, “God’s Word is now being expounded to you by John the Baptist and myself. Why do you not believe us?”
Remember, Jesus Christ had already told these Pharisees and their predecessors about the state of the dead and the punishment of the wicked both through the prophets and His own ministry. They had rejected the truth of God for fables. Jesus now remained true to His own word and long established character. He now deceived them, deluded them – as He WARNED He would do!
Why didn’t the Pharisees believe what God had said through the prophet Malachi: “And you shall tread down the wicked FOR THEY SHALL BE ASHES UNDER THE SOLES OF YOUR FEET IN THE DAY THAT I SHALL DO THIS, says the Lord of hosts” – again showing that the punishment of the wicked IS FUTURE and that they are burned to ash, not tormented forever in everlasting fire! (See Malachi 4:1-3).
To another Pharisee, Nicodemus, Jesus had flatly declared: “NO MAN has ascended up to heaven” (See John 3:13). That would include Abraham and Lazarus. Since they refused to accept the truth, Jesus presented them with a delusion in the form of a parable about the fictitious characters of the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. Now I know that must sound like blasphemy to some, but not to those who really know and believe the Word of God.
I quote from I Kings 22, verses 19 through 23: “And he (Micaiah, God’s prophet) said, “Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, ‘Who shall persuade (King) Ahab that he may go up (to battle) and fall (that is, be killed) at Ramoth-Gilead (as Ahab’s death had already been prophesied)? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ And the Lord said unto him, ‘Wherewith?’ And he (this spirit) said, ‘I will go forth, and I will be A LYING SPIRIT in the mouth of all his (false) prophets.’ And He (God) said, ‘Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also (or, that will work). GO FORTH, AND DO SO.’ Now therefore, behold, THE LORD HAS PUT A LYING SPIRIT IN THE MOUTH OF ALL THESE THY PROPHETS, and the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee.”
King Ahab refused to listen to the truth spoken to him by God through God’s true prophet Micaiah. So what did God do? HE SENT A LYING SPIRIT to prompt Ahab’s own corrupt prophets to speak falsehoods to the king. That is what YOUR Bible says.
When God speaks we had better listen! If we prefer lies rather than the truth we are treading on extremely dangerous ground. We are in that forbidden zone where God may send us strong delusion to where we then believe a lie rather than the truth. That is how great is God’s estimation of the truth. Jesus said, “I AM THE TRUTH!” Reject the truth and believe a lie and God says, “Be DAMNED!”
But doesn’t the Bible say, “It is IMPOSSIBLE for God to lie?” Yes, several times over. But read each and every account where you find those words, “God cannot lie,” and you will find that in each and every instance the context clearly shows that WHEN GOD MAKES A PROMISE, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE!
“For when God MADE A PROMISE to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise, for men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” (The two immutable things being 1) God’s promise, and 2) God’s oath. See Hebrews 6:13-18).
“Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which GOD WHO CANNOT LIE, PROMISED before time began.” Note again, God cannot lie when He makes a promise.
“God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He not said (made a promise) and will He not do (what He has promised)? Or has He not spoken (making a promise), and will He not make it good (deliver on that promise)?” (Numbers 23:19)
“And also the Strength of Israel WILL NOT LIE nor relent. For He is not a man that He should relent” (I Samuel 15:29). God had promised King Saul that if he turned aside from God he would be cast away and the throne of Israel given to another. God delivered on His promise to Saul, for it is impossible for God to lie when He makes a promise.
None of the above texts nullifies or negates the truth and solemn warnings given by God in Ezekiel 14:1-11 and 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley