I’ve written before about the ineffectiveness of spectacular events, and the importance of hearing from God in the ordinary places of life. We see both points in the closing conversation between Abraham and the rich man in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16.19 – 31). It closes:

But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” And he [the rich man] said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16.29 – 31, ESV)

The text says, essentially, “If they won’t receive God’s truth in the ordinary (reading the scripture), they won’t receive it in the spectacular (someone coming back from the dead) either.” And this fact is confirmed clearly after Jesus causes (another) Lazarus to rise from the dead. (That story is in John 11.) Note the response of the religious leaders as recorded in John 12:

When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. (John 12.9 – 11, ESV)

So the spectacular won’t do it. An atheist friend of mine said to me, “If Jesus appeared in front of me right now and said he was God, I wouldn’t believe it.”

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3.17 – 19, NIV)