“23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[a]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.” Matthew 22:23-33
Once in a while, some will say or even unknowingly believe things like “surely all these people who don’t believe in God cannot be wrong. It is not possible for all these people wrong.” Others might express that differently. “All (or many) religions point to the same God”.
“That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question“
As we see in the scripture above, the Sadducees, as it says here, did not believe in resurrection. It is key to note that the Sadducees were not a handful of people; they were a very prominent religious sect. They were so mainstream that we see them mentioned several times in the Bible. Also, a lot about them is well documented in other historically accurate accounts of that period.
As the verse above says, this big, mainstream religious sect did not believe in resurrection. This was a core belief of theirs.
Jesus tells them why their core belief is wrong – they did not know the scripture and the power of God.
I believe that Christ’s words are still true today. Religious sects and even religions are off the mark are off for the same reasons – no knowledge of the word and the power of the true God.
There is no safety in numbers; one shouldn’t assume that what they believe is true just because it has many converts.
After pointing out why they error, Jesus then corrects them and says that there is actually resurrection. When you consider that this entire group was wrong, it is easy to see why the crowds reacted the way they did. “When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching”. They were shocked! Jesus had just taught something contrary to the Sadducee’s core belief.
I pray that you and I will grow in the word (the knowledge of the Scriptures) and in knowledge and experience of the power of God. I pray that we’ll introduce others to the Truth & the Power.