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The day that Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem on a donkey with crowds shouting Hosanna and calling out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” was a high point for the disciples. The next days were filled will the demonstration in the temple, woes to the Scribes and Pharisees, the answering of difficult questions, and confronting parables. Jesus was confronting the religious leaders of the people head on, publicly, and he was getting away with it. He was outsmarting their maliciously crafted questions and was even telling very pointed parables to reprove his opponents. The disciples must have been in awe of what their master was doing. Then comes the teaching about the end on the Mount of Olives followed by the Last Supper. Next, Jesus and his disciples went up to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to pray. Suddenly Judas appeared with the civil authorities and arrested Jesus. What did the disciples do? They fled and all escaped. The next hours were filled with trial after trial in which Jesus was dragged from place to place and accused. Finally, the religious establishment succeeded in boxing Pilate in to deliver Jesus up for crucifixion. This took the disciples completely by surprise even though Jesus had warned them repeatedly that this was going to happen.

The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is perhaps the most difficult section of Scripture for those of us who hold to the belief of conditional immortality (the understanding that immortality is contingent on the resurrection not on the existence of an immortal soul). Before we take a look at the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus itself I think it would be best to review the texts that speak to the state of the dead.

The dead are unconscious.

A prominent philosopher and theologian has spent several years investigating whether or not Jesus of Nazareth was actually raised from the dead. He did this from a historical perspective rather than based on faith. Dr. William Lane Craig was employed by the German government for two years to do this work. Since then he has held many debates with atheists, secular humanists, liberal Christians, and Muslims in an effort to see what his arguments are made of. From all the debates I’ve heard no one, no matter how well educated, has been able to refute his simple, clear evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. The implications of this are several:

1. there must be a God if something as impossible/supernatural as an actual resurrection took place