{"id":98348,"date":"2026-10-01T12:46:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=98348"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:46:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:46:32","slug":"angered-by-the-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/angered-by-the-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Angered by the Facts?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by David Gibson<\/p>\n<p>If they could have had their way, Jesus would have been lying broken and dead at the foot of the cliff. But since it wasn&#8217;t His time to die, and it wasn&#8217;t the way He was to lay down His life, God protected Him from their murderous intent.<\/p>\n<p>What made them so angry? It&#8217;s what He said in His hometown synagogue.<\/p>\n<p>What so upset them was Jesus&#8217; citing two instances from their own Scriptures where God passed over the Jews in favor of Gentiles (I Kings 17:8-24; 2 Kings 5:1-15). What He said was undeniable, biblical truth, but it was more than Jesus&#8217; listeners could take. So they tried to throw Him off the cliff (Luke 4:16-30).<\/p>\n<p>But Jesus had simply presented them with the facts. As someone said, &#8220;Facts are stubborn things.&#8221; But &#8220;stubborn&#8221; can also describe people who reject the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Our culture has reached the point where anyone who dares to speak the truth, even in love, about biblical teaching on male and female or morality or Jesus as the only way to God, may be accused of hate speech and may lose their friends, their job, or worse.<\/p>\n<p>John the Baptist dared to speak the truth and was beheaded for it (Matthew 14:1-12). The apostles dared to speak the truth and were jailed and beaten (Acts 4-5). Stephen spoke the truth and was stoned (Acts 7). Paul dared to speak the truth and was shouted down by the maddened mob who would have killed him if they could (Acts 22).<\/p>\nBecause these faithful men presented unwelcome facts, they were met with violent rejection.<br \/>\nThis is tough stuff! But let&#8217;s take heart from Jesus&#8217; words, &#8220;<em>Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you<\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 5:11-12).\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by David Gibson If they could have had their way, Jesus would have been lying broken and dead at the foot of the cliff. But since it wasn&#8217;t His time to die, and it wasn&#8217;t the way He was to lay down His life, God protected Him from their murderous intent. What made them so&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1503,441],"class_list":["post-98348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-anger","tag-truth"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":84891,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/facts-are-stubborn-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":98348,"position":0},"title":"Facts Are Stubborn Things","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson A Miracle No One Could Question It was a double miracle: a man lame from birth was healed instantly and could immediately walk without having to learn to walk. No lengthy rehabilitation. It was as if he'd never been lame a day in his life. Naturally, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/painful-truths\/","url_meta":{"origin":98348,"position":1},"title":"Painful Truths","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Sometimes, the truth hurts. You're losing your hair. (Ouch!) You're a little overweight. (Double ouch!) You're in sin. (OOOWWW!) We've heard it said, \"The truth hurts.\" Who hasn't been stung when the truth is critical to us personally or contradicts us in some way? The truth can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-acts-236-a-necessary-inference\/","url_meta":{"origin":98348,"position":2},"title":"Was Acts 2:36 a Necessary Inference?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Peter presented many powerful points of evidence from the Jews' own scriptures and eyewitness testimony in Acts 2:22-35, and he brought his presentation of evidence to a conclusive \"therefore.\" This word signals that he draws necessary inferences from the facts presented. \"Therefore let all the house\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42004,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/he-that-is-without-sin-among-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":98348,"position":3},"title":"He That is Without Sin Among You","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bob Waldron One time the Pharisees brought a woman who had been taken in adultery to Jesus and asked Him what to do about her. Should she be stoned as the law said? They were not really interested in the law, nor right and wrong, nor the woman. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93928,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-god-could-end-religious-confusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":98348,"position":4},"title":"How God Could End Religious Confusion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis Allan I recently met a man on a bus, and our conversation quickly came around to spiritual questions. He spoke of his experiences in studying various religions. He had participated in several \"Christian\" denominations, had studied Buddhism, Islam, etc. We readily agreed on some fundamental facts, including God's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97406,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-unbelievers-theory-jesus-did-not-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":98348,"position":5},"title":"An Unbeliever&#8217;s Theory: Jesus Did Not Die","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul K. Williams In December 1983, I debated Ahmed Deedat, head of the Islamic Propagation Society, on whether Jesus was raised from the dead. Deedat tried to show from the New Testament that Jesus did not die on the cross. He said Jesus became unconscious, that the thrust of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}