Absurd Theatrics Takes A Bow
“If they do not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.”
This concluded Jesus explaining in the belief system of the Pharisees the consequence of being money lovers. The burden of being all things to all people is having to understand them to explain to them how, in their own arguments, their beliefs violate God's love.
The money lover in hell and the poor man in heaven was a surreal documentary based on what the Pharisees decided on and taught as truth. Christ explained the consequences using the cockamamie belief system of following gods, meaning the consciousness the individual was seeking in their own heart was not their dead ancestor, Abraham, but their own demon(s) or the demons of others using the Almighty God's network. When an individual dies, so does their consciousness. If it didn't, you sure as shit couldn't remove their blood and pump them full of resin. What lives? Diddly squat, unless that individual's consciousness is retained in God's living, Eternal, memory. Going after ancestor worship is fornication.
When cities and nations went far afield into demon worship God raised up a prophet announcing, what you believe in is crap, (dungy idol might spring to mind) God is destroying you. In the case of Nin'eveh, God did not need much more than Jonah to get the job of repentance done. In the case of greater Jerusalem, in Christ's day, few were saved. Does anyone want to claim, against mac, Christ was not the greater prophet?
Belief systems come (mac's bad, God meant cum) with a reward. Going after worshipping god using sin triggers sexual gratification centers in the brain. Believers know they are appeasing a god with every ritual they follow. That is the feed-back loop from listening to their blood's sin. The economist would say this reward is the utility of belief. An on-looker might not believe as the subject under observation but they have no means to disprove the stupidity of the belief unless God backs them. Enter the prophet of God.
The phrase, obedience is better than sacrifice, is the key to serving God. Demon worshipers look for signs and omens because they are constantly concocting rituals and inventing currencies they do not explain to others. Return now to the point of the Rich man and Lazarus, (recall, Lazarus, Christ resurrected after dead days?) regardless of your beliefs now, you are going to pay reparations for the sin in your blood by learning righteousness during my kingdom and oh yes by the way the person that couldn't benefit and was impoverished by you kings of Sodom is not going to suffer because they didn't go after listening to the sin in their blood to create gods for themselves or others.
You can see how the Pharisees would have been pissed at listening to Jesus. He did not give them loopholes even in their own perverted logic. The point of being the accused steward is that all of us has sinned even those who refused to believe it. A demon worshiper totally denies they sin, even cannibalising their own children in times of distress. (That is the one you know you want out of town.) The Christ sought those who knew they sinned. These are the ones that can still be saved.
Christ just made it clear that it is not possible to serve God making a god out of your enterprise for your labourers to worship as they work. (God says, "That was worship not whistle, Snow White.") Like today's "God, Family, Company" (right, family company is more like it) priorities' on corporate aim declarations, the Pharisees had people building tombs. (You can think of naked Legion here) CEO's today run legal entities (idols with rights, sans voting). These entities are created to produce goods and distribute earnings, fine. The problem? When the legal entity becomes a god for labourers to follow. (This is just another form of religion) the person creating the god for others to follow deceiving them away from God to earn their wages.
After the market collapse of the thirties it was obvious corporations needed stronger laws. The zeta demon class know they must control that complement class, worker. This minimizes, through orchestration, the loss of lives from that iota complement. What is needed for these blood-letting iota sacrificers? A big idol. Labour and market legislation provided the shelter that God was denied providing workers by people seeking demons for wealth in the first place.
Every heart felt system of beliefs has a demon that maps to it. Some are part of corporations, are embedded in scientific theory, and last but not least the direct route is "I believe in God." Hansel and Gretel are appropriate here. Few would approach a gingerbread house in the woods and not realize they are going to be expected to pay something for taking any of the candy or cookie of the house.
Shepherded by God, whether He explained to you explicitly or not, you would pass a gingerbread house in the woods when you were hungry, He would know the occupant would traffic you for taking even a whiff or sniff of that fragrant ginger and spice. The individual obedient to God would hold their breath as they passed at such a price. Only God knows all the currencies, means of exchange, of every member of His creation. The only way He can protect the righteous is allowing even the wicked to profit from His power. (Feel God's moment of silence for this truth.)
Explaining worship with rewards to God is why Moses wrote the laws for determining rape the way he did. Out in a field it was very likely a ritual was taking place during a bowel movement. That was the one that did not cry out. In the city there would have been no shortage of individuals to come to the aid of one who cried out unless this was sadly a city like Gib'e-ah.
The earthquake man is seeking is from God with righteous rewards that penetrate reciprocal souls. That is the act of love God links. Prayer matters.