"Don't You Read Your Bibles?"

“And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don’t you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says,” (Matthew 22:31, The Message)

Christ is jousting with the Sadducees.  He answers their absurd question, and then throws out one of his own, which The Message paraphrases as: "Don't you read your Bibles?" 

Notice that Christ points the Sadducees to the Scriptures.  The Sadducees were very sad you see, because they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.  They were equivalent, I think, to modern day atheists (“Sadducees have nothing to do with a resurrection or angels or even a spirit. If they can’t see it, they don’t believe it. Pharisees believe it all.” (Acts 23:8, The Message))  The implication from Christ is that they should  know the answer to his question, if they would only read the Scriptures. So Christ at once tells them that they are wrong about the resurrection of the dead, and that if they were in the Scriptures they would know they were wrong.

Notice Christ's high view of the Scriptures.  Where the Scriptures speak, they speak correctly, and if you do not believe what the Scriptures say, that is not the Bible's fault, that is your fault!  Strong words.

Is there a resurrection of the dead?  An emphatic yes, from both Christ and the Scriptures.