– Caused by pleasures, bad works, pride, envy, self-indulgence, ignorance, etc.:
Lk 16,19.27-31 : There was a rich man who was dressed in purple […] and who feasted and enjoyed himself every day.
Jn 3,19s : Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 5:44 : How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from God alone?
Acts 13:45f : The Jews […] were filled with envy and began to protest with insults against what Paul was saying.
Rom 10:14 : But how can they call on him in whom they have no faith? And how will they believe in the one they haven’t heard of?
Romans 11:30ff : And now you have obtained mercy for their disobedience, so they are unbelievers now.
Phl 3,18s : There are many out there […] who behave as enemies of the cross of Christ.
1Tm 1,13 : To me who was once a blasphemer, persecutor and reviler. But I got mercy.
– Condemnation of unbelievers:
Mk 16:16 : Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Jn 3,18.36 : But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Jo 12,48 : Whoever despises me and does not receive my words has someone to judge him.
Heb 11:6: Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for to draw near to him it is necessary to believe.
1Jn 5,10ff : Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in him. He who does not believe in God makes him a liar.
– Unbelief does not consist only in denying God, but also in ignoring his signs and his Word, not accepting them:
Ps 13 : 1 : The fool says in his heart: “There is no God”. Men have corrupted themselves, their conduct is abominable.
Is 5:19 : (Woe) to those who say: “Let him hurry, let him do his work now, so that we may see it”.
Lk 1:20 : Behold, you will be mute and will not be able to speak until the day these things take place, since you have not believed.
2Pd 3,4 : Where is the promise of his coming? Since our parents died, everything has continued as it was from the beginning.
– And trust in others and not in the Lord. In the OT the Israelites often present themselves as unbelievers, and for this reason they are called rebels:
Numbers 20:10 : Moses said to them: “Listen, you rebels: Shall we make water flow from this rock?”.
Deut 9 :7, 24 : From the day you left Egypt until you came to this place, you have not ceased to be rebellious to the Lord.
Ez 2,3-4 : I send you to the Israelites, to that nation of rebels, revolted against me.
– Recalcitrant, disobedient:
Num 14:9 : Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not be afraid of the people of the land: we will devour them like bread.
Dt 32,15 : Jeshurun grew fat and recalcitrant. You are fat, robust, vigorous! And he abandoned God who created him.
– Men with hard heads and hearts:
Ex 32,9 : I see – continued the Lord – that these people are hard-headed.
Ex 33,3 : But I will not go up with you, because you are a hard-headed people; I would annihilate you on the way.
Deut 9 : “I see”, continued the Lord, “that this nation is a hard-headed people”.
Is 6,9-11 : “Go, therefore, tell this people”, he said: “Listen, without understanding, look, without seeing”.
Is 48,4 : Knowing well that you are rigid, that your neck has muscles of iron, and that your forehead is of bronze.
Jr 7,26 : They, however, did not listen to them, nor did they pay attention to them; they stiffened their necks and did worse than their fathers.
Ez 3,7 : But the house of Israel will refuse to listen to you, because they do not want to listen to me!
Mt 13,14-15 : You will hear with your ears and not understand […] because the heart of this people has become hardened.
– Murmurers and rebels:
Ex 15,24-25 : Then the people murmured against Moses: “What shall we drink?”.
Ex 16,2-3 : The entire assembly of the Israelites began to murmur against Moses and Aaron in the desert.
Ex 17,2-7 : And then they came to argue with Moses: “Give us water to drink”, they said.
Numbers 14 : All the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron.
Numbers 16 : All the sons of Reuben rose up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty other Israelites.
Numbers 17 : Now the next day the whole community of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron.
– Unbelief manifests itself in idolatry and divination:
1Sm 28,3-25 : And Saul had driven the necromancers, the sorcerers and the diviners from the land.
2Kings 9,22 : How can everything go well, while the prostitution and the magic of Jezebel, your mother, lasts?
2Kings 17:17 : They gave themselves to divination, to witchcraft; […] they abandoned themselves entirely to everything that displeased the Lord.
Is 2,6 : You have entirely rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because it is full of soothsayers from the East.
Jer 27 :9 : Do not listen, therefore, to your prophets and diviners, nor to your predictors, astrologers and sorcerers.
Ez 12:24 : No vision henceforth shall be in vain, and no oracle ineffective in Israel.
Mq 3,7 : The seers will be confused, the diviners ashamed.
– Do not listen to false prophets:
Jr 4.10 : Ah! Lord JAVE! Indeed, you deceived this people and Jerusalem, when you said to them: Peace will be yours.
– Do not rely on creatures and false predictions:
Ps 143 :3 : What is man, Lord, that you care for him, what is the Son of Man that you care for him?
Jer 7,4 : Do not trust in deceitful words, similar to these: “Temple of the Lord”.
Jer 17,5-6 : Cursed is the man who trusts in another man, who relies on the flesh and whose heart lives far from the Lord!
– In the search for political alliances:
2 Kings 15 :17-21 : Manahem , son of Gadi, became king of Israel in Samaria. His reign lasted ten years.
2 Kings 16:7-9 : Come and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and the king of Israel, who have joined forces against me.
Hos 5:13 : Ephraim shall see his evil, and Judah his wound; Ephraim will turn to Assyria, and Judah will turn to the great king.
Hos 7:11 : Ephraim is like a naive dove without intelligence; appeal to Egypt, go to Assyria…
Hos 8,9-10 : Because they made an alliance with Assyria. The wild donkey walks alone, but Ephraim would hire allies.
Hos 12:2: Ephraim feeds on the wind, he pursues the east wind […]; make alliance with Assyria.
2Ch 28,20-21 : Teglat-phalasar, king of Assyria, instead of supporting him, attacked him and oppressed him.
Is 30,1-7 : Woe to rebellious children […] they follow a plan that does not come from me. They conclude alliances without my consent.
Is 31,1-2 : Woe to those who go to Egypt to seek help, and who rely on the cavalry.
– Also before Jesus many were incredulous:
Mt 8,10-11 : Jesus said to those present: “Truly I say to you, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel”.
Mt 11,20-21 : Then Jesus began to reproach the cities […] for having refused to repent.
Mt 23,37-38 : Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!
Jo 6,66 : Since then, many of his disciples withdrew and no longer went with him.
– Unbelief is a sin against the Holy Spirit:
Mt 12,31-32 : Blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven them.
Mk 3:29 : But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but will be guilty of an eternal sin.
Luke 12:10 : But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not receive forgiveness.
– Against the truth:
Jo 8,21.24.45 : I am going away, and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot go.
Jo 15,22-23 : If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now there is no excuse for your sin.
– Sin that excludes from eternal life:
Jn 3:36 : He who believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life.
– Jesus very often reproaches the unbelief of contemporaries:
Mt 13:58 : And because of their lack of confidence, he worked few miracles there.
Mk 6,6 : He was amazed at their distrust. And teaching, he went through the surrounding villages.
Mc 8,18 : Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? Don’t you remember anymore?
Mk 9:19 : Jesus answered them, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?”
Luke 9:41 : O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.
Lc 10,13-16 : If the wonders had been done in Tire and Sidon […], they would have done penance a long time ago.
Lk 18,8 : I tell you, he will avenge them shortly. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
– But also that of the disciples:
Mt 8,26 : And Jesus asked: “Why are you afraid, people of little faith?”.
Mt 14:31 : At the same moment, Jesus reached out to him, held him and said to him: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”.
Mt 16:8: Jesus said to them: “You of little faith! Why do you think I spoke to you because you had no bread?”
Mt 17:20 : If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’.
Mt 28,17 : When they saw him, they worshiped him; however, some still hesitated.
Mk 16:14 : He appeared to the Eleven as they sat at table and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.
Lc 24,25.36-38 : O people without intelligence! How slow of heart you are to believe in all that the prophets have announced!
Jn 20,24-25 : Jesus said to him: “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Happy are those who believe without having seen!”
– Unbelief consists in not confessing that Jesus is the Incarnate Word:
Jo 1,11 : He came to what was his, but his own did not receive him.
Jn 3:18 : Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Jn 6:36 : But I told you: You have seen me and do not believe…
– In not confessing that Jesus is the Christ:
1Jn 2,22-23 : Who is a liar if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son.
1Jn 4,2-3 : By this the Spirit of God is recognized: every spirit that proclaims that Jesus Christ has become incarnate is from God.
1Jn 5,1-2 : Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.
– That Jesus is the Redeemer:
Jo 6,53 : If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and do not drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves.
– See IDOLATRY.
