Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Jude 1:5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
1 John 5:10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
2Thessalonians 2:10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
In the Bible, unbelief is more than simply failing to believe God’s promises. Unbelief is the deliberate decision to reject God’s revelation.
The writer of Hebrews offered this commentary on the Israelites’ sin in the wilderness. In Hebrews 3:18-19, he wrote, “To whom did [God] swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” And he made this application in Hebrews 3:12: “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” The adult Israelites chose to reject the revelation that God had given to them. The writer also quoted Psalm 95: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years” (Hebrews 3:7-9). For forty years the Israelites had seen God’s miraculous care for them. The adult Israelites had seen God send the plagues that changed Pharaoh’s heart and caused him to let the people go. They had witnessed the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. They had experienced God’s supernatural provision of manna and water. Yet they deliberately rejected the knowledge of God they had received and His promise of deliverance. Therefore, they were without excuse.
