Why is it so hard for religious people to accept that they were taught wrong?
Religious people find it hard to accept they were taught wrong because those teachings were drilled into them from childhood, making the error deeply ingrained. When someone shows from Scripture that long-held beliefs are incorrect, the adjustment is emotionally and mentally difficult; it is not easy.
Les explains that when you've had something drilled into you ever since you were old enough to listen, and then someone comes along and shows from the Scriptures that you've been taught totally wrong for so long, it's not easy. He empathizes with people steeped in one religion or another whose eyes are being opened, noting they call and say this is the toughest thing they've ever had to do, yet they can see it's right from the Scriptures. Les points to Paul as being in that same situation: Saul of Tarsus had wreaked havoc among early Jewish believers, but God commissioned him after saving him by grace on the road to Damascus and sent him to the pagan Gentile Roman Empire with the gospel of grace.