Oh Me of Little Faith?
I believe we all know the following teachings and scriptures by heart as former members of the WCG and perhaps current members of a splinter COG. We were all quite good at knowing what the Bible said.
I have selected some basic teachings of Jesus that ALWAYS puzzled me personally. I did not find them to ever be remotely true and if they could be true for the Christian, it may actually prove a disaster in their real life to get things so easily and freely. However, not to worry. I never knew this to be the case or I think i would have noticed.
Here we go....
1) And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen. "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." (Matthew 21:21-22 NAS)
2) Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8 NAB)
3) Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. (Matthew 18:19-20 NAS)
4) Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. (Mark 11:24-25 NAB)
5) And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-13 NAB)
6) And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14 NAB)
7) If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. (John 15:7 NAB)
8) It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. (John 15:16 NAB)
9) On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. (John 16:23-24 NAB)
Now i realize there are apologetics for the times that none of this comes to pass or that when we ask, nothing comes of it. I have asked thousands of time for many small considerations and some large ones in my own life and the lives of others but did not get answers like these promise. Why not I wondered?
Well:
A. I asked amiss. It was an ok request but somewhere along the line I had a wrong way of asking or perhaps a wrong reason why I asked, unknown to me of course, thus...no answer.
B. "My ways are not your ways..." saith the Eternal Well....ok,
C. I got an answer....doi.....it was "NO!"
D. Not now....but eventually, down the road, over the hill, around the corner, in the Kingdom....
E. "There is an answer that seems right to you Dennis....but....no banana."
F. Those teachings mean something else that I have never figured out but they are 100% accurate.
etc......
The fact is, either Jesus was speaking way deep and really didn't mean it the way it comes across, or he stretched the truth or worse about his ability or who he was and what he had to offer the faithful. I always figured I had NO faith because i could not move a pebble with it, much less a mountain. Sometimes I think when you say dumb stuff, as long it was a really really long time ago, it seems deep and spiritual. If someone said it to me from the pulpit today, it would seem goofy and a sign of real trouble in the pastor.
Another problem is that getting everything you want can be one's worse nightmare. What a church that would be! Forget about Faith!. The world's resources would have been gone 1500 years ago... and everyone would be in charge flying Gulfstream XII 's doing the work. (I'd ask for a degree in Paleontology:)
These scriptures and reputed teachings of Jesus have been the cause of more suffering in the lives of the sincere believer than they are worth. Life does not work this way. It should NOT work this way anyway! From "Save my child!" to "Please heal me...!" asking "whatever" neither works nor builds faith when nothing comes back. The person then believes they are defective, asking wrongly, selfish, unworthy, not a real Christian, faithless and so on and this is not helpful in our journey as a human being.
Did Jesus lie? Exaggerate? Think he had to be this full of faith? Mean something else? Ever really say this? I dunno. I just don't find it credible, real or true in my own experience so I don't expect anything anymore and don't ask.
Some of what Jesus taught can be taken to border on the insane. It seems his family in Mark thought so too. Frankly, I always found it rather chilling to read..."I am the way, the truth and the light....NO MAN comes unto the Father but by ME." It makes me nervous. But this is for another time perhaps.
I believe we all know the following teachings and scriptures by heart as former members of the WCG and perhaps current members of a splinter COG. We were all quite good at knowing what the Bible said.