Dennis On: Oh Me Of Little Faith: Of Man and Mustard Seeds

Of Man and Mustard Seeds

 

Let's imagine that Jesus truly is God. What might he have done to prove it? He could have started by taking one of his most famous quotes from the Bible and acting on it. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus says quite clearly: 

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

I would think it only fair that if someone is going to tell others just how easy this would be IF one had the SMALLEST of faith, Jesus , who tells us this himself, should at least be able to demonstrate how it is done.  I mean, let me see YOU do it....Wow!!!!  It is possible !!!!  I believe you now!  Oh me of little faith...Well actually, even if I had a little faith, I could at least do that!  "

So Jesus takes up the challenge simply to show his disciples and all who read his words in the future and struggle over their puny faith, that indeed, this is possible.   Jesus selects Mt Tabor where he had previously met with Moses, Elijah Peter and a couple others to show the transfiguration.  With just a bit of faith, Jesus will demonstrate mountain moving.  He will say..."Mt Tabor, in my smallest of genuine faith I command you to leave this location and relocate to the empty spot left by the Santorini Volcanic blast, in Greece, many years ago.  You will be a nice addition to the landscape and the locals will appreciate getting their mountain back." 

 Poof!!!!!  Gone!!!.  In the place of Mt. Tabor is a large flat space that will now make a lovely site for a scenic housing project overlooking the Jezreel Valley.  If the Greeks measure the base of the new mountain now sitting in the crater left by the Volcano, it will exactly match the base of Mt. Tabor and scientific analysis will confirm the make up of the Mt as being of Middle Eastern origin. 

And Jesus will have proven that at least he has even the smallest of living faith that can indeed transform mountains from one place to another.  Now, if he doesn't do it, or if he can't do it, or if he refuses to show he can do it, but doesn't want to do it because it would come across as "some cheap trick,"   then please don't ask me to do it or feel bad that my faith in life is not even the size of a grain of mustard seed.  That makes me feel inadequate and bad about myself!  As a teacher, I try my best NOT to ask or expect my students to do things or know how to do things that I don't know or know how to do myself.  That just seems wrong.  Not that I could always do the things I thought we all should do but at least when I realized I couldn't, I admitted it. Ok...I eventually admitted it! 

I think we know that Jesus never moved any mountains in his year long, or three year long, depending on which Gospel you read, ministry.   So I would consider this a bad teaching.  No one, not even the one who taught it was possible, has ever actually done it.  It is a meaningless teaching and causes only personal pain and feelings of hopeless loss and inadequate faith.  I wonder if anyone ever quietly, when alone in the mountains, commanded one to move somewhere and it didn't of course, and then just walked away with a big sigh of , "oh well?"   I bet they have...

Therefore, if you have issues with your faith.  If you feel badly that you have never been able to do this or when your child died, or your partner was killed or had cancer, or when you were low on funds and all the tithing in the world did not open the windows of heaven for you...relax.  You did not lack faith.  Your faith was not smaller than even a mustard seed so that's why you did not get your answer.  If your mountain never moved, well we have to say, it is ok.  It did not move for Jesus either.   

Dennis C. Diehl

DenniscDiehl@aol.com

Why HWA Needed His Ego Stroked

I don't remember where I got this.  I have had it for a while in a file.  It explains a lot on how Herbert worked and why he did what he did.

Herbert was raised a Quaker by a very strict and dominating father, which had a profound effect on his life.  Eager to get away from a bullying and brutal father he left school after the eighth grade and tried to make his own way in the world.

Having been told that he would amount to nothing and often beaten and verbally abused he developed a deep personal sense of inferiority which manifested itself in an imperative need to be a success and prove his father wrong.

This inferiority complex had a much greater down side, making him suseptible to flatterer’s.  Herbert loved to be flattered, especially by men he looked up to, or regarded as successful.  This proved to be his undoing in his later life as Satan always attacks us on our most vulnerable weaknesses.

At the same time his father’s bullying attitude was reproduced in Herbert; first because that was his primary influence, and second because he was determined to always take a dominant position and to never be bullied himself again.

This dominant personality trait seems to have run in the family because his cousin and wife Loma was no slouch herself.  She was known for keeping her husband in line, sometimes even shouting from the pews during services “Don’t you dare talk to God’s people like that”.  Their marriage was presented as perfect as they could to the brethren; when much of the time it was a perfect storm.  Loma worked hard at  protecting him from his tendency to succumb to flatteries and from his more extreme domination tendencies; which efforts were often resented by her husband.

Dennis On: "Oh Me of Little Faith" James 5

^{James 5}

¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

 

^{Ok, let's get right to it.  While this teaching, so plainly stated and seemingly unambiguous is not directly that of Jesus, it is by James and includes Jesus name as the talisman that brings results.  One can proof text themselves all over the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to find what one thinks this REALLY means, or how it REALLY is to be understood, or how one REALLY is to understand it, but I am taking each questionable teaching in it's given context without all the apologetics that get hunted down to explain why this teaching will work if properly understood.}

 

^{I think it goes without saying the misery and heartache this simple teaching has caused sincere Bible reading Christians all over the planet and in all ages since it was uttered is without parallel.  All humans get sick and sickness leads to death at times.  We will all die for lack of breath at some point and as we have seen in past postings, God evidently knows and has planned the hour of our deaths anyway.  So I suppose I even question why we would ask for healing since if it is time, it is time.  If it is not time, then I will get better anyway right?}

 

 ^{Sometimes I think one author in the Bible is oblivious to what other authors say and can't match their teachings into one coherent teaching.  I guess that's why we proof-text until we find the answer we need for ourselves and can say, "the Bible tells me so."}

 

^{As well, I know how tempting it is to blast WCG or any church that teaches divine healing, anointing and prayer as per James 5:14-16.  I know the horror stories. But we need to back up a bit and realize it is the BIBLE , the APOSTLES and the EARLY CHURCH that teaches this.  We are just reading it as the inspired word of God, so to speak, and trying to figure out how to apply it and what it means.  Does it mean get anointed, trust God, avoid medical care because it is either or and cannot be both, or what?} 

 

^{Does our standing with God depend on our faith in such matters?  What does this scripture expect Christians to really do and not do?  And since we KNOW in our heart of hearts that the implication of this is IF you do A the B will happen.  When it doesn't, then we agonize over the reasons listed in an earlier posting as to why God did not answer our prayer.  No matter...it is OUR fault and never the fault of the Deity.  He wanted to help but we just didn't hold our mouths right when we asked or something so the answer is no.}  

 

^{Also, I am pleased for those who can feel or know that God healed them of this or that.  A minister distracted me once with a job offer that caused me to miss a flight from LA to Boise Idaho. The plane I missed was hit by a fighter Jet and all died.  Luck?  "Intervention?"  I don't know, but it sure was a cruel joke to save me to go through the rest of the WCG minister experience.} 

 

 ^{Anyone who gets better after asking for healing is not going to dare not to credit the prayer of faith and such with the healing.  We are happy for you.  You can't prove to us you did not luck out or get better anyway.  After all, most don't die anyway each time they get "sick."   I was often asked to anoint for colds and such which of course I did but didn't want to.  I never got anointed for a common cold.  You know the cycle.  I would only get anointed if I felt my sickness could really get out of hand and after all, I was young and did want to live!  I'm still here.} 

 

^{The faithful tend to die in such times and stinkers live forever...}

 

 ^{I had a ministerial assistant once, who announced to the Church during a sermonette that he would either anoint you for sickness OR visit you in the hospital but not both.  I made him take it back and told him he'd be doing both if he was going to work with me. If not, we could arrange for him to work elsewhere.  I always did both and sent many a person to his doc, ER or Hospital for help that was readily available.  I guess my Presbyterian background saved me from some of the more profoundly stupid mistakes others made having grown up in a much smaller theological box as they must have.}  

 

^{However, my point is and what I want to point out is not "how could we be so stupid as to believe Armstrong on this issue," etc...but recognize that it is a very bad teaching of the Bible itself.  It leaves little to interpretation really even though many denominations teach it every way from being a nice idea and quaint to absolute Bible truth that God will judge your faith over.  But it is in the Book.  It is not a confusing statement.  It seems to say what it says and mean what it means.  James does not tell us if that is all we do or just a part of doing all else we can do.}   

 

^{So, to me, and having seen the hurt, fear and shock this teaching not being so as stated has caused, I vote this a bad teaching.  By its fruits I believe we can know it...}

 

Dennis C. Diehl

DenniscDiehl@aol.com