(P1) If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. (NIV)
(P2) You cannot move mountains from here to there.
Therefore, (C) Your faith is smaller than a mustard seed.
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. (KJV)
Isn’t it interesting to appreciate the ultimate meaning of this is that the average Jew in Christ’s day…. though they claimed to believe in the God of Israel… were virtually atheists!…. at least when it came to ‘working miracles’. This shows that even before the so-called age of science…. age of reason, that humanity already possessed an implicit knowledge of ‘naturalism’… ie how the world ordinarily functions… and that they would not ‘expect’ mountains to move…even if they asked God to do it.
Thomas refused to believe Christ had risen from the dead…. because dead people don’t ‘naturally’ do that!
Thus this verse explodes the Randoid/ Atheist assertion that Faith renders a person a mystic vegitable …basically that beith a theist is identical to being an anamist…
The reality Christ declares is that even the Jew of the first century was of ‘little/ minescule faith’ in ‘things supernatural’/ the real power of God available to them.
http://blog.eternalvigilance.me/2012/11/faith-science-and-reason-the-pomposity-of-atheism/ (
This also goes to prove that when he (Thomas was sent by Christ to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews, that this gospel he preached had nothing to do with Christ’s, death, burial, or resurrection! ….which of course was still in the future).
Having said that, Christ overturns Mankinds unshakable…. comparitively Massive faith *in Naturalism!*
Mankind is foolish!
In This Quote Christ is saying that *in reality* the Naturalistic world view is very flawed!…. a form of mental blindness, and that Faith can unlock Supernatural powers…which exist despite this almost absolute disbelief.
*Reality is not naturalistic!*… that is merely an appearance…a falce assumption… derived from the consistency (mathematical accuracy) with which God governs the universe.
http://blog.eternalvigilance.me/2012/09/the-rusty-cage-scientism/
I would like to add that Christ gave his disciples supernatural powers when he sent them to preach “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”…as Signs for the Jews that their message was from God… and this time of ‘Miracle working’… is not the ‘time’/ dispensation we are *now* living in… St Paul never makes any such ‘Mountain moving faith’ statements *to us*…. we don’t have ‘signs and wonders’ accompanying our preaching of The Gospel of God’s grace… which is a completely different gospel to what Peter, and Thomas preached… when they were Christ’s disciples, or after the cross when they were Apostles and re-offering Christ to the Jews in the early Acts period.
Thus I dont beat myself up because the ‘Mountains in my life’ refuse to fly away at my command.
I find your Dispensationalism disconcerting!
Tim, do you deny that your faith is smaller than a mustard seed?
How big is small Richard?
My faith is one of the ‘Biggest’/most important things in my life. Richard, yet compared to the faith of Noah, or Abraham…I guess my faith is ‘Puny’.
Yet compared to many so-called Christians I know my faith is more like a cannon ball than a mustard seed!… so no I don’t accept at all that my faith is smaller than a mustard seed.
I would die for my faith.
That is not to say that I have 100% faith.
I have about 85% faith.
15% doubt exists because I know that I could be wrong about everything…despite the fact that everything aligns perfectly with what the Bible declares… according to my own observations and investigations.
I am an ignorant and fallible human being. How, even if I am in realty100% right… can I have 100% faith knowing my own weaknesses?
I am *certain* that I am wrong about many things.
I have 85% faith in the 1% of understanding that I think I know about reality.
Thus I will confess my Knowledge of reality is smaller than a mustard seed, comparative to God’s Omniscience… and probably always will be even after I have seen his face! …yet in that day I will have 100% faith! I will be overjoyed that what I believed to be true has been absolutely *without doubt* been proven.
Until then I live in hope.
The reality is The Finite being can never 100% know God… the infinite being, and this is why Faith is essential… we must trust God more than we know him…
In Heaven we shall have 100% faith, but not 100% knowledge. We will know for sure that he is there, and we will trust his character, but we will never know his totality.
That is how we shall keep our communion with him… even in heaven… It will be a loving, trusting faith relationship between us his Children… his creations… and our Father …The infinite being.
I have tried to communicate to you the simple rationale underpinning Dispensationalism Richard, in such familiar terms as checking the *context* of particular portions of scripture, and appealed to your philosophical apprehension of distinguishing relative truths from absolutes, and attempted to show you That God’s plan ‘unfolds’… things change… with the process of time…at various ‘milestones’… etc at which some Things finish, and new things begin, etc.
All this would be common sense to you if you had not already imbibed some erroneous ideas… like the primacy of what Jesus Christ taught…simply because he was the greatest prophet of them all, and other philosophical absurdities… like the idea that *God never changes how he deals with human beings…as if Justice demands that he treats everyone exactly the same*.
I find your inability to appreciate Dispensationalism *very disconcerting*… because of its *obvious rationality*.
And I also know how the Bible appears ‘a mystical muddle’… to you…having once been an orthodox Non-dispensational sheep myself…. Thinking you can loose yours salvation… wondering if Good works, Baptism, and keeping the Old testament Laws were necessary to ‘stay saved’… etc.
What is even more disconcerting is the fact that in many instances *you practice Dispensationalism!* Yet you refuse to admit this to yourself… you are practicing a form of dispensationalism when you say that you will listen to Jesus… but not bother with Moses… ie *you don’t bother to be circumcised, or to keep the Sabbath, or to practice the Passover, etc*!!!! (even though Jesus did all those things!)
You muddle about in confusion.
yet still I applaud your position on all those things (except your refusal to accept that God sent Christ to the Jews… and raised up St Paul for us Gentiles) … because dispensationally specking being circumcised, keeping the Sabbath or participating in the Passover are all part of the *Jewish dispensation of the Law!*, and not Doctrine for us Gentiles today living in the age of grace.
Thus when I read any quote of Christ, I am very careful not to accept it for doctrine unless it was validated by our Apostle Paul.
The day this simple reality dawns on you Richard will be like a flood light being turned on and the bible will open up to you. You will be dumbstruck that you could not see this simple truth before… and marvel at how easily we can be blinded against seeing the most obvious of truths.
Geezzzz keep it simple why don’t ya for a mere mortal !!!