From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian

Mt 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be
it unto you.


A lot of the criticism directed at the so called word/faith/prosperity
Gospel is that they seem to teach that there is a correlation between
the amount of faith you have and the results, and then people get
outraged because faith/word seem to be making the assertion that if your
faith is small then your results will be small.

But the Lord Jesus made the assertion "according to your faith be it
unto you".....so i wonder how the critics of faith/word get round this??




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From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian

On 29/12/2025 19:19, mick falconer wrote:

But the Lord Jesus made the assertion "according to your faith be it
unto you".....so i wonder how the critics of faith/word get round this??

I don't think Jesus was linking results to "amount" of faith. It was
more "because of your faith you will be healed". After all faith the
size of a mustard seed is sufficient to move mountains!

This is why I really hate the word "faith", which is viewed as something special, a gift of God, a substance that you measure out in teaspoons or dessert spoons (or in these days of metric, by the millilitre).

Once again, there is a Greek verb, pisteuo and its associated noun,
pistis. The verb is translated "believe" and it beats me why people
insist on translating the noun as "faith" instead of "belief". There is
no such thing as "faith"! There is only "belief".

Now belief is very simple: either you believe that the world is round or
you do not. Either you believe that the Labour party is good for Britain
or you do not. Either you believe that there is a Loch Ness monster or
you do not.

Even if you concede that your belief in the monster is weak, you will
still incline either for or against so that even in such a case belief
is still either on or off.

Do you believe that there is a God? Even if you are not entirely sure,
if on the whole you think it more likely than not, then you have faith.

In 1958 we visited the Garden Tomb and the wife of the caretaker took us round. As we stood looking towards Gordon's Calvary she reached up and
picked a pod off the tree that was giving us shade, split the pod open
and shook out into our hands some tiny black grains, smaller than a
grain of salt.

"That", she told us children, "is mustard seed - and if you have faith
as a grain of mustard seed, God will move mountains for you."

God bless,
Kendall K. Down
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From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian

On 29/12/2025 19:19, mick falconer wrote:

Mt 9:29-a Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be
it unto you.

A lot of the criticism directed at the so called word/faith/prosperity Gospel is that they seem to teach that there is a correlation between
the amount of faith you have and the results, and then people get
outraged because faith/word seem to be making the assertion that if your faith is small then your results will be small.

But the Lord Jesus made the assertion "according to your faith be it
unto you".....so i wonder how the critics of faith/word get round this??

Results don't depend on the 'amount' of faith. Prayers are only answered
in accord with the Will of God.

Jesus said "Whatever you ask in my Name, it shall be given to you."
[John 14:13]

The 'In my Name' bit, basically means 'In accord with my will'. So it's
a promise that you will be given the tools to accomplish whatever God
has called you to do in His Name. It is not a promise that you will be
given a Lamborghini if you ask for one! (I don't think many people are
THAT Bible-literalist.)

Now, the problem potentially comes when we ask for something that to us
sounds so perfectly right and reasonable. Consider this: If we prayed
for someone to get better instead of dying, and it was always answered,
there would be a lot of centuries-old people walking around.

So we can ASK for anything, but we won't necessarily always GET it. But
I nevertheless believe God answers prayers, but often in ways we did not expect. God just doesn't do what we tell Him to do...

Tim.




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From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian

On 30/12/2025 08:15, Timreason wrote:

Now, the problem potentially comes when we ask for something that to us sounds so perfectly right and reasonable. Consider this: If we prayed
for someone to get better instead of dying, and it was always answered, there would be a lot of centuries-old people walking around.

Very true.

So we can ASK for anything, but we won't necessarily always GET it. But
I nevertheless believe God answers prayers, but often in ways we did not expect. God just doesn't do what we tell Him to do...

Indeed not, which is why even Jesus prayed "Not My will but Thine be
done". Even if our prayers sound reasonable (as you noted above) we
should always recognise that God's will takes priority - and what to us
sounds reasonable may in fact be unreasonable in terms of eternity.

God bless,
Kendall K. Down
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