purpledawn
You claim to know how much faith or doubt ICANT has personally. You don't know actually know how much faith it takes to be the size of a mustard seed.
NO.I used the words that ICANT presented in another thread to show that his statement saying he DOES NOT DOUBT all those things
means that he
has faith.
The common meaning to the mustard seed analogy that I have heard,in my experience with christians, is that it means just a little faith. This is in keeping with the example of the disciples and the demons .
If the deed cannot be done, then the person doesn't have enough faith or has doubt that the action will happen depending on which story you read.
Per the story, if ICANT is unable to move a mountain, grow a limb, or move a tree; then he either has doubt that the action will happen as the author of Mark stated or he doesn't have faith the size of a mustard seed as the author of Matthew stated.
That is the point I was making. ICANT made the statement that he DOES NOT DOUBT. How much bloody clearer than that does it have to be? He did not fudge on his words here did he?
I don't feel that anyone has enough faith to literally move a mountain. IMO, the doubt will always be there.
And the likely scenario would be because it cannot be done. Why does that escape your notice? How can you state that you believe something within whatever denomination you are in when ,in fact, you do not?
I am sorry but if these matters convince you at all why would you doubt this?
There is no squirming. If one takes the passage literally, then the lack of accomplishment means doubt or lack of faith no matter what the individual says. If one takes the passage metaphorically, then we aren't dealing with moving trees or mountains anyway.
But what metaphor uses the phrase move mountains to actually mean " merely a very difficult task" along with the qualifying statement "nothing shall be impossible unto you" when it references the
cleansing of demons from someone?
Let us get to the crux of things even deeper. Why demons as an example when ,in fact, demons do not exist? Why not a concrete example relating to the disciples actual lives?
Demanding explanations from ICANT is useless. If one takes the story literally, the disciples didn't even have enough faith and they were with Jesus. Why would you assume that Christians today would have more faith than the disciples who were with Jesus? They may not even have faith in the right thing for all you know.
And you claim not to be wiggling? It is
Christians that make the claims for magic and supernatural and faith and the one true god yet when pressed on the issue
that they are adamant about they crumple and claim things are actually metaphorical. When the difficulty presents itself they "wiggle" and to say otherwise is to blatantly excuse themselves of claiming miracles and such on one hand and mere philosophical pandering on the other.
If you really have no idea just what the hell things really mean within the bible then why all the effort on it behalf? Why not simply dump the ancient texts as "gospel" and simply use your modern mind to think on things?
Why would you assume that Christians today would have more faith than the disciples who were with Jesus? They may not even have faith in the right thing for all you know.
I am not the one going around making the claims my friend. It is pervasive within the culture. Appeals to the power of faith to do miracles and heal is a barrage I have been {in Canada nonetheless}
subject to for many years. Whether they have faith or not is a matter they must concern themselves with since I believe it probably pertains a great deal to the application of that one commandment concerning false witness if not actual lying.
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
Albert Einstein
™ Version 4.2