50 Erroneus Proofs of God's Non-Existence 1:99-104

Point 5 is, of course, the most obvious point in which your proof fails. Your oft-times stated lack of belief in the things the Father so clearly says in the Holy Scriptures, also declares your disbelief, in His testimony regarding Jesus. As  long as you refuse to acknowledge the Lord's Divinity, you cannot claim to possess faith in Him. The proof of this lies in the fact that not only do you call God a liar, as described in the point we are currently discussing (by failure to accept His testimony), but you flat out called both Jesus, and His Father, liars, in your earlier comments on the Scriptures you offered as support for your proof. Thus, by your own words, you have placed yourself outside the realm of offering genuine prayer, so there is nothing of which you can claim the Father's failure to answer.

Finally, we have Point 6, and this brings us to the matter of "obedience". I mentioned this in the earliest parts of this document, when I asked, "...for that matter, where is obedience?" At that time I was pointing out that the prayer you suggested was more like a test that would clearly, and without any doubt, prove the existence of God, should He choose to answer it. After seeing such a thing occur, there would be no need of "faith", since the matter would have been completely settled. The problem is, as I mentioned above, for whatever reasons God may have for doing so, He has declared that anyone who wishes to see Him will have to do so, by believing (having faith in) the Gospel that was brought through Christ Jesus, and handed down to us through the disciples. Just one verse prior to the last Scripture I quoted, Paul has this to say,

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."

Romans 1:16

If we disobey God's command to believe in Jesus' name, than that disobedience removes our God-given right (as believers) to petition Him in the name of His son, and thus, we should not expect to receive any of the things we desire of Him. However,

"...if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ....Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them..."

1 John 3:21-24 (Emphasis mine.)

And let us not forget that believing in Jesus involves praying only for such things "as God has promised".

We can shed even more light on this entire matter by taking a closer look at the three verses that you included in your reference. Within these verses, let us take special note of the one precise usage by Jesus, in v.12, of the phrase “faith in me”, (which we have, in a general manner, already spoken of above), and His usage of the second phrase previously mentioned, that Jesus apparently deems to be of such importance, that He uses it not just once, but twice, in v.14, “in my name”. What exactly do these phrases mean within the context that they are found here, and how do their meanings affect the promises that are made. Let us begin with the latter.

Unlike what so many believers and unbelievers appear to think, to pray "in Jesus’ name" does not involve merely invoking that Name in some manner similar to a magical incantation, which might be offered by the more superstitious among us, in order to acquire luck, or some such thing. Spirituality is not magic. So, in an effort to be as clear, and concise as possible, I will call upon one of those authorities I mentioned earlier whose written works comprise at least a part of my reading list. The following quotation comes from the comments which are to be found in “The Anchor Bible”, and I certainly could not explain it any better than they have already done.

“A Christian prays in Jesus’ name in the sense that he is in union with Jesus…because the Christian is in union with Jesus and Jesus is in union with the Father, there can be no doubt that the Christian’s requests will be granted. This context of union with Jesus also suggests that the requests of the Christian are now no longer thought of as requests concerning the petty things of life (in opposition to the amazing things of God) – they are requests of such a nature that when they are granted the Father is glorified in the son (see verse 13 in the reference we are presently considering). They are requests pertinent to the Christian life and to the continuation of the work by which Jesus glorified the Father during His ministry.[1]” (Emphasis and parenthetical statements mine.)

 The last point mentioned in the above-given excerpt is of special importance to an understanding of what Jesus meant when He said in the Scriptures you referred to,

 "...anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these..."  --John 14:12 (Emphasis mine.) 

What Jesus had in fact been doing was His Father's work, and spreading the Good News. Jesus was telling His disciples that they also would be doing the Father's work, and theirs would be an even greater work, since they would take the message of the gospel, outside of Palestine where Jesus had walked, and into the whole world. When taken in the context of the passage, these are the greater works the Lord is speaking of. The disciples (at least some of them) did also perform miracles that were recorded in the Bible, but the performing of miracles can never be compared to the importance of spreading the Holy Word. Miracles are seldom, if ever, the means to salvation, unless we are speaking of the miraculous instilling into our hearts, of belief and saving grace, through the agency of the Holy Spirit. 

So you see, the reason I said you have not taken the words of the Lord literally enough is based on the fact that lacking that presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, you can truly have no concept of what Jesus was speaking about when He used the phrase “in my name”, and as a result, you are using it far too lightly, in far too broad a sense. You were correct, however, when you labelled the Lord’s statement as “unambiguous”, since any ambiguity contained within the statement is actually manifested by your lack of knowledge pertaining to the things of the Spirit.

Regarding "faith" we have already said much in our replies to your earlier comments. So at this point, I only wish to look specifically at the phrase "faith in me" and what it actually entails when used in the manner Jesus used it in verse 12 of your reference. First of all, as we have already mentioned, the phrase is used to qualify the pronoun "anyone", reducing the general meaning to a far more specific one. Not just "anyone", but "anyone who has faith in me". For a person to truly benefit from this qualifying statement, they have to first have some idea as to what it means. 

If I were to tell you that, "soil is quite odourless in the absence of the actinomycetes", you might not be able to do much with that, until you first understood that actinomycetes are a form of bacteria that actually contribute to producing in soil it's healthy earth-like aroma. (When you see a farmer sniffing his soil, it is quite likely this particular smell that he is looking for; and if it is absent, his soil is pretty much dead, and should be more properly called "dust", hence the term "the great dust-bowl" referring to large patches of bad land). And just as the implications of "the absence of actinomycetes" need, in this example, to be understood for true enlightenment in the area of "Soil Sciences", so with the implications of the phrase "believe in me", when used by Jesus in the Scriptures.

As a Christian, I understand that to believe in Jesus, my life has to be one with His. That is not to say, or imply in any manner, that I am in any way Divine. It does, however, mean that my desires must be His desires, and within the confines of my present humanity, my thoughts must be His thoughts. Paul states this quite clearly, when he says,

"...So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

Romans 7:25b (Emphasis mine.)

or yet again,

"'For who has known the mind of the Lord

            that he may instruct Him?'

But we (Christians) have the mind of Christ."

1 Corinthians 2:16 (Emphasis and parenthetical statement mine.)

Clearly, if we believe what Jesus said about His being one with God, and if we also believe what Jesus told us about our being one with Him, then we know within ourselves the things that our Lord knows, and He knows the things of God that we need to know. And it is this kind of intimacy with God that Jesus promises, if we truly believe in Him. 

And I think I should clarify one of the points I just made, before we move on. And that is where we will start tomorrow.

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[1] “The Anchor Bible, The Gospel According To John, vol. 29a,”, Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1970, p.636