Mark 11:24
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Your comment reads:
“If God says, "believe that you have received it, and it will be yours," and if we believe in God and his power, then what should happen if we pray to cure cancer tonight? It should be cured. Either that, or God is lying.”
Once again, you err in your comment, and resort to another failed attempt at the use of the technique known as "Reductio ad absurdum (Latin: "reduction to absurdity")" .In addition, as opposed to your usual error of incorrectly labelling the reference itself, you have this time simply chosen to omit the first part of the very same Scripture that you yourself offered as evidence, which actually reads, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,…”. This again, as we have already discussed above, excludes non-believers, since the Lord only hears the prayers of those, who first, believe in Him. You yourself state in your comment “if we believe in God and His power”, which you clearly don’t, since I'm almost certain (by your usage of it) that you don't even understand what that particular phrase means. We shall try to enhance your understanding, in just a moment, but first we must note that in addition to your apparent lack of understanding, you have also once again taken the statement completely out of context, by not including in your reference the previous 4 verses, which both set the stage, so to speak, for the verse which you did in fact use (verse 24), and also make clarity of that particular verse possible.
In verses 20-21, we have Jesus and His disciples travelling along the way, after departing from Jerusalem. Jesus had just cleansed the temple of all those who were engaged in commerce within its confines. As they walked along the next morning, Peter took notice of a fig tree that Jesus had cursed the day before as they were entering the city, and saw that the fig tree was already withered all the way down to the roots. Now the story of the fig tree is, in and of itself, very important, containing crucial lessons that we may yet have to look at in a more appropriate place. We do not need to pursue this train of thought right at this moment, however, since what Jesus chose to respond to was not so much the matter of the fig tree, but Peter's astonishment at the effectiveness of Jesus' curse, witnessed by the speed of the fig tree's demise.
First of all, Jesus exhorts Peter to "Have faith in God," (v.22), and as I've already stated, we will look at this matter of faith, and how it is defined, in much more detail in our reply to your reference that follows this one. For now, however, I am more interested in discussing a concept that is referenced not only in verse 23, but yet again, in the actual verse you offered as proof, verse 24. This, of course, is the concept of "believing", and it is one of the foremost pillars of the Christian faith[1]. But what exactly does it mean? How is it to be understood in its various manifestations within the Holy Word?
To begin with, let us make sure that we have an understanding of what "believe" does not mean, at least not in the occurrences in question . For instance, it does not mean "to simply accept the existence of" a particular person, or place, or whatever. Perhaps, I should say instead, that it does mean this, but not in the commonly-understood manner that people use it every day. If I were to ask you if you believed there was a mountain on earth referred to as Mount Everest, and you answered "yes", it could then be said, quite reasonably, that you "believe" in Mount Everest. And this is exactly what many people mean when they say they "believe in Jesus". In both Christian, and Academic circles, that would be referred to as "believing in the historical Jesus", and it actually is a common and well-accepted belief; the belief that a man named Jesus of Nazareth, existed in the ancient Middle East. Many believe that this "historical" Jesus was a great man, a teacher of very high repute, and an advocate of peace. Others still, believe that this same Jesus was somewhat of a radical, who fell afoul of, and was later executed by, the Roman State. Unfortunately, for many people, that is where their belief ends.
Whatever your personal belief in the details, however, as long as you accept that Jesus existed, then yes, you can honestly state that you "believe in Jesus". Regrettably, on an eternal scale, the possession of that specific piece of information, will mean absolutely nothing, since it is, at best, merely trivia, and is possessed of no power by which you may be saved from the wrath that is yet to come. If this type of belief about Jesus is all you have when you die, then you have nothing, and an eternity in paradise will have slipped through your fingers. And I would like you to consider one other aspect of this. If you, like so many other people, think it won't be so bad because you'll be dead and gone, you are wrong. The soul is eternal, and if you fail in obtaining paradise, you will have an eternity to continually regret throwing it all away for the fleeting pleasures of a world that appeared and ended in the relative blink of an eye.
There is a somewhat interesting aspect of this everyday form of believing in Jesus, that I would like to consider for a moment; the fact that the accepted views of non-believers, who agree with the worldly opinion of who Jesus is/was, appear quite often, to be totally contradictory. As a Christian, I have had to sit through numerous occasions, listening to casual dialogue about my Lord and Saviour, debated by worldly people (as opposed to Christians). Two of the most commonly repeated points in these conversations are that "Jesus was a highly intelligent man", and "Jesus seemed to stand on a higher moral plane than most of those around him". If these people spouting these ideas truly believe that Jesus was just a man, and if that belief were true, then both of the comments I just mentioned above would be patently false. Just consider please, that which follows:
"...Again the high priest asked him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?''I am,' said Jesus. 'And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'"Mark 14:61b-62a
This is only one of the many occasions that Jesus claimed to be God. See Matthew 16:13-17; Luke 22:70; John 5:24-27, (and far too many others to ever enumerate them here). Also consider, at least two of the above references to His Divinity were made by Jesus at His trial, statements that He knew full well would result in His being sentenced to death. The point here should be quite clear. If Jesus was in fact NOT God, then He was lying, and would not deserve the respect of being placed on a higher moral plane than those others around Him. Lying is never a sign of high morality. Plus, if He knew He wasn't the Son of God, then He also knew that He would not be resurrected, and His claims of Divinity before the authorities of the time, would amount to little more than what might have been the first example of "suicide by cop" that was ever heard of.
No, it just can't be had both ways; either Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be, The Son Of God, or He was a raving lunatic, and an habitual liar of a man, something, that I believe, no one who has studied His life would ever accept as a reasonable conjecture. And this is where we will have to pick it up tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED........
[1] I just want to say that the principle of belief is probably of major importance in religions outside of Christianity as well, but being myself a Christian, I feel it would be presumptuous of be to discuss such matters here.
