The Lack of Faith Error

In past posts, I've explained how charismatic Christians have hurt me by assuming I didn't have enough faith to be healed. In fact, many disabled folks have been slandered by hard-hearted churchgoers who had zero understanding of God's sovereignty.

One verse thrown at me many times was Matthew 17:20 (KJV) which reads, "And Jesus said unto them, 'Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, "Remove hence to yonder place;" and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.'"

What those teachers, and many of them today, don't understand is that Christ was using hyperbole. He wasn't saying they could literally cause a mountain to be moved. Christ meant that they should trust in him implicitly.

Jesus rebuked his disciples many times for not trusting in him. For example, he fell asleep in the stern of the boat when a storm came up. Matthew 8:26 (KJV) quotes his chiding. "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."


Another time, Peter was actually walking on the water with Jesus. Then he got worried about the violent waves and winds. In Matthew 14:31 (KJV), we see what Christ did next. "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'"

Charismatic Christians make the mistake of believing that faith is some sort of magical power. Without understanding the purposes of God in doing miracles through his Son and his immediate disciples, they assume they can also do marvellous works. That's like an uneducated person putting on glasses and wondering why he or she can't read books.

I hope to write much more about this subject in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? The whole purpose of what we go through in this life is to build trust in the Lord, not to wield God's power. Sadly, Jesus himself said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that many will say they did all sorts of miracles in his name. But the Lord will say, "I never knew you."

I'll be writing in my next post about how some charismatic believers exaggerate Satan's abilities.