Greater Works than Jesus

I'm really excited because I've had this great breakthrough in understanding regarding a verse that has haunted me ever since I first read it, or rather since the first time I've heard it used to encourage me to believe that I'm supposed to be able to do "great things", usually in the context of the definition of "great things" being miracles of healing and the such.

The verse is John 14:12 "Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."

Now it's been explained to me that when Jesus said "...because I am going to the Father," he is talking about going into the Holy of holies in the heavenlies to sprinkle his blood and atone for our sins and meet the requirements that would allow the Holy Spirit to come.  He talks for quite awhile after this about the Helper coming.  So I was thinking it was worth consideration why Jesus said we could do "greater" works because he goes to the Father.  Greater how?  We'll be able to feed 50,000 instead of 5,000?  Cause fisherman to haul in a few thousand fish in their nets instead of a few hundred?  He raised a dead man who'd been dead four days.  We'll raise one that has been dead for four years?  Hmmm.... I think this sounds ridiculous.

I think Jesus was severely limited while he was here because he could feed with bread but not feed spirits yet.  He could open blind eyes but not blind minds' eyes.  He could teach amazing parables, but the men who were with him for three years still didn't get it.  But then the Holy Spirit came, and the dead were spiritually raised and his apostles officially became fishers of men.  Are those not greater works?  I suppose they might not seem so when we are preoccupied with the comfort of our body and our belly.

The weight is off!  I've been feeling guilty for too long that I did not have mountains uprooting themselves and throwing themselves into the sea.  The greater works are the sinners coming to repentance!  The dead being raised on a daily basis!

Repentance and turning back to the Doctrine of the Fathers

The past several weeks have been interesting ones for me.  God has shed light through his word and through some fantastic teachers I've been reading that I have accepted many teachings into my life and put them into practice and promoted them to others without checking them against the word of God.

We live in a postmodern age.  I'm not going to go about defining postmodern because there are so many that can do that much better than I.  But what comes with our current postmodern culture is a discarding of standards, throwing off of traditions and your own personal reasoning is all you really filter anything through.  Now as a Christian, I have used the excuse many times that the Holy Spirit is present to keep me in check and to keep me from falling into error.

It's become out of fashion to have a collection of agreed-upon doctrine with which to educate our children.  We have this solar system of faith that includes a few central truths we agree must stand firm, but everything that orbits around it is fair game.  But the central truths are intrinsically tied to other "non-central" points of doctrine.  And there are words that need to be defined properly and understood properly for the "central truths" to result in saving faith.  Words like "sin", "repentance", "faith", "disciple".

We pretty much try to make sure members of the church understand the "Plan of Salvation" and gear everything towards that.  (Especially to our children, who are least likely to understand the definitions.  And our Sunday School teachers are not given an agreed-upon definition to relate to their students.)  We ignore teaching what the bible teaches about heaven, hell, our own hearts, whether we are wicked or good "at heart".  And when older members discuss such things, nothing is presented in a clear, authoritative way, but comes more in a form of panel discussion by everyone present and the person with the best debate skills wins the point for whatever they feel  is the correct view.  The early Christian fathers had words of the very harshest kind for stepping outside of sound doctrine and leading others to do so.

Every church seems to be trying to "keep up with the times" or stay "relevant", but is it possible that the truth as set forth in God's word really is sufficient for saving and redeeming our souls and helping us become godly?  Is it possible that the message actually hasn't changed for 2000 years?  And is it possible that if you set forth the message in a way that is consistent with sound doctrine that it wouldn't be new and innovative and would sell no books?  It is amazing how things can sound right, and feel right and not be right.  Our hearts are deceitful and capable of making lies sound like truth.  We've got to wake up to the fact that we're receiving too much without questioning, and when we do question, the only filter we put it through is our darkened understanding... or the consensus of those we have happened to surround ourselves with.

My thoughts really aren't properly gathered to enable me to share all of what God's been showing me as I read the works of those who have studied the works of those who have studied God's Word for years in its original language, and who have studied the teachings of the early church fathers and of the Reformation leaders.  But suffice it to say for now that if Martin Luther was alive today, 95 theses might not cover all of what he would feel the need to nail to the church door.

But one of the things I would like to personally confess to is that in the past, I have had a love for books on psychology.  Unfortunately, most of the "Fathers" of psychology are people like Freud, Jung and Rogers who not only reject God's word, but embraced occult practices.  Is it possible for any truth to come out of the minds that have become darkened from rejecting God?  And the main business of psychology is to deal with "darkened minds" and guilt, and changing human hearts.  Should Christians be going outside the church for that?  I know I have in the past and it's warped, among other things, my interpretation of the Word of God.  Here is a great web site, by the way, that have several books made available online covering the reasoning behind rejecting any marrying of psychology with Christianity: http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/

So that's all for now.  I'll be working my way through A New Systematic Theology by Robert Reymond and Augustine's City of God.  

Oh, one more thing!  I have totally been enjoying a podcast called "Pirate Christian Radio".  It's free on ITunes.  Check it out!!!