It has been an interesting week in Christendom.
In case you know nothing about what has been going on, this is what I am referring to:
About a week ago, a precious two-year-old little girl named Olive tragically died. Her parents are worship leaders at Bethel Church in Redding, CA. The child’s death triggered a six-day campaign to bring her back to life again.
Young Olive was not on life support; she was in the morgue. That is where she remained, while for six days, Christians all over the world participated in the plea for her resurrection. They did this in many ways: through fervent prayer, praise and worship, commanding her to “come home," declaring/commanding that her life return to her, foot-stomping, claiming that not all deaths are in God’s timing, and trying to raise $100,000 on Go Fund Me.
I am not sure if they raised the full amount, but many of their actions did raise quite a few eyebrows.
After a week of this “pressing in,” as many would call it, Olive’s parents and the Bethel congregation conceded that she was not going to be raised from the dead, and they have now gone on to bury their precious child. I weep for them.
This has really hit home for me. Several weeks ago, my beloved unborn grandson died in the womb of his mother, eight days before his due date. I was heartbroken, but I enlisted the help of some friends to pray that God would raise this sweet baby back to life before he was born. But alas, it was not to be; my beautiful grandson was born into this world and never took a breath this side of eternity. I mourn deeply for him; and yet, I have the hope and expectation that someday he will live again.
With all this going on, I just want to try and collect all my theological thoughts here. I am not saying that my theology is completely correct (indeed, I don’t believe anyone on the planet has 100% correct theology), but I just want to put my thoughts into writing.
There are those who would say we just didn’t have enough faith. This is an oft-repeated statement within the Word of Faith movement, and one that I don’t agree with. What a burden to place on someone who is grieving a loss! In Mark 9:24, we see a father struggling with his own belief: “Lord, I DO believe; HELP me in my unbelief!” Yeshua went on to answer this father’s prayer for his son.
There are others who believe that our lives today should look exactly like the lives of the apostles in Acts, who were the first ones to bring the gospel to this world. Is this true?
In Mark 16, Yeshua is giving the great commission, and speaking of the signs and wonders that will accompany those who believe. The passage wraps up with “and they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”
Why did Yeshua Himeslf do miracles? It was to prove that He was who He said He was. Why do these signs and wonders accompany the believers who are delivering the good news? To prove that the gospel is true.
I believe these miraculous gifts DID disappear, for the most part, from the church during the dark and middle ages when corruption was widespread and the gospel was not being preached to the world at large. (When I was saved, it was through a congregation that was cessationist in its belief - in other words, the belief that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are not for today. But I changed my view eventually, through Bible study and seeing the hand of God move in many ways).
But ever since the advent of the great missionary movement,which began around the end of the 18th century, signs and wonders have been appearing again in the places where the gospel had never been preached before. Today, I often read about the things that are happening in places such as China, India, North Korea, Iran… not to mention the dreams and visions that are taking place all over the Middle East.
This is not to say that God does not perform miracles today among nations and people who are well-established in faith. He does, according to His will and His purposes. Several years ago, He healed me miraculously of a lung condition that I’d been suffering from for years, and I praise Him for that.
CAN God raise the dead? Of course He can. The last time I checked, God was still in charge of the universe.
However, He gave us His book so that we could study it. Whenever someone was raised from the dead in scripture, it happened at the time of the asking. Yeshua waited four days to visit the bereaved family of Lazarus, but the moment He called Lazurus forth from the grave, the resurrection happened. Elijah stretched himself out over the widow’s son three times, and then promptly the young man came back to life. When Eutychus fell out of the three-story window and died in Acts 20, he was brought back to life immediately. (I’ve heard it humorously said that Eutychus was just trying to avoid greeting time at church 😂😂 But I digress...)
However, He gave us His book so that we could study it. Whenever someone was raised from the dead in scripture, it happened at the time of the asking. Yeshua waited four days to visit the bereaved family of Lazarus, but the moment He called Lazurus forth from the grave, the resurrection happened. Elijah stretched himself out over the widow’s son three times, and then promptly the young man came back to life. When Eutychus fell out of the three-story window and died in Acts 20, he was brought back to life immediately. (I’ve heard it humorously said that Eutychus was just trying to avoid greeting time at church 😂😂 But I digress...)
The only place in scripture I have seen the pleading, frantic dancing, foot-stomping, on-and-on demanding of a miracle was the prophets of Baal in the showdown with Elijah.
Let me be clear; I am NOT claiming that the people of Bethel were worshiping Baal. I believe their faith in the One True God is real. We Christians need to be careful about writing off folks whose doctrinal understanding is different from our own. It is not our theology or doctrine that saves us; it is faith and trust in the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua, the Lamb of God/Son of God on the cross that redeems us unto eternal life.
But I believe that staying rooted and grounded in the Word of God is absolutely essential. And not only that, but it is also important to rely on the whole counsel of scripture and not simply rely on proof texts: out-of-context verses that seem to prove our point.
Here is an example. John 14:12 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
That is a verse I heard quoted quite a few times this past week, and I had heard it quoted in charismatic circles so often that I had already studied the verse for myself. In my spirit, I was disturbed by the idea that anything we could do would be greater than the One that spoke the universe into existence, and then gave His own life as an offering of redemption for all of humanity.
The keyword here is the English word greater (megas in Greek). It can be defined as farther-reaching in scope. Yeshua never left the Middle East while on earth, but His followers have taken the good news ALL OVER THE WORLD – therefore having a much greater scope. To imagine the word greater meant that we would perform bigger and better works than those done by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is mind boggling to me.
The verse wraps up with Yeshua saying because I am going to the Father, which to me clearly demonstrates the meaning of greater as being more far-reaching. These Israeli believers were commissioned by the Messiah take the good news to the rest of the planet. Today, this job is nearly complete. I wonder if those early believers ever imagined it would take 2000 years?
Meanwhile, may baby Olive and my baby grandson rest in peace until Yeshua returns and resurrects us to immortal life. And I pray that Christians will base their faith on our Messiah and His word, and not to let the actions or doctrines of other Christians sway them away from that faith.
