actually you are describing what the bible calls "Faith." Faith and belief are not the same..
I understand the difference between belief and faith. The point I am making is that you can believe in God like a child believes in Santa Claus but still have no faith in God.
They also "Believe" in real characters as well.
Of course children believe in real characters as well. So do adults. The point is that real people are visible and tangible. Imaginary ones are merely a figment of the imagination and invisible in reality.
In what way does God tell you so ?
If you are "listening" to your false God in the first place telling you that he is real, you have no proof at all. You are merely believing the word of an invisible being and imaginary friend. What proof do you have that he is telling you the Truth ?
John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
7 (I)If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you (J)know Him, and have (K)seen Him.
8 (L)Philip *said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. 9 Jesus *said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? (M)He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, Show us the Father? 10 Do you not believe that (N)I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? (O)The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.11 Believe Me that (P)I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise (Q)believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and (R)greater works than these he will do; because (S)I go to the Father. 13 (T)Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that (U)the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything (V)in My name, I will do it.
Just so we have a contextual base to proceed with.
Then lets proceed with it. Do you know Jesus ? Do you believe in him ? Do you have faith in him ? Have you physically seen him? If you have never physically seen or met Jesus, how can you claim to know him ?
Do you do the works that Jesus does also ? Do you do greater works ? Does he grant you anything you ask in his name ? Has he ever not granted you something you asked for in his name ?
Look at verse 8 and tell me in whom Christ was directly speaking..
Clearly He was not speaking to the whole of the body of believers, (As it did not exist) so again to whom was He making this address, and for what reason?
If you want the whole context of the story, it begins in chapter 13. Jesus was having dinner with all the disciples. He was speaking to all the disciples at the passover. They were all asking him various questions. Verse 7 is Jesus reply to Thomas. The rest is Jesus conversation with Philip but you need to remember all the rest of the disciples except Judas were there at the time. Judas had left the party back in chapter 13:30. Whatever Jesus said to any of the disciples applied to all the disciples in principle. Do you think Jesus words do not apply to anyone who reads them today ?
No, But such works have been recorded.. Have you read the Book of Acts yet?
I have read the bible so many times I have lost count. I can read the stories about Jesus disciples doing the same as Jesus does but I do not see them happening in reality today. Do no disciples or apostles of Jesus exist on this earth today ?
Where do you find people with faith on the earth today ?
Yes
There are all around.
I see many hypocrites pretending to be Christians but I do not see any
real Christians. I am talking about the kind that do the same as what Jesus does. Jesus called hypocrites hypocrites. He called a spade a spade. No Christians would dare call each other hypocrites due to it being offensive and they seem to think it is a sin to offend any other Christian or other religious people. Jesus tended to offend people. Christians seem to believe in some wishy washy invisible friend who never offends anyone. Read Matthew 23. If the Lord told anyone to speak like that to religious people, the religious would consider that person to be of the devil and ban them from any Christian forum today. I know it is true because it happens all the time. The Truth ( Jesus ) is banned from religious forums because it (He) offends the hypocrites who participate in them. Those hypocrites do not wish to repent of their hypocrisy. They prefer to make others the same kind of hypocrites as they are.
Matt 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Everytime a new brother gets baptized.
You appear to interpret the bible metaphorically. Many Christians seem to interpret it literally. Do you think that Jesus literally raised physically dead people from their literal graves or do you think all the bible stories are metaphorical and not to be taken literally ?
Many people are baptized into water and raised out of the water but they do not leave their sins or the sinner in the water. They start out as nonreligious sinners and end up as religious sinners. They are changed from non religious to religious by the modern "Pharisees" who still proselytize people into their various religions.
Hospitals.
I went to ORMC a few months ago for my father, and even though there wasn't a crowd of 5 thousand it did take 6 hours to speak to a doctor.
...and are you so foolish to think that all that goes on in those places are the result of the efforts of man?
The physicians do what they can and the body does the rest. The body tends to heal itself. It creates its own antibodies for any infections and diseases in it.
How do you know that this was ever the case?
I have been to pentecostal churches where they dragged sick people onto the platforms and tried to heal them by simply speaking to the sickness and trying to cast it out in the "Name of Jesus". The poor sick people were not healed. I even know of two of them who died and the same pentecostals who prayed for them to be healed also tried to raise them from the dead but were not successful. So much for the so called "faith" of pentecostals. It obviously does not work.
Book Chapter and verse? or are you just taking scraps of verses and creating new ones? What does it say about a person's integrity who has to do this in order to make a point? Show me where in James 2 that He speaks of the "works" Christ told Philip that he and the other Apostles would have.. Rather, what i read is:
14 (Y)What use is it,
(Z)my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can
[n]that faith save him?
15 (AA)If a brother or sister is
without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them,
(AB)Go in peace,
[o]be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for
their body, what use is that?
17 Even so
(AC)faith, if it has no works, is
[p]dead,
being by itself.
How can even the most callous heart demand that the whole of Christianity be held to a standard that no parts of the faith requires? Especially, When the parameters of the standard in Question is clearly stated.
This is a shameful act, even amist non-believers.
We are talking about Christians doing the same works that Jesus did. Why did you not include verse 18 -26 ? If you wish to quote scripture in context use the whole book not just the parts which suit your interpretation.
The point is that peoples faith is evidenced in their works. If people have faith in Jesus they ought to be doing the same as he does.
Christians in this forum do not even do the same as Jesus does when it comes to managing this forum. Read James 2 from the beginning. It tells you to not be prejudice and not be the kind of people who treat the poor any differently to the rich. In principle it says to not segregate them. I have found much segregation in Christian forums where non Christians are not allowed to enter certain places or speak to certain people or say certain things. There are "special" places for the "special" Christians who think they are so much better than any unbelievers and very few places where the unbelievers can really freely ask them questions without having their posts deleted and being despised and rejected by the so called Christians for offending them.
Jesus was never offended by anyone yet he offended many religious people. It is the religious hypocrites who tend to reject people who offend them. It is not the unbelievers of the religions who reject the religious hypocrites.
True believers who love the law of God are not offended by anything.
Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Those who get offended are therefore not people who have the peace of God or love the law of God.
6, and assisted in many others
I am not talking about baptism. I am talking about literally raising people from the dead. I am pointing out to the Christians who believe anyone can be literally raised from the dead after being dead three days, that it is impossible and has never happened in reality. It never will happen in reality. Some Christians seem to think that all physically dead people will literally come out of their literal physical graves one day. That is not true. Spiritually dead people can come out of their darkness and into the light and die daily but physically dead people remain dead for ever.
The 12 disciples are physically dead. Physically dead people cannot raise anyone from the dead including themselves.
Most Christians are as dead in their sins as the Pharisees were. Baptism does not change them from sinners to saints. They go into the water as dry sinners and come out of the water as wet sinners. The seem to believe they can continue in sin so grace may abound.
They tend to think when Jesus said "Go and sin no more" to a person that he was speaking only to that person and it does not apply to anyone else.
They seem to think it is impossible to obey Jesus command when He said "Be ye perfect as the Father is perfect."
I get the impression from them that none of them are perfect as the Father is perfect.
Can anyone be following the real Jesus, doing the same as he does, and not be as perfect as He is ?
