Chalcedon Blog

Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:22-24

The entire Word of Faith movement is founded upon this text. By now, most have heard stories of the extreme applications of these passages by Charismatics laying claim to new cars, homes, and other trivial material gains. This is a stereotype that I believe has done serious injury to the Biblical idea of faith, and the end result has been the avoidance of these Scriptures in order to dodge the slander of being labeled "name it an claim it."

Added to this is an odd contrivance regarding our status before God. We don't want to be found guilty of "presumption" when it comes to our prayers and petitions. Again, the bracketing of our prayers with "God willing" may indicate an unfounded caution that actually debases the glorious position we have acquired in and through Christ Jesus. The suggestion that "ye shall have whatsoever ye say," chimes as too insolent, and the idea that whatever we desire when praying will be received, sounds audacious and unrealistic. There's simply no way the text can mean what it suggests.

Having two extremes when interpreting Mark 11:22-24 has left us with no applicable understanding of these glorious words of Christ. Were they merely isolated passages, they could be dismissed as textual anomalies by scholars, as has been suggested about Mark 16:14-18. But other Scriptures reveal equally pronounced provocations to faith that we are hemmed in by a steady encouragement of the Holy Spirit to believe for the impossible:

If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:24

The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Luke 18:27

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. Matt. 17:20

Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. Matt. 8:13

Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. Matt. 9:22

According to your faith be it unto you. Matt. 9:29

The idea of moving mountains--an obviously "impossible" feat--was a well understood hyperbole in the first century. This notion of operating in a faith that wrought great and overwhelming demonstrations was the basic paradigm that showed the limitless possibilities to be found in God. The apostle Paul referenced this noteworthy concept of faith in his discussion about the necessity of charity as the primary motive behind any quest for the power of God:

[A]nd though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. I Cor. 13:2b

Later, in the book of Revelation, mountains begin to move as the judgments of God are enacted by the angelic host:

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Rev. 6:15

But contemporary "faith" advocates typically reference Mark 11:22-24 in terms of personal needs or desires where the "moving of mountains" becomes a metaphor for financial setback, relational difficulties, or serious illnesses. The basic question becomes, can we personalize such faith encouraging texts? Calvin's exposition of Mark 11 appears to advocate a general principle of faith, but qualifies the interpretation as he perceives the text to bear explicit restraints on abuse:

This passage shows also that the true test of faith lies in prayer. If it be objected, that those prayers are never heard, that mountains should be thrown into the sea, the answer is easy. Christ does not give a loose rein to the wishes of men, that they should desire any thing at their pleasure, when he places prayer after the rule of faith; for in this way the Spirit must of necessity hold all our affections by the bridle of the word of God, and bring them into obedience. Christ demands a firm and undoubting confidence of obtaining an answer; and whence does the human mind obtain that confidence but from the word of God? We now see then that Christ promises nothing to his disciples, unless they keep themselves within the limits of the good pleasure of God.[1]

Our affections are "bridled by the word of God," and thereby brought "into obedience." Calvin argues that "Christ promises nothing to his disciples, unless they keep themselves within the limits of the good pleasure of God," i.e., you cannot have faith for sinful pursuits.

Faith in itself is powerless. It is faith in the desires revealed by God's Word that must be the coveted objective; that faith is the belief to which God is most responsive. Calvin held to the idea that faith only becomes presumptuous when it is NOT accompanied by prayer; and fervent godly prayer cannot accompany selfish desires:

But as faith, if we have any, breaks out immediately into prayer, and penetrates into the treasures of the grace of God, which are held out to us in the word, in order to enjoy them, so Christ adds prayer to faith; for if he had only said that we shall have whatever we wish, some would have thought that faith was presumptuous or too careless.[2]

We cannot have what we wish. But we also cannot produce the God-kind of faith for a mere wish or sinful desire. The desperation of fervent prayer (James 5:16) is another way of saying the "prayer of faith":

And the prayer of faith will save the sick... (James 5:15)

We have lost this strong sense of faith in our praying. However, the absence of such believing prayer is really a mingling of faith and doubt--a doubt that the Scriptures warn will undermine faith:

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. James 1:6-7

But many of those today who doubt are not like those who genuinely struggle with believing God's promises. They are not akin to the humility and inadequacy that plagued some of those who were challenged by Christ in their faith:

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:23-24

Too much of the contemporary doubt springs from a misinformed religiosity that tends to discourage notions of bold faith, though this is not stated so baldly. The simple downplaying of faith texts, and the avoidance of encouraging great faith, results in an anemic Christian body that are strong in terms of their doctrinal system, but weak in terms of their demonstrative power. During the Reformation, the Papists viewed Calvin and his Protestants with disdain for daring to hold fast to God's promised care:

Hence we perceive by what a diabolical contrivance the Papists are bewitched, who mingle faith and doubt, and even charge us with foolish presumption, if we venture to appear before God under the conviction of His fatherly regard toward us.[3]

We know that "without faith, it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6), and that "[T]he just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:38). The lesson of faith must be learned by God's people, and since faith is the primary means of exchange, God may allow the hedges to come down (Job 1:10) in order to spurn us to an unshakable confidence in His benevolence:

But for the saints the occasion that best stimulates them to call upon God is when, distressed by their own need, they are troubled by the greatest unrest, and are almost driven out of their senses, until faith opportunely comes to their relief.[4]

I'd prefer to simply trust the promises of God, and build myself up on my most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost (Jude 20), rather than receive my faith education via the ancient school of hard knocks. It was certainly more than precise doctrine that sustained the Reformation; the great faith of men like Calvin, who took Christ at His Word, was the same ingredient that fueled the first century explosion of the Christian religion.

What this means for us--living 2,000 years beyond the book of Hebrews--is that the great cloud of witnesses is also populated with Reformers and Puritans who together present a corporate exemplar that will either convict us of living in a shameful state of doubt, or provide us an abiding inspiration to match their example.

1. John Calvin: Calvin's Commentaries: Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. III (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), 19f.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. John Calvin: The Institutes of the Christian Religion in Two Volumes, Trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1960), 3.20.2.