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DAILY GUIDE TO MIRACLES from Oral Roberts Ministries Saturday, April 15th, 2006 www.orm.cc THEY BELIEVED ANYWAY Oral Roberts Oral Roberts Ministries www.orm.cc "The women who had followed Jesus witnessed the brutal crucifixion of their Lord and Savior. They watched as His beaten body hung on the Cross, and they wept as they heard Him forgive the thief dying on the cross next to Him. They saw the guard thrust a spear into His lifeless body, and they watched as Joseph of Arimathea wrapped His body in linen and spices before it was taken to the tomb. Things had gone from bad to worse the previous week. Now it was all over. Jesus was dead and sealed in the tomb. And the women felt hopeless, devastated. Everything they had believed in and the Person they had loved the most was gone. And there was nothing they could do. Or was there? Yes! Despite the events that had occurred, the women could keep on believing. They could still go to the tomb and anoint Jesus' body. They could still give of themselves. They knew soldiers were guarding the tomb and a stone covered the entrance, but they went anyway, believing and acting on their faith. They didn't let their doubts or the circumstances stop them. God saw those women acting on their faith, and He began to move. When they reached the tomb, they saw a miracle. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus (Luke 24:2-3 NIV). They were the first to witness the Resurrection. Everything they thought they had lost was restored..and abundantly more! What about you and me today? It's the same for us. When we believe in spite of circumstances, putting our faith into action by doing something, it moves God to bring miracles into our lives." ON DOCTRINE NOTE: What Oral Roberts says in the above quote is so incredible that it is difficult to even think that he could express such a thought. In case the meaning of what he said was missed, here it is in a nutshell. Oral Roberts states that God was moved to resurrect Jesus Christ because of the faith of the women who came to the tomb that morning to anoint his dead body. "God saw those women acting on their faith, and He began to move. When they reached the tomb, they saw a miracle."That statement is so fantastic that it moves into the realm of the bizarre, because the implication is that if the women had not expressed faith, then God would not have moved and the resurrection would not have occurred until the women or someone else expressed faith at some later time. This is beyond the reality of what the Scripture states, places the accomplishment of the atonement at the mercy of human actions and is unacceptable from a man who claims revelations from God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. The reality is that the women did not witness the resurrection, they participated in the results of the resurrection. The resurrection happened prior to their arrival at the tomb, because the soldiers had already recovered from their ordeal and gone to report to the chief priests. The women found an empty tomb, not Jesus Christ in the act of being resurrected. Oral Roberts presents a confusing scenario in relation to the women, and in the process redefines belief, or rather does not define belief, and redefines faith in order to support the doctrine of "Seed Faith" which he created; also known as the "Giving and Receiving" doctrine. Oral Roberts begins his belief/faith scenario with a presumption that the women thought they could do something about the fact that Jesus Christ was dead, "Everything they had believed in and the Person they had loved the most was gone. And there was nothing they could do. Or was there?"Was there something that they could do to change the reality that Jesus was dead; to bring about a miracle? Oral Roberts asks the question and then provides his own answer, "Yes," he says, ". . . the women could keep on believing." But there is nothing in the Scripture stating that the women went to the tomb in order to change the fact that Jesus Christ was dead or that they had any thoughts whatsoever on that subject. So, what was it that the women believed that they were to continue believing? Now, the answer to this question is a little hazy. Actually, Oral Roberts provides a non-answer, because he doesn't state any definition of what they could believe, but only what they could do, which was to believe and act on their faith, "They knew soldiers were guarding the tomb and a stone covered the entrance, but they went anyway, believing and acting on their faith. They didn't let their doubts or the circumstances stop them." The women apparently believed something, and in the process acted on their faith, which brings up the second question, What was the nature of their faith? The answer to this question is a little hazy also. Well, actually he doesn't define the nature of their faith either. So, the women believed something, acted on their faith in something and didn't let circumstances stop them. Stop them from what? They only had one goal and that was to go from where they were living to the tomb where Jesus was buried. Exactly what Oral Roberts thinks would have stopped them, is not clear. They had already planned their mission on Friday evening, knowing they would be accomplishing their task on Sunday morning since they had to wait one day in between to honor the Sabbath, Luke 23:56. It was then Sunday morning and they were in the process of carrying out their mission. Oral Roberts creates a little confusion in which he throws up a fabricated scenario in order to indicate that the women were involved in a huge battle in which there were major hurdles to jump in order to accomplish their goal which involved belief and faith. But that was not the case at all. Yes, there was sadness and disappointment as a result of the fact that they did not understand that Jesus Christ would rise from the dead, or at least they did not believe that He would. The disciples should have known better, since Jesus Christ had told them, Matthew 20:19. But the statement went over the disciples' heads and the women probably never received the message. However, that was not a reason for not completing what they had already planned to do. Yes, there were soldiers, but there is no evidence in the narrative that the women knew that soldiers had been posted as a guard. In fact, the women were observing the Sabbath when the soldiers were posted, so there is no reason why they would have known about them, Matthew 27:62-65. The women never mentioned the presence of the guards when they approached the tomb, so the guards had already left and gone to make a report to the chief priests about what had happened. The women never saw any guards and were unaware that there had been any guards. Yes, there was a stone to move, but the women did not consider that difficulty until they were almost to the tomb " . . . they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?'" Mark 16:3 (NIV). They certainly did not consider the possibility that there would be Roman soldiers guarding the tomb or they would have thought that possibly they would perform the service. If there was one thing that might have caused them to turn back, it was the reality that a stone covered the entrance to the tomb, but they continued on, perhaps thinking that the gardener or caretaker would help them, Matthew 20:15. However, they expressed no indication that they had faith that the stone would be removed by the time they got there or that there would be anyone there to remove it for them after they got there. So, Oral Roberts says the women were, ". . . believing and acting on their faith," but he never defines what they believed or what was the nature of their faith. He defines what he says they did, "They could still go to the tomb and anoint Jesus's body," and "They could still give of themselves," by going to the tomb and anointing the body, and "They didn't let their doubts or the circumstances stop them." Those are the obvious actions, but the questions still remain, What did they believe and in what did they put their faith? Oral Roberts dances around those issues, because he knows they did not believe that Jesus Christ would rise from the dead and any faith in that possibility was never expressed. What does the narrative state that the women believed? 1. The women believed that they could go to the tomb and were in the process of accomplishing that task. 2. The women believed that the stone would still be blocking the door, just as they had left it on Friday. 3. They believed that they could not move the stone, and asked themselves who could help them. They did not have an answer for their own predicament. 4. They believed the dead body of Jesus would still be inside the tomb, because the purpose of the visit was to anoint the body with oil and spices. If that is what Oral Roberts claims was belief and faith sufficient to bring about the resurrection, then his claims regarding the lack of faith on the part of people who desperately wish to be healed but are not, need some very serious revision. There was no belief or faith expressed by the women pointing to a resurrection by any definition that can be presented. What Oral Roberts initially claims is that the women believed that they could do something about the fact that Jesus was dead, which could only involve a resurrection, but he never states that the women had faith in the possibility of a resurrection or that they even considered a hope for a resurrection. The faith that he claims that they had was expressed in some other direction, but still resulted in God performing a resurrection. The Scripture is clear that the women had no expectation or thought regarding a resurrection, because when they found the empty tomb they were surprised and dismayed, believing that the dead body of Jesus had been stolen by some unnamed individuals. Mary Magdalene stated the case to Peter, "So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, 'They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him,'" John 20:2 (NAS).Taking Oral Roberts' claims at face value, then it is not necessary for a person to have faith expressed toward a specific goal, but only non-specific faith expressed toward any goal, and the miracle that they do not even know they need will happen. That is a strange application of the "Seed Faith" doctrine. Oral Roberts attempts to connect the action of the women with his "Seed Faith" doctrine by stating, "When we believe in spite of circumstances, putting our faith into action by doing something, it moves God to bring miracles into our lives." What a clever word-dance he does, never defining what the women believed that would result in faith, yet claiming they believed and put their faith into action. Apparently just going to the tomb in order to grieve and honor the dead is defined as faith by Oral Roberts and that was enough to cause God to move and raise Jesus Christ from the dead. Oral Roberts redefines belief and faith to be simply an action, ". . . putting our faith into action by doing something . . ." Apparently that something can be anything, and in the case of the women, it was simply returning to the tomb with spices and oil in order to give respect to the dead. That is a strange definition of belief and an even stranger definition of faith. When teachers create their own doctrines, such as the "Seed Faith" doctrine created by Oral Roberts, they eventually push those doctrines into the world of the absurd and their followers do not discern the error. SEE: ORAL ROBERTS "Dead Faith" "Living Faith" |
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