Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?
It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were too lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.
Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.
We should note that there is more than one way to interpret doctrine, more than one way to think about the faith, and more than one way to read the Scriptures. We would not suggest that our way is the only way, or the right way; we are not Bible scholars. But we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to rightly divide the Word of God.
The apostle John records Jesus' words in Jn. 14:12, where He told His disciples that believers would do "greater things" than He. It is a controversial statement that has been the subject to much scrutiny over the centuries. Probably the major issue is that it seems to contradict cessationist doctrine. A secondary issue might be the magnitude of the statement, and also, if Jesus was speaking literally.
We recently commented upon a Grace To You article about this verse, and decided a more in depth analysis was needed. Much of that material will re-appear here.
Here's the passage:
Jn. 14:8-14 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
The Cessationist Perspective
Cessationists believe that the "supernatural" gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased at the death of the last apostle, and thus no one today can heal, prophesy, speak in tongues, or perform miracles. This necessitates conforming Jesus' statement to cessationist beliefs. Or another way of saying it is that the Bible needs to be interpreted through cessationist doctrine.
Jesus' statement is problematic. It seems to us that it directly contravenes cessationist doctrine. So, how do cessationists deal with this verse? When a cessationist encounters a problematic Bible verse, inevitably the verse must be reinterpreted, explained away, or "clarified." But so many of these reinterpretations are superficial, contradictory, or just plain dumb.
One way cessationists will attempt to explain this verse is that the post-biblical age is absent miraculous occurrences, thus the miraculous ceased in conformance with their doctrinal understanding. Therefore, they would say when Jesus referred to "greater things" he could not have been talking about us doing miracles.
However, this is an Argument From History, not an argument from the Bible. It's an argument based on what didn't happen in the past. But what if due to apostasy, bad teaching, or the infiltration of false teachers, the miraculous faded away when it shouldn't? What if it was a lack of faith? What if history is an aberration, a failure of the Church and not what the Holy Spirit intended?
A second line of argument is that the activities of contemporary charismatic churches are nothing like the NT. Their healings are fake, their prophesies are weak and flawed, their tongues are mindless jabbering, and their apostles are pretenders and self promoters.
This all might be true, but it's irrelevant. It's an Appeal To Contemporary Experience, which again is not an argument from the Bible. Even if every charismatic expression is fake, this tells us nothing about what the Bible truths are.
Any other cessationist argument would have to be via an extension of their other doctrines. That is, because they believe the miraculous ceased, that would be the basis for understanding this verse. However, if those other doctrines are also incorrect, then the application of them is similarly false.
If there is a case to be made, it must be made from the Bible. This is why cessationists appeal to history and also to contemporary experience. The Bible doesn't back them up, so they need to find other reasons to not believe.
What do cessationists think Jesus meant if He was not talking about supernatural works? Jeremiah Johnson writes,
Christ did not hand-pick His disciples merely to perform signs and wonders in His name. They were chosen to extend the good news of His sacrificial, atoning death beyond the reaches of Israel and Palestine, to the far reaches of the globe. They were preaching the completed work of Christ on behalf of sinners, spawning spiritual revival throughout the known world. In that sense, their work was greater than Christ’s, as they bore witness to the truth of His life and death, and saw firsthand the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
Mr. Johnson thinks Jesus was talking about salvation. But Jesus was already saving people during His earthly ministry. And people similarly are getting saved now. How does that make contemporary salvations to be greater than His miracles if the same thing (salvation) was happening then as it is now?
Maybe it's the number of people. Is it a matter of calculations and statistical analysis, that Jesus as one man personally effected the salvation of, say x number of people, but the Church has effected the salvation of how many billions? So the number of Christians who have ever lived divided by the number of salvations is a bigger number than Jesus' number? Is that really the "greater?"
Further, is salvation really a greater miracle than, say, healing a withered arm? If so, how does one determine such a thing, as if there was some sort of list of "miracles rated from great to least?" So a cured hangnail is only a little bit miraculous and is close to the bottom of the list, while salvation is number one "greater" miracle?
We think that representing the words of Christ in this way is clumsy and puerile.
Dr. RC Sproul has a different theory:
If you look at the record, you will see that it was the Christian church that spearheaded the abolition of slavery, the end of the Roman arena, the whole concept of education, the concept of charitable hospitals and orphanages, and a host of other humanitarian activities. I think, personally, that that's what Jesus meant when He talked about greater works.Dr. Sproul's thinks greater things = lots of good deeds. So charity, hospitals, and schools are what Jesus actually meant. Let's insert this into the verse and see how that flies:
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will build hospitals and schools. He will build lots of orphanages and will highly fund medical research, because I am going to the Father.The idiocy of this ought to be self-evident. No further comment needed.
Let's remind the reader of the passage:
Jn. 14:8-14 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Now, what is the context? Philip had just asked Jesus to show them the Father (vs. 8), and what follows is Jesus' response. Jesus made the point that the Father and He are the in each other (vs. 10), which is a claim to identity. That ought to be enough according to Jesus, but then He falls back to ...or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves (vs. 11). Paraphrasing: "Philip, if believing who I am isn't enough, how about what I have done? Is that enough to make you believe?"
His miracles form the basis of what comes next.
Jesus then says, I tell you the truth (vs. 12). The Greek is amḗn, amḗn. This word is an "emphasis marker," introduces a statement of pivotal importance... Thus Jesus heavily emphasized the importance of what is was about to say. Let's get literal:
This is of pivotal importance - the one who believes in me will do the works I do.
Jesus highly emphasized the works we would do. It's important, Jesus said. Crucial to understand. Pay close attention: Anyone who believes will do these things.
Interestingly, this first sentence of verse 12 is more problematic for cessationists than the second sentence. We have seen in the first sentence that Jesus flat-out says that believers will do what He does, i.e., miracles. Now we have arrived at the subject of our article, and here Jesus doubles down: He will do even greater things than these... So not only will the ones who believe do the works He did, they will do even greater ones. Two things, the things He did, and also even greater things.
Jesus did not just preach the Gospel, He healed and calmed storms. He didn't just take on the Pharisees, He fed 5000 and cast demons into pigs. If Jesus says that the ones who believe will do the things he did, it does not mean they will do the things he did, except the miraculous things.
It gets even worse for cessationists when we consider the word "greater." We should not assume that we understand the words used, or that they are the common English meanings.
Let's define "greater."
The word is megas, which means, big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application). The word does not mean "superior" or "better." It means expansively large. Therefore, He was not telling them that we would do more excellent miracles than He did. Jesus was telling his disciples that anyone who believes will do what He does in greater magnitude. They will do what He has done, and also bigger.
Conclusion
David L. Cooper, in his book, The God of Israel, provides a principle of Bible interpretation:
When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, and literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, clearly indicate otherwise.
So if Jesus said we would do the works He has done, and even greater ones, we take Him at His word in its plain and ordinary sense.
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