Chapter 1

The Promises of Jesus the Christ: 

Fantasy, Insanity, Irrelevant or True?

Jesus made many promises, most of which went unfulfilled by his followers during his mortal ministry and, in spite of the vast numbers of Christians, remain unfulfilled today.

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.

And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

Jesus made many outrageous and seemingly impossible promises.  For example, he said,

“Your fathers did eat manna in the desert: and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven: that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.”

“And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst have righteousness, for they shall be filled”

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

And, the greatest promise of all,

“ 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.”

I have always been fascinated by the mustard seed and its relationship to faith. 

“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.”

It is obvious that Jesus spoke about the faith of the mustard seed more than once as he also referred to such faith removing a sycamore tree by the roots and planting it in the sea.  Mountain or sycamore tree, it doesn’t matter, as they both must be moved by some mysterious power.

Some of the explanations for why we were unable to move a mountain, by simply commanding it to, are as follows:

1.     The mustard seed is very tiny but it is capable of growing into a very large tree.  If we plant the mustard seed, tend it, cultivate it and don’t give up, it might sprout and grow into a small sapling.  It would take several lifetimes to see it grow into a fully mature tree.  So, don’t worry about it.  You will not have the faith necessary to command a mountain to move by the power of your word.  Jesus has that kind of power, but we, who are very weak in our faith, can never know such a miracle.  However, be of good cheer, we can still enjoy some small miracles proportionate to the size of the sapling.  But, literally moving a mountain by the power of your word, no, that is not possible in this life.

2.     The mustard seed is very small.  But with that small seed, we can hatch an idea and then act on that idea.  Through the miracle of the human brain, we can invent technology and with that technology, with patience and persistence, we can move mountains just like Jesus said.  A good example is the Panama Canal one of the greatest earth moving feats in history.  The cubic yards of dirt that was moved could have moved several large mountains.  We have examples of great damns, mines, tunnels, etc. all of which started with a small idea like a mustard seed, and moved mountains.  Yes, the mustard seed is man’s ability to create technology, engineer heavy equipment and move mountains.

3.     Jesus was just speaking in parables.  It wasn’t literal.  He was referring to the mountains of life.  We have many insurmountable obstacles in our life, disease, injuries, natural disasters, wars, crime, divorce, death of loved ones, financial losses…all of which create mountains to overcome.  Through the faith of a mustard seed, we can learn to be painstakingly patient, learn to be grateful for these setbacks and we can move personal mountains out of the way by having a positive and cheerful attitude, no matter how difficult or long it may take.  But moving Mt. Everest, Mt. McKinley, Mt. Nebo, Mount of Olives, instantaneously, no, that is not what he meant.  That simply doesn’t happen in a sane society in touch with reality.

Was Jesus insane or did he mean one of the three (3) explanations above which are more sane and realistic?  Was he talking about using man-made technology to move mountains?  Did he require that people die of malaria in the jungles of Panama or suffer occupational injuries or spend billions of dollars over many years of persistence?  Did he mean that we might be able to chip away at the mountains of debt, disabilities, depression and other setbacks of life and do so over a lifetime as “moving mountains”.  What did he really mean and how does it really apply to us in our reality gripping, technologically advanced society?

We don’t have any “mountain moving” examples in the New Testament.  Of course, we do have astounding miracles of healing the sick and afflicted, multiplying the loaves and fishes, walking on water but no moving of mountains.

We do have examples from the Old Testament that rival the instantaneous moving of a mountain.   We have Joshua who caused the sun to stand still, we have Elijah who caused the fire to consume the sacrificial offerings of the priests, we have the miracles of Moses including the parting of the Red Sea, we have the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo who were cast into the fiery furnace and saved.  Even these miracles seem to be fairy tales and are so far removed from our reality of Monday Night Football, of CSI, of Harry Potter, of Tiger Woods, of LaBron James that, if we are honest, the miracles of the bible are not applicable to our everyday life.  Besides, who needs to remove mountains through faith as we have the greatest military machines in the history of the world with a combined nuclear destructive power that could eliminate several mountains. 

We assume that removing a mountain, means to destroy it, to dig it up, break it up and redistribute it.  But re-move means to move it, intact, from point A to point B.  Our nuclear weapons can’t do that.  With Jesus’ miracles, nothing is destroyed.   They are moved out of their place but not destroyed.  They are increased and multiplied, but never destroyed.   The wicked are not destroyed by the miracles of Jesus.  He allows the wicked to destroy themselves.  He does not do the destroying.  He delivers, which is related to the word deliberate or to set free, rescue, save.  

In another source that I consider to be divine scripture, it was recorded that,

For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith.

I propose that Jesus was referring to the literal moving of mountains, instantaneously from point A to point B.  He was not insane and had not lost touch with reality.  Even more fantastic, he was telling us to do the mountain moving!  Why would we want to move a physical mountain?  Some possible reasons may include to open up a passage way of escape, to provide protection from enemies, to seek natural resources and other reasons that may be necessary.   I also propose that such thing rarely happens and that it is not part of our world of reality, because nobody possesses even a mustard seed of faith.  The mustard seed of faith is not found among most people but it is hidden in plain sight.  The mustard seed of faith is the key.  It is not necessary to wait several lifetimes for that seed to grow into a large tree.  Jesus never said that a mustard tree was necessary to move mountains.  The mustard seed is all that is necessary, just as Jesus said.  If the miracle is not happening, it is not because Jesus gave us a false promise, it is because we have not found the mustard seed.

The mustard tree is important, for it is the ultimate fruit of the faith of a mustard seed.  The mustard tree comes about as “success breeds success”.  As we experience miracle after miracle, the seed begins to grow into a tree.  A tree that provides rest and shade and place for the birds (angels) to abide.  It is the tree of life.  But, the mustard seed is all that is needed to move a mountain.

The promises of Jesus are great, as wide as eternity.  He has said, “nothing is impossible”, more outrageous talk that does not seem to apply to us.  But, if it doesn’t apply to us, to whom does it apply: future generations, past generations from the Old Testament?  Those who have died and left this world and gone on into the heavenly eternities, will they get to see a mountain removed from there and placed over here?

We shall see how the First and Great commandment is the gateway to the fulfillment of all of Jesus’ promises in this life, not after we die.  We shall see how Jesus does not exaggerate or embellish. We shall see how we can have power over all enemies.  We shall see that nothing is impossible to us.  His promises are real and achievable, only requiring the faith of a mustard seed and the ability to swallow a gnat.