The Works Of The Father

 

   Don K Preston's non sequitur paraphrased, "Christ came in A.D. 70, raised the dead, and judged all people, brought Heaven to earth, and Christ challenged us to believe that claim”. That’s Preston’s challenge based on Jesus statement that He lived by the "works of the Father" in John 10:37. To better understand how Preston twists and misquotes Jesus in John 10:37 into saying "Do not believe me for my words sake, believe me for my works" let’s take a better look at the works Jesus was talking about. We will also take a better look at what Jesus actually said in John 10:37 and who He said it to.

Who's works do we live by Mr. Preston? For example, when any of us, Christian or barbarian, Jew or Muslim take care of our parents who's works are we doing and living by? Are the works of the Father limited to the miracles and signs Jesus and the Apostles performed to confirm their authority?

Jesus confirmed He is the son of God the Father through signs and wonders, John 20:30-31. The works of the Father, Jesus completed before He was crucified John 17:4.

Don K Preston begins his series "Challenge of Christ" by misquoted Jesus and taking John 10:37 out of context. He refuses to read John 10:37 which states,

""“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; “but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”""

Who's works were the Jews surrounding Jesus doing? John 8:37-47 Jesus tells us. They claim to be the sons of Abraham. Jesus told them No, if you were Abraham's you would do the works of Abraham, verse 39 then in verse 44 Jesus tells them plainly who their Father is, the devil.

That entire back and forth with the Jews and Jesus and who is doing the works of God the Father and who is not leads up to John 10:37 and 38. The works of the Father was in their Law. Jesus came to fulfill the Law. 

   We read in Matthew 5:17-20. The miracles, signs, and wonders confirmed Jesus as the son of God.

But a little Bible reading and elementary study is not going to get in Preston's way to manipulate and twist the scriptures to prop up his weak doctrine. Think about it, going on the 4th year now Preston has spewed out this "Challenge of Christ" of his and to this day not ONCE has he read the verses pertaining to this doctrine he built. He misquotes Jesus purposefully and says John 10:37 says;

""Do not believe me for my words sake. Believe me for my works".""

No, Jesus did not say that. in John 10:37. Where does Jesus tell us by His works we will be judged? Where does Jesus say by His works we have our salvation? What did Paul tell them in 1st Corinthians 15 1-2?

""Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,

by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.""

The Church at Corinth we're told believed the gospel, by which they were saved. The idol worshippers in Athens, in Acts 17, who thought Paul was a babbler, Paul preached the gospel to them. And in verse 31 Paul said;

""Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.""

When he preached the resurrection some mocked and some said they would hear him again. the last verse in the chapter tells us some believed and followed Paul

""Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.""

Paul, like Jesus, did not say "Do not believe the gospel of Christ for His words sake, believe the gospel for His works." The writer didn't include miracles, signs, and wonders for those in Athens. He preached the gospel of Christ, and the resurrection. Yet Don K Preston needs you to believe the gospel message has no power without the miracles to back it up! Romans 1:16 tells us what the power of God to salvation to both Jew and Gentile is and always will be. It's not the miracles, it's the message. The message of the gospel, the new and better covenant, is the "Works of the Father" Jesus is talking about in John 10:37! Ephesians 2:10,

""For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.""

 When we actually do a quick study, and that’s really all it takes, we see then that when Jesus said He did the “works of the Father”, the Hyper Preterist doctrine was not what He had in mind at all. The Jews Jesus was talking to in John 10:37 is the audience. Not only did they witness Jesus doing the works of the Father they also witnessed Him do miracles, signs, and wonders that could only have been done by the authority of the Father. As Jesus told Philip in John 14:8 when Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus replied;

“Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”

 Those words were to Philip who was an eye witness to Jesus. When Philip witnessed Jesus fulfilling the Law as He came to do he would know the Father was in Jesus and Jesus was in the Father. Jesus could do nothing of Himself, but only by the authority of the Father could He do anything.

 And we look once again at John 20:30-31 and we see why signs and wonders were performed by Jesus so the people of His day could see and be His witnesses,

 

“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;

but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”