Mountains in the Bible

Q. I know that "mountains" are symbolic of kingdoms and governments. Do you believe that a believer can have the faith to move physical mountains or the faith to overcome and "move" governments and change kingdoms?

A. The verse you are referring to is Mark 11.22-23 and so let's look at the verse to see what it is saying. One of the things that people forget when they look at a verse is context. In the context of our verse, Yeshua has come into the city of Jerusalem, overturned the money-changer tables, cursed the fig tree and has been very critical of the religious teaching of the chief priests and scribes. We know that they were more concerned with their traditions than with what the Lord was trying to say in the Scriptures. The fig tree (Israel) was not producing fruit and they were going to be sent into a worldwide captivity. When the Apostles noticed that the fig tree that Yeshua cursed had withered, they were amazed. Noticing this, Yeshua said in 11.22-23 "Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain "Be taken and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted." So let's look at this verse. Yeshua is talking about what he has been experiencing, unbelief among the Jewish people in His words and to who He was. When He says "this mountain", He is referring to the Temple Mount and all the false teachings that come from it. Mountains in the Scriptures can mean kingdoms but it can also mean "obstacles" and false teaching is an obstacle, But if you have faith in God, the obstacle of false teaching can be overcome. So, the mountain here is the Temple Mount and He was saying that the city of Jerusalem and the Temple was going to be destroyed and cast into the sea. Archeology has confirmed that artifacts/stones from Jerusalem and the Temple were taken to Caesarea and literally cast into the sea. This judgment came upon Israel because many were keeping people away from the Kingdom of God through their false teachings, illustrated by the cursing of the fig tree. Yeshua is saying that with faith in God, the falsehood of their teaching can be overcome and they can enter the Kingdom of God. Some misguided teachers today take this verse and say that if you have faith you can say something and it will happen and it is one of the basic verses used by the Faith Movement to justify their false teachings. But, it is actually a verse that is saying quite the opposite. Any obstacle that tries to get in the way of the truth can be uprooted and removed with faith in God.