It is not surprising that Christians have doubts. After all we are being asked to believe in some things that we cannot see (e.g. God and heaven), other things that do not normally happen (e.g. a virgin birth and people being raised from the dead) and we are presented with ideas that we may struggle to hold together (e.g. a loving God who is all-powerful and a world in which people endure dreadful suffering). Doubt is a very common problem amongst Christians. Practically all Christians suffer from doubts at some stage in their walk of faith.
This doubt can be very distressing. After all Christianity is not merely the holding of some vague opinions or a pastime, the Christian faith is a way of life. When a Christian experiences doubt it can feel like their world is falling apart—the very thing by which they shape their existence is being undermined. This distress may be heightened if we feel guilty for having doubts and do not want to share our questions for fear that we will create a stumbling-block for our fellow believers or that we will be judged by other Christians.
While doubt is very common it can also be very complex. That is why we are going to begin by looking at the roots of doubt.
1. Understanding to roots of doubt:
When Thomas stubbornly refuses to accept the evidence for Christ’s resurrection he finds himself rebuked by Jesus who tells him to, ‘Stop doubting and believe’ (John 20:27). James criticises those who doubt as they pray, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind (James 1:6)—the Bible consistently calls for a child-like trust in God when we pray, we are to realise that the God of the universe can respond to our requests. Addressing a church where some of the members are genuinely confused by the activity of false-teachers and the fact that some have left the church under their influence Jude counsels, ‘be merciful to those who doubt' (Jude 22).
Do you see that there are different attitudes to different doubters? That is because the roots of doubt vary from person to person.
This doubt can be very distressing. After all Christianity is not merely the holding of some vague opinions or a pastime, the Christian faith is a way of life. When a Christian experiences doubt it can feel like their world is falling apart—the very thing by which they shape their existence is being undermined. This distress may be heightened if we feel guilty for having doubts and do not want to share our questions for fear that we will create a stumbling-block for our fellow believers or that we will be judged by other Christians.
While doubt is very common it can also be very complex. That is why we are going to begin by looking at the roots of doubt.
1. Understanding to roots of doubt:
When Thomas stubbornly refuses to accept the evidence for Christ’s resurrection he finds himself rebuked by Jesus who tells him to, ‘Stop doubting and believe’ (John 20:27). James criticises those who doubt as they pray, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind (James 1:6)—the Bible consistently calls for a child-like trust in God when we pray, we are to realise that the God of the universe can respond to our requests. Addressing a church where some of the members are genuinely confused by the activity of false-teachers and the fact that some have left the church under their influence Jude counsels, ‘be merciful to those who doubt' (Jude 22).
Do you see that there are different attitudes to different doubters? That is because the roots of doubt vary from person to person.
Maybe you have come into contact with the living God but you don’t want to face the implications his reality has for your life, so you hide behind your questions. Jesus would say to you, ‘Stop doubting, and believe.’
Maybe God has shown his faithfulness to you time and again in the past but you are refusing to trust him in this latest crisis. You need to stop doubting and trust God as you pray.
But perhaps an antagonistic person in work has been challenging your beliefs. It might be that there are some questions that genuinely trouble you. You are not using these questions to keep God and his challenges at bay. You would genuinely like your doubt to disappear. Jude would counsel the rest of us concerning you, “Be merciful to those who doubt.”
Sometimes a person’s doubts are a symptom of a deeper spiritual problem. A young woman may ask ‘how can we be sure that the Bible is true?’ but behind her scepticism there is the unhappiness of living in an overly-strict Christian home. A young man may tell us that he believes Science and Christianity are incompatible but after further discussion he reveals that he is sleeping with his girlfriend. An elderly man may claim that he no longer believes God exists but behind his doubts there is anger that God did not answer his prayers and heal his terminally ill wife. A businesswoman may feel that her faith no longer makes sense but actually her real trouble is that she is over-worked and stressed.
In helping people deal with their doubts we need to listen carefully to what is going on in that person’s life. The best solution to some of our doubts may be to get some needed rest—and then we will see our questions in a better focus. We may be helped by someone praying with us and sharing God’s compassion so that we are reminded that God can be trusted—even when life does not make sense. It may even be that we need to stop neglecting our faith—our doubts could be a symptom of prayerlessness or disobedience, the Bible sees a link between how a person behaves and what they believe (2 Tim. 2:25).
2. Understanding the reason for faith:
In a letter to the Irish Times a Mr. Michael McGuire of Donegal wrote: ‘Science is based on reason logic and proof. Religion is not. There is nothing wrong with this. Religion is not based on proof.’ I would say that many people agree with his understanding of religious faith. They think that faith is pretty groundless, a sort of blind leap in the dark. Such faith would ask us to take our brains out and would not be able to stand up to rational argument. We would always be prone to intellectual doubts.
But we could go too far the other direction. We could imagine that faith is built entirely on finding the answers to our questions. Let’s be honest most of us did not become Christians simply because people proved to us it was true. We certainly believed it was true but we didn’t have all the answers to show why. Indeed there are many questions we still can’t answer but we still believe.
I would want to say to Mr. Michael McGuire that Christian faith and reason are not enemies. I would want to show him some of the proofs for Christianity—like the fact that the followers of a crucified Messiah were willing to be persecuted for their claim that he had risen from the dead and that we have their written testimony to the resurrection. But these facts alone won’t bring someone to faith. What is needed is the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
When we looked at 1 John we saw that the apostle talks about the fact that he and the other apostles witnessed the events surrounding Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (1 John 1:1-3) and he points to the internal witness of the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:6). There is the external evidence and the internal witness. John says that the internal witness is the more important of these (1 John 5:9). One writer concludes that John ‘asserts that the knowledge inspired by the Holy Spirit is even more certain than the testimony of the apostles themselves.’
This is how one preacher describes coming to faith:
Before we move on to our final point I want to mention something about mystery. The Bible is not embarrassed by the fact that not all things have been revealed to us. For the moment we see but a poor reflection (1 Cor. 13:12, see also Deut. 29:29). Sometimes we have to say ‘only God knows’ but that is not the same as declaring ‘it makes no sense.’ Regarding mysteries Os Guinness writes:
We are on shaky ground when we speculate too much on those things that are in the realm of mystery. In his wisdom God has chosen not to give us answers to some questions. Indeed our speculations may cause the doubter more harm than good.
So for example if someone asks ‘why did this tragedy happen in my life?’ we need to be careful how we respond. We might recall a verse like Lamentations 3:33 which tells us that God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men—we can be sure that God is not capricious or flippant with regards to human suffering. But we also should not go so far as to explain why this tragedy happened to them. There is an element of mystery. God has not revealed all the answers to us on this. That is not the same as saying that there is no answer but we are simply admitting that the God who knows all things has not revealed it.
3. Feeding faith and crushing doubt
I want to finish by giving three ways in which we can encourage the crushing of doubt and the building of faith.
a. A Listening Community
Poor Job! His friends were so unhelpful. They gave him lousy advice and they did not listen to him. He replies to his friend Zophar saying, “If you want to offer comfort, then listen to me” (Job 21:2 CEV). Job’s words could be echoed by many doubters. We need to listen well if we are going to help doubters work through their struggles.
We are not simply to listen to the questions that are been presented to us, we are also to listen to the nature of the person as well. ‘Is this person anxious by temperament, so that every question raised about faith grows out of proportion?’ ‘Has this person experienced some traumatic events in life that make it hard for them to trust God?’ ‘Does this person want an excuse to walk away from the challenges that the Christian life is presenting them with?’
We should not underestimate the value of simply giving a listening ear. Neither should we think that we need to have all the answers before we can help those struggling with doubts. It may be that simply being able to express the anxieties caused by doubts, and perhaps to know that they are not on their own in their struggles, is enough to bring relief to the doubter.
The challenge to listen well ought to be taken up by the whole church fellowship. Churches need to become honest places where people no longer pretend that they are above such things as doubts. The fellowship needs to encourage an atmosphere where people are willing to be open with each other and where people can be convinced that people care.
b. An Inquiring Mind
While faith is not based on reason alone it nevertheless does not see reason as an enemy. The Christian should not be scared of investigating truth and should not discourage an inquiring mind. Nevertheless because of the imperfect nature of human knowledge, and sometimes the biases of those doing the inquiring, it should not surprise us that some people’s investigations will lead them to conclusions that they say argue against the faith.
When presented with a difficult question the Christian should not panic. They should see that there is nothing new in the questions that they are facing. Other Christians have faced these very same questions before and not seen the need to abandon faith. If they are willing to spend some time reading and studying they may see how Christian scholars have responded and may come to grow in their confidence in the reasonableness of faith. This may help them later on later occasions as they ‘give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have’ (1 Peter 3:15).
This is not to suggest that our Christian lives are to be consumed with finding answers to questions that we might be thinking through. We need to learn to carry on living out our faith even when we don’t have all the answers. William Lane Craig gives the following advice:
Any thinking Christian will have a “question bag” filled with unresolved difficulties he must learn to live with. But from time to time, as you have the opportunity, it’s good to take the bag down from the shelf, select one of the questions, and go to work on answering it. Indeed, I can say that working hard on an unresolved question and pursuing it until you finally find an answer that satisfies you intellectually is one of the most exhilarating experiences of the Christian life. To resolves a doubt that has troubled you for some time brings a wonderful sense of intellectual peace and inspires confidence that there are solutions to the remaining difficulties in your question bag.
c. A Dependant Heart
Perhaps all of us, at times, identify with the father who comes to Jesus about his son and ends up exclaiming, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief’ (Mark 9:24b). Here is a man who can confess that he does have some faith but also acknowledges his spiritual weakness and appeals to Jesus to create in him a heart that believes more firmly. The Christian knows that belief is not simply an intellectual matter but is ultimately a gift from God. At times we can meet people who could many answers to questions that are raised about the faith but are nevertheless plagued with doubts. The best advice for such a person may simply be to cultivate their spiritual walk.
Faith makes most sense when it is being put into action. Faith is a relationship with the living God that is strengthened as we talk with him in prayer. It is a walk in which we experience been led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18). Not only do we understand God better as we study his word but this is a message which is at work within those who believe (1 Thess. 2:14). The Christian also needs the support of a church. The local church is a gift given by God to believers; it is a community in which God’s dwell in a special way (Eph. 2:19-22); it is be a fellowship in which we build one another up and encourage one another. If a Christian is stagnant in their walk, lazy about their devotions and neglectful of meeting with others then their faith will always be vulnerable to doubts!
Maybe God has shown his faithfulness to you time and again in the past but you are refusing to trust him in this latest crisis. You need to stop doubting and trust God as you pray.
But perhaps an antagonistic person in work has been challenging your beliefs. It might be that there are some questions that genuinely trouble you. You are not using these questions to keep God and his challenges at bay. You would genuinely like your doubt to disappear. Jude would counsel the rest of us concerning you, “Be merciful to those who doubt.”
Sometimes a person’s doubts are a symptom of a deeper spiritual problem. A young woman may ask ‘how can we be sure that the Bible is true?’ but behind her scepticism there is the unhappiness of living in an overly-strict Christian home. A young man may tell us that he believes Science and Christianity are incompatible but after further discussion he reveals that he is sleeping with his girlfriend. An elderly man may claim that he no longer believes God exists but behind his doubts there is anger that God did not answer his prayers and heal his terminally ill wife. A businesswoman may feel that her faith no longer makes sense but actually her real trouble is that she is over-worked and stressed.
In helping people deal with their doubts we need to listen carefully to what is going on in that person’s life. The best solution to some of our doubts may be to get some needed rest—and then we will see our questions in a better focus. We may be helped by someone praying with us and sharing God’s compassion so that we are reminded that God can be trusted—even when life does not make sense. It may even be that we need to stop neglecting our faith—our doubts could be a symptom of prayerlessness or disobedience, the Bible sees a link between how a person behaves and what they believe (2 Tim. 2:25).
2. Understanding the reason for faith:
In a letter to the Irish Times a Mr. Michael McGuire of Donegal wrote: ‘Science is based on reason logic and proof. Religion is not. There is nothing wrong with this. Religion is not based on proof.’ I would say that many people agree with his understanding of religious faith. They think that faith is pretty groundless, a sort of blind leap in the dark. Such faith would ask us to take our brains out and would not be able to stand up to rational argument. We would always be prone to intellectual doubts.
But we could go too far the other direction. We could imagine that faith is built entirely on finding the answers to our questions. Let’s be honest most of us did not become Christians simply because people proved to us it was true. We certainly believed it was true but we didn’t have all the answers to show why. Indeed there are many questions we still can’t answer but we still believe.
I would want to say to Mr. Michael McGuire that Christian faith and reason are not enemies. I would want to show him some of the proofs for Christianity—like the fact that the followers of a crucified Messiah were willing to be persecuted for their claim that he had risen from the dead and that we have their written testimony to the resurrection. But these facts alone won’t bring someone to faith. What is needed is the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
When we looked at 1 John we saw that the apostle talks about the fact that he and the other apostles witnessed the events surrounding Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (1 John 1:1-3) and he points to the internal witness of the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:6). There is the external evidence and the internal witness. John says that the internal witness is the more important of these (1 John 5:9). One writer concludes that John ‘asserts that the knowledge inspired by the Holy Spirit is even more certain than the testimony of the apostles themselves.’
This is how one preacher describes coming to faith:
“[Faith] isn’t a conclusion reached at the end of chain of deductive reasoning or scientific evidence. It’s not that I struggle to convince myself to believe things that are highly dubious. Rather I surrender to things which by divine illumination I now inwardly perceive to be glaringly self evident…Faith isn’t like wrestling with a geometric theory until we arrive at the end and say ‘there I have worked it, there’s the proof!’ Faith is more like having cataracts removed from your eyes. When we joyfully declare, ‘I can see things now that I couldn’t see before.’ Faith is an experience of divine revelation. It is hearing God’s testimony in your heart and surrendering
to it.”
Before we move on to our final point I want to mention something about mystery. The Bible is not embarrassed by the fact that not all things have been revealed to us. For the moment we see but a poor reflection (1 Cor. 13:12, see also Deut. 29:29). Sometimes we have to say ‘only God knows’ but that is not the same as declaring ‘it makes no sense.’ Regarding mysteries Os Guinness writes:
… rationality is the alternative to absurdity, but it has no quarrel with mystery. Mystery is beyond human reason, but is not against reason. It is a mystery only to man and not to God. Where God has spoken and spoken clearly, rationality comes into its own; where God has not spoken, or for his own reasons not spoken clearly, there is the area of mystery. An area of mystery is rational to God, but faith must suspend judgement and not press human reason to answer questions when it has insufficient information.
We are on shaky ground when we speculate too much on those things that are in the realm of mystery. In his wisdom God has chosen not to give us answers to some questions. Indeed our speculations may cause the doubter more harm than good.
So for example if someone asks ‘why did this tragedy happen in my life?’ we need to be careful how we respond. We might recall a verse like Lamentations 3:33 which tells us that God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men—we can be sure that God is not capricious or flippant with regards to human suffering. But we also should not go so far as to explain why this tragedy happened to them. There is an element of mystery. God has not revealed all the answers to us on this. That is not the same as saying that there is no answer but we are simply admitting that the God who knows all things has not revealed it.
3. Feeding faith and crushing doubt
I want to finish by giving three ways in which we can encourage the crushing of doubt and the building of faith.
a. A Listening Community
Poor Job! His friends were so unhelpful. They gave him lousy advice and they did not listen to him. He replies to his friend Zophar saying, “If you want to offer comfort, then listen to me” (Job 21:2 CEV). Job’s words could be echoed by many doubters. We need to listen well if we are going to help doubters work through their struggles.
We are not simply to listen to the questions that are been presented to us, we are also to listen to the nature of the person as well. ‘Is this person anxious by temperament, so that every question raised about faith grows out of proportion?’ ‘Has this person experienced some traumatic events in life that make it hard for them to trust God?’ ‘Does this person want an excuse to walk away from the challenges that the Christian life is presenting them with?’
We should not underestimate the value of simply giving a listening ear. Neither should we think that we need to have all the answers before we can help those struggling with doubts. It may be that simply being able to express the anxieties caused by doubts, and perhaps to know that they are not on their own in their struggles, is enough to bring relief to the doubter.
The challenge to listen well ought to be taken up by the whole church fellowship. Churches need to become honest places where people no longer pretend that they are above such things as doubts. The fellowship needs to encourage an atmosphere where people are willing to be open with each other and where people can be convinced that people care.
b. An Inquiring Mind
While faith is not based on reason alone it nevertheless does not see reason as an enemy. The Christian should not be scared of investigating truth and should not discourage an inquiring mind. Nevertheless because of the imperfect nature of human knowledge, and sometimes the biases of those doing the inquiring, it should not surprise us that some people’s investigations will lead them to conclusions that they say argue against the faith.
When presented with a difficult question the Christian should not panic. They should see that there is nothing new in the questions that they are facing. Other Christians have faced these very same questions before and not seen the need to abandon faith. If they are willing to spend some time reading and studying they may see how Christian scholars have responded and may come to grow in their confidence in the reasonableness of faith. This may help them later on later occasions as they ‘give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have’ (1 Peter 3:15).
This is not to suggest that our Christian lives are to be consumed with finding answers to questions that we might be thinking through. We need to learn to carry on living out our faith even when we don’t have all the answers. William Lane Craig gives the following advice:
Any thinking Christian will have a “question bag” filled with unresolved difficulties he must learn to live with. But from time to time, as you have the opportunity, it’s good to take the bag down from the shelf, select one of the questions, and go to work on answering it. Indeed, I can say that working hard on an unresolved question and pursuing it until you finally find an answer that satisfies you intellectually is one of the most exhilarating experiences of the Christian life. To resolves a doubt that has troubled you for some time brings a wonderful sense of intellectual peace and inspires confidence that there are solutions to the remaining difficulties in your question bag.
c. A Dependant Heart
Perhaps all of us, at times, identify with the father who comes to Jesus about his son and ends up exclaiming, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief’ (Mark 9:24b). Here is a man who can confess that he does have some faith but also acknowledges his spiritual weakness and appeals to Jesus to create in him a heart that believes more firmly. The Christian knows that belief is not simply an intellectual matter but is ultimately a gift from God. At times we can meet people who could many answers to questions that are raised about the faith but are nevertheless plagued with doubts. The best advice for such a person may simply be to cultivate their spiritual walk.
Faith makes most sense when it is being put into action. Faith is a relationship with the living God that is strengthened as we talk with him in prayer. It is a walk in which we experience been led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18). Not only do we understand God better as we study his word but this is a message which is at work within those who believe (1 Thess. 2:14). The Christian also needs the support of a church. The local church is a gift given by God to believers; it is a community in which God’s dwell in a special way (Eph. 2:19-22); it is be a fellowship in which we build one another up and encourage one another. If a Christian is stagnant in their walk, lazy about their devotions and neglectful of meeting with others then their faith will always be vulnerable to doubts!
2 comments:
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