The Benefit of Doubt

Martin,he didn’t just feel forsaken, he asked why he was forsaken. But anyway, I hear you on doubting truths about God, I always pray that the Lord would help me doubt less and to stay in fellowship with believers to encourage me. But doubt is just a fact of life, living in denial is not going to help me. Do you really think it isd just an act of the will, one can just stop doubting something any time he wants to? I doubt it!

Michael,  I do not believe we overcome doubt “just” by an act of will, but I believe that we must “will” to respond rightly to our doubts if we are going to come out of them.  We do not respond rightly to doubt by “glorifying” perpetual skepticism as a sign of spiritual health, maturity, and intellectual integrity.  If we do that, then we will regard those who have settled convictions about the faith as spiritually immature, naïve, or idolatrous;  we will see it as a ‘sin’ of presumption to be firmly convinced of anything, or to make dogmatic assertions about anything—and that cannot be right, for the apostles were most definitely dogmatic in their proclamation of the gospel!  We need to see doubt for what it is— as J. I. Packer points out, doubt (in the case of believers) is always a manifestation of “faith infected, sick, and out of sorts.”  The right way to respond to doubt is to confess our doubt to God, and that confession may involve “pouring out” in a very emotional way our confusion, hurt and pain to God.  We see this in the book of Job and in the prophet Jeremiah, where these believers expressed their faith in God by voicing their complaints to Him. (continued)

They told Him that they felt abandoned by Him; they asked Him why He was “against” them and why He was “assaulting” them so relentlessly.  They knew that they could not hide their feelings from God, so they expressed their feelings to Him.  This was actually an expression of faith, for had they really believed God was not listening to them and did care for them, why would they have bothered to address Him?  Their complaints to God were an example of “wounded faith seeking understanding.”  Packer gives wise counsel for helping doubters to ‘come out’ of their doubting.  He writes, “How can one help doubters? First, by explaining the problem area (for doubts often arise from misunderstanding); second, by exhibiting the reasonableness of Christian belief at that point, and the grounds for embracing it (for Christian beliefs, though above reason, are not against it); third, by exploring what prompts the doubts (for doubts are never rationally compelling, and hesitations about Christianity usually have more to do with likes and dislikes, hurt feelings, and social, intellectual, and cultural snobbery than the doubters are aware).”

“St. John’s great insight is that this dark night is a special sign of God’s presence,”

How is this a great insight? You could replace “dark night” with “rainbow,” for instance, and not mean more or less. And it doesn’t explain anything and it doesn’t recommend anything.

“When God seems most absent, it may be then that he is speaking to you most clearly.”

Or it may be that God doesn’t exist. But even if you accept that the seeming absence of God could be “his” way of speaking to you clearly, doesn’t that mean that your own mind is filling in the space of “his” absence?

In encouraging doubt as a way to “deepen” faith, can’t doubt itself become an idol and lead one to apophatism? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology

Norwegian Shooter (why does that name make me nervous),

I am not challenging your right to disagree, but there seems to be a disconnect here. It does not seem that you familiar with the contemplative tradition, am i correct?

What I am describing here certainly has nothing to do with apophatism.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but I found the remarks below somewhat discouraging/judgemental.

Comments from blog:
On communion and unbelievers—wondering how unbelievers feel in the gathering when the bread and wine are distributed is certainly understandable. Yet—one must ask—if they’re unbelievers, why are they there anyway? If they find the cross to be of no use, why would a desire to eat of that Tree’s fruits be in them?

But that is a different matter than doubting the authority of Scripture, or the character of God.  There is nothing commendable about such doubting

J. I. Packer points out, doubt (in the case of believers) is always a manifestation of “faith infected, sick, and out of sorts.”  The right way to respond to doubt is to confess our doubt to God,

(for doubts are never rationally compelling, and hesitations about Christianity usually have more to do with likes and dislikes, hurt feelings, and social, intellectual, and cultural snobbery than the doubters are aware).

I understand where the comments above come from - maybe they are Biblical and I’m just misguided.  Yet, it is exactly these sentiments that led me to “hide” my doubts for so many years.  In John 13:34-35 Jesus said “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Doubters should be included in this show of love right?  This article by Enns, and books like RH Evan’s are a step in the right direction.

But what is love?  If a man is walking towards a cliff, is it loving to be nice to him and see him on his way?  Or to tackle him to the ground?

Pete, no worries, the shooting part is pure personal embarrassment.

No, I’m not familiar. Is it too complicated to get into?

I just meant taken to extreme, praising doubt leads to valuing doubt itself. But you can ignore this extreme. What about my other questions?

N.S.

It is not complicated but it is different and deep.  I asked because the questions you raised suggested you might not be familiar. That is fine, of course. I just wanted to know where we were. I’ll try to answer your questions later.

One thing to keep in mind is that no one is praising doubt. It is accepting it and being “in it” to see where God leads.

@nedbrek

This may be true in some circumstances….i.e. you can physically tackle the man walking towards a cliff, but you can’t tackle doubt out of someone…..thus the point about meeting people where they are at with Christ-like love.  I don’t think “tough love” will work for doubts.  They are often necessary steps on the way to faith for many people, and may all be part of Gods plan to develop that person’s faith.

Pete, don’t bother with the contemplative tradition. My point is that a personal God is not leading you anywhere from doubts in your head. You are leading yourself out of doubts in your head. Here is a great post expressing my view: The Liminal Space of Intentional Not-Knowing. http://celestiallands.org/wayside/?p=304 (serv.er seems to be down right now, but that is unusual.)

Still interested in answers to the first two original questions.

Norwegian Shooter:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology>>
Pete Enns:
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What’s wrong with apophatic theology? God’s essence is incomprehensible. When John Calvin & the Eastern tradition speak with a single voice on this, there must be something in it…

learningaboutdoubt, to some extent you can tackle the doubt out of someone.  If that doubt is keeping them from salvation, you can deliver the “bad news” of sin and God’s judgment.  That will prepare them for the Good News of salvation.

I’m not a big fan of telling people to “Christian up”, but when it comes to doubting God, I think that is the best medicine.

Our culture is enamored with doubt right now, this is not something we want to encourage.

To Like A Child:  You were asking for some book recommendations.  I think you might like “Reaching for the Invisible God” by Philip Yancey, which is about, how can you believe in a God you cannot see, feel or touch.  Actually, just about anything he writes is useful. (I also like “The Jesus I Never Knew.”) He is not afraid to tackle subjects other Christian writers shy away from.

This might seem obvious but if you have not read Francis Collins’ book “The Language of God” be sure to check it out.

Finally, this one was given to me as a teenager in church when I was plagued by doubt.  It’s called “Know Why You Believe” by Paul Little.  You might find it too evangelistic but it is short and easy to read and answers questions like Is Christianity Rational? Is There a God? Is Christ God? Did Christ Rise from the Dead? Is the Bible God’s Word? Are the Bible Documents Reliable? Does Archaeology Verify Scripture? Are Miracles Possible?

God bless.

Like a child writes

(for doubts are never rationally compelling, and hesitations about Christianity usually have more to do with likes and dislikes, hurt feelings, and social, intellectual, and cultural snobbery than the doubters are aware)

Sorry, but this is either remarkably condescending, or just plain silly.  Big picture, people have found faith in a wide range of conflicting religions.  Most faiths reject these other faiths as false.  This in itself should give any reasonable person pause.  Most religious texts are full or errors, and require elaborate rationalization to explain these faults away.  No one sect ends up being measurably different in morals or ethics than other religions, or non-believers.  The world is not as described by any religious text.  So far, nothing about life on earth requires a supernatural intervention or explanation.  It is not doubt that needs to be explained away, but faith.  Why, given the problem of evil, the failed promises, the missed timelines, the apparent absence of God is religion still flourishing?  To be fair, many, many pastors and church-goers have given up on faith a long time ago, and just don’t talk about it - doubt is really is not all that rare.

Greg Myers - I didn’t write that quote - I copied it from someone else’s comments on this blog and noted that I found it judgmental and insensitive to people struggling with doubt.  Sorry that it wasn’t clear.  I didn’t want to single anyone out.

Sally - thanks for the recommendations.  I have read Collins’ book (I met him once at a conference in 2002—before the book was written).  I was in grad school at the time and he was the first scientist I had met who was also a Christian (I didn’t know anyone in my university).

To Martin Rizley
I learned a lot from your comments… As a believer of more than two decades and science grad student, I like your “Theological” approach to the issue of the believer and doubt. From scripture and my personal walk with him , I see doubt as an opportunity for clarification from the Lord. When our doubt begins to question the goodness of God or the reliability of his Word. Then we are in dangerous territory. As “he that comes to Him must believe that he exists and rewards those who diligently seek him”. The truth is we cannot really tell if the earth is old or young for sure. We would have to have been there at it’s creation to know that for sure 100%. As a believer, I believe our problem is understanding the implication of the existence of God and how that relates to us. Nothing we will ever discover or know will solve our main problem “sin” and it’s effects. Only God has the answers for that. Which is Jesus the Son.

Olumuyiwa Oluwasanmi,
Thanks for your feedback.  I agree with you that we need to distinguish between types of doubt, since doubt sometimes arises from misunderstanding, and sometimes from the perception that a particular interpretation of God’s Word is calling for re-examination or modification.  In that case, we are not so much doubting the Lord’s Word or His goodness, but our own inadequate understanding.    So we should never respond to doubt by simply ignoring it; rather we should take our doubts to the Lord in prayer and ask for enlightenment concerning the particular issue that is troubling or confusing us, confident that the Lord will give “wisdom” to those who ask Him in faith (even though our knowledge in this life will always be ‘in part”).  .

All I can say is WOW. Praise the Lord!