Wrestling With Doubt

Oxford defines the word “doubt,” as a “feeling of uncertainty,” or to, “disbelieve or mistrust someone.” For the Christian, doubt is a serious offense; it is a faith-based four letter word, tantamount to blasphemy for any who dare to express its reality in our lives…or is it?

Is doubt really as awful as all of that? Can a saint experience doubt, and is it wrong to do so? What does the Bible say about doubt, and how does it impact our faith? Can faith exist in the presence of doubt? There are really so many questions that can be asked about this topic. To pursue answers, we shall turn our attention to the gospels.

Now there are some sects of Christendom that suggest if one doubts it is sinful. One’s faith is always strong, always at its full flush, so to speak. Doubt is weakness, and weakness in faith prompts the saint to fall from grace. This thinking is in line with the idea that some Christians feel that a strong faith will prevent illness or disease in the body; a blessed reality even Paul and his fellows did not experience while traveling for their missionary work, I might say, see 2 Timolthy 4:20, 1 Timothy 5:23, 2 Corinthians 12:7. But what comes from doubt, and can it serve any good?

We learn from Matthew’s gospel that when the disciples were gathered before the risen Savior, “they worshiped Him; but some doubted,” Matthew 28:17. It was a difficult thing to grasp for the human mind, seeing Jesus raised from the dead in newness of life. He could walk through walls, vanish out of sight, and finally ascended bodily into Heaven before their astonished eyes. In this instance, seeing WASN’T believing. But Jesus was patient with His apostles; doubt conveyed that the mind was grappling with the enormity of the truth presented, and the disciples were weighing its reality to come to a conclusion based not on emotion but evidence. Their doubt, one and all, evaporated over the course of time, leaving behind strengthened faith that led every one to the man (with the exception of John) to suffer persecution and death for the gospel. 

Luke records, “But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” Luke 24:41. Jesus knew their doubts and met them where they were at in their thinking. They were frightened and thought He was a spirit. He quelled that thinking by asking for food, going so far as eating it in their presence to demonstrate that He was flesh and bone, Luke 24:43.

The most infamous example among the apostles, of course, would be Thomas, famously referred to as Doubting Thomas. When the Lord first showed Himself to the apostles, Thomas was absent, and that was deliberate. Thomas needed a special event to quell his own doubts. One sees that God is not insecure or afraid of doubt like we are. When we hear of someone having doubts about God’s existence, purpose for us, or His gospel and its efficacy, we react with likely well meaning but exaggerated emotion, wanting to rush to the rescue and provide for this poor, feeble soul whatever faith they are lacking to shore up the gaps. But Jesus meets our needs perfectly, and He will meet them His own way. Perhaps He will meet them through a fellow believer. Perhaps He will have another agency. In Thomas’ case, the Lord came Himself and urged him to examine His wounds to verify that it was indeed the same Jesus that suffered and died on the cross, John 20:27. Thomas, seeing the wounded Christ risen from the dead, and compelling Thomas to freely examine for himself,could only reply, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:28. 

The Lord is not afraid of doubt; doubt is a natural part of our faith. I daresay that most or all of us doubt when we encounter the gospel message for the first time. The OT saints often doubted. Moses doubted his eloquence, Exodus 4:10. Jeremiah doubted his age, Jeremiah 1:6. Elijah doubted that there was another saint left in Israel, 1 Kings 19:10. Gideon and Barak doubted, testing God, Judges 4:8, 6:17, 37, 39. God patiently answered both men, leading them into a deeper faith, a faith neither man could have enjoyed without doubt being the vehicle that led them to it. God uses even doubt to strengthen our faith, because it compels a believer to critically analyze something in a way we normally may not. A loved one dies, and we suffer doubt, because death struck close and it shakes the faith we espouse. But that shaking can cause us to lose, not our faith, but a rote complacency our faith was rooted in, driving us to greater heights of nearness. Abraham did not or could not finish his journey from Ur of the Chaldees until his father passed away; neither did he lose faith when Sarah died, but he “stood up from before his dead,” Genesis 23:3. Sarah’s death did not nullify God’s faithfulness. Neither did it erase Abraham’s belief in God. No, death is even a means by which God can draw us, as those in the faith that we love pass away, and we long to see them again. It loosens our hold on this life little by little, easing us toward eternity and the Lord’s presence.

Doubt is rampant in Scripture, but it is not evil, per se. Willful doubt that leads one into hardened unbelief despite evidence is certainly sinful. Doubt can be used as a shield to hide an unwillingness to obey the gospel because we love this evil world and the pleasures in it. The writer of Hebrews understood this well, telling his readership, “we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul,” Hebrews 10:39. Doubt is not unbelief. Unbelief is the absence of faith; doubt is when one is uncertain what they believe. Unbelief prevents one from believing the gospel and receiving eternal life. Doubt leads one to critically think about whatever it is that they are grappling with, permitting God to expound upon it in His time, quelling doubt, or rather using doubt as fertile ground for faith to flourish all the more. Doubt is a valley we all walk through, without exception. But it is not the faith killer certain Christians worry it is. Honest doubt can lead to clearer understanding, and then stronger faith as clarity lends confidence. So when we see a fellow saint suffering doubt, we ought to patiently bear with them. Listen to what they are saying without passing judgment. God is a patient God, and He rears His children well. Our quickness to condemn those who doubt might just be a tacit admission of weakness in our own faith that we would rather not scrutinize when the mirror of doubt is raised up. My prayer to all who doubt is: God will reveal even this to you, whatever it is you are currently wrestling with, Philippians 3:15, 16.