Doubt

[SLIDE 1]Introduction to Taboo

Seven things the Church Needs to Talk About (BUT DOESN’T) - Subject to change

Doubt

Mental Health

Abuse

Politics

The Body

Sex

Racism

[SLIDE 2]The Problem With Doubt

Love it and hate it at the same time

History of Doubt

Courtroom/Jury

The rule for determining guilt/innocence: proof beyond reasonable doubt.

Why? there is always uncertainty in any case.

Where the rule came from. At its origins the rule was not intended to protect the accused. Convicting an innocent defendant was regarded, in the older Christian tradition, as a potential mortal sin. It was originally a theological doctrine intended to reassure jurors that they could convict the defendant without risking their own salvation and going to hell.

Historically

to fear, be afraid, question, hesitate, waver in opinion.

doubt in History can increase knowledge by bringing the knowledge closer to the truth.

Natural Science

Doubt leads to more research, which means that it also leads to new findings. The uncertain feeling towards some existing theories leads the scientist to do research about it. It can’t, however, stand on its own.

The establishment of this modern periodic table was also due to the development of quantum mechanics theories by other scientist. Therefore, doubt in Natural Science trigger the scientist to carry out many researches in order to make progress in expanding the knowledge. Like anything , too much of it and you get stuck; nothing new can be learned.

In Law:

Plenty of Accounts in the Bible

Genesis, David, Prophets, Disciples...

Unbelievable!

Society

Benefit of the doubt: the state of accepting something/someone as honest or deserving of trust even though there are doubts He might be lying, but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept what he says for now.

Suspension of commitment to belief or disbelief because the evidence is not convincing (Thomas).

The Church

Plenty of Accounts in the Bible

Genesis, David, Prophets, Disciples...

I (Brad) remember as a child in the ‘80s seeing vivid images of starving kids in Africa on television. Grotesque, overwhelming images.

I can actually recall sitting in my brother’s bedroom watching Ethiopian famine vaulted to a little television screen in central Kentucky, and feeling completely helpless to do anything about it. I also remember wondering why God didn’t just fix it. Why God didn’t pour out rain over Africa or make some kind of manna appear to end the famine. Why God couldn’t figure out how to make suffering stop.

Why God?

Those two words have punctuated the beginning of a faith crisis for more than a few believers through the ages —especially when marked with big questions about the world or about personal circumstances for which easy answers simply don’t come.

Unfortunately, many of us have experienced periods of questioning that were met with silence, trite fix-it Bible quotations, or a well-meaning “Just have faith” from those around us. In short, our questions and doubts were pushed underground and either blocked out or left to grow like cancer until they overtook our faith.

Some of us may come from traditions or training that suggest that doubt is troubling or even sinful.

Jesus didn’t do that and we’re going to take a look at why he didn’t and what he did instead.

The Purpose of Doubt

Luke 24:36–49 ESV

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Not the only account of doubt in the bible…plenty of them. Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin.

Luke

Unbelievable!

Unbelievable!

Encountering the risen Jesus was an unbelievable experience. Thought he was a ghost (not the first time by the way - in the boat).

New Information doesn’t fit current understanding…have to juggle it, try to make it fit because we don’t do well when life doesn’t make sense.

Natural reaction to the supernatural

[SLIDE 3]How Jesus Approaches Doubt

Peace to You

1 Peace to you

Wasn’t concerned about doubt leading to them walking away

Wasn’t concerned it would cause others to fall away

Didn’t

His concern was that their understanding of reality had just been turned upside down by this new experience and he saw/knew it

2 Dig Deep: Why are you troubled and doubting?

How Jesus

What he’s asking...

NT - Why are you without resource; why are you at a loss; in suspense?

What Jesus is not asking:

Why don’t you believe (doubt is not disbelief)

Why are you skeptical

Why are you ambivalent (conflicting feelings)

Why are you indecisive (lacking commitment)

Why are you sinning?

Jesus, knowing what would go through the human heart/mind in a nanosecond asked them not as a judge but to draw them out: why are you conflicted in your hearts (at what you see and are experiencing)?

Jesus brought calm and reassurance through his questions. Brings their doubts into the open and deals with them.

3 See, Touch, Eat

I’ll show you. Even here, Jesus was discipling his disciples. Guiding them in growing in their understanding of the ways of the Kingdom.

Command to focus, understand by touching, experiencing

Touch - to touch him would show them he wasn't a ghost.

41-43 - Seemed too good to be true. They disbelieved for joy - a rhetorical expression of their amazement.

Final display: eating fish.

Equip and Send

Remember (What I said)

Remember (What I said)

Jesus equipped them

44 - ‘These happenings, specifically the resurrection, represent the outworking of the things I taught you.’

‘These happenings, specifically the resurrection, represent the outworking of the things I taught you.’

Go Tell

Herald

What the readers would have understood (Greek culture)

Strong voice. Call/invite, keep the peace, announce. Don’t exaggerate - pass on the message just as it was given to them.

Religious Significance - Diplomatic missions. Speak without fear or favor. Even in war, go to the enemy camp to open up negotiations for peace. Also go to an enemy capital and declare war.

Lead in prayer, ask God to bless cities/people, make treaties.

Letting go,

Forgiveness of sins - Letting go,

send off - release, hurl, to let be, pardon;

in private hands; pardon, liberty; obligation removed in a relationship.

Metanoia - repentance. Change of mind, heart that results in a new life direction.

Reversal of a decision.

Forgiveness of sins - release, hurl, to let be, pardon;

It’s the message of those who have experienced Christ and clothed with the Spirit’s power.

Strong voice. Call/invite, keep the peace, announce. Don’t exaggerate - pass on the message just as it was given to them.

Religious Significance - Diplomatic missions. Speak without fear or favor. Even in war, go to the enemy camp to open up negotiations for peace. Also go to an enemy capital and declare war.

Lead in prayer, ask God to bless cities/people, make treaties.

47-48 -

On this occasion Jesus went beyond showing how prophecy was fulfilled in his passion and resurrection. It was also fulfilled in the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins.

The gospel is to be preached to all nations and the witness to Christ is to be made by those clothed with power from God (the Spirit). Both are to be performed by people who at this point of time were in Jerusalem. That was where their witness would begin and that was where the evangelization of the nations would begin.

Welcoming Doubt

Why does it seem there are fewer people to be sharing and receiving this message?

One reason: How we think about and handle doubt.

Fuller Youth Institute Study

Seventy percent of the students in our study of youth group graduates reported that they had doubts in high school about what they believed about God and the Christian faith, and just as many felt like they wanted to talk with their youth leaders about their doubts. Yet less than half of those students actually talked with leaders. Likewise, less than half talked with their youth group peers about their doubts.

So if you do the math here (and at FYI we can’t resist), that means that seven of every ten students is struggling with doubts—but only one or two of those ten is likely to have had conversations about those doubts with youth leaders or friends during high school.

When we asked our students in college to reflect back on the doubts they remembered having during high school, their responses tended to cluster around four central questions:

1. Does God exist?

2. Does God love me?

3. Am I living the life God wants?

4. Is Christianity true/the only way to God?

Doubt does not imply a belief in a contrary position; it is simply being unconvinced.

This research means a lot of kids are wrestling with their major questions and doubts alone and in silence.

[SLIDE 4] Discipling Doubt

James Marcia - how our faith identity is formed.

Diffusion - Not sure what I believe and don’t think about it; not interested

Foreclosure - Inherited opinions never questioned; weak, immature faith

Moratorium - challenge what they’ve inherited; express doubts and uncertainties

Achievement - Faith is explored and commitment made

Doubt is fertile ground for spiritual formation and necessary for seeking truth.

Doubt is thus an integral part of each person’s belief system, since it is impossible for anyone to believe or disbelieve with complete certainty all propositions of which he or she is aware. Yet in spite of the natural occurrence of doubt in human cognition, many people view doubt as a negative mindset to be avoided if at all possible. Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling.

Doubt is fertile ground for spiritual formation and necessary for seeking truth.

Jesus understood and treated doubt as normal; a state of heart/mind that was a transition phase (not permanent), not the end of faith.

Doubt is fertile ground for spiritual formation and necessary for seeking truth.

Shows up in all of us when the place we are in our walk with Jesus isn't yet ready for new understanding or some hard life experiences.

When we are afraid of doubt, we build defenses to stop it at all costs (like cults that discourage reexamination of beliefs). Cf: Identity formation process.

Fertile ground doesn’t grow what isn’t planted in it

Interestingly, experiences of loneliness, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed seem to push students toward God. These feelings were reported as strengthening faith, and when we analyzed them alongside measures of faith, we found strong correlations.

Simply having doubts doesn’t transfer into more mature faith. For many students, struggling with faith can in fact lead to weakened faith, at least in the short term.

High school seniors who feel most free to express doubt and discuss their personal problems with adults show greater faith maturity in college.

High school seniors who feel most free to express doubt and discuss their personal problems with adults show greater faith maturity in college.

When students feel safe to share doubts and struggles with peers and adults, they also feel more supported by God.

When students feel safe to share doubts and struggles with peers and adults, they also feel more supported by God.

Doubts aren’t necessarily the end of faith

On the other side of struggle, we asked students about various events and the extent to which they strengthened or weakened faith. 4 (#fn-4-a)

On the other side of struggle, we asked students about various events and the extent to which they strengthened or weakened faith. 4 (#fn-4-a) Interestingly, experiences of loneliness, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed seem to push students toward God. These feelings were reported as strengthening faith, and when we analyzed them alongside measures of faith, we found strong correlations.

Doubt is thus an integral part of each person’s belief system, since it is impossible for anyone to believe or disbelieve with complete certainty all propositions of which he or she is aware. Yet in spite of the natural occurrence of doubt in human cognition, many people view doubt as a negative mindset to be avoided if at all possible. Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling.

Doubt is necessary for seeking truth. Helps us better organize our beliefs.

NOT JUST TRUE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, ALSO TRUE FOR ADULTS

Abnormal doubt focuses on things that don't matter.

New learning, life experiences forces us to rework our faith

He had a lot to say about unbelief because it was a fixed decision that went along with a hard heart.

Unexpressed doubt is toxic to faith

Our Call: Welcome Probing Questions Like Jesus

How doubt is resolved into belief or unbelief:

1. Conversion

2. liberalization

3. Renewal

4. Emotional growth

In her classic study on crisis and faith, Margaret Hall discovered that those who showed the most spiritual depth after experiencing crises were those who had consciously reoriented their faith in order to overcome the crisis. In other words, they were attentive to the ways their faith must change so they could climb out of the pit of despair.

Our personal fear of doubt which leads to immature faith (foreclosure)

Willingness to ask their probing questions

Bring Peace - Don’t be afraid of doubt. Understand that one person's doubt is not a threat to someone else's faith.

Learn to lament

Invite - Create a safe place for people to express and work through doubt

Equip

Understand that one person's doubt is not a threat to someone else's faith.

Give Responsibility

Here’s a working definition of faith for me.

Create a safe place for people to express and work through doubt

Faith is willing to risk, or bank, all on the belief of the unseen world. Faith is not based on physical evidence, rather a conviction that I am willing to stake my life on.

Understand that one person's doubt is not a threat to someone else's faith.

I can’t prove my faith in quantifiable means. But I can say that the claims that Jesus made, the evidence for a resurrection, and the encounters I’ve had with God lead me to put my faith in him. Do I have doubts? You bet I do. But I’m willing to stake my life, to risk everything on the conviction on the reality of the unseen. Jeff Curtis, Pastor

Christian identity begins in Genesis with wrestling. Means one who wrestles with God. Act of wrestling is expression of profound love and commitment. Don't quit. Only wrestle with and for what matters.

Unexpressed doubt is toxic to young person’s faith.

Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin.