Last month I published two posts on evidence. In Where’s The Evidence? I wrote;
“The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved. That does not mean, however, that there is no evidence of God’s existence.
None of these arguments can persuade anyone who refuses to acknowledge what is already obvious. In the end, God’s existence must be accepted by faith (Hebrews 11:6). Faith in God is not a blind leap into the dark; it is safe step into a well-lit room where the vast majority of people are already standing.
I ended the post with this;
People claim to reject God’s existence because it is “not scientific” or “because there is no proof.” The true reason is that once they admit that there is a God, they also must realize that they are responsible to God and in need of forgiveness from Him
Romans 3:23 (NLT)23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Romans 6:23 (NLT)23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
If God exists, then we are accountable to Him for our actions. If God does not exist, then we can do whatever we want without having to worry about God judging us. That is why many of those who deny the existence of God cling strongly to the theory of naturalistic evolution—it gives them an alternative to believing in a Creator God. God exists and ultimately everyone knows that He exists. The very fact that some attempt so aggressively to disprove His existence is in fact an argument for His existence.
Then I published The Result of Ignoring The Evidence. I that post I wrote that the end result of ignoring the evidence and refusing to believe that God does exist is to live eternity outside His presence, in other words in the place that believers, and many non-believers (for reasons other than those of believers) call hell.
“The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved. That does not mean, however, that there is no evidence of God’s existence.
- The Bible states, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4).
- since the universe displays such an amazing design, there must have been a divine Designer.
- Every effect must have a cause. This universe and everything in it is an effect. There must be something that caused everything to come into existence. Ultimately, there must be something “un-caused” in order to cause everything else to come into existence. That “un-caused” cause is God.
- Every culture throughout history has had some form of law. Everyone has a sense of right and wrong. Murder, lying, stealing, and immorality are almost universally rejected. Where did this sense of right and wrong come from if not from a holy God?
- As Christians, we know God exists because we speak to Him every day. We do not audibly hear Him speaking to us, but we sense His presence, we feel His leading, we know His love, we desire His grace. Things have occurred in our lives that have no possible explanation other than God. God has so miraculously saved us and changed our lives that we cannot help but acknowledge and praise His existence.
None of these arguments can persuade anyone who refuses to acknowledge what is already obvious. In the end, God’s existence must be accepted by faith (Hebrews 11:6). Faith in God is not a blind leap into the dark; it is safe step into a well-lit room where the vast majority of people are already standing.
I ended the post with this;
People claim to reject God’s existence because it is “not scientific” or “because there is no proof.” The true reason is that once they admit that there is a God, they also must realize that they are responsible to God and in need of forgiveness from Him
Romans 3:23 (NLT)23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Romans 6:23 (NLT)23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
If God exists, then we are accountable to Him for our actions. If God does not exist, then we can do whatever we want without having to worry about God judging us. That is why many of those who deny the existence of God cling strongly to the theory of naturalistic evolution—it gives them an alternative to believing in a Creator God. God exists and ultimately everyone knows that He exists. The very fact that some attempt so aggressively to disprove His existence is in fact an argument for His existence.
Then I published The Result of Ignoring The Evidence. I that post I wrote that the end result of ignoring the evidence and refusing to believe that God does exist is to live eternity outside His presence, in other words in the place that believers, and many non-believers (for reasons other than those of believers) call hell.
Having said what I did in those posts I realized that many, if not most of us, yes this includes me, have had doubts. When we doubt we may feel that we have let God down. Sometimes we even start to question our salvation. However doubts can be healthy sometimes because they cause us to do some investigation. We begin to look at what first caused us to believe. Was it because our parents told us that if we didn’t believe we would go to hell? Was it because somebody told us that believing in Jesus was the key to health and prosperity and then we got sick and lost our job? Was it because our friends were Christians and we wanted to be a part of the crowd then one of them hurt us? When you doubt first thing to do is to admit and confess your doubt. It’s okay.
Why It’s Okay to Have Spiritual Doubts
By Stephanie Hertzenberg on belieftnet.com
Uncertainty can actually be the key to growth.Experiencing spiritual doubts can be frightening. Severe spiritual doubts can lead you to question absolutely everything you ever knew, and they can leave you feeling lost in a world that feels increasingly unfriendly. After all, if you suddenly doubt that God exists, then what is the point of anything? If there is no afterlife, what are you living for? Why do your actions matter? Why do morals matter? While they are less likely to leave you spiraling in confusion and fear, even mild spiritual doubts are uncomfortable.
Spiritual doubts are uncomfortable because they force you to question things that you have always been taught are not meant to be questioned. Faith is meant to be just that–taken on faith. So suddenly wanting to know why, what, how or when can leave you feeling like you are overstepping yourself. You are a mere mortal, a mere human. Who are you to question God? In addition to feeling like you are pitting yourself against God, spiritual doubts can also make you feel like you are turning your back on your family or friends. They are not, after all, suffering from spiritual doubts. They are perfectly comfortable in their faith, like you should be. So, how can you continue to relate to them or their devout faith?
As much as you may feel like an outsider or feel guilty for having spiritual doubts, there is actually nothing wrong with experiencing periods of doubt. Spiritual doubts do not mean that you are leaving your faith behind. Instead, they are a way for you to deepen and strengthen your faith. Without spiritual doubts you would be unlikely to truly question anything about your faith. You might ask small questions, but you would likely be satisfied with platitudes or simple, surface answers. People do not normally push for a serious answer unless there is an actual question. “I wonder” or “I’m curious” do not always have the necessary power to push you to truly investigate what you believe. “What if I’m wrong,” however, can give a person an enormous push to prove themselves right. “What if there is no God,” then, becomes the means by which a person proves to themselves, and possibly to others, that there most certainly is a God. The person who doubted, then, becomes a deeper believer and has managed to assemble evidence in such a way to potentially be able to help others who are doubting see that there is a God.
The sort of investigation that spiritual doubts create may also cause you to uncover areas of your faith that you had never heard of before. In an effort to dispel one doubt you may find something else that requires your attention. This new detail, then, can become the focus of later investigation. For example, you may have questions about whether watching pornography is or is not a sin. As you are digging through the Bible looking for verses that could help you answer your questions, you might stumble across another verse that interests or confuses you, a reference to the Pharisees, perhaps. You wonder who the Pharisees were in Biblical times and why they were so antagonistic. Once you have dealt with the pornography question, you return to your curiosity about the Pharisees. You dig deeper into the history of Jerusalem during the Roman period and learn about the different traditions that competed for followers. In doing so, you gain a better understanding of the context that Jesus was preaching in. This context then lets you find deeper meaning in other verses or clarify something else that may have confused you in the past.
Spiritual doubts also help you truly come to own your faith. If you never doubt or never question, you will never truly understand why you believe what you believe. You will just be believing what you were told without ever truly asking yourself why these beliefs matter. The doubts you face do not have to be large. Small doubts about minor doctrinal details can spur you on to do deeper investigation. It is the answers you find during this investigation that let you really come to own your faith.
Uncomfortable as they are, spiritual doubts also give you the ability to defend your faith from others. If you have never really questioned your own faith, you will never be able to completely defend it. When someone questions why you believe what you believe, you will not have good answers for them. Your answers and defenses will seem surface and trite to the person asking the questions. They will feel that you are following blindly and that you never so much as bothered to consider the deeper meanings or ramifications of what you believe. This may seem like a minor detail, but if you cannot even defend your own faith from questions, how can you convince anyone else to follow it? Even if you do not set out to convert people, one bad experience is enough to put someone who was considering conversion off for life. Because you did not question your faith or ever experience doubts, the person speaking to you may assume that there is no place in your faith for a person who struggles with spiritual doubts or that all believers must follow blindly. Most people do not want to join a religion with either of those reputations.
Wrestling with spiritual doubts is uncomfortable, unpleasant and can be very frightening. It can seem like both a betrayal of everything you ever believed and everything you were ever taught. Spiritual doubts are not a catastrophe regardless of how terrible they may seem at the moment. Spiritual doubts are a chance to grow in your faith and to learn about your beliefs. They are a chance to truly explore your faith so that you can come back stronger than ever and say, “I believe this and here is why.” Faith without any doubts is blind, but faith that survived doubts is like a tree that survived a hurricane. It sinks in its roots and stands tall through even the worst of storms.
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