Should Anything Make a Christian Doubt?

Let’s put that question another way.  Should anything be able to make you conclude that Christianity is false?  Because really, that’s what is happening when you begin to doubt your faith.  Whether it’s the sudden tragic death of a loved one, a philosophical question you can’t answer, or a scientific idea that seems to contradict the bible.  All these things, and a lot more like them, can seem like flaming arrows aimed right at the heart of our faith.  They can make us ask, “Does this make my faith worthless?  Does this mean that my faith is just a pie in the sky sort of wishing and doesn't relate to anything in the real world?  Should I abandon it?

As with all our other questions, the answer is found in God’s word.  First, God shows us that even the best men and women of the faith had times when they struggled with doubt.  So if you run into something that makes you doubt, relax, you aren't alone.  

Then we look at the disciples.  Near the end of Jesus’ ministry their faith seemed rock solid.  They KNEW He was the Messiah.  They KNEW He was God the Son.  Then He got strung up on a cross and executed.  Their faith vanished like mist on a hot day.  They were totally disillusioned.  How could they have been so stupid as to fall for that!  They felt like fools.  And NOTHING could have changed their minds.  Just look at the bitterness you can see in Thomas’ words in John 20:25 when other disciples tried to tell him Jesus had risen from the dead.  Thomas didn’t leap at the chance to believe again.  He’d been down that road, been burned, and he wasn’t walking down it again.  He said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."  What he was saying is that he’d have to have irrefutable, absolute proof.

And that’s what Jesus gave him.  Jesus came to him and said, “Reach you finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side.”  Thomas, this person who would never believe again, fell at Jesus’ feet and cried out, “My Lord and my God!”

 Should anything make us question the validity of our faith?  Actually God tells us the answer in 1st Corinthians 15:13-19.  In this passage the apostle Paul says,

“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.  Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up; if in fact the dead do not rise.  For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

You see, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we should doubt.  Our faith is vain and we shouldn’t believe it.  But if Jesus did rise from the dead, then like Thomas, we have no further reason to doubt because Jesus has proven Himself God the Son.  Why be worried about that question a scientist raised?  Scientists have proven themselves wrong countless times.  And Jesus is God.  Who are you going to believe?  Perhaps a Christian leader you loved has fallen into sin, or worse, proven their own faith false.  That doesn’t affect Christ’s rising from the dead.  He still sits on His thrown.  Perhaps a loved one has died tragically and senselessly.  Jesus has still risen and thus we know He will raise up those who trust in Him.

Those arrows will still be there.  But Ephesians 6:16 tells us to take up “the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”  Faith in what?  Well our faith certainly isn’t a vain hoping.  Our faith is in the facts.  It’s based on what God has done.  As Christians our faith is founded on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And if He is risen, is God the Son, you’d be kind of silly not to take His word about all the rest too.  So when you struggle with doubts, remember doubting Thomas, remember what changed his heart.  The only thing that ought to make a Christian doubt is if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, and more than a few atheists, seeking to prove the resurrection false, have wound up believing in Christ.  For He is risen, He is risen indeed.

For further study check out “Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel or “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus” by Gary R. Habermas