"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." - James 1:5-8 |
Guest Post by Daniel Rankin
Stupidity>Understanding
"Doubting Thomas was a fool", that sums up much of my opinion of the disciple Thomas circa eighth grade. I was always at a loss to explain how a man who had traveled with Jesus, who had witnessed countless miracles, could so easily disregard the possibility of his return from the dead. I mean, he did raise Lazarus from the dead right? Didn't he feed five thousand people with the equivalent of a schoolboy's lunch? It would seem to me that anyone who didn't want to accept the possibility of Jesus returning was blind, stupid or both.
Doubt>Stupidity
As I start exploring the events leading up to Jesus' return from the dead it seems more and more cruel to label Thomas as some sort of faithless fool for us to unload our self-righteous "I told you so" onto. But, moreover he becomes our template for those around us who would commit that absolutely unforgivable sin of having even the smallest second thoughts about our faith. However, for now, let's look at Thomas' situation. Thomas was one of Jesus' twelve (now eleven) disciples and probably one of the eleven most terrified men in all of the known world at that point. The romans had just crucified Jesus by giving into the demands of the pharisees and that persecution was beginning to spread to the rest of the church. He was afraid and paranoid and if I was in his position I would be too.
John 20:19-23 NIV
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Before any of the events surrounding doubting Thomas' encounter with Jesus the disciples (without Thomas) had already had a run in with the resurrected Jesus. The disciples had personal testimony of meeting Jesus when they finally saw Thomas again but even that wasn't good enough for him.
John 20:24-25 NIV
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus ), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now remember, look at his situation! Thomas has got the cultural and spiritual leaders of the Jews rallying to put his head on spit alongside the other ten disciples and no doubt a group of very perplexed romans who would rather quelch this uprising within the Jewish community then actually figure out what's really going on. So, c'mon, why wouldn't Thomas be paranoid? But fortunately for him that fear was crushed when Jesus made an entrance more glorious than Elton John playing ride of the Valkyries while flying a unicorn into the sun.
John 20:26-28 NIV
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Belief>Doubt
When Thomas placed his hand into the hole in Jesus' side and saw his pierced hands and feet his doubt gave way. Thomas disregarded it in favor of something more real, in favor of an encounter with the real Jesus. This experience is universal in all of Christianity, the abolition of our doubt due to the divine intervention of our savior in our personal lives. No matter when or where people tell me they had this experience there is only one thing that remains constant, they had it.
Misunderstanding>Belief
No matter what any believer may have been through personally there has always been this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that occurs when I learn of someone's doubt's that drives me insane "why can't they see you the way I do?". Seriously!? The God you proclaim to love and has changed your life is now the thing that you're beginning to reconsider!? Sadly this is the attitude that many of our questioning believers face in the church. We would rather talk away their doubt or just assume that they're foolish than actually be there for them, and this is a problem that really needs to be fixed.
Understanding>Misunderstanding
It pains me that no matter what pinnacle of theological or philosophical understanding we reach regarding our knowledge of God we ignore the glaringly obvious question that starts the actual process of doubt, "why do we believe?". When we begin to ignore the core of our faith everything else withers away like a tree whose roots have died. We meet the prospect of doubt in the church with arguments not to believe otherwise when we should truly answer the questions of doubt with why we should bother to believe in the first place.
Allow me to illustrate this, doubt is like a cancer to your faith so let's treat our faith like a cancer patient. A cancerous tumor has been discovered but it's operable and removable with little to no risk to your person. But, one thing we must realize is that the cancer itself is not actually the sickness but a symptom of damaged cell growth which is why even if all of the tumors are killed off or removed then the sickness may not have even been cured so the patient goes into remission, not technically cured but not showing any symptoms either. The same is applicable when we try to cut away doubt. Now, I'm not trying to discount the value of apologetics or philosophical arguments for why not to abandon the faith, just like with cancer patients in remission the cancer (or doubt) may never come back and that's great. However, we cannot continue managing symptoms and saying that we're really solving the problem. If we are to truly do away with doubt we have to fix the root problem.
Do you know how cancers form in the body? They are the result of cells with damaged DNA reproducing out of control, this leads to masses of cells where they shouldn't be, interfering with the body's natural processes. This is how doubt affects our faith, once we become lacking in one area of our faith doubt gets a foothold and doesn't stop spreading until its snuffed out our faith completely. Here's the funny part though, we actually need doubt to have faith. Unlike cancer, doubt is a natural part of faith just like fear is a part of courage, one cannot exist without the other. If we didn't have doubt then we would send our bank account information to every single Nigerian prince who ever emailed us or assume that everyone on craigslist is just a genuinely good human being. So if doubt is a part of faith why do we not talk about it? Or just try to talk it away when necessary? Just like courage is the disregard of fear for a greater cause so is faith the disregard of doubt for a greater cause. But when we talk about our doubts we should talk about them as we do our fears, something that needs to be addressed and dealt with. Most importantly when approached by someone we must try to handle it as Jesus did, or would given the situation. We must be completely humble, bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:2) and not allow ourselves to become divided over petty arguments (Titus 3:9), and when they come to you, consider that maybe they don't need to hear why they should stick around the church a little longer. Maybe they need to be reminded of why they are there in the first place.
John 20:29 NIV
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/2435782058/">torbakhopper HE DEAD</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>
"Doubting Thomas was a fool", that sums up much of my opinion of the disciple Thomas circa eighth grade. I was always at a loss to explain how a man who had traveled with Jesus, who had witnessed countless miracles, could so easily disregard the possibility of his return from the dead. I mean, he did raise Lazarus from the dead right? Didn't he feed five thousand people with the equivalent of a schoolboy's lunch? It would seem to me that anyone who didn't want to accept the possibility of Jesus returning was blind, stupid or both.
Doubt>Stupidity
As I start exploring the events leading up to Jesus' return from the dead it seems more and more cruel to label Thomas as some sort of faithless fool for us to unload our self-righteous "I told you so" onto. But, moreover he becomes our template for those around us who would commit that absolutely unforgivable sin of having even the smallest second thoughts about our faith. However, for now, let's look at Thomas' situation. Thomas was one of Jesus' twelve (now eleven) disciples and probably one of the eleven most terrified men in all of the known world at that point. The romans had just crucified Jesus by giving into the demands of the pharisees and that persecution was beginning to spread to the rest of the church. He was afraid and paranoid and if I was in his position I would be too.
John 20:19-23 NIV
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Before any of the events surrounding doubting Thomas' encounter with Jesus the disciples (without Thomas) had already had a run in with the resurrected Jesus. The disciples had personal testimony of meeting Jesus when they finally saw Thomas again but even that wasn't good enough for him.
John 20:24-25 NIV
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus ), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now remember, look at his situation! Thomas has got the cultural and spiritual leaders of the Jews rallying to put his head on spit alongside the other ten disciples and no doubt a group of very perplexed romans who would rather quelch this uprising within the Jewish community then actually figure out what's really going on. So, c'mon, why wouldn't Thomas be paranoid? But fortunately for him that fear was crushed when Jesus made an entrance more glorious than Elton John playing ride of the Valkyries while flying a unicorn into the sun.
John 20:26-28 NIV
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Belief>Doubt
When Thomas placed his hand into the hole in Jesus' side and saw his pierced hands and feet his doubt gave way. Thomas disregarded it in favor of something more real, in favor of an encounter with the real Jesus. This experience is universal in all of Christianity, the abolition of our doubt due to the divine intervention of our savior in our personal lives. No matter when or where people tell me they had this experience there is only one thing that remains constant, they had it.
Misunderstanding>Belief
No matter what any believer may have been through personally there has always been this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that occurs when I learn of someone's doubt's that drives me insane "why can't they see you the way I do?". Seriously!? The God you proclaim to love and has changed your life is now the thing that you're beginning to reconsider!? Sadly this is the attitude that many of our questioning believers face in the church. We would rather talk away their doubt or just assume that they're foolish than actually be there for them, and this is a problem that really needs to be fixed.
Understanding>Misunderstanding
It pains me that no matter what pinnacle of theological or philosophical understanding we reach regarding our knowledge of God we ignore the glaringly obvious question that starts the actual process of doubt, "why do we believe?". When we begin to ignore the core of our faith everything else withers away like a tree whose roots have died. We meet the prospect of doubt in the church with arguments not to believe otherwise when we should truly answer the questions of doubt with why we should bother to believe in the first place.
Allow me to illustrate this, doubt is like a cancer to your faith so let's treat our faith like a cancer patient. A cancerous tumor has been discovered but it's operable and removable with little to no risk to your person. But, one thing we must realize is that the cancer itself is not actually the sickness but a symptom of damaged cell growth which is why even if all of the tumors are killed off or removed then the sickness may not have even been cured so the patient goes into remission, not technically cured but not showing any symptoms either. The same is applicable when we try to cut away doubt. Now, I'm not trying to discount the value of apologetics or philosophical arguments for why not to abandon the faith, just like with cancer patients in remission the cancer (or doubt) may never come back and that's great. However, we cannot continue managing symptoms and saying that we're really solving the problem. If we are to truly do away with doubt we have to fix the root problem.
Do you know how cancers form in the body? They are the result of cells with damaged DNA reproducing out of control, this leads to masses of cells where they shouldn't be, interfering with the body's natural processes. This is how doubt affects our faith, once we become lacking in one area of our faith doubt gets a foothold and doesn't stop spreading until its snuffed out our faith completely. Here's the funny part though, we actually need doubt to have faith. Unlike cancer, doubt is a natural part of faith just like fear is a part of courage, one cannot exist without the other. If we didn't have doubt then we would send our bank account information to every single Nigerian prince who ever emailed us or assume that everyone on craigslist is just a genuinely good human being. So if doubt is a part of faith why do we not talk about it? Or just try to talk it away when necessary? Just like courage is the disregard of fear for a greater cause so is faith the disregard of doubt for a greater cause. But when we talk about our doubts we should talk about them as we do our fears, something that needs to be addressed and dealt with. Most importantly when approached by someone we must try to handle it as Jesus did, or would given the situation. We must be completely humble, bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:2) and not allow ourselves to become divided over petty arguments (Titus 3:9), and when they come to you, consider that maybe they don't need to hear why they should stick around the church a little longer. Maybe they need to be reminded of why they are there in the first place.
John 20:29 NIV
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/2435782058/">torbakhopper HE DEAD</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>