Can my doubt and questions be holy?
Sometimes, doubt leads to the truest belief. When did asking questions about your faith or about God become synonymous with disbelief and dishonor?
I have questions—lots of them. Sometimes the deeper you study, the more questions you have. For some reason, the Evangelical Christian culture treats questions as the enemy, and the questioner as a dissenter.
Many people respond to doubts or questions with the command to “just believe” as if Jesus is shaken by our questions and our belief disappears if we doubt at all.
I’ve written a bit before on how to disciple a generation of deconstructors and the spiritual practice of asking questions. Still, I wanted to spend a bit more time discussing the validity of doubt and how Jesus responded to doubt as an example of how we can encourage those who believe in God but have questions.
Some of my prayers over the years sounded like this…
Hey God,
Why did you create humanity? What were you hoping to accomplish?
What’s the point of going to church? What is the church even supposed to be? It seems so messed up these days.
Why does Scripture seem so harsh and judgmental at times if you claim to be all-loving and all-powerful? If you truly are all-powerful, why even allow your children to be harmed in this world?
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why didn’t you make it more clear in your Word how we should live out certain moral circumstances so there could be less disunity today?
Doubting Thomas
One of the disciples, Thomas, procured this quite unfortunate nickname after many churches over the years have described his reaction to Jesus’ resurrection. I’ve actually grown quite fond of the name because Doubting Thomas reminds me that I’m not alone in my faith hiccups. Someone who lived and walked with Jesus and physically saw him still had doubts.
If Jesus met Thomas in his doubt and graciously offered him a path to belief that answered his concerns, imagine how Jesus would respond to those with doubts today.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Eight days later His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be to you.” Then He *said to Thomas, “Place your finger here, and see My hands; and take your hand and put it into My side; and do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you now believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” John 20:24-29 (NASB)
Thomas is not a shining example of faith. Jesus said it himself here, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” But the beauty of this story is not Thomas’s doubt and stubbornness of believing without seeing proof; the beauty in this story is how Jesus responded to Thomas’s doubt. He offered confidence to someone who, in his full humanity, was uncertain. He offered hope through showing Thomas His scars.
Jesus stepped into Thomas’s doubt and offered him truth that led Thomas to a richer faith in God.
Thomas gets the bad rap when the other disciples were quite adamant in their unbelief at first too.
And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. Now these women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe the women. Nevertheless, Peter got up and ran to the tomb; and when he stooped and looked in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.
Luke 24:8-12 (NASB)
And in John’s account of this moment… he “saw and believed” only after going to the tomb himself to see the empty linens and stone rolled away (John 20:8).
Disbelief is a choice. It’s the stubbornness that Thomas had in saying he won’t believe unless he sees. Belief is also a choice. It’s the adamant stance that something may be true even without proof.
It’s important to consider the original meaning here because it might be more accurate to call Thomas, Disbelieving Thomas than Doubting Thomas.
Doubt | diakrinō
Strong’s G1252
Doubt can be a confusing word to understand. Is it a healthy part of our faith journey or is it dangerous? Is it a sin? Is it an unhealthy temptation that leads to sin? Is it always bad? Can it be prosperous? Can our questions be holy?
This word is used in 19 passages in the New Testament and translated as “doubt” 5 times.1 It means:
to separate, make a distinction, discern
determine, give judgment, decide a dispute
to be at variance with oneself, hesitate, doubt
In John’s account of Thomas’s doubt or disbelief, the word used is not diakrinō, it’s apistos (G571) which means faithless, unbelief, incredulous.2
Doubt is often the process of working from disbelief to belief. It’s the journey of limited faithfulness, but I would argue that you have to have at least an ounce of belief to be willing to ask questions and seek answers. If you didn’t believe at all, you wouldn’t care enough to ask.
Doubt might be necessary to discern and determine what you really do believe. That results in a well-rounded faith.
Thomas believed in Jesus. The question was whether he believed in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. His doubt or more properly, his disbelief, led him into the house of the disciples and toward the potential for belief, not away from Jesus but toward Him.
What if you let your doubt lead you toward Jesus, not further away from Him?
What if we made space for others’ doubt to draw us closer to God for them and with them instead of condemning them?
Doubt is not disbelief. They are distinct words and are used distinctly throughout Scripture but our interpretations of the Scriptures have led us to tie the two together. It could be because they often do end up together—disbelief resulting because of a trail of doubts. But that doesn’t have to be the outcome of doubt. And, as you see in the study we did on disbelief, I do believe it’s possible for someone to come back from disbelief. Thomas did. Other disciples did.
What was the determining factor that led them back to belief? Jesus and community.
They surrounded themselves with like-minded believers who made space for their doubts. Thomas didn’t get kicked out of the disciples’ small group the week after he proclaimed that he couldn’t believe the resurrection unless he saw it with his own eyes. They stayed in fellowship with him, and it was a full 8 days later that his belief came full circle when Jesus appeared to him.
If there’s one set of verses that seems responsible for why Evangelical Christians have turned doubt into the enemy, I think it would be James 1:5-6.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. (NASB)
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (KJV)
I think it’s important to compare translations here because it helps us grasp what that original word, diakrinō, emphasizes in this passage. I don’t think it’s fair to say that James is claiming you can’t ask God any questions or seek answers to your doubts. He says himself to ask God for wisdom. But, like most things, the emphasis is on the posture of your heart.
Are you asking to understand God or asking to seek more control in a desire to have more knowledge than faith?
Not All Questions are Doubt, but All Believers Have Doubts
If you read through the Scriptures, you will be hard-pressed to find a believer who didn’t have doubts at some point in their faith journey. Adam and Eve doubted God’s promise when they ate the fruit, believing that what the serpent told them could be true even though it contradicted God’s words. Abraham doubted God’s promise would come true so he relented when Sarah offered a solution of their own making. The list goes on.
In Romans 4, Paul exegeted the story of Abraham’s faithfulness to the church in Rome and explained that “Yet [Abraham] did not waver(G1252) through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”3
But we know that Abraham did have a moment of doubt when he accepted his wife’s offer to impregnate Hagar instead. His concession to that is a moment of doubt in the validity of God’s promise. But we see how sturdy his faith was over time, and Paul’s defense is that Abraham never faltered in the faith—yet he doubted in a moment (and maybe more).
James emphasizes this idea of doubt as “wavering” and Paul uses that same word to defend that Abraham did NOT waver/doubt. The point James is making about doubt is: do not let your questions or concerns lead you to a place of walking a balance beam that determines your belief. This world and our human curiosities will too easily knock us off balance, but that doesn’t mean our God isn’t there to catch us still and set us on a sturdy path of faith.
If your doubt feels like a balance beam that will make or break your faith, that’s wavering.
If your doubt feels like an open meadow where there is space to wonder and study and learn, that’s the steady ground of fertile faith. I’d call that holy doubt.
Too many are concerned that all doubt is wavering faith, but just because it could lead to faithlessness doesn’t mean it always will.
I more often have questions like what I listed in my prayer above. It’s not that I don’t trust God.
I trust God so much that I know He can handle my questions, uncertainties, and concerns. I would argue your faith is bigger and stronger if you believe God won’t waver if you ask your toughest questions.
Is Doubt Acceptable to God?
The question we should be asking is not necessarily “Do believers doubt?” I think history proves that to be true. The question is whether it honors God to doubt or ask questions. We know that people of strong faith like Abraham had doubts, but we also know that not everything Abraham did honored God because he was still human and flawed.
How do we honor God with our questions and doubts?
Childlike Faith
Jesus exhorted His followers to “turn and become like children” in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This concept has been discussed endlessly over the years with pastors continuously trying to make sense of what that means and how we ought to live out this idea of “childlike faith”.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him among them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:1-4 (NASB)
I think this answers our question above about how to honor God with our questions. Consider a child—what question do they repeat over and over again once they begin learning a language? Why? Why? Why? Why?
I sometimes feel like a child when I ask God my questions, but I think that makes God’s heart smile.
Children are not questionless. They have no filter for their questions, and that’s who Jesus said we ought to model our faith after. They are humble because they don’t know as much as the adults around them. But they have questions because their curiosity has yet to be shamed. At the end of the day though, they learn to trust the parental figure in their life, even if their questions aren’t answered the way they hoped. They are wholly dependent on their parent/guardian, and that’s what I believe Jesus was after.
The next time you have a question that might seem to rock your faith, don’t shun it or hide it away. Bring it to light and filter it through these standards:
Am I bringing this to God in humility, trusting that He is greater than I and even if I can’t find the answer, I submit to His authority?
Is this question out of humble curiosity? Why do I need to ask this question or seek the answer? What do I stand to gain or lose by asking this question?
Regardless of the outcome of asking this question, do I trust God’s guidance and answers?
Am I depending on God in this area of my life or am I trying to take matters into my own hands and seek control by seeking the answer?
Most importantly, if you have a question, let God in. God already knows your heart and the question you’re dying to ask. Inviting God into the space it’s taking up in your mind and heart will allow that doubt to draw you closer to Him and most likely strengthen your faith, no matter the answer.
Let’s stop making an enemy of those who doubt. Instead, let’s welcome the discussion of discerning what is true and what is wrong so we can deepen our faith and encourage them toward true belief.
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This is from Romans 4:20, but all of Romans 4 shares the explanation of Abraham’s faith and steadfastness. We don’t discount Abraham’s faith because of any mistakes, sins, or doubts. Rather, we see his strong faith in spite of those doubts because the questions, concerns, and doubt led him to a richer faith in God.
So well written!! 😊
I’m reading Alisa Childer’s book Another Gospel. Your post compliments her writing. Thank you.