Faithful Doubt

"He also said to him, 'I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take posession of it.' But Abraham said, 'O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" -Genesis 15:8

In recent years, there has been a shift in some branches of American Christianity that has glorified doubt. Questioning orthodox doctrine and appearing countercultural have become hip and a way to gain social currency. Those who hold to traditional views are seen as closed-minded, narrow, and judgmental while questioning one's beliefs is open-minded and intellectual. We have moved from defining what we are for to defining what we are against. Deep down we know that our faith cannot be "cool" in this culture so we try to make it more palatable and come across as less sure of ourselves. Questioning and insecurity is the new humility.

On the other side of the coin, there are those in the church who are terrified of doubt. The slightest questioning of God or of Scripture is cause for panic or judgment. We believe these people are walking away from their faith and implore them to just read their Bible or pray more and they'll be just fine. Or we scold them and tell them that they do not truly believe or they would not be having these doubts. However, this can actually be crippling for a follower of Christ who is genuinely wrestling with hard things. Life is often much messier than we admit in the Church. Pat answers and trite advice don't get into the circumstance that a person is actually living in and dealing with. There is a difference between healthy and toxic doubt. How can we tell the difference?

In Genesis 15, we see God promise to Abraham that He will make him a great nation and bless him and that his offspring will be abundant. At this point, Abraham is an old man and his wife is well along in years as well. Abraham, understandably, does not understand how these promises could ever take place. He then takes these doubts to God and God patiently reveals the answers to Abraham. It says that Abraham believed God and that God credited this to Abraham as righteousness. However, even after this belief, Abraham has doubts and questions. He asks God how he can be sure of this, as if God's word alone is not good enough for him.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul recounts this story in Romans 4 to show that salvation comes through faith alone. He says that Abraham is the father of all who believe in God's promise. He says, "...[Abraham] did not waver 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." How can this be? Genesis 15 clearly shows that Abraham had doubts and questions, yet Paul says that he was unwavering in his belief. Why?

What we often forget in our dealings with our own doubts and our brothers' and sisters' doubts is that doubting and questioning are inevitable. If God is omniscient and omnipotent and we are finite and limited, doesn't it make sense that some of the things He does or tells us don't make sense? The pivotal piece to this is not whether or not we have doubts but what we do with them. The reason Abraham was credited as righteous was because at his core, he knew that he could trust God. Therefore, he took his doubts and questions to God directly. He did not glorify them or live them out. He brought them directly to God because he had the faith to do so. His faith, at his core, was unwavering. He did not know how God was going to do what He promised but he knew that he could find the answers from God Himself. Thus, Abraham's faith and doubt coexisted without being harmful to him in any way. God shows us through this passage that we, as His children, are safe with Him. It is safe to doubt. It is safe to question provided we are taking these doubts and questions to Him.

Compare this to Abraham's behavior in Genesis 12 when he lives out his doubts and lies to Pharaoh about his wife because he does not know how God will protect him in that situation. He does not bring his doubts to God and instead lives them out which has destructive results.

May we as the Church not glorify our doubts or live them out but be affected by the Truth that faith and doubt can reasonably coexist and that dealing with doubt in a healthy manner can be an incredibly fruitful time of growth in the Christian's life. May we say with the father of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"