The REAL Reason Someone Doubts God

In some Christian communities, there is no place for doubters. Why? Because clarity is seen as the gold standard. Any expression of doubt is widely dismissed, and Christians that voice their concerns are seen as less spiritual. Unfortunately, when this happens, two results usually unfold.

First, Christians who don’t struggle with doubts develop a sense of superiority over those who do. And second, Christians who do struggle learn to suppress their inner questions until one day, when something within them bursts, and they realize they cannot live what they feel is a lie. As Timothy Keller writes,

A faith without some doubts is like a human body without antibodies. It is susceptible to attack.[1]

But on the flip side, there are some in Christian circles that seem to make doubt itself a virtue. There is no black and white. Everything is a different shade of gray, and people who share their faith with confidence are viewed with suspicion. But as novelist Yann Martel wrote, "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."[2]

Perpetual doubters often become expert navel gazers and live with a sense personal narcissism. To the perpetual doubters, there is little anyone can know for certain. But to this point, Trevin Wax writes,

What we need is not less certainty, but more dependence on the God who has revealed his truth to us.[3]

In Luke 1:4, Luke writes to a man named Theophilus so he might have certainty concerning those things he was taught. But what was this certainty? At its root, it was absolute confidence in the person of Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:14 states, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Confidence is a wonderful thing, and it gets to the heart of our real struggle with God.