Lately I've been reading the book "The Case For Faith" by Atheist turned Christian Lee Strobel. In the book, he raises 8 common "barriers to faith", and interviews 8 prominent Christian thinkers, teachers and philosophers. I'm not going to talk about all of them, I'm only going to focus on one of them today, but just to settle all of your curiosity (as I'm sure you are just eager to know), the 8 stumbling blocks to faith are:
1) Evil and Suffering exist...so a loving God must not
2) Miracles contradict science, so they aren't true
3) Evolution explains life, which eliminates the need for God
4) I can't worship a God who kills innocent children
5) It's offensive to claim that "There's only one way (Jesus)"
6) A Loving God wouldn't send people to hell
7) The History of the Church is very violent and oppressive
8) I have doubts, so I can't be a Christian.
Each of the chapters were interesting in their own way, but I am going to focus on the last one...the chapter about doubts. Perhaps it's because it was the last chapter I read, but this chapter meant the most to me. Not saying that the others didn't mean anything...they did, but this one really spoke to me. What I loved about this chapter is, it didn't hide the fact that there are doubts. In fact, it claims that, most Christians have doubts, and struggle with doubts on a consistent basis. I definately needed to read that, as I, like most other Christians, deal with doubts.
A great quote, founmd early on in the chapter is by author Os Guiness (I read some of his stuff at Bethany...he's a great thinker). He says, "The shame is not that people have doubts, but that they are ashamed of them." Powerful stuff...and I think it's something that we all need to remember.
I'm not going to go too in depth on this, I just want to encourage all of you out there. I'm sure that you are dealing with some doubt, of some sort. Either you are a Christian and you struggle with doubting if God really loves you, hears your prayers, cares about you...fill the the blank. Or, you are a non-Christian, who perhaps, for whatever reason, have doubts about God. Maybe one of those 8 things listed is keeping you from accepting. PErhaps, as a Christian you are dealing with that stuff too. All I have to say is...it's ok. There are many biblical heroes who dealt with doubt. Abraham doubted, David did (read through the Psalms...most of them are laments, complaints and doubts...only about 40% of them are actual Praise psalms), and even Jesus closest friends, his disciples doubted. That's where faith comes in though. When you have faith, the doubts don't matter. You may not fully understand why things happen...but you can have faith that there is a reason.
Don't be ashamed of your doubts, or afraid of doubting. Question things you don't fully understand. IT'S PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE TO QUESTION THINGS YOU READ IN THE BIBLE OR HEAR AT CHURCH! The issue is, when you question it...don't just write it off as wrong, search for the answer. Some answers may come easy, others may not be answered...but don't let a few doubts hinder your relationship with God. In fact, it often takes times of doubting, to gain faith.
That's my thoughts for you...I realize it's not much..it's just an encouragement for those doubters out there. You're not alone...and it's ok.
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