Doubt Versus Unbelief
John 20:19-31
April 18, 2004 (Year C, Easter 2)

Doubt gets a bad rap.  In fact, I can’t find one reference in the Bible where doubt is condemned outright.  Certainly, Thomas is NOT condemned for his doubting in the Lesson, but is simply told that it is time to stop doubting and believe.  He was no more a doubter than the other disciples who would not believe until they had also seen the resurrected Christ for themselves.  They just saw him first!

What IS condemned in Scripture is not DOUBT but UNBELIEF.  There is a difference.  Doubt is an uncertainty about the truthfulness of some claim.  Unbelief is an attitude that refuses to accept the truth.  Doubt is the product of a judicious mind.  UNBELIEF IS THE PRODUCT OF A REBELLIOUS WILL.

In relation to God, doubt can be satisfied if the questions one has about God are answered.  Unbelief is NEVER satisfied by answers because it has nothing to do with the intellect, but rather the will.  When one set of questions of the person dedicated to unbelief are answered, then they will simply move the goal post and erect another barrier to faith that must be over come.  This process just goes on and on because UNBELIEF is a decision to NOT TRUST GOD. 

Jesus deals with unbelief in John 3: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God=s one and only Son.  John 3:16-18

I.  THE VIRTUE OF DOUBT: In fact I think there is a certain kind of doubt that is good.  It is the doubt that is actually an intellectual filter that we use in seeking the truth.  This type of doubt is courageous and honest.  It is not the enemy of faith, but the foundation for real, unshakable faith.  I call this type of doubt ‘holy skepticism.’  In fact, this type of doubt is encouraged in the Bible: 

Do not put out the Spirit=s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. 1 Thess. 5:19-21

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.  1 John 4:1-3

A.    We all need a dose of holy skepticism.  From Al Jazeera, to the claims of “UFO abductees,” to snake oil selling televangelists, to pet psychics, to “end-time prophecy experts,” we are bombarded with claims to truth that need to be subjected to skepticism; claims that need to be examined under the microscope of reason. 

B.    There is another type of wholesome doubt that comes in the believer’s life when he/she reexamines the heart of what he/she believes.  I have to tell you that this is very unsettling.  Indeed, for me it was soul wrenching.  But for people who care PASSIONATELY ABOUT TRUTH, who are only interested in INVESTING THEMSELVES IN WHAT IS AUTHENTIC doubt is a natural part of spiritual development.

Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.  (Madeleine L’Engle, quoted in Lee Strobel’s, The Case for Faith, p. 223)

I think that this was the kind of doubt Thomas experienced.

II.  THE QUESTIONS THAT MUST BE ANSWERED.  There is another kind of doubt that is associated with this holy skepticism.  This type of doubt comes when we experience a jarring discontinuity between the claims of God to be good, loving, and all-powerful and the apparent evil and injustice that dominates the world. This doubt is a two-edged sword because it can become the excuse some people use to bolster their UNBELIEF, or it can be the DRIVING FORCE that causes us to truly seek to know God.

A.    The emotional force of the problem of evil and pain in the world is undeniable.  I deal with this question among honest doubters all the time.  One embittered skeptic has said:

It is not science that has led me to doubt the purpose of God. It is the state of the world. It is the pitiful unending struggle for existence among the nations. It is the collapse of our idealisms before the brute facts of force and chaos. It is the feeling that there is something demonic in the heart of things which is working against us; that there is a radical twist in the very constitution of the universe which will always defeat man's hopes, make havoc of his dreams and bring his pathetic optimism crashing in disaster. Purpose?  Look at the world. That settles it.  (Source unknown, quoted in "The Cry for a Reason in Suffering" Chapter 3 of Cries of the Heart by Ravi Zacharias. Copyright 1999 Word Publishers. pp63-64.)

B.    But the answer to the question is found in the very question itself.  If we are morally outraged about the state of the world, then what are we using as a point of reference to judge between good and evil?  Ravi Zacharias illustrates this when he recounts:

     Some time ago I was speaking at a university in England, when a rather exasperated person in the audience made his attack upon God.

      “There cannot possibly be a God,” he said, “with all the evil and suffering that exists in the world!”

      I asked, “When you say there is such a thing as evil, are you not assuming that there is such a thing as good?”

      “Of course,” he retorted.

      “But when you assume there is such a thing as good, are you not also assuming that there is such a thing as a moral law on the basis of which to distinguish between good and evil?”

      “I suppose so,” came the hesitant and much softer reply.

      “If, then, there is a moral law,” I said, “you must also posit a moral law giver. But that is who you are trying to disprove and not prove. If there is no transcendent moral law giver, there is no absolute moral law. If there is no moral law, there really is no good. If there is no good there is no evil. I am not sure what your question is!”

      There was silence and then he said, “What, then, am I asking you?”

      He was visibly jolted that at the heart of his question lay an assumption that contradicted his own conclusion.

      You see friends, the skeptic not only has to give an answer to his or her own question, but also has to justify the question itself. (Ravi Zacharias)

C.    There are answers to the world that is filled with pain and evil and suffering.  And the answers are uniquely Christian!

·        The first answer is love.  Only in a world where there is the possibility of human freedom is there the possibility of real love.  Freedom means there is the possibility to choose to reject love and do real harm.  But without this freedom we would merely be puppets, robots with no genuine capacity to give ourselves away in love to God and one another.

·        The second answer is the Cross of Christ.  God’s goodness and love for us involves him in the suffering we bring on ourselves and others.  God subjected himself to the suffering that freedom would bring when he offered himself in Jesus Christ to be beaten and tortured and executed as a criminal on the cross.

III.  THE UNBELIEF THAT DESTROYS. Unbelief is the active refusal to embrace the truth about God even when all our skeptical questions are answered.  Lee Strobel admitted that he began his journey with this kind of unbelief.

At first I had heartfelt and thoughtful objections to the Christian faith.  But over time, after I began finding adequate answers to those issues, I started to bring up new and increasingly marginal challenges…  He continues, “Doubts may actually be a subtle defense mechanism.  They may think they’re hung up over an objection to some part of Christianity, when the reality is that they’re actually just casting around for some excuse – any excuse – not to take Jesus more seriously.  (Strobel, The Case for Faith, p. 226)

A.    Unbelief is destructive when rooted in the emotion of bitterness.  You hurt me, God!  My life sucks.  The only way I can get back at you is NOT to believe in you.  The terrible irony of this type of unbelief is that on an emotional level it actually acknowledges the reality of the God of the Bible.  It is the type of atheism that shouts: THERE IS NO GOD AND I HATE HIM!

B.    There is another unbelief that is not rooted in intellectual or philosophical doubt, but in our own moral crookedness.  Canadian Christian author and pastor, Lynn Anderson describes just this situation:

     “Once I was talking with an ex-Marine who said, ‘I’m miserable.  I’ve got a wife and kids, and I’m making more money than I can spend with both hands, and I’m sleeping with every woman in town –- and I hate myself.  You’ve got to help me, but don’t give me any of that God talk, because I can’t believe that stuff.’

     “We talked for hours. Finally I said, ‘Maybe you think you’re shooting straight with me, but I’m not sure you are.  I don’t think your problem is that you CAN’T believe; I think it’s that you WON’T believe because you’re afraid to give up the things that help get you  through the night’

     “He thought for a while and then said, ‘Yeah, I guess that’s true.  I can’t imagine sleeping with just one woman.  I can’t imagine going with less money than I make – which I’d have to do because I lie to get it.’ He was finally trying to be honest.”

C.    The man or woman committed to emotional or moral unbelief is always looking for some other way of dealing with ultimate problems.  They reject the offer of salvation in a Jesus Christ because the terms seem so narrow.

“…Why do [God’s] terms give us only on way to Him?”  The answer is that even had He given us a thousand and one ways, the skeptic would always want one more way because at the heart of evil is autonomy – self-law and self-love.  Self-law will always lead to the loss of law and self-love to the loss of love.  [Cries of the Heart by Ravi Zacharias. Copyright 1999 Word Publishers. Pp 214-135]

CONCLUSION:   THE ENCOUNTER THAT TRANSFORMS. There is doubt that is rooted in the experience of disappointment.  Thomas had truly believed in Jesus.  But he had been shattered by the crucifixion, and wasn’t about to be burned again without some convincing proof.  He was frozen in that Good Friday moment, unable to move into the glory of the Resurrection because he was afraid to trust again.

The Greek of this passage emphasizes just how emphatic Thomas' refusal to believe was. Even though, as the Greek text says, the disciples  "kept on telling him" he WOULD NOT believe. Thomas' response is combative B it is the kind of hostility that comes out of those moments when we have been hurt VERY DEEPLY: “I don't care what you say, unless I jab my fingers in the nail holes and jam my hand into his pierced side I REFUSE to accept this.”

The way to overcome this kind of disappointment, fear, and hurt is that someone else takes the initiative to love you, and not give up on you.  That’s what Jesus did with Thomas.  That’s what Jesus does with us.  He keeps presenting himself over and over for our examination. 

·        Through friends, through the word of God preached and authentically lived out among us. 

·        Through music and art that draw out hearts towards the possibility of a beauty and meaning that transcend this broken, dark world. 

·        Through the gentle, inner wooing of God’s Spirit in our hearts. 

·        Through the wonderful story of God’s redeeming love in Christ demonstrated over and over again on this altar.

Jesus keeps coming into where the doors are locked and we are shut in with our fears and hurts and says: TAKE THE CHANCE!  REACH OUT AND TOUCH ME.  REACH OUT AND BELIEVE.

And over and over around the world, little grim, frightened, people open the door of their hearts just a crack to peek out at the one standing there.  And the death-defying presence of Jesus pours through the chink in their doubts and they are bathed, baptized, in his love and grace and glory.  And they cannot help but fall to their knees and weep with the joy of those who have been delivered from the dark dungeon of doubt and cry out the clarion of faith: MY LORD AND MY GOD!

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John 20:19-31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 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 it."

26 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!" 27 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."

28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
NIV

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