See link youtube.com/watch?v=sBBbq2g7yf8
Fortunately for me, I am told that doubt isn’t the antithesis of faith; fear is the antithesis of faith. Doubt has always visited me through the decades of my commitment to God. A Christian leader once said that he would follow truth wherever it led, and if his commitment to follow truth led away from Christian faith, he would leave it. I always felt that I would do the same. But, that is to say that my intellectual acumen must be capable of determining truth. I no longer believe this to be the case. To believe that truth is truth just because I can logically argue for it doesn’t mean that I have determined what is actually true. (Of course, for many contemporary Brits, there isn’t even such a thing as absolute truth). I remember a Christian friend, who was a respected mathematician being asked what he did with the difficult questions that his faith presented to him. He said that he swept them under the carpet. I seriously doubt that he is a Christian today; faith needs to be robust to survive through the decades. I was never happy with his answer and have considered it many times since I heard it. I wrestle with the doubts that come to me and I think that I have doubted everything about my faith, even to the existence of there being a God at all. I have doubted the truth of the Bible; everything from the Virgin birth to the Resurrection, at one time or another. But I am still a Christian today and a convinced one at that. I have answered to my own satisfaction the questions that present themselves to me, and that is about all that I can do. Faith is ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is faith. To me it matters that what I believe is the truth, but I have to admit my own limitations in being able to determine truth definitively. For me I can not do better than liken my faith journey to Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark walking on his invisible bridge. As I step out, I find a path to walk on. I can’t see it, but as I walk on it, I discover its reality and that has been my experience for over forty years. Again, experience isn’t necessarily a determinant of truth and our experience can mislead us as to what is actually true. Just because my experience might lead me to believe that everyone is unfriendly doesn’t mean that that it is the truth. But my experience is that Christian faith works and that it is solid. We choose what to believe and, in the end, I think it is often not really about an intellectual apprehension of faith, its actually about something totally different. Our intellectual doubts may just be red herrings, masking the reluctance in our hearts to submit to a greater authority than our own. I cannot prove to anyone else that there is a God but I can live authentically according to what I believe and hopefully demonstrate that there is a path to walk on that brings healing and hope and leads us, in the end, to where we need to be.
Also please check out my friends' website, as you may wish to consider taking part as a Public Reviewer in the world's premier Christian music awards. It's FREE to participate and cash prizes are on offer for top reviewers. Be part of history in the making as you join the Firstfruits Music Awards in their quest to identify the very best aspiring Christian artists from across the globe.
FREE Public Review tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/471026191017
Numbers are restricted limited, so sign up quickly to avoid disappointment.
Event website: www.firstfruits.co
Comments