Is It Wrong To Question Our Faith

Is it wrong to question our faith?

Questions, we all have hundreds and thousands of questions. It is one of the ways we learn. The other day a co-worker asked me a really good question.

The bible tells us we must be ready to answer such questions. 1Peter 3:15

15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

The question my co-worker put to me was this. Is it wrong to question our faith?

Wow, what a great question! I took a few seconds before I answered his question and I came to realize something about Jesus.

Jesus asked a lot of questions during His ministry on earth. The bible is full of all kinds of questions put forward by Jesus. I started to go through the New Testament and found that Jesus asked at least 97 questions in the book of Matthew, 65 in Mark, 94 in Luke and 43 in John.

He asked questions of rich people, poor people, religious people, men, women and children. Then it struck me, Jesus ministry was all about asking questions.

The questions were often about matters of faith. But the answers were often left up to us. Let me show you what I mean.

Peters Confession of Christ Matthew 16:13-20

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[b] the Son of the living God."

17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[c] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it.[e] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[g] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

We see Jesus himself putting the question to the disciples. Jesus puts that same question to each one of us who call themselves Christian.

"Who do you say I am?"

There have been a lot of answers to that question over the years even for Christians. For those who were closest to him there was no doubt as to who He was. To the many that were fed and healed on the hillsides there was no doubt.

To the followers of John The Baptist there was no doubt. To the religious and political leaders of the day there were more questions. So how would they answer such a question? The answers led them to an obvious conclusion; if Jesus is the Messiah then we will no longer hold our position of power and prestige over the people. We will have to admit that God is among us and we will become the servant and not the served.

Well it seems the religious and political leaders of Jesus day did not like the answers they arrived at so they conspired together to find an acceptable solution. They would kill Jesus in order to retain their grip on their coveted positions in society.

In our modern age so many years past these events people still ask the same question. Who do you say Jesus is? Some of you have answered this question and like Peter have come to a saving knowledge of who Jesus is.

For others among you the jury is still out on this decision. Id like to weigh in on this topic today and provide you some food for thought.

My friend at work had asked me whether we could or should question our faith. Lets start there.

The short answer is YES we should and can question our faith.

In fact if we dont you can be sure that an unbelieving world will be right there pointing an accusatory finger in our face saying prove it. In fact this week we saw another example of this with the so called discovery of Jesus bones.

Just for the record this was no discovery it was a re-telling of a discovery made in the 1980s and this would be Archaeologist/Historian who happens to be Canadian was looking for some dramatic headline to promote his T.V. show. Yes people will use the cause of Christ for their own personal ends.

So if we do not ask the questions and try to find the answer the unbelieving society around us will make up answers for us.