Faith Under Fire
[Note: This message kicks off a church-wide campaign in which small groups go through the four- or eight-week Faith Under Fire curriculum, inviting their seeking friends to join them. The DVD-driven curriculum is available at Outreach.com.]
The network news reporter asked the question point-blank: “Is this open season on Jesus?” Based on the proliferation of books and web sites currently attacking historical Christianity, the answer appears to be a resounding, “Yes!”
Dan Brown, of course, garnered the most publicity with his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, which purported to mix historical fact with fiction. The book claimed that Jesus isn’t the Son of God, that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a child named Sarah, and that you can’t really trust the contents of the New Testament. Brown went on to make more than $40 million last year – and this has opened the floodgates to a whole raft of other books that are attempting to rewrite history.
Just take a look at the best-seller’s list during recent months and you’ll see books claiming that Jesus was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier; that Jesus didn’t die on the cross; that the text of the New Testament has been hopelessly tainted and is therefore unreliable; that Christianity is based on earlier mythology and mystery religions; and that the current church doesn’t reflect Jesus’ real teachings.
In fact, a British publisher recently announced that it’s producing a new book in November, 2006, that will claim that Lazarus actually wrote the Gospel of John – and, oh, by the way, Jesus was not only married to Mary Magdalene, but he was also married to Martha at the same time! That’s right – according to this book, Jesus was a polygamist!
It’s safe to say that our faith is under fire these days. In a way, that’s not surprising. The controversial claims of Christianity – for instance, that Jesus is the only way to God – are so repugnant in our pluralistic culture that some writers are eager to present a new Christianity – a watered down, easy to tolerate and easy to sell faith that’s free of moral demands on us.
Of course, people have been lured by false gospels from the beginning. In the dawning years of Christianity, the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:6-9: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternal condemned. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned.”
Many of the current crop of anti-Christian books are so absurd that few people actually believe the false gospel that they’re offering. But other books – as well as web sites attacking Christianity – have succeeded in creating doubts in the minds of many people. As a result, some seekers are being repelled from Christianity, and some Christians are questioning their faith.
One person read a current best-seller that attacks the New Testament and wrote an email to a Christian author, saying: “I was raised in the church and I’m now 26 years old. This book has devastated my faith. I don’t want to be kept in the dark; I want to know what really is going on in the Bible and what I should believe, even if it goes against what I’ve believed since I was a little boy.”
None of us wants to be kept in the dark, do we? We all want to build our faith on a solid foundation of historical reality. But what happens when doubts creep in? Whether you’re a seeker or a Christian, how should you respond if you encounter allegations that undermine historic Christianity?
First, it’s important to understand that God doesn’t condemn us when we wrestle with doubts or ask questions. You can see that in the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, which is something that scholar Gary Habermas has extensively written about.
This recounts the time when John the Baptist was in prison, and he was grappling with questions about the true identity of Jesus. Verse 19 says: “And summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’”
Think about that! If there was anyone who should have been absolutely confident about the divine identity of Jesus, it was John the Baptist. He once pointed to Jesus and said: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He actually baptized Jesus, saw the heavens open up, and heard the Father proclaim: “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” This is the person who had declared: “I have seen I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
But now he’s got doubts. Maybe he’s had too much time in prison to read some best-sellers – and now he’s not so sure about Jesus. So he dispatched some friends to go to Jesus and ask him point-blank whether He’s the One they’ve been waiting for, or whether they should look for someone else.
And how does Jesus react? Does He slam-dunk John for having the temerity to doubt Him? No. Look at his response in verse 22: “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.’”
In other words, “Tell John about all of the evidence that you’ve seen with your very eyes that confirms that I am, indeed, the Messiah.” And they do.
Now, how does Jesus feel about John now that he has shown some doubt? Is John disqualified from any role in the Kingdom of God? Does Jesus think less of him? Well, look at verse 28, where Jesus says: “I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John!”
That’s amazing – Jesus gave John the highest compliment in the world at the same time that John was in the midst of doubting! And in the midst of your doubts, your questions, and your concerns, God won’t slam-dunk you, either.
Think about this – wouldn’t God want you to be honest with Him about your questions than to profess a phony faith? Of course He would. An honest relationship means we need to tell the truth about how we feel.
Having doubts doesn’t mean you’re devoid of faith. In fact, you can have a strong faith and still have some legitimate questions. You can be heaven-bound and still express some uncertainty over certain theological issues. You can be a full-fledged Christian without having to feel like every single question of life has been absolutely settled. Struggling with God over the issues of life doesn’t demonstrate a lack of faith – that is faith. You can see that throughout the Psalms!
There’s nothing wrong with having questions or doubts – as long as you use them to propel you toward answers. Otherwise, they can fester inside of you and grow larger than they really are. In some cases, unless they’re dealt with, they can develop into outright disbelief. But I’ll tell you what – this church is devoted to helping you work through these kinds of issues. We welcome your questions, and we’re a safe place where you can wrestle through your doubts without being railroaded or ridiculed or judged.
In fact, let me offer some guidance on what to do when a passage in a book, or a comment by a college professor, or a posting on the internet creates doubts in you, whether you’re a Christian or a seeker. I’ve used each letter in the word “FAITH” to create an acrostic to let you know what steps to take.
The “F” in faith stands for this step: Find the root of your doubt.
The first thing to do is diagnose the source of your doubt before you can deal with it. Sometimes that’s not as easy as it sounds, because the virus of doubt can infect our mind, our emotions, or our will.
How does it infect our mind? Well, this is where we come up with intellectual objections to the faith – where we begin wondering whether things like heaven and hell and Satan and angels and miracles and the resurrection are really rational to believe in.
Doubt often develops in our mind when we don’t know why we believe what we believe. It may start with a conversation with a friend, who says, “So you believe Jesus is the Son of God?”
You say, “Sure, of course.”
He says, “Well, why do you believe that?”
You take out your Bible and you’re about to show him all of the passages that demonstrate Jesus is the Son of God, but he says, “Wait a minute – you don’t expect me to believe anything in that book, do you?”
You say, “Well, why not?”
He says, “Everyone knows it’s full of contradictions and mythology. Don’t you know that? C’mon – this is the 21st Century! Why in the world would you believe that this book is the Word of God?”
You say, “Uh…well…I just believe it, that’s all!”
That’s when doubts appear. Maybe he’s right. How do you know the Bible is reliable? Maybe it isn’t. Maybe you’ve swallowed this Jesus story hook, line, and sinker without asking the right questions.
It has been said that Christians should believe simply – that is, have the authentic faith of a child – but that they shouldn’t just simply believe, because the chances are that someone, sometime, somewhere is going to challenge your faith. And not knowing why you believe what you believe makes you vulnerable to doubt.
So does not knowing what you believe – for instance, having an inaccurate view of God. If you know all about God’s love but nothing about His justice, holiness, and righteousness, then you’re probably going to develop doubts about why He does what he does and why He doesn’t do what you think He ought to do. That’s a breeding ground for doubt.
Or if you think God has promised to answer all your prayers as you want them answered, you’re going to develop doubts when He doesn’t come through that way. Or if you think God guarantees health and wealth to His followers, you’re going to begin doubting when health or wealth don’t come your way.
The problem, though, isn’t with God, since He never promised those things. The problem is that you’ve got an inadequate view of who He is, and that is an open invitation to doubt.
Not only can doubt breed in our minds, but it can also develop in our emotions. For instance, some people have a faith that’s built on feelings. They had a euphoric emotional experience when they became a Christian, and they stayed emotionally pumped up for a while, but eventually that spiritual high began to wear off – and they started wondering whether their faith is slipping or whether they’re really a Christian at all.
It’s like that old Gordon Lightfoot song, “I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.”
They’ve misunderstood the role of emotions and faith. Faith isn’t fundamentally a feeling; rather, it’s a decision of the will to follow Jesus Christ, and it doesn’t ebb and flow depending on how emotionally juiced we are.
Others are susceptible to mood swings and depression, and they find that when they’re emotionally down, that’s when doubts creep in. Just like some people are more susceptible to certain diseases, people with a melancholy personality are especially vulnerable to doubt because they take a questioning and contemplative approach to life. That’s just how their personalities are wired up.
One man was plagued with doubts when he would go through periods of depression, but then he came to this conclusion: “Though my emotions may flap like a flag in a gale, I’m learning to trust that God doesn’t move. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In fact, He is often doing the biggest work in me when I feel the lowest. The mountain peaks are fun, but the thin soil on the summit is not nearly so nourishing of spiritual fruit as that rich, dark humus in the valleys.” He still goes through periods when he’s depressed, but when he’s down, he no longer doubts.
Another way doubt can develop is among people who’ve been emotionally scarred from an experience in their past. In other words, if you’ve suffered parental abuse as a child, if you’ve been abandoned by your parents or a spouse, if you’ve felt unloved or unworthy of love, that can affect the way you view God. You may develop chronic doubts or uncertainties because deep down inside you’re just waiting for God to let you down like people have in your past.
In fact, a study by psychologist Paul Vitz demonstrated that virtually all of the biggest skeptics in history – such atheists as Karl Marx, Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Albert Camus, among others – had their father die or abandon them when they were young, or they had serious conflict with him. While most victims of parental abandonment or abuse don’t resort to atheism, it’s true that people can find it difficult to trust a Heavenly Father when they’ve been so disabused by their earthly father. Where there’s a lack of trust, doubt soon follows.
So doubt can infect us through our mind or through our emotions – but doubt can also develop through our will. Our will, of course, is where we make choices.
For instance, doubts can multiply when a Christian makes the willful decision not to turn away from a pattern of sin in his life. Sin, of course, creates a lack of peace and a sense of being separated from God. So when the person can’t find peace, he questions why God isn’t comforting him. When he feels that God is distant, he begins to doubt whether he’s there at all – when actually the underlying cause is his own willful decision to cling to sin.
Then there’s the way a stubborn sense of pride can cause doubt to breed. Author Os Guinness wrote: “The proud man needs to doubt because the sense of his own importance demands it. It is not in his nature to bow to anyone.” So he goes out of his way to drum up doubts in order to justify his willful decision not to allow God full access to his life.
Finally, doubts can run rampant when you’ve never committed your life to Christ in the first place. In other words, you have doubts about your relationship with God because you don’t really have one.
You may be living on a hand-me-down faith from your parents or think you’re a Christian because you were baptized as an infant or you attend church. But you’ve never made a knowing decision of your will to humbly receive the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life that Christ is offering. No wonder you have doubts about his presence in your life or feel that he’s distant.
Before I go on, let me encourage you that this is one we can address right here, today, before you go home! You can come and talk to me, or to one of our prayer team members who will be available, and pray to ask Jesus to be your forgiver and leader – and go home with the doubt over where you stand with Him removed forever.
So doubt can breed in our minds, our emotions, and our will. And before I go on, I have to acknowledge the role that Satan plays in planting doubts in us and encouraging them to multiply out of control. John 8:44 says, “When [Satan] lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” He whispers lies in our ear in order to create mistrust and confusion.
We shouldn’t ignore the threat he poses, but we shouldn’t get fixated on it, either, because the Bible says to all of Christ’s followers in First John 4:4: “Little children, you are from God, and…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Now, let’s go back to the first step in our acrostic FAITH: Find the root of your doubt. That is, determine if the doubts entered through your mind, your emotions, or your will. Try to be brutally honest here. On the surface, you may be grappling with an intellectual objection to Christianity – but if you’re honest, maybe that’s really a smokescreen – and maybe the real issue is that your bad relationship with your father is deterring you from pursuing faith in your Heavenly Father.
Then the “A” in FAITH stands for the next step: Ask God and others for help.
Be as honest with God as the father of the demon-possessed boy was in Mark 9:24, when he said to Jesus: “I do believe; help my unbelief!” He asked Jesus to help him – and he did. He healed his son.
It’s not out of bounds for you to ask God to bolster your faith in the midst of doubt. James 4:2 says, “You do not have because you do not ask.” Turn to God for help – not as a last resort, but as a top priority. Ask him to lead you to answers and give you insights, wisdom, and spiritual confidence.
And turn to Christians in your life, too. This is why small groups are so important, because these are safe places where you can admit that you’re grappling with questions and ask for input on how to deal with them. Let them encourage you and pray for you. James 5:16 says we should honestly admit our struggles to each other and pray for each other – why? So, the verse says, that we may be healed.
In fact, our church is starting a new initiative in its small groups this week. Many of our groups will be going through the Faith Under Fire curriculum called “Faith and Jesus.” For four weeks, these groups will be dealing with tough questions about Jesus – Is the supernatural real? Is Jesus a prophet, as the Muslims believe, or the Son of God, as Christians believe? Did He rise from the dead? And do all roads lead to God?
This isn’t just a one-sided exercise. The groups will be watching videotaped debates between Christians, atheists, and Muslims, and you’ll have a chance to offer your own opinions and hear the opinions of others in the group. The curriculum was co-authored by Lee Strobel, an atheist-turned-Christian who hosted a national network television show called Faith Under Fire for two seasons.
[Optional: show video clip of one of the debates as a sample.]
If you’d like to continue after these four weeks, many groups will be going through another four week series titled, “Faith and Facts.” Again, they’ll be seeing Christians and atheists debating topics like: Is the Bible bogus? Is heaven real? Is hell fact or fiction? And does science point toward a Creator?
Whether you’re a Christian or a spiritual seeker, these groups provide a safe place to determine whether Christianity is built on a firm foundation. Nobody’s going to preach at you or high-pressure you; the goal is to respectfully listen to everyone’s input, to investigate historical and other evidence, to evaluate whether Scripture is reliable, and to let each person draw his or her own conclusions. If you’d interested, let me describe how you can join a group….
Next comes the “I” in FAITH, which stands for this advice: Identify a further course of treatment.
Joining a Faith Under Fire small group is a great step to take, but what are some other ways you can fight the virus of doubt?
For instance, instead of just saying you’ve got some vague intellectual concerns about the faith, what specific questions do you have? Pinpoint them with precision, because then you can pursue answers – and I’ll tell you what: there are a lot of satisfying answers out there for those who make an honest effort to find them.
One suggestion is to visit the web site LeeStrobel.com, where you’ll find hundreds of short video clips in which experts provide answers to common objections to Christianity. There’s even a search engine to help you find clips that deal with your biggest issues, whether they involve the Trinity, the Resurrection, or science and faith. And there’s a monthly e-newsletter to address new challenges to Christianity as they arise in the culture. All of this is absolutely free.
There are also some helpful books that can assist you getting answers. Strobel has reconstructed and expanded upon his own journey from atheism to faith by interviewing leading scholars in his books The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator. In fact, there’s a new Gift Edition of The Case for Christ that our church would like to offer you, absolutely free, if it would be helpful in getting answers to your questions about Jesus.
Or if emotional issues are generating doubts in your life, maybe you need to talk through your past with a Christian counselor who can get you on the road to healing. Or if the doubts in your life are related to your will, then where specifically are you holding back from God? The choice is yours: You can let disobedience or pride plague you with doubts for the rest of your life, or submit your whole life to God and really experience the adventure of Christianity.
And if you’re not certain whether you’ve ever really become a Christian, then why not make sure once and for all? Go ahead and pray to receive Christ as your forgiver and leader. If it turns out you had already done it, then this is just a recommitment, and that’s fine.
But then once you’ve done it, put the issue to rest. The Bible says that when you confess your wrongdoing and then humbly reach out to receive Christ’s free gift of forgiveness and eternal life, you’re His child from then on. You don’t have to dwell on doubting your salvation anymore.
Then the “T” in FAITH stands for a preventative measure that we all need: Take care of your spiritual health.
A body is less susceptible to viruses when it’s healthy, right? Strong bodies can fight off minor infections before they become serious. And a spiritually strong faith is better able to ward off the virus of doubt when it threatens to infect you.
Just like a body is strengthened through good nourishment and exercise, build up your faith through both knowledge and action. By knowledge, I mean get serious about learning what Christians believe and why. Systematically study the Bible. Take advantage of the various opportunities in this church to grow in your understanding of the faith.
And through your day-to-day actions, build up your faith by exercising it. After all, we learn best by doing. And we learn best about the trustworthiness of God when we make the daily decision to submit our lives to Him and to press the envelope of our faith. As King David said, to taste and see for ourselves that the Lord is good.
When we do these things, listen to what happens: when doubt hits, it’s much easier to look back on your knowledge about God and your personal experience with Him and say, “I may not know the answer to this particular question yet, but I’ve got plenty of evidence that God is real and plenty of evidence that the Bible can be trusted and plenty of personal experience that God cares about me. All of that gives me confidence that God has an answer to this question. So I’m not going to panic or toss my faith out the window. I’ll keep trusting God because He has shown to me in many ways that He’s trustworthy.”
That’s why spiritual health is so important. It can ward off the germ of doubt before it starts multiplying out of control.
Finally, the “H” in FAITH stands for: Hold your remaining questions in tension.
We are limited people with limited minds, and we can’t understand everything about our unlimited God. So there are bound to be some questions that we have to wait to get full and complete answers to.
Maybe as we mature in our faith over the years and continue to seek God’s wisdom, over time we’ll get a better glimpse of an answer.
Or maybe we’ll have to wait for the day when we get to heaven, where we can raise our hand and say, “Jesus, I’ve got a question that’s been bothering me for a while now. Exactly how does predestination fit with free will? Exactly how does the Trinity work? Why didn’t I seem to hear from you the time when I was in need? Why was it, as one little boy wrote, that I prayed for a puppy and got a little brother instead?
I’ll tell you what: my arm is going to be in the air! Maybe yours will be, too, and that’s okay. God will answer. Hey, we’ve got all of eternity to satisfy our curiosity. Until then, we can say, “I may not have answers to every single one of my peripheral questions, but the answers that I do have point me unmistakably toward God as being real and as being dependable and as being the Heavenly Father who loves me. So my faith can stay intact while I hold some issues in abeyance.”
That’s not irresponsibly ignoring your doubts; that’s dealing with them responsibly by making an informed decision to suspend judgment for a while. We can’t know everything, but we can know some things. And those things we do know give us confidence that the answers to everything else will work out in the end. Let’s face it – if we had all the answers now, there would be no room for faith!
So those are five steps we can take – F-A-I-T-H – to help recover from a bout of doubt. If you’re struggling with uncertainty today, why don’t you put them to the test? As you do, remember that you don’t have to be afraid of questions, because God isn’t. And you don’t have to be timid about bringing them up around here. That’s what this place is for. Please, use your doubt as the impetus to grow stronger in your faith than you ever have been before – or to find forgiveness and hope in Christ for the very first time.
Let me conclude with the way the Living Bible paraphrases the words of the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 13:12 and turn that into our closing prayer:
“Father, we can see and understand only a little about You now, as if we were peering at Your reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see You in Your completeness, face to face. Now all that we know is hazy and blurred, but then we will see everything clearly, just as clearly as You see into our hearts right now. And, Father, we can have confidence in that because of what You have already chosen to reveal to us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
