Wrestling With Doubt

Wrestling with Doubt

Matt 18:17: Isaiah 45:5-7

30 July 2023

We are continuing in our series called: What do you believe and why? Today we will look at a passage from the book of Matthew on the topic of: Wrestling with Doubt. Why are we going through this apologetic series? Because every Christian, young and old, will wrestle with times of doubt and unbelief when it comes to their faith in a living God. There will be times when we question His will or the circumstances He allows in our lives, times when we question His Word when the voices in our culture become louder than His. There may be times when we question God’s wisdom and aspects of His nature.

For example, we can have a great day with God and the next day completely forget who He is and all He is able to do. Just like Elijah, who defeated 450 pagan prophets, trusting God to do a miracle to show them that He was the only true God. Everyone saw fire come down from heaven in a miraculous display of His power and authority. Then the next day he is running for his life because one woman was threatening his life. What happened? In Matthew 28:17, after the disciples saw the resurrected Jesus worshiped Him—but some of them doubted. Doubted that it was really Him even after hearing His teaching, witnessing His miraculous/messianic works, and even His resurrection.

Have you ever seen God answer prayers in a miraculous way and then get into squabbles over differences and allow situations or people to threaten your very being? Ever get into the fight or flight mode? Where is God in our situations? Do we ever doubt that He can or will intervene in the lives of our friends, family members, or the people we work with?

As we are bombarded by the details of life, relational issues, very real problems in this world, our culture’s ever-changing ideology, is our faith in the Lord being diluted? It reminds me of how my mother used to water down the orange juice to be able to stretch it for five kids. We were so used to drinking diluted orange juice that when we drank the real thing we were like “Wow, what is this?” In the same way, our faith won’t be truly full and satisfying when we drink a thinner version of it. We can’t diminish the infinite greatness, supreme goodness, or perfection of God but we can definitely dilute our view or perception of who He is. Don’t we all want the real thing?

This is why we are talking about the evidence for the existence of God and recognizing Him for how great and majestic He is. As a timeless, extremely powerful, intelligent, infinite, and personal being, He created the universe, the earth, and everything in it, including us as the crown of His creation. He made us in His image, for a purpose, and to live on an earth that is perfectly suited for life. We aren’t only dependent on God for our very breath, for food, for sustenance and health, meaning and purpose, we need the rest of creation and each other.

Every religion, every belief, every world view seeks to find ultimate meaning and purpose for why everything exists and makes exclusive claims about the reality of the world around them - even about unseen realities. We all try to make sense of this world and how we live and the destiny of our lives ultimately hinges on this one question, “Does God exist?” If God exists, and more specifically the God of the Bible—then what we believe and how we live will matter in time and for all eternity. If God doesn’t exist and there is no afterlife and everyone and everything will eventually be forgotten, then there is no objective game plan for life and ultimately nothing matters.

I have a question for you - in a society filled with a plethora of worldviews and beliefs, can every religion, or worldview be right? Maybe you have heard people say: “Well we all worship the same God - we basically believe the same things.” This view is called pluralism.

Pluralism is the claim that all religions are equally true. All beliefs lead to God or salvation. Following any religious path enables the believers to reach their religious goal.

A liberal theologian and philosopher at Princeton Seminary by the name of John Hick pointed to the ancient Islamic parable of the blind men and the elephant to justify his pluralistic worldview. The blind men came to a conclusion about what the elephant was after touching different parts of it. After feeling the trunk, one blind man said the elephant was like a tree branch; the one feeling the leg another said it was like a pillar, after touching the tail, one said it was like a rope; etc. Each blind man came to different conclusions about the elephant and in the same way, every world religion has a different, limited perspective about God. Hick claimed that all religions are different human interpretations of the one true divine reality. Hick thought the differences between religions were merely cultural. Does anyone see a problem with this logic and this illustration of the elephant?