Doubt seems to be one of those polar things in the church; either you are very afraid of it and you are never ever allowed to doubt anything, especially the preacher, or you should doubt everything and just sit on the fence your entire life doubting everything and believing nothing.

Doubt is a status between belief and disbelief, involves uncertainty or distrust or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision. Doubt brings into question some notion of a perceived “reality”, and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for mistakes or faults or appropriateness. Some definitions of doubt emphasize the state in which the mind remains suspended between two contradictory propositions and unable to assent to either of them

I think there are 2 issues to consider with about doubt. If we live our lives fearing “doubt” doesn’t that actually mean that we shy away from truth and ultimately we take comfort by the fact that we live in ignorance?, yet if we doubt everything there is and sit on the fence, doesn’t that leave us without anything we actually believe in?

So what do we do with doubt? Over the past couple of years i have come to believe more and more that doubt is an integral part of faith and our walk with Christ, it is not something to be feared but neither is it something to base our lives on rather it is something that we must embrace and wrestle with, and ultimately i believe that we should encourage more doubt within the church. Not arrogant doubt that says “I will not believe anything  unless i discover it” (if that were the case we probably wouldn’t beleive a number of thing) but a doubt that yearns and searches for the truth.

I believe we may have overstepped the mark and written “doubt” off all together in our teaching, especially when it comes to Gospel presentations. Think of the last Gospel presentation that you gave; how much space was left open for teh work of the Holy Spirit? how correct were you in your presentation? how tidy was the talk and how well did you tie up all the loose ends?

I remember when i was at Sydney University being involved in the yearly mission, and going around sharing the presentation of 2Ways to Live(nothing against the presentation, this is just what we were using) we went through the presentation, I thought “that is it, they need to believe, all the pieces are tied up, there is no way that they cannot believe” I came to the decision time and thought “Done, you are so IN” and their response was “It sounds all good and stuff, i am just not interested”.

That just got me, how on earth did it all fail, i wonder whether part of the problem is the fact that much of how I/we operate is very much in the modernist mentality of “give them all the answers and they will believe!!” when really it is not up to up to us to give the right answers but rather to provide and environment where people can ask the right questions. (this is all sounding very fen-sway but stay with me for a second longer). No matter how many “right” answers we give people if people are not open to the preventive grace that God has instilled in all of us there is little point listing how right we are. (prevenient grace: means that before we can seek God, God must first have sought humanity which he has done in Christ)

The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after him “⁴⁴“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44).

I wonder, (and this is me just thinking out loud at the moment) whether we need to instill more “doubt” into our teaching, whether we need to create places where instead of giving people answers, we give them questions and the tools to be able to go away and find the answer for themselves, after all that is what our theological education is all about, why should it differ in our churches? i remember being told time and time again that at college they were giving me the tools to survive in ministry, not the answers. I always find it interesting that in his early days Jesus was found int the temple and was talking with the Rabbi’s,  thing that amazed the teachers most, were first his questions and then his answers. ⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:46) Yes, Jesus gave answers but only after asking them the question first, and we see that alot in his teaching, telling stories and asking questions.

What would our teaching look like if we asked more questions and we instilled true doubt in people? would it change the attitude of people who sit in the pews? would it strengthen their faith as they do their own searching rather than being spoon fed from the pulpit?

“True doubt is the beginning of wisdom as it leads us to search under  every rock for the truth” unknown

“Doubt your beliefs and believe your doubts, but more importantly believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts” Dallas Willard