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THE PENDULUM OF
DOUBT #5
DOCTRINAL DOUBTS
It's enough to make your head swim sometimes. The kinds
of jagged doubts that rip away at your convictions when doctrinal controversies
blast away at this fragile thing called the Christian Church. Able theologians,
distinguished Bible scholars, line up at the microphone to propagate their
viewpoint, and the only thing that's clear is that things aren't clear!
There are two sides — or maybe ten sides — and all ten sides claim Scripture
as their final authority.
I won't cite this example to pick on one denomination, but some of you
might recall that seven years ago, on March 12, 1994, there was an historic
occurrence over in Great Britain. The Anglican Church, or the Church of
England, moved ahead in ordaining 32 women at Bristol Cathedral. Already
outside of England, something like 1,380 female priests had been ordained,
but this was right at headquarters.
And the upheaval was huge and painful. Immediately something like 700
male clergymen and uncounted thousands of lay people picked up and said
they would leave the Church of England over this mess. They would become
Roman Catholics. And Pope John Paul II made it very clear that the doctrine
of ordaining women was absolutely going to be a "(quote) profound
obstacle to every hope of reunion between the Catholic Church and the
Anglican Communion." During his pilgrimage to Mexico, he spelled
out again that the Catholic priesthood would always be male and celibate.
Now friend, this is something that many, many churches go through. My
own denomination has wrestled with it; in recent months two important
books have come out — scholarly treatises written as team efforts — one
supporting women in full, ordained ministry, the other side citing Scripture
to oppose that move. And this leaves many humble preachers and many more
humble church members — and radio audiences — in confusion and even doubt.
Where do WE go on such an issue? Do we embrace First Timothy two or Galatians
three? Lutherans and Methodists ordain women; Baptists and Adventists
don't. Who's right?
Our topic for the week is this: THE PENDULUM OF DOUBT. And we've been
thinking much more about personal doubts about faith, where you wake up
wondering if the whole Christian message is perhaps a hoax. You play that
John Lennon CD in your car: "Imagine there's no heaven; above us
only sky." And all at once, that seems like a very distinct possibility
. . . especially when your child dies of cancer, your home is foreclosed
out from under you, and it seems like there's nobody Up There named God
available to answer prayers. Like I say, THAT'S more the kind of doubt
most of us struggle with.
And yet, when it comes to truth and teachings and a framework of beliefs,
there are many good-hearted people who get just so far down the track,
and then quit in confusion. Because they don't understand! And they don't
understand because the clerics and the policymakers don't seem to understand
either. If the seminarians don't agree, we finally sigh, what chance is
there for us? Maybe it's ALL hogwash.
Maybe you've struggled, as I have too, with the distance between us and
the source of our faith. Because this Jesus Christ of Nazareth was here
a good 2000 years ago! That's a long ways back, and many time zones removed
from the here and now. More than once in my ministry, I've had parishioners
face doubts about their faith. And they say with real feeling: "If
I could just have been there and SEEN Jesus do miracles, and HEAR His
teachings, and witness for myself the fact that He was God's Son."
If we'd only been a disciple. If we'd just been with the children of Israel
and actually heard God's voice thundering down from Sinai with the Ten
Commandments. If we'd stood with Elijah on Mount Carmel and seen the fire
come down. And especially, if we could just sit right at Jesus' feet like
Mary did, and let Him answer these hard, thorny questions about the human
soul and the millennium and whether or not women should get to be preachers
in church.
There are a couple of good books I'd like to recommend to you — besides
the Bible itself, of course. In the masterpiece volume, Steps to Christ,
which we mentioned earlier, Ellen White goes right into this question
in her chapter, "What to Do With Doubt." Because religion is
never going to be perfect; hard teachings and close presbytery votes are
always going to be with us. Here's what she writes:
"God has never removed the possibility of
doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration." More
on that in a moment. "Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity;
while those who really desire to know the truth will find plenty of evidence
on which to rest their faith."
Would you agree with that last line? Do you want to
doubt? Well, there's plenty to doubt about. Do you want to have faith
in Jesus Christ as your everlasting Savior? There's plenty to trust in
too. It's all on what you choose to do.
This same writer then wonders with us what would happen if all truth were
just plain easy and simple and obvious. What if it read like a kindergarten
primer? Here's what she says:
"If it [the Bible] contained no account
of God but that which we could easily comprehend; if His greatness and
majesty could be grasped by finite minds, then the Bible would not bear
the unmistakable credentials of divine authority. The very grandeur and
mystery of the themes presented should inspire faith in it as the word
of God."
In other words, God is great and good and glorious
and powerful — but He's also a mystery. Would we want Him to NOT be, in
some ways, a mystery? With our limited IQs, especially our limited spiritual
IQs, that might be rather troubling if we figured out everything in the
first six months. This writer adds one more thought for our consideration:
"If it were possible for created beings
to attain to a full understanding of God and His works, then, having reached
this point, there would be for them no further discovery of truth, no
growth in knowledge, no further development of mind or heart. God would
no longer be supreme; and man, having reached the limit of knowledge and
attainment, would cease to advance." Then she adds: "Let us
thank God that it is not so."
So friend, are there things in the Bible that you don't
understand? That really isn't bad news — as long as you have a decent
grasp of John 3:16. Are there doctrines you don't fully comprehend? Don't
let your heart be troubled, as long as it's especially not troubled over
Jesus' promise in John 14 to come again and take you home with Him.
A lady called just last week to discuss with one of us a teaching we shared
about death and the resurrection. And she very sweetly said: "You
know, in the church I grew up in, that's taught a different way."
And she was especially interested because her own son, just 33 years old,
had recently passed away. So this was very important. And here were two
opposing teachings, both of them buttressed by Bible verses and logic.
They couldn't both be right? Where do we turn? Well, friend, I guess we
turn to the prayer closet, and we thank God that His greatness surpasses
our finite minds. And we thank Him that, regardless of doctrine, we KNOW
His Son is the Resurrection and the Life.
In another terrific book, entitled The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey
punctures a hole in the thought that if we could just SEE Christ's workings
up close, and actually HEAR His Words, that all of our doubts would disappear.
Did they disappear in Jesus' day? Were there doubters back then? Were
there doctrinal fights going on in 31 A.D. Sure there were. In fact, sometimes
faith is actually WEAKENED when we don't have to reach out on occasion
into the darkness beyond the limits of our brain power. There were great
EVIDENCES for His Messiahship, but Christ didn't always offer up easy
DEMONSTRATIONS of it; in fact, in Matthew 16 He condemned the critics
of His day with their shallow demands for proof, proof, proof, and signs
and wonders and fireworks. Here's what Yancey writes:
"The feeding of the five thousand"
— that's in Matthew 14 — "illustrates why Jesus, with all the supernatural
powers at His command, showed such ambivalence toward miracles. They attracted
crowds and applause, yes, but rarely encouraged repentance and long-term
faith. He was bringing a hard message of obedience and sacrifice, not
a sideshow for gawkers and sensation-seekers." Then he adds this
very insightful line: "Although faith may produce miracles, miracles
do not necessary produce faith."
Now, friend, I thank God for the Bible's stories of
miracles, and for the modern-day ones too. They do help strengthen our
faith. I'm glad for good teachers who can plainly explain Bible truth,
and even maybe for someone who might receive heaven-sent visions to help
clarify what we should believe.
But you know, the testimony of the Bible is that God is actually seeking
people who are ready to grow up, to have mature faith. People who will
trust in God when there ISN'T a miracle. Men and women who will believe
God answers prayer, even when it appears at the moment like He isn't answering
THEIR prayer. And . . . maybe He is seeking for people who will rejoice
in the truths they DO know, and not get too worried or lose their faith
if there are perhaps truths they don't yet fully grasp. When the winds
of doubt blow and mysteries loom before us, these people are able to cheerfully
say, "I don't know the answer to that one, but let me tell the good
news I DO know the answer to! And boy, is it good news!"
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