What role does doubt play in your life? Do you think of it as something to push aside and ignore or do you pursue your doubts to get answers? In this episode we examine the role of doubt for Christians, avoiding both extremes of refusing to engage with doubt as well as obsessing on it. Our goal is to face doubt honestly and ask God for help as we do the hard work of getting good answers.
Links:
- See Sean Kelly’s Off Script on Resting from Work
- Apologetics Class podcast episodes (on Restitutio)
- Releveant.com articles on doubt
- Unbelievable podcast with Justin Brierley
- William Lane Craig’s apologetics site: ReasonableFaith.org
- Craig Blomberg’s Historical Reliability of the Gospels
- Tim Keller’s book Reasons for God and Making Sense of God
- Intro music: “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
“..cause you’ve never ran up the stairs!”…tsssssssss dyamn! Rose is a bOss SoulPrano! Very insightful and animated podcast. Love it!
Thank you for another stimulating podcast! I won’t go into it all here, but had it not been for role doubt has played in my life, it’s unlikely I would even be one of your regular listeners.
This episode triggered something I’ve pondered for a long time: I like to think of faith as being blind but not deaf.
What I mean is that faith isn’t *merely* a blind leap in the dark. But it *is* a blind leap, otherwise it wouldn’t be faith. It would be…sight. One of the differences between presumption and faith is that faith is a leap based on what God has *said*.
When my kids were younger I tried to illustrate this to them by having them sit on the top of their bunk bed, one at a time. I asked them if they thought I was strong enough to catch them if they jumped. Of course, they were sure I was. Then I said, “What if I asked you to close your eyes, and then said, ‘Jump, and I’ll catch you’? Would you do it?”
“Sure, Daddy.”
“OK, I’m going to ask you to close your eyes. Can you see me?”
“No.”
“But you can still hear me. And you can tell by my voice that I’m down here ready to catch you, right?”
“Yes,” a little more quietly.
“Now I don’t want you to peek, OK?”
“OK.”
Pause…and then slowly, “Christi, without opening your eyes I want you to jump into my arms. I promise I will catch you.”
After just a bit of hesitation an her part, it was thrilling to see my little girl demonstrate her trust in my promise and my strength by taking the short blind leap into my arms.
On a small scale, that’s the faith of Abraham.