DOUBT VERSUS UNBELIEF

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”  (Hebrews 3:12 NIV)

The Greek words for doubt carry the idea of uncertainty. They have the connotation of being unsettled, of lacking a firm conviction. Doubt is not the opposite of faith but the opportunity of faith -- the growing pains of an eager, seeking spirit. The true enemy of faith is unbelief, but doubt is a necessary leg of the journey of faith. It stands at the edge of past understandings and stretches painfully for new frontiers. To doubt, then, is to be human…

Most of us need to reinstate that word doubt as a friend, not an enemy. But there’s another word we need to examine: unbelief. We might say that doubt asks questions; unbelief refuses to hear answers. The former is hard miles on a good journey; the latter is the dead end, a refusal to travel any farther…

Christian writer Mark Littleton found a simple formula [for dealing with doubt]. It goes this way: “Turn your doubts to questions. Turn your questions to prayers. Turn your prayers to God.” 

-- David Jeremiah in “Keep the Faith: How to Stand Strong in a World Turned Upside Down” 

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THE SADDEST THING

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”  (Romans 1:21)

What use is it to us to hear it said of a man that he has thrown off the yoke, that he does not believe there is a God to watch over his actions, that he reckons himself the sole master of his behavior, and that he does not intend to give an account of it to anyone but himself?  Does he think that in that way he will have straightway persuaded us to have complete confidence in him, to look to him for consolation, for advice, and for help, in the vicissitudes of life?  Do such men think that they have delighted us by telling us that they hold our souls to be nothing but a little wind and smoke -- and by saying it in conceited and complacent tones?  Is that a thing to say blithely?  Is it not rather a thing to say sadly -- as if it were the saddest thing in the world? 

-- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) in “Pensee”

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