This week, I find myself in a strange place. I’ve got to take doubt seriously, not because I think it is a particularly wholesome virtue that will always lead a person to truth. It is because doubt has been elevated to an equal place of authority–and that is dangerous. But while I’m concerned that doubt is taking on a life of its own within some very organized circles of the church, I need to be honest about my own experience with doubt.
At one point in my mid-20′s, I wondered why I was a Christian and not a Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist…and did it even matter? I sought answers to this and other questions, and my time in the scriptures was supplemented with readings in apologetics. I recall learning Norm Geisler’s 12 Proofs for Christianity at an apologetics conference in the Chicago area. At this conference I got to meet and interact with some of the best in the field (though they probably don’t remember me, they had a huge impact on my life). I’ll never forget the opportunity to meet and talk with James White, lunch with Norm Geisler, time getting to know Marcia Montenegro and Ron Rhodes, and Don Veinot’s memorable presentation on the evangelistic purpose of apologetics, illustrated so well with Styx’ “Show Me the Way.”
My doubts, by the time I attended this conference, had mostly been assuaged. But there was still some lingering tension with knowledge of God. How did I know God, in the explicitly biblical sense, even existed? Though 12 Proofs for Christianity proved not completely satisfying, they were helpful in many ways. But they didn’t quite address my need to know how I could trust the Bible. I learned quite a bit that day, and I had an inkling as to how my mind was being shaped to think about my relationship with God.
In addition to all the great arguments I learned from these top-notch apologists that day, I eventually learned that God speaks for himself–and he did. Jesus walked the earth for roughly 33 years with a 3 year period of ministry before his ascension. This we know through the Bible: the Gospels and other passages bear witness to this truth. God came to us as a man and chose to leave a record of these events in the words of scripture. God has spoken for himself and his Spirit testifies to this in our own authentic walk with God.
So why do we pit Jesus against the Bible? Why this incessant debate over elevating one over the other? John 5:39 says,
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39-40 ESV)
This verse is used time and time again to argue that an emphasis on scripture to know the Jesus we are to follow is the equivalent of worshiping the Bible. Yet even this verse depends on an appeal to scripture to know something Jesus actually said. It’s a historical record confirmed to us as true through the ministry of the Spirit. Doubt, beyond that, stems from skepticism rooted in the presumption of personal authority. This passage in John isn’t intended to be a deterrent from authoritative appeals to the word, but to realize that our eternal life is found in the person and work of Christ. Jesus saves and he’s made himself known. It’s a strange false dilemma to suggest we follow Jesus without a need for the words of scripture, words to which Jesus often made authoritative appeals.
Doubt, like anything else, can be and often is used by God to draw us closer to him. But doubt that over-inflates our sense of ourselves and undermines the authority of scripture is a weapon in the hands of the enemy. And for those who believe scripture to be epistemologically unimportant in our relationship with Christ, you have created a false dilemma that needs to seriously be reconsidered.
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