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Saturday, January 21, 2017

P2 Distinguishing Between Doubt And Unbelief In Matters Of The Will, The Mind And Moral Character

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John 7:1-5 "After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. 2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him."

Introduction and review:

In our last post we began reflecting on the distinctions between doubt and unbelief with respect to how our mind and will relates to or rejects truth, evidences for Christianity and the Lord Jesus Christ. We had reflected on the specific episode of Jesus' brothers not believing in Him during the course of His earthly ministry. We also considered other passages of scripture that compared people like Peter and Judas Iscariot as respective representatives of doubt (Peter) and unbelief (Judas Iscariot). As we closed out the last post, we had noted the following:

1. Doubt wrestles with the truth about Jesus; whereas unbelief wrestles against the truth about Jesus


2. Doubt seeks for better reasons to hold to faith while unbelief seeks after more excuses to reject the faith


Doubt will wrestle and, along with faith, attain greater conviction about the truth of God's Word. Unbelief on the other hand will look for greater excuses and justify why it should not nor cannot accept the truth. 

So we've seen that the distinction between doubt and faith involves matters of the will and matters associated with the mind. With those distinctions made thus far, we want to close out this series by considering how both can be distinguished in the realm of one's moral character development. In other words, doubt or unbelief is not only an issue of the mind and the will but also a matter of one's character. 

3. Doubts are temporary and desired to be overcome whereas Unbelief is chronic and prefers to dismiss matters of faith and truth.

Here we deal with doubt and faith as issues of one's moral character. In the quote we considered in the last post post, J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig included the functions of both doubt and unbelief to indicate the character of a person. They note in their book: "Philosophical Foundations For A Christian Worldview", page 94:

"If doubt, understood as a character trait, helps one avoid naivete, then it is an intellectual virtue. If it produces cynicism and a loss of faith, then it is an intellectual vice. Wisdom requires a balanced perspective."

Whether we are talking about doubt or unbelief - it must be observed that either one never develops in a vacuum. There is always a context in which doubt or unbelief can be present. Whichever we speak about, doubt or unbelief, both derive from within a person. In situations where people are doubting or operating in full-fledged unbelief - the issue has to do with how they perceive certain evidences, truth, the Lord and His Word.  

To illustrate, author Tim Keller notes how doubt can function like a vaccination in the Christian life. A vaccine of course is a weakened version of the full-fledged illness. The point of vaccinations are to inoculate the patient so that their immune system can fight off the full-version of a given virus. Per Keller's illustration, doubts act like vaccinations. We hear certain objections or perhaps experience life's challenges and disappointments. We question God and wrestle with what we know by faith versus what we are experiencing. 

In so far as we have given ourselves to regular Bible-reading, prayer, time with God's people and other spiritual disciplines will determine  how well our faith weathers the storms. The Bible indicates that God uses both testings and spiritual disciplines to develop our moral virtue as Christians (see Romans 8:28; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-8; 2 Peter 1:3-11). 

When we compare this to unbelief, no matter how much evidence is presented - the unbeliever will always look for an excuse to "argue" and "bat-away" the evidence. In the instance of Jesus' brothers, they had a front row seat to behold miracles, acts of kindness and to even hear Jesus' sermons. Nevertheless, their unbelieving state issued forth excuses and refused to allow faith a place at the table of their heart.

Such situations can be unsettling. We may wonder how anyone can even become a Christian - since the Bible indicates that all people are born into this state of chronic unbelief due to inheriting sin from Adam (see Ephesians 2:1-4; Romans 5:11-21). The answer can only be found in the working of the Holy Spirit, the hearing of God's Word and the relative state of the human heart to the truth of the Gospel. Wherever there is the Holy Spirit, God's Word and a willing heart - expect change. 

Doubts too are overcome in much the same manner. The Christian must ever be exposed to the hearing of the Word, open to the Spirit's illuminating work in their heart and resolve to remain open to the truths of faith while working through their doubts (see Romans 10:17). We know that Jesus' brothers did go from unbelief to robust faith as seen for example in James (see 1 Corinthians 15:7). We also know too that, like Peter, when doubts arise, they can be overcome in proportion to how much one gives themselves to the hearing of the Word, openness of heart and the Spirit's working. 

Final thoughts
Today and last post we explored the important distinctions between doubt and unbelief. We also noted how unbelief can be overcome and how doubts can be defeated. We have witnessed the following distinctions between doubt and unbelief:

1. Doubt wrestles with the truth about Jesus; whereas unbelief wrestles against the truth about Jesus

2. Doubt seeks for better reasons to hold to faith while unbelief seeks after more excuses to reject the faith

3. Doubts are temporary and desired to be overcome whereas Unbelief is chronic and prefers to dismiss matters of faith and truth.