There will always be doubt
Doubt was and will always be one of life’s challenges. Our world has never been without the temptation to doubt.
In the beginning, we find the snake’s question to Eve: “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden” (Gen 3:1). This question was intended to suggest something along the lines of: “Is God really so nasty in that He does not allow you to eat the fruit from all the trees?” With this question the Devil created the perception that God is not good and sowed doubt in her heart.
The Devil even approached Jesus to plant a seed of doubt when he tempted Him: “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.” After having spent forty days and nights in the desert without food, the Devil tempted a fragile and hungry Jesus with doubt. It was a temptation to go for a shortcut and to tempt God to prove his care for his Son and his Son’s mission.
The world has never been without doubt: doubt in God’s goodness, love and His involvement in this disastrous world and in our own endangered personal lives. People usually ask many “why” questions when things go wrong and events happen which is seemingly against the belief in an almighty and loving God.
Serious doubt about God
Doubt tends to grow and become even more than only a question about God’s character and involvement in our daily struggle. It becomes a question about His existence. “Is there really a God?” “Does God exist?”
As the world around you becomes “darker” and when all seems to go wrong, it is then that serious doubt threatens you. During Israel’s exile when they lost their country, Jerusalem and their temple, they experienced enormous doubt whether Jahwe, their covenant God, really existed or if Marduk, the god of the Babylonians, was not the only real god.
Today in our world doubt is increasingly surrounding us. There are three main “storm drivers” today that are busy creating doubt, namely:
- A secular world where people are impressed with science and human achievements. Someone said: “There is no window anymore in our earthly house that looks up to God but there is also no need for it.”
- In a post modern world there is no “grand truth” coming from above, from God. All truth is relative and everybody can decide for themselves what they believe to be the truth.
- In a global world where all religions have to live together it will be an offense to claim Jesus Christ, God’s Holy Son, to be the only truth.
In confusing end times doubt will increase as never before.
Asking for a sign of proof
During Jesus’ ministry on earth, the Jewish people often asked Him for a sign to prove himself. Even in Nazareth, where He had been brought up, Jesus said: “You will also tell me to do here in my home town the same things you heard were done in Capernaum.”
During the history of the church, the church has often tried to put forward proof of the existence of God. These efforts were always in vain for God is not to be proved by signs or our convincing arguments.
The sign of Passover
Jesus offered them only one sign which we are going to celebrate this week: the Passover truth.
Paul wrote to the Romans about the centre of God’s truth and our beliefs: “The Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures. It is about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: as to his humanity, he was born a descendant of David; as to his divine holiness, he was showed with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death.” (1:2,3).
To the human mind, this sign of proof is an unthinkable and unexpected way for a god to approach people. Paul wrote about the crucified Christ: “(it is) a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles”(2 Cor 1:23). Imagine: God born from a virgin, lived in our world, died on a cross for our sins and was raised after three days.
Although it is unthinkable, unacceptable and strange, it is the real coming and revelation of God to our world.
I want to make five remarks:
- All people are sinners and Jesus’ death and resurrection happened solely to deliver them from sin and to reconcile them with God. People do not want to admit their sin and their need for a saviour but we must forever be gratefully for the abundance of God’s saving grace.
- The decision of God to send Jesus Christ, his Holy Son, was not something designed in short time. God decided it before creation, from eternity ( Eph 1:4-7, 1 Cor 2:7, 1 Pt 1:20). Paul wrote to the Romans that Jesus’ humanity, born as a descendant of David, was promised by the prophets and written in the Holy Scriptures. In Acts 28 Paul also tried to convince the Jews in Rome about Jesus. He addressed them from morning till evening, referring to the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. Jesus himself explained to Cleopas and his friend on their journey to Emmaus what was said about himself in all the Scriptures beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all prophets.” (Luke 24: 25). For a Christian, the entire Old Testament is a witness to the truth of Jesus.
- By being raised from death by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was “shown (made known, revealed) with great power to be the Son of God” (Rom 1:4). The resurrection of Jesus was the proof that Jesus was also God the Creator. That everything claimed by Him was true. That the Devil, darkness and sin was conquered and that salvation, with all its implications, is a reality.
- This unexpected and unthinkable truth that Jesus offered as sign and proof of himself as God, can only be a reality and a fact of life through the work of the Holy Spirit. On the “how” question of Nicodemus in the dark hours of the night, Jesus replied: “The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8). The new birth is from start to finish a miracle of the Holy Spirit. When the apostles were brought before the Council and High Priest they replied: “We are witness to these things (God raised Jesus from death) – we and the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to those who obey Him.”(Acts 5:32). The Holy Spirit testifies and proves on a very real and personal way the truth of the resurrected Christ in a Spirit-filled Christian’s life.
- Paul informed the Corinthians about all his sufferings and hardship which were to the extent that: “We felt that the death sentence had been passed on us. But this happened so that we should rely, not on ourselves, but only on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1:9). His experiences in his difficult journey was: “From such terrible dangers of death He saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in Him that He will save us again” (v 10). Faith is solidly founded in a God who raises the dead. He raised His Holy Son, Jesus Christ and this must be a victorious reality for a Christian through the Holy Spirit. Paul said about his dreadful experiences: “…He saved us, and will save us again.” The resurrected Christ rescues his people with miraculous interventions and He will never stop doing it. God’s miracles are also signs of the truth of the resurrected Christ. The Devil is always busy to obscure God and his involvement in a Christian’s life. Therefore, we fail to spot the many wonders God did and the wonders He is constantly busy doing for us.
As the Devil and this world, which is ruled by the Devil, design and generate doubt on a massive scale in the end times, you have to foster the following truth that:
- A born-again Christian is nothing less than a daily miracle of God.
- The baptism in the Holy Spirit, with the constant speaking in tongues and the joint working of the Holy Spirit, is your experience and evidence of God’s presence in your life. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals God to you and it is also the Holy Spirit who makes you inwardly strong. Doubt kills your faith – faith without which no one can do God’s will (Heb 11:6).
- We must not fail to notice God’s loving, personal and close interventions in our lives.
God is greater than you can think and He is closer to you than you expect.
Enjoy Passover.
Your friend,
Jan Hattingh
thank you Prof.Hattingh
Most of the times i feel like im insulting God, when I doubt His existence and also doubt if He even called me to the ministry but thanks God, that through His Multitude of Mercies, He sustains us.
Amen