How Doubt Can Strengthen Our Faith
Who amongst us has never experienced doubt in our faith? If we are being honest with ourselves, I think that most, if not all, would admit some type of religious doubt in their lives. After all, the Bible doesn’t give us every answer we desire. Questions about God, suffering, prayer, and countless others can go unanswered for a lifetime.
What does doubt actually do, and what happens if it is left unchecked?
Doubt can surface in many ways. For some, it has been there since the beginning of their faith, a nagging thought, or frightening question that remains in the back of their mind. For others, it can suddenly begin, seemingly destabilizing their comfortable conceptions of faith that had carried them thus far. New life experiences, growing older, or intellectual curiosity can poke uncomfortable holes and expose weak points of our intellectual framework that was once comfortable.
Oftentimes, Christians face immense anxiety and guilt when faced with the acknowledgment of their religious doubt. This happens, largely in part, because doubt is often misunderstood as simply a lack of faith and instead becomes a moral failure. This way of thinking about doubt has led to a damaging precedent for Christians who experience doubt. Instead of bringing their questions into the life of the church, or confronting them head on, they often feel shame; causing them to withdraw because of guilt. What if there was a different way to understand doubt? What if, instead of understanding doubt as a sign of spiritual frailty, we see doubt as an invitation to deepen our faith?
I would like to suggest that doubt often is the presence of unresolved questions as it relates to our faith. Rather than an obstacle, doubt can be a catalyst to taking the claim of the gospel more seriously. At its best, doubt invites us to grow in our faith, moving from a partial understanding to a deeper and more meaningful understanding. Doubt invites us to take our faith seriously, negotiate what we believe, understand why we believe it, and push ourselves to learn how it fits into our lives or understand how our lives need to change.
However, that is not to say that doubt can never be harmful. While there is nothing inherently wrong with doubt, doubt left unexamined can be a dangerous place to remain. If we let doubt take hold and root itself in pessimism, cynicism, and apathy, we become less willing to wrestle with our faith at all. And there will be moments where our doubt must be rightfully set aside as we remain in faithfulness. But, none of this means that our doubts are inherently sinful.
The Christian life calls us to pray genuinely, read the scriptures, seek discernment, and ask questions. If we approach our faith in this way, then doubt can become a natural part of the maturation of our faith.
Yet, even as we are seeking answers, it cannot be overstated that not all of our questions and doubts will be resolved. One of the most important realizations is that the Christian life is inherently built on things that we will never fully understand and mysteries beyond our comprehension. If we had answers to all of our questions and had complete understanding, there would be no reason for faith. After all, who needs trust and faith when they already have certainty?
It is in this tension between our questions, our faith, and our lack of complete understanding that doubt can become an invitation instead of an obstacle.
Faith that is never questioned can be more comfortable than engaging and wrestling with our doubts. However, religious comfort is not the same thing as religious maturity. In this way, doubt becomes our teacher, reminding us that we are finite and reminding us of our complete dependence on God.
This way of understanding doubt is not foreign to the world of the Bible. Scripture tackles the reality of doubt head-on.
For instance, the apostle Paul writes on the limits of human understanding. In the purview of divine power and understanding. He writes:
“For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. [...] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Corinthians 13:9–10, 12 NRSVUE).
Paul’s writing on the limits of human understanding provides us an important framework for understanding doubt. Of course, doubt exists because there are things we know, things we do not know yet, and things that lie beyond our ability to ever know or understand. The goal of our faith is not to eliminate every doubt with certainty, but to live faithfully as Christians with the questions we cannot answer yet and the questions we can only know when we meet God face to face. Paul invites us to recognize that we are creatures who truly know God, even if our knowledge is not exhaustive or complete.
Paul uses the face to face imagery intentionally here. He likens faith to a deeply personal relationship. Who could say that we know everything about our friends, loved ones, or spouses? Does that mean that we do not know them, or are not known by them? Despite all we know about our loved ones, it is precisely because there is so much still yet to discover in our relationships that we seek to grow deeper in love and trust with one another. Why do we not subject ourselves and our loved ones to the same scrutiny we subject our faith to? The incompleteness of our knowledge of God is precisely the adventure of faith.
Finally, there is perhaps no better place in the Bible to explore the relationship between faith and doubt than Ecclesiastes. The book opens with words from the Teacher: “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 NRSVUE). Throughout the book, the Teacher wrestles with the doubt of meaninglessness, transience, and the uncertainty of life. The Teacher often reminds the reader that much of life does not make sense. He writes about work, pleasure, injustice, and the limits of human wisdom and the book refuses to resolve every question that it raises. However, it reminds us that a faithful Christian life does not mean pretending that there are simple answers to the mysteries of life. Instead, the very inclusion of it in our sacred scriptures suggests our faith is meant to meet our doubts with humility and grace.
In the epilogue, the narrator provides a balanced view, noting the importance of wisdom, while ultimately prioritizing following God’s laws regardless of our doubts. The Bible gives permission for these questions with no good answers. The tension between the Teacher’s doubt and the epilogue’s call to faithfulness is part of what makes Ecclesiastes so compelling. Ultimately, biblical faith does not require the elimination of questions or doubts; it invites us to bring them into our relationship with God.
As we continue to deepen our relationship with God and address our doubts, let us pray the words we find in the gospel: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 NRSVUE).
