Biblically Evaluating Huff Post Religion: “6 Things Christians Should Stop Saying To People Who Doubt”

Over at the liberal Huffington Post there’s an article titled “6 Things Christians Should Stop Saying To People Who Doubt” written yesterday by one of their associate editor name Carol Kuruvilla.  I’m struck at how many millennials are in the leadership and staff at Huff Po.  This girl just graduated college in 2011.  There’s nothing in of itself wrong with youth but I think sometimes their immaturity shows itself (note: I’m a Millennial myself).  In this particular piece the author wrote clearly what the intent of her post is:

here are 6 things I wish Christians would stop saying to people who are doubting their faith.

I’m sure some Christians can sometime say the wrong thing to those who doubt.  Some of the things mentioned in the article also made me cringe.  Though I cringe at time for different reasons than the reason the writer presented.  For the Christian the thing that’s most important is being biblical.  So in my post I want to biblically evaluate this Huff Po Religion piece.  I do so because she’s specifically targeting Christians and Christians must be biblical in how they engage with others.

1.) Huff Po: “Some Christians respond to doubt by telling people to pray more, or read a specific Bible verse…What use is it to tell a someone who is doubting to “just pray” when they’re still deconstructing what the word “prayer” even means?  Often, doubters are familiar with all of these tactics. They’ve heard it all before”

Response:

• I think Christians must not downplay the role of prayers in dealing with doubt.
• Likewise I don’t think Christians must downplay the Word of God either in dealing with doubt.  Some people going through think that if they see the miraculous like the dead rising then they will securely believe in God.  But that’s not what Jesus taught.   In Luke 16 Jesus gave a parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  The rich man wants his brothers to believe by having God send Lazaus back from the dead to testify to his brothers.  Think about the evidential value of something like that!  Yet in verse 31 Jesus said “ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”  The Scriptures, even with the Law of Moses and the Prophets, is much more powerfully self-evidencing than our Huff Po writer realizes.
• I also think just because doubters are familiar with these “tactics” and heard them before don’t mean that there’s never a place for Christians to gently, lovingly yet firmly emphasize the role of prayer and the use of Scripture.  Think about how ridiculous this argument is in other sphere.  Should dentists not tell their patients to brush their teeth just because the patient say they heard it all before the importance of brushing their teeth?  Our writer’s soundbite is profound as it might seem at first.

2.) ” There is nothing wrong with doubting. Avoid these kinds of accusations at all costs.”

Response:

• The trajectory of doubting is contrary to faith.  But Biblically is there “nothing wrong” with doubting?  I think the Biblical data suggests otherwise.  It is not consider a virtue.  For instance in Matthew 14:31 we read the following: “Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  See also Jesus’ words in Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:23 and Luke 24:38.
• Doubt is also described negatively by others in the Bible such as Paul in Romans 14:23 and James in James 1:6.
• I think Christians handling those with doubt should conduct themselves gently and lovingly.  Yet that doesn’t mean there’s never a place to show that biblically speaking there is something wrong with doubting.

3.) Concerning the saying ““You just want to have sex / drink alcohol, etc,” the writer said “These statements are also dismissive of the experience of doubt as a whole, since they make it seem that the questioning person knows in his or her ‘heart of hearts’ that God is real, but is just finding an excuse to live the way he or she wants to live.”

Response:

• Romans 1 does teach that there is a relationship between sin and man not submitting to the Biblical God.
• The Huff Po writer does not like the idea that “the questioning person knows in his or her ‘heart of hearts’ that God is real.”  But the idea that people know the true God and supresses that knowledge is biblical.  It’s taught in Romans 1:18-19, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.”  The Huff Po writer might not like it, but I don’t think it’s her place to say a Christian can’t say it, especially since it is biblical.
• Again, if the Bible teaches what it teaches in Romans 1, then that means there’s a proper time and place for Christians to confront the sins of certain individuals that want their sinful lifestyle who are willing to change their worldview to excuse themselves.

4.) “The most important thing is to see doubt for what it really is ― an invitation to embark on the greatest spiritual quest of your life.”

Response:

• Again, see response 2.  Biblically speaking, doubt is not necessarily all a great wonderful adventure.
• Now, I do grant that God can use seasons of doubt in people’s lives.  But I don’t think biblically speaking it is this great invitation as the author presents it as it is.

Reading this post makes me want to write a post in the far future on Christians helping those with doubt.  For starters, I’ve written a post titled “Apostasy and a Biblical View of Life’s “Problems,” something I wrote in light of my experience as a Pastor in seeing how apostates often have a poor understanding of life’s problem and Christian living.

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