Joshua SciarrinoLast name; “Sure-Reno”

Doubt is a Godly thing not sinFiled Under: Jesus Stuff

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The Double Standard

I watched the movie Religulous and Bill Maher says “I don’t preach certainty, my Gospel is that of doubt, I just don’t know”. In some ways, after watching the movie, I think it’s very hypocritical of him. Throughout the movie he isn’t playing devil’s advocate, he is a devil’s advocate. What I mean is. He believes the opposite of the Christian/any religious dogma. That is where his certainty lies, in anti-religious beliefs. If he were preaching doubt as gospel, then he’d doubt even his own thoughts. Doubting evolution, doubting creationism (he does), doubting as all aspects of beliefs, even atheism/naturalism.

I say this because Bill Maher isn’t trying to bring doubt to all, just to the religious communities. Which is fine, I have no qualms with this because any honest religious person (of any faith) will admit to doubt in their belief system. But I think if I were preaching a ‘gospel of doubt’, I’d doubt everyone and everything, not just one sect of belief systems (the religious crowd).

Why not doubt everyone who speaks and has an opinion. If someone says “Krishna did this”, why not doubt the sources and bring criticism to them. Why not doubt the law of gravity? Doubt doesn’t disprove something but it causes you to think (at least me…) critically about a topic and look at more than one side (your current side).

Doubt is healthy and Godly

Over the past 6-10 months, I’ve come to embrace this. I’ve come from accepting the reformed doctrines (Protestant and Pentecostal churches) where certainty is creed, yet it’s not Scripture. Where you can “know” your after-life destination. Yet Scripture isn’t as plain. Scripture is a combination of many books, from many authors. To say something is ‘plainly laid out’ is a difficult opinion to defend since it’s 66 different books with 66+ different intentions (by the author) and different cultures than today. I’m not saying Christians can’t be certain, I’m saying certainty isn’t reality, nor idealism. Love is. Love is perfect, yet knowledge is partial (1 Cor. 13:8-13). To say you have the ‘more perfect’ doctrine or 100% certainty in a topic is arrogant and prideful. Because ‘we look through a mirror dimly’ (vs. 12).

We can’t fully know anything but we can try our very best to figuring out things. But knowing that things are imperfect (our mind, our information, everything….is IN PART) is a humbling feeling. I can say “I believe in Christ…” with conviction but that is based off of partial information/knowledge.

Certainty isn’t ideal plainly because it’s not Scripture and I think Scripture is a good model to live by (only when the concepts of Scripture are looked at within context of everything it was birthed from; Scripture takes a little time to understand, looking at things at face value is almost impossible to correctly interpret).

Certainty isn’t reality because through Church History doubt is seen through ‘Saints’ and Christians throughout the existence of the Christian religion. Mother Teresa had her doubts God was even there, hearing her. Today most would say (religious or not) something special was surrounding her life, be it God, strange fame, or whatever but something above the norm happened to her life. To me, I say, although she doubted God was absolutely with her throughout her life, since the fruit of her work was so impacting for good.

No where in Scripture does it say one needs to be 100% certain of Christ to go to heaven. Faith as a mustard seed… is Scripture. Only believe is Scripture. Trust is faith. If you can trust a little, you’ll fall safely into His arms. A little, the size of the mustard seed. If your following someone…that is a lot of trust, even if your complaining along the way. You might say “I though we needed to turn right at the last intersection” but the truth is His way is perfect. We may not understand everything, we will have our doubts (since we don’t understand His intentions), but we are following… and that is important and counts for everything.

Avoid the extremes

Obviously, the more trust, the better but blind faith isn’t always smart. Because we look through the mirror dimly. If you can’t think for yourself, then you are in the path of danger. Christ has given you a brain. If you “hear the voice of God” say kill someone. Don’t take this in blind faith, use your brain. Obviously it’s difficult to follow something ’spiritual’ like God but everything is spiritual because you are a spiritual person, so use your mind, heart, and wisdom to consider all options and know why you made your decision. Have a reason for your ‘belief’ but be open to correction and be open to being 100% wrong in your beliefs because YOU DON’T HAVE A PERFECT MIND and you might’ve missed something. I’m guilty of all of this and it’s why I’m posting it.

Have faith! Doubt healthy! And think about things wisely!