A Review of: Faith & Doubt by John Ortberg

A lot of my recent reading has been on the subject of doubt.  After finishing The Atheist who Believes In God by Frank Schaeffer I moved on to a more organized approach by a well known Christian writer, John Ortberg.  

Mr. Ortberg’s work is far more focused and clearly he is a minister with a hope to help Christians who struggle with doubt.  The Book, Faith and Doubt makes it clear that if you have faith, you have doubt.  He goes so far as to say you cannot have faith and certainty.  Near the end of the work he talks about holding up his fist and asking people if they believe he has a twenty dollar bill in his hand.  At that point the people around him have no way of being certain what is in his hand.  Some of those on lookers will have faith that the minister has $20 in that fist, because he said he did and they have faith that a minister would not lie.  Some around the minister might be equally sure that the minister is lying.  Maybe they have known some ministers well, in their past and know not to trust them.  Then the Reverend Ortberg says to those who have faith in him, “I am now going to destroy your faith in me,” and he opens his hand and shows them what the fist contains.  You see, once you know something, once you have seen with your eyes, once you are absolutely certain, you no longer have any need for faith.

When it comes to the claims of the Bible, we cannot know for certain that the claims are true, just as we cannot know for certain that the claims are untrue.  We can have an opinion.  We can have a conviction.  We can believe so strongly that it feels like a fact, but in the end, honest thinking people know that we cannot know if the those Biblical stories are true, or untrue.

Another powerful point in the book Faith and Doubt is that there is a difference in faith and faithfulness.  The author gives an example of his marriage.  I have been married 42 years so I could identify with this example.  The author writes that on his wedding day he was 95% sure that he was marrying the right person.  He was almost totally sure that he was marrying for the right reasons, marrying the right person, and that his bride was almost totally sure as she approached their wedding day.  But almost sure, pretty darn sure, is not the same thing as being certain. beyond all doubt.  When you consider that about half of all marriages end in divorce and most people getting married also were pretty sure they were marrying the right person, well, you get the point.

But not being absolutely, beyond all doubt, 100% certain did not prevent the couple from taking their marriage vows.  They could pledge to love, honor, and care for one another in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer, and they could promise to forsake all others without being 100% sure they were perfect for one another? 

HOW?

They could make promises to love one another forever, even when they were not 100% sure, because they were making a personal commitment to be faithful to one another.   

Being faithful to your spouse does not require you to be sure, it only requires you to intend to be faithful.  Intention fills the gap between being pretty sure and being unsure.  In a similar way, when we recite the Nicene Creed and we say that we believe in Christ who “came down from heaven,” or if we say we “believe in the resurrection of the body” when we actually have some doubts about that stuff, well, we can still say we believe it, if we are willing to fill in the space between pretty sure, and unsure with our faithful commitment to Christ.   

The author points out that not being absolutely certain, is not the same thing as having no reasons to believe.  Like getting married, our faith in the truth of some part of the Biblical story might be 95% sure with just a few elements of doubt. If you are honest you will have to admit that there are things that are unknowable on this side of death’s door.  After we pass through death’s door, if there is an afterlife, we may know that for sure, but we will have no way to communicate that certain knowledge to those still living.  If there is nothing on the other side of death’s door, the atheists will be right, but they will never know for certain that they are right, because they will be nothing but broken meat computers.

One rule of thumb that the author shared needs to be shared again, and as often as possible:  When something is UNKNOWABLE, then it is pointless to argue about it.  If there is a question that cannot be answered on this side of death’s door, then what we should do is not decided.  Don’t decided that God exists and all the promises of the Bible are true, and don’t decided that God does not exist, and that all the promises of the Bible are untrue.  Instead, choose to do what you can to enhance this life.  Nurture relationships.  Advocate for love.  Move forward with both the faith and the doubts you carry inside of yourself.

The author points out that when faith also contains doubt that those doubts motivate the doubter to keep looking for answers.  Doubts keep us from the hubris of certainty.  We won’t presume to do God’s work for God, we won’t judge, we won’t cut heads off those who believe God hates, we won’t shun those who think differently from us, we will allow God to be God, and we will be more willing to be disciples of Christ doing what Jesus did, loving others.

I am sure I have not done this book justice.  The author is a better writer than I am and he presents his views far better than I can, but I just want you to consider reading this book.  If you want to be a atheist then this is not the book for you.  If you happen to be a human, struggling with a desire for faith but having honest doubts and misgivings, then this well might be a perfect book for you to read.

What IF I have beliefs and UN-beliefs?

There is a story in the Gospel of Mark about a man who has a grown son who has suffered from childhood with an Evil Spirit.  This Evil Spirit makes the kid fall down, flop around, foam at the mouth.  Sometimes the kid is in danger of rolling into a fire or into water, so this is a life threatening condition.

Jesus wasn’t around  so the disciples agreed to heal the boy with this Evil Spirit problem.  I’m sure they thought, “We have watched Jesus heal people, and heard the prayers he prayed, so it seems logical if we do what Jesus did we will get the same results that Jesus gets, right?  Only it didn’t happen.  A crowd had grown around the dad, the possessed boy, and the disciples, and when it was clear they were failing, well, the disciples were embarrassed, the dad was frustrated, and so the followers of Jesus started to argue and blame shift among themselves.

It is at exactly that point in the story where Jesus shows up and asks what the hubbub is about.  

The dad steps up and tells Jesus about his boy and the possession of this Evil Spirit and then the father says something the Jesus found Off Putting.

The dad asks Jesus, “IF you can do anything, please have mercy on us and do something.”

Jesus picks up on that word IF. 

IF is a doubter’s word.  We use the word IF to indicate that there is an uncertainty regarding the subject of the sentence.  We use the word IF when we are clueless about the answer to our question is going to be.

IF you have change can I borrow a quarter?

If you are the supervisor you can help me.

If is not certainty. 

If is not being sure. 

If is not a believer word.

Jesus reacts to the dad’s use of the word IF.  “What do you mean IF I can help you?  ALL things are possible for him who believes.”

The dad’s reply is immediate.  “I do believe.  Help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24

As for me, that describes me perfectly:  I am a person filled with belief, AND unbelief.  Sometimes my belief is strong, and sometimes it is weak, but there is always some unbelief lurking about. 

Most church people I run into are far less tolerant than Jesus was in this situation.  Some might say a person is unworthy to serve Christ and his church if they lack belief in some of the tenants they feel are deal breaker items of faith.

Jesus could have condemned this dad for using the word IF.  Jesus could have said, IF you have doubts then I doubt IF I will help you.  But instead of rejecting a person who has both belief and unbelief, Jesus heals the son of his Evil Spirit. 

There are other scriptures that might support Christ’s tolerance.

In I Corinthians chapter 12 Paul writes about the “gifts of the Spirit” and the passage says clearly that there are different gifts handed out, but all the gifts come from God.  Some of the gifts are gifts of service, others get the gift of messages of Wisdom, still other’s get the gift of speaking other languages, or prophesy, or interpreting these other languages, some get the gift of healing, and some get the gift of faith.

If faith is a gift from God’s Holy Spirit, then that might explain why there are some people that seem to have a strong, unshakable faith, while other’s struggle with their faith.  Everyone is not blessed with the gift of faith.  We, who were left off the list have faith, but it isn’t the sort of faith we would brag about.  I believe.  I still need help with my unbelief.

We doubters might be tempted to get off topic here.  We could get revved up over the story details.  We could say, “That Evil Spirit, sounds like epilepsy, but if God is all knowing and incarnate in Jesus then Jesus would know if it was epilepsy or not, so why is he clearly mislead into thinking this is an Evil Spirit when it is a health issue?”  We could get all stirred up by the act of healing as we poo-poo the idea that healing by just saying words seems a little like magic and magic isn’t real.

I will write about fundamentalism later, and try to address this matter, but for now, let me just say, I am skeptical of miraculous healings, but for me the point of the story is not magic, the point of the story is that Jesus wants us to help each other, even those among us who struggle with their unbelief.

WHAT ABOUT BELIEF?

What do I believe?  When my son Ryan came into our family I felt like I was blessed by God.  When I talked with someone who's baby had died in a tragic accident, I couldn't figure out what God was doing?  Where was He and how could he let this happen?  At best God is sending us mixed messages.

Sometimes I would get so angry about some wrong I would be angry at myself for bothering to believe in God.  I would tell myself that it is impossible to believe in ALL of God's traits at the same time.  

God is supposed to be:

1.  ALL knowing
2.  ALL powerful
3.  Everywhere at once  [omnipresent]
4.  Pure distilled LOVE
5.  and yet EVIL exists.

HOW can all 5 of those things be true at the same time.  I mean I could accept a loving God who wasn't all powerful.  Then I could accept that evil exists because God doesn't have the power to clobber and eliminate it.

Or I could accept that God is all powerful, and all knowing, but just not all that loving.  He has limits to what He tolerates and eventually he just gets exasperated and says, "Go to hell."

So I would struggle.  Do I believe in God, or not?

When I gave up on being a fundamentalist I felt a little better.  I was no longer expected to believe in a talking snake, like we read about in the Garden of Eden.  And I no longer had to accept a God who would place a wager with the Devil and allow Job's children to die just to test Job's faith.  

Was I an atheist then?  I thought maybe I was, since I certainly no longer accepted the 'Bible is inerrant' position I was raised to believe.  

But atheism has it's own certitudes, and the atheist beliefs are just as un-provable.  I trust science over myth, but God is not something that can be scientifically studied.  

I had a teacher in college that would say, If you can't measure it, you can't know anything about it.  Unless you can weigh something, or see how warm or cool it is, or measure it's length and width you can't know anything about it.  

So since God can't be sliced and stained, or put on a scale does that mean He does not exist?  That is what my teacher was telling me.  God is beyond or out side of the realm of things that can be proved, therefore there is no God.

Sometimes I want to believe, but science was telling me, if you can't measure it, you can't prove it is there, therefore, it isn't.  But it seemed like science was saying nothing really mattered, that sin was just an evolutionary myth developed by humans so we wouldn't eat our babies and the species would survive.  I want things to matter, for humans to have worth and value, and I know that is not a good enough reason to accept an unverifiable God, nevertheless, I am not a scientist and science was falling short for me.

I am starting to think it is wrong to believe anything on the grounds that we have insufficient evidence.    If you don't have the evidence to decide something, then what you should do is NOT Decide, don't pick, abstain, do not commit, opt for mystery, learn to live with your questions, refuse to be an affirm-er or a denier.  

Jesus said follow me, he did not say accept my arguments'

Jesus had his own doubts.  My God, why have you forsaken me?

What I am starting to realize is that  there are three kinds of belief.  

1.  One belief is what I say I believe.
2. One is what I think I believe,
3. But my core beliefs actually govern what I do.

Say a tightrope walker stretches a wire across Niagara Falls, and then he takes a wheel barrel filled with bricks and pushes it all the way across and back over Niagara Falls.  Then the tightrope walker addresses the crowds asking "Do you believe I can do that again?"  Yes yells the crowd.  The performer then asks, "Who here thinks I could put a man in this wheel barrel and push it across and back?"  Everyone believes this guy could do that, so every hand is raised.  Finally the wire walker says, "If you want to volunteer to be that man, keep your hand raised."  All the hands drop.  Would your hand stay up?

I said I believed this acrobat could wheel a man across Niagara Falls.  I thought I believed he could do it.

But it was only when I was called on to act upon my beliefs, it was only when I was asked to trust my life to this wire walker that I discovered my core belief.  I discovered that I did NOT believe wholly and without reservation in this wire walker.  I was NOT willing to trust my life to his skill.  I found out that my core belief is in gravity.  I had no doubt at all that if I were to fall from the wheel barrel that I would fall to my death.  

In this stupid parable, the wire walker could be science, or the tightrope walker could be God, but it seems I just don't believe enough to pick to trust eternity to science or to God,   My  core beliefs govern what I actually do.   

I can't swear that Jesus existed.  I think he did, and I think he does live, and I say the Nicene Creed and I proclaim that I believe in Jesus, but as I now know, there are degrees of belief.  I am seeking to know my core belief in Jesus.  I  know the story of Jesus, and I believe the truth in the story.  I  know that when things were very bad, Jesus expressed doubt, but what Jesus never did is compromise his core beliefs.  Jesus loved people, and helped people and valued people over the rules of the Bible.  Jesus violated the scriptures as it applied to the Sabbath Day. Jesus was absolutely sure God would be OK with him healing sick people on the Sabbath Day   Jesus was lead by his core beliefs and he still at times broke or bent the commandments from the Bible and believed that that was OK with God because the Sabbath was made for man, man was not made for the Sabbath.

If I had to pick I would rather be LIKE Jesus, or be OF Jesus rather than believe in the reported details of his life.   I want to have a set of core believes that are in harmony with Christ's core believes, and I want my Jesus compatible core beliefs to govern what I do.  I want my core believes to cause me to react with love and kindness.  I want to be helpful, and emphathic, and I want my trust of love to be so strong that it over comes all my other belief systems.