Doubt - A Healthy Response

Doubt and faith seem often, at least from a worldly perspective, to be in competition. You can't doubt and say you have a faith would be the black and white example. Thomas, has every reason to doubt the resurrection because humans do not come back from the dead. There are great differences between Lazarus and the resurrection that Jesus experienced but the big one described by Thomas is the wounds. Thomas feels he needs to touch the holes in the body of Christ in order to believe. This concept of confirmation is built into healthy Christian expression.

Doubt is a healthy response because it leads us to question teaching and experience. It calls us to be testing our beliefs. In the Christian belief there doesn't seem to be an unhealthy doubt. This does not mean we actively pin our ministers down and rapid fire a bunch of questions but it does say the Christian that is in a crisis of faith; the doubt in that situation is healthy, they are on a journey with God. It doesn't seem right to say to someone in a crisis of faith, "Just have faith." Rather the call is to support them in the moment, be there with them.

Another critical place where doubt has healthy exploration is prophecy. Every level of prophecy should be able to be verified, checked with more then two people, confirmed that it is consistent with scripture. Without this prophecy becomes a dangerous blur of a single view of a human. This will lead to a level of confidence and then danger held in the individual person as they go with blind faith thinking they are right and there is no reason to think they are wrong.

Further on Prophecy is what is within the space of calling for ministry. Ministry calling needs to be actively confirmed by others, actively tested. This gives a level of comfort to the person knowing that many people are involved and hopefully if they are not called it will be figured out. Yet, the biggest time of doubt for many is the ordination service. It is the last moment for others to say no but also for the candidate say no. This is a healthy experience to be in doubt, not confidence at that final moments. I am happy to know that at that moment of doubt, it was the Spirit that filled me, not myself.