Here's an article that will jar the believer & give hope to the seeker
DOUBTS
Sometimes It’s Good to Have
by Calvin H. Chambers
S eeing is believing. W e have all said it dozens of times and felt perfectly justified. You ju st can ’t go around believing every story told. T h e re is a genuine skepticism wh ich demands support to the claims wh ich certain people make fo r th e ir theories. W h en it was announced a few years ago th a t a group of people in T exas had actually seen and talked w ith little green m en from off flying saucers, what was your reaction? M in e was genuine unbelief. As much as I wanted to appreciate the honesty of the people who reported th e encounter, I ju st felt I could not believe th e ir story. Th is is the w ay Thomas fe lt when h e was told by the other disciples th a t Jesus was alive. He simply could not believe it. He said, “Excep t I shall see in his hands the p rin t of the nails, and put m y finger into the p rin t of the nails, and thrust m y hand into his side, I w ill not believe.” He had seen Jesu s dragged off to Calvary and there nailed to the cross. H e had heard th a t the soldiers had taken a spear and thrust it into Jesu s’ side. He knew the body of Jesus had been laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Now the disciples w ere saying th a t Jesus was alive, and He was no skeptic in the modern sense of the word. H e tru ly believed in the God of Israel and in Jesus as the promised Messiah. He had what m ay be de scribed as “ a fa ith .” Bu t somehow the resurrection of Jesus did not fit into his faith. Th is m iracle was too much for a reasonable m an to believe. Thu s he felt perfectly justified in declaring that un til he had seen the n a il prints and put his fingers into them , un til he had taken his fist and th rust it into the wounded side of Jesus, he would not believe. He took his stand on the premise th a t seeing is believing. Thom as’ encounter w ith Christ has several important elements to observe closely. Faith Doubts F irst, fa ith doubts. T h a t is a strange contradiction in term s, you say. I thought fa ith was completely and u tte rly trusting. I thought the man of faith had no doubts. T h is is a th eo ry w h ich must b e rejected. Honest faith always has doubts. Keep in mind this was too much fo r Thomas. His doubt was honest doubt.
that Thomas was a disciple of Jesus. H e was not an unbeliever. F rom the other evidence we have of Thom as’ fife, we know th a t he was a trusted and loyal follower of Christ. I t is true th a t he was a little slow in understanding everything Jesus said, bu t this was true of a good num ber of the disciples. He was a m an who had an inqu iring m ind ; a m an who called into question the claim wh ich the other disciples had made. H e wanted his fa ith to be bu ilt upon facts. T h e unbelief of Thomas is quite d ifferent from th a t of a man who prides him self in being an agnostic but who w ill not take seriously the claims of the Christian faith. Science has produced so m any wonderful changes in our modern world th a t the average m an has come to look upon the findings of science as absolutely in fallib le. You need on ly to mention that a new idea or product is the latest scien tific discovery and im m ed iately you have a following. Such is the fa ith which m any people have placed in science. Now it is obvious why this has happened. M en are ready to place confidence in the discoveries of science because so much has been done fo r human life through scientific endeavor. W e can see w ith our eyes and hand le w ith our hands th e wonderful bene fits of scientific research and investigation. Bu t when the modem person comes to deal w ith morals, ethics, religion and faith , th ey all seem so vague and unreal to him. H e has no patience w ith th is kind of thing. So m any people have come to demand the same method of proof from Christian ity th a t they have grown accustomed to in science, and when this is not to be had, they fe e l qu ite justified in th e ir unbelief. Seeing is believing as fa r as th ey a re concerned and Chris tian ity hasn ’t “produced the goods.” Now th is kind of skeptical attitude usually stems from the fa ct th a t m en have not taken the trouble to carefu lly and reveren tly analyze the claim s of the Christian faith. It is true th a t the chu rch has often stood in the w ay of scien tific progress because she was hidebound by certain dogmatic assumptions w h i c h n e e d e d reth ink ing in th e ligh t of new knowledge and dis covery. B u t tru e Christian fa ith has never been afraid of sincere and honest investigation. In fact, it wel
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