When in doubt....

Presentation on theme: "When in doubt...."— Presentation transcript:

1 When in doubt...

2 When in doubt... The kinds of doubt we have Two myths about doubt
The main cause of our doubts A fundamental approach to take toward our doubts

3 Four Major Areas of Doubt
When in doubt... Four Major Areas of Doubt Doubting God's love or goodness

4 Four Major Areas of Doubt
When in doubt... Four Major Areas of Doubt Doubting God's love or goodness Doubting God's power or sovereign control

5 Four Major Areas of Doubt
When in doubt... Four Major Areas of Doubt Doubting God's love or goodness Doubting God's power or sovereign control Doubting the Bible's truthfulness and reliability

6 Four Major Areas of Doubt
When in doubt... Four Major Areas of Doubt Doubting God's love or goodness Doubting God's power or sovereign control Doubting the Bible's truthfulness and reliability Doubting God's existence

7 When in doubt... Two Myths

8

9 When in doubt... Two Myths Myth #1 - Comes from within the Community
Doubts are bad

10 When in doubt... Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. George MacDonald Knowledge is gained by learning; Trust by doubt; Skill by practice; And love by love. Thomas Szasz Faith is the answer to a question; and, therefore, it is out of work when there is no question to ask. G. Campbell Morgan Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom. Chinese proverb

11 When in doubt... My hosanna has come forth through the crucible of doubt. Fyodor Dostoevsky Do you love your faith so little that you have never battled a single fear lest your faith should not be true? Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there can be no growth. George MacDonald

12 When in doubt... Faith Doubts Deeper Faith

13 When in doubt... Skepticism Faith Doubts Deeper Faith Unbelief
The decision to doubt everything deliberately, as a matter of principle Skepticism Faith Doubts Deeper Faith The decision to not have faith in God Unbelief

14 When in doubt... Two Myths Myth #1 - Comes from within the Community
Doubts are bad Myth #2 - Comes from without the Community Faith and reason are incompatible

15 When in doubt... Reason Logic Science Faith Incompatible Objective
Subjective

16 When in doubt... Reason Logic Science Faith
Many think of faith as a decision to believe something independent of reason. They think that faith is a simple choice to believe while ignoring the lack of evidence of what is believed. Blind faith! Wishful thinking!

17 When in doubt... X Reason Logic Science Faith Objective Subjective

18 “Two sides of the same coin”
When in doubt... Reason Logic Science Faith “Two sides of the same coin” Compatible

19 When in doubt... Reason Logic Science Faith
In the Bible, faith is not wishful thinking but reasoned confidence!

20 You cannot be a Christian without
When in doubt... Reason Logic Science Faith You cannot be a Christian without fully using your brain.

21 When in doubt... Faith and Reason
The Bible says a lot about our minds and our thinking! God is a God of reason. He is called "the God of truth" (Titus 1:2). John 14:6: Jesus said, " I am the way, the truth, and the life."

22 When in doubt... Faith and Reason
Isaiah 1:18: God said, “Come and let us reason together.” Matthew 22:37: Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” Daniel 1:3-4: “They showed intelligence in every branch of wisdom.”

23 When in doubt... Faith and Reason
Daniel 1:3-4: “They showed intelligence in every branch of learning.” Acts 17:2, 17; 18:4: “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned (dialogos - “dialogue”) with them from the Old Testament.” 1 Peter 3:14-15: “Always be ready to make a defense [apologia] to everyone who asks you to give a reason [logos - “logic”] for the hope that is in you.”

24 When in doubt... Faith and Education
The first universities were started by Christians (University of Paris, Bologna University, Oxford University, Cambridge University) Cambridge University Press (the world’s oldest publishing house) was started by Christian All of the Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc.) were started by Christians

25 When in doubt... Faith and Education
All but 1 university started before the American Revolution was started by Christians Of the first 110 universities started in the U.S., 100 of them were started by Christians Most of the major universities in the world were started by Christians

26 When in doubt... Faith and Science
Modern Science Christianity Christianity provided the right environment for modern science to emerge. It provided the fertile soil needed for scientific experimentation!

27 When in doubt... Faith in Science
Of the 52 most famous scientists of the 17th century, all but two of them were connected with Christianity

28 Scientific Methodology
When in doubt... Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science Francis Bacon ( ) Scientific Methodology Galileo Galilei ( ) Astronomy Johannes Kepler ( ) Celestial Mechanics Physical Astronomy Blaise Pascal ( ) Hydrostatics Robert Boyle ( ) Chemistry Gas Dynamics

29 When in doubt... Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
Nicholas Steno ( ) Stratigraphy Isaac Newton ( ) Calculus Newtonian Physics Michael Faraday ( ) Magnetic Theory Charles Babbage ( ) Computer Science Louis Agassiz ( ) Glacial Geology Ichthyology

30 When in doubt... Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
James Young Simpson ( ) Gynecology Gregor Mendel ( ) Genetics Louis Pasteur ( ) Bacteriology William Thomas “Lord Kelvin” ( ) Energetics Thermodynamics Joseph Lister ( ) Antiseptic Surgery

31 When in doubt... Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
James Clark Maxwell ( ) Electrodynamics Statistical Thermodynamics William Ramsay ( ) Isotopic Chemistry Charles Sternberg ( ) Modern Fossil Paleontology

32 When in doubt... Faith and Science
According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes (a review of Nobel prizes award between 1901 and 2000) 65.4% of Nobel Prizes Laureates have been Christians. Overall, Christians have won a total of: 78.3% of all the Nobel Prizes in Peace, 72.5% in Chemistry, 65.3% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, 54% in Economics 49.5% of all Literature awards.

33 “Two sides of the same coin”
I BelievE Reason Logic Science Faith “Two sides of the same coin” Compatible

34 When in doubt... Intellect Emotions Will

35 When in doubt... Intellect Reason Emotions Will

36 When in doubt... Faith / Trust Relational Will Choice/ Commitment
Intellect Reason Emotions Love Relational

37 When in doubt... Faith / Trust Relational Will Choice/ Commitment
Intellect Reason Emotions Love Level of Uncertainty Gift of Uncertainty Gap Relational

38 When in doubt... Faith / Trust Relational Will Choice/ Commitment
Intellect Reason Emotions Love Level of Uncertainty Gift of Uncertainty Gap Rarely Irresistible or Irrefutable Relational

39 X When in doubt... Faith / Trust Relational Will Choice/ Commitment
Intellect Reason Emotions Love Level of Uncertainty Gift of Uncertainty Gap Irresistible or Irrefutable Relational

40 There are reasons for faith that go beyond mere reason.
When in doubt... Faith / Trust Will Choice/ Commitment Intellect Reason Emotions Love Level of Uncertainty Gift of Uncertainty Gap Relational There are reasons for faith that go beyond mere reason. Blaise Pascal

41 When in doubt... Faith / Trust Relational Will Choice/ Commitment
Intellect Reason Emotions Love Level of Uncertainty Gift of Uncertainty Gap Relational Faith is not less than reason (or absent of reason), but it is certainly more than reason.

42 2 Corinthians 5:7: We walk by faith, not by sight.
When in doubt... 2 Corinthians 5:7: We walk by faith, not by sight.

43 When in doubt... Matthew 16:5-10: Jesus said, "You of little faith... why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?”

44 When in doubt... Luke 12:22-28: (To his disciples of “little faith” ) “don't worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.... Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!…. Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!”

45 When in doubt... C. S. Lewis: Faith... is the art of holding onto things your reason has accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

46 When in doubt... Dealing With Doubts
Mark 9:24 - "I believe, help my unbelief." Staying in community Being in the Word - Romans 10:17

47 When in doubt... Dealing With Doubts
Mark 9:24 - "I believe, help my unbelief." Staying in community Being in the Word - Romans 10:17 Consider!!!! Think!!! Reason!!!

48 The Major Religions

49 Jesus

50 Jesus “I am the Messiah! I am the Creator! I am the true King!”
“Watch me!!!!” Jesus had a public message and performed public miracles

51 Jesus Matthew 12:38-40, Matthew 16:1-4, John 2:18-19
When asked by the religious leaders for evidence of what he taught Jesus said that he would rise from the dead three days after being killed.

52 Jesus Acts 26:25-26: Paul said to King Agrippa: “What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these events…. None of this has escaped your notice, because it was done in public; not in a small, isolated corner of the world.”

53 When in doubt... Consider the Good News

54 When in doubt... Consider the Good News
For Doubt #1 - The Cross - October 19, 2009 For Doubts #2, 3, 4 - The Resurrection

55 When in doubt... Consider the Good News
For Doubt #1 - The Cross - October 19, 2009 For Doubts #2, 3, 4 - The Resurrection Jesus - Matthew 12:38-40, 16:1-4; John 2:18-19 Paul - 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17: "If Christ has not been raised then... your faith is useless.... and futile."