The choice between belief and unbelief
is often made according to what man desires rather than what is "clearly seen”
(Rom. 1:20). This was often evident in
the way the opponents of Jesus among the Jews responded to Him. For example, when the Pharisees questioned a
man whom Jesus had healed of blindness, the man said, "Well, here is an amazing
thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.” (John
9:30). The Pharisees could not deny the
evidence before them, but they refused to accept the conclusion, which was that
Jesus had come from heaven. They chose
not to believe simply because they did not want Jesus to be the Christ.
Belief in God is often inconvenient and
contrary to man's desires, and therefore man chooses not to believe. Those who want to indulge the flesh and live
by their own lusts comfort themselves by denying God, for to acknowledge Him is
to recognize His authority, His law, and their accountability before Him. Paul wrote of men "who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18), which indicates that they deny the truth of God
in order to practice unrighteousness. In
Romans 1:28, Paul said that they "did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer.” Sadly, this is the basis for much of secular
psychology today (a la Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, etc.), which seeks to
release man from the restraints of belief in God so that he may do as he
pleases without the feeling of guilt.
When men are willfully disbelieving of
God, He gives them over to their own desires.
In Romans 1:24-32, Paul wrote that God gave them up to "impurity,” "degrading
passions,” and "a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” God does not force unbelievers to confess Him
or to conform to His will, but rather He lets them go in the way they choose
and receive "the due penalty of their error” (Rom. 1:27). He allows them to sink deeper and deeper into
unbelief until they become insensitive to the truth. Paul wrote of such men and the effect of
Satan, saying, "In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of
the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God” (2Cor. 4:4). In 2Thessalonians 2:10-12, Paul described the
destiny of those who "did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved,”
saying, "For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that
they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did
not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”
Even among believers in God, doubt is a
frequent problem. The Bible records that
some of the apostles still doubted Jesus even when they saw Him after His
resurrection (Matt. 28:17). Perhaps some
believers do not expect to struggle with doubt because they think the choice to
believe in God is like a switch that is either off or on. However, faith and doubt exist in varying
degrees within men. This is illustrated
in Matthew 14:22-31, for when Peter failed to walk on the water, Jesus said,
"You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Faith is a process of growth and education that is often marked with the
growing pains of setbacks and diversions.
In this process, old habits and false beliefs have to be uncovered and
corrected, and each trial of faith can be another opportunity for doubt.
One reason for the plague of doubt is
that doubting God is easy. It takes little
or no effort to be doubtful or agnostic toward God. Man does not have to work hard not to believe
in what he has not seen. It is easy to
take the attitude of the apostle Thomas, who said, "Unless I see…I will not
believe” (John 20:25). Even when man
sees the abundant evidence of God's existence in the world, he will not come to
believe in God unless he makes the effort to carefully consider the
evidence. Those who are intellectually
and spiritually lazy make themselves susceptible to overwhelming doubt and
disbelief.
Unlike
doubt, faith can be difficult. Faith
requires strength, diligence, and perseverance.
The element of diligence in the practice of faith is recognized in
Hebrews 11:6, for in a context of explaining faith this verse says that God "is
a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
In other words, a half-hearted, casual pursuit of faith in God will not
suffice. For this reason, faith is
described in terms of a grueling endurance race in Hebrews 12:1-3. While some believers may expect faith to be
easy because God's existence is "clearly seen” through this world (Rom. 1:20),
the spiritual current of the world flows contrary to faith. Doubt is the path of least resistance, but
faith requires dedicated effort to swim against the streams of worldliness,
lust, materialism, and pride. "The whole
world lies in the power of the evil one” (1John 5:19), so believers in God will
have to overcome the world to defeat doubt.
Thus, doubt and unbelief are not only
possible, but they are even probable.
God allows unbelief and doubt to exist as necessary alternatives to
faith, and man embraces these in conjunction with his worldly desires and his
aversion to the difficulties of faith.
Nevertheless, doubt and unbelief are inexcusable in the sight of God
because the abundance of evidence within the world clearly shows His existence
to say the least. Therefore, those who
fail to have faith in God will never be able to please Him or be rewarded by
Him.
