Pastor Dave Ginter
 
I do not believe anyone ever really had a firm faith in anything they didn't test first.

 Testing is another way of doubting. I am convinced that doubt is a healthy step towards belief. Those who do not doubt are usually scared that what they SAY they believe is not REALLY true! So let's celebrate doubt as an important step to faith!

Let me give you a fast example. Let me address your statement, I don't really know where we come from and where we're going.  Nobody has come back to say, 'hello, I'm back to say.......there is........'   who knows what!   This is such an important point you raise, with eternal consequences. It is SO important, we can't afford to get the answer wrong, don't you agree? This is why I have examined Jesus' claim to be the One (God) who came to us FROM beyond  death to tell us precisely what is there. Jesus claimed he was the ONLY One who has been in eternity past and the ONLY One who can take us after this life is over, into eternity future. Jesus claims to be, as the old popular song goes, the "Bridge over troubled waters".

My wife, Sheryl, helped me understand the importance of doubt through a seminar she developed on the topic. Sheryl encourages doubt as a healthy step towards firm faith. She says that one of the ways to define doubt is the suspension between faith and unbelief.  For me as a Christian, faith is when I believe God's word is true and I trust God and I act upon what God has said in the Bible.  Unbelief is when I've hardened my heart to God and say I'm not going to do what I know God wants me to do.  I've closed my mind to God so that I don't receive God’s Word as truth.  But in-between faith and unbelief there is doubt.

Doubt either moves slowly towards unbelief and we harden our heart and close our mind to God.  Or doubt slowly moves toward faith and we put our trust in God and what God says.  There's nothing wrong with this doubt because it pushes us to understand what we really put our faith in.  There's another way of putting it.  Doubt is involved in helping us determine what is true and what is false.

Doubt pushes me to understand truth.  Doubt pushes me to place my faith in truth.  So doubt in a sense is being in suspension.  It's between truth and what is false. It's between faith and unbelief.

Here is my challenge to you. Let's keep on blogging. You ask me questions about whatever it is you want to know regarding Jesus and life-after-death. I will respond to each one. I promise NOT to give "churchy" answers or to try to "convert" you to my way of thinking. I just want to have an open dialogue with you and help you get some answers to the most important question in the world: Do we really matter?

I hope all of you reading this today you will accept my offer and let's keep the blog going! Share your perspectives, your ideas, your doubts and your faith.
 


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