Faith: Koukl on the Question of Doubt

Koukl's opening line: 85% of Christians report experiencing doubt 15% are lying about it.

Indeed, as a person on the journey of faith in following Jesus, I don't experience 100% certainty.

I admit I have doubts. Not constantly but often enough that it sometimes bothers me.

Part of it is emotional. Just as we sometimes wonder if someone loves us or whether we love them, there simply are day-to-day variation in our emotional states. Thus, it is often said, love is a commitment not just an emotion. And so it is with faith. We may feel the emotion of faith and hope and certainty. But sometimes we don't. And when we don't, we have to decide do we live out that faith as a commitment to it or cast it aside as our emotion pulls us down?

As I see it, "Christian theology" provides a way of looking at the world and it seem to correspond pretty well. Christian faith recognizes the fallenness of humanity. Christian faith asserts that God has sent Jesus to restore our brokenness. I would think most people would acknowledge the first statement but might not accept that Jesus has materially changed the status quo.

There are many intellectual reasons for believing that Jesus actually existed though some argue he was a fabrication of some first century Jews who invented the religion of Christianity melding pagan and Jewish ideas. Some argue that Jesus did exist but that the theology that grew up around him was a distortion. This is the "Jesus to Christ" idea where Jesus is some historical Jesus we only partially know from the New Testament Scriptures and that Christ the Lord God and Savior of the World theology was layered on top of Jesus' actual teachings.

There is intellectual warrant to believe Jesus existed but obviously any theological significance to Jesus is an assertion of faith.

What we can say is that clearly something very unusual happened.

There were other claimants to Messiahship and they all wound up dead during that time. Thus, why did Jesus' claim to Messiahship endure while others did not?

Likewise, there were other stories of people rising from the dead and divine incarnations. Yet, none of those stories has birthed a religious movement.

Is this proof?

No. But it does indicate something very unusual happened.