Epilogue: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
YOU SHOULD NOW HAVE A CLEAR GRASP OF THE evidence that Jesus lived and did the things the Gospels said He did and said the things the Gospels tell us He said. He is the promised Messiah, not a pagan myth. The real hope is that every person would be able to clearly communicate that evidence to others. Each of the chapters has been written to help you remember the key pieces of evidence that point to the fact that the Jesus of history is indeed the Christ of faith. In the end you must be able to engage someone else in a conversation that leads to a clear presentation of this gospel.
Because Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and Savior of the world, then His message should be the preeminent focus of our lives. Regardless of your calling and occupation, the gospel should be your priority. The obstacles that stand in the way must be identified and removed. The fact that we face such resistance to make His focus our focus shows that there is an opposing, adversarial influence in the universe. To be committed to Christ means to have a mortal enemy that is dedicated to the task of stopping and discrediting your efforts.
More than thirty-five years ago, I was overwhelmed by fear, doubt, and unbelief. Religion was no match against those forces that dominated my life. I prayed, attended church, asked for God’s help, and in the end felt a little silly because of my feeble, futile efforts. I completely understand why people who go through seasons of intense spiritual searching end up frustrated and disillusioned. Looking back in history, you can see similar experiences in the lives of people such as Augustine of Hippo (known as Saint Augustine) and John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, just to name a couple.
Augustine lived in the fifth century and was raised by a Christian mother. Her influence seemed no match for the seductive power of Manichee’s philosophy that gave license to indulge in sexual immorality. In his Confessions, Augustine would chronicle his journey out of the darkness of unbelief due to the enormous grip that his sins had on his soul. He spoke of the enemies of the Christian faith dismissing the Scriptures with mockery and skepticism, reminiscent of the same struggle that happens in our day. Yet he would see through the emptiness of their answers and, even more, their lives. Because of the shallowness of those who opposed the gospel, Augustine decided to sincerely listen to those who could give an explanation of the difficulties he encountered when examining the Scriptures. He would write in his Confessions, “More and more my conviction grew that all the knotty problems and clever calumnies which those deceivers of ours had devised against the divine books could be dissolved.”1
An awareness of the history of past events that he had accepted and to which he had given credibility gave Augustine the needed objectivity to be open to the truth of the events spoken of in the Scriptures.
Then little by little, Lord, with a most gentle and merciful hand you touched and calmed my heart. I considered the innumerable things I believed which I had not seen, events which occurred when I was not present, such as many incidents in the history of the nations, many facts concerning places and cities which I had never seen, many things accepted on the word of friends, many from physicians, many from other people. Unless we believed what we were told, we would do nothing at all in this life.2
After seeing the emptiness and the contradictions in the writings of the philosophers and cynics, and comparing them to the truth and purity of Scripture, he would write:
You persuaded me that the defect lay not with those who believed your books, which you have established with such great authority among almost all nations, but with those who did not believe them. Nor were they to be listened to who might say to me, “How do you know that these books were provided for the human race by the Spirit of the one true and utterly truthful God?” That very thing was a matter in which belief was of the greatest importance.3
He would eventually come to a dramatic moment when he would see through the doubts and accusations to the truth of the Scriptures and the gospel story, which would open his heart and allow the Holy Spirit to change and transform him. Your faith is not just a matter of knowing the right set of facts about God but of taking the step of trust to receive the work of His Spirit in your life.
When I think of the struggle to find faith and press through the doubts in the mind and the lusts in the heart, I find encouragement by reading how Augustine was able to press through this deadly gauntlet and become one of the great leaders, thinkers, and champions in church history.
The other individual, John Wesley, lived in the eighteenth century and made an enormous impact on the world that is still being felt today. However, before this would happen, he would suffer deeply from doubt, fear, and a debilitating anxiety about his lack of faith. Wesley would attempt to defeat these suffocating foes by indulging in religious activities.
He traveled from England to America and gave himself tirelessly to the spreading of the gospel. Yet in all of his efforts, he would testify of remaining lost himself. He would write in his journal in the year 1737:
I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh! who shall convert me? who is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of mischief? I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near; but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I say, To die is gain!4
A few days later he would write:
It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity. But what have I learned myself in the meantime? Why (what I the least of all suspected), that I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God. I am not mad, though I thus speak; but I speak the words of truth and soberness; if haply some of those who still dream may awake and see that as I am, so are they.5
Wesley didn’t suffer from factual doubts about whether the story about Jesus’ death and resurrection were true or whether the Scriptures were true, but from more of an emotional or psychological doubt. There are many like this who seem to be stuck in terms of going beyond a mere intellectual knowledge of God and accessing the promises of God as one might actually eat a meal instead of standing outside of the restaurant and gazing at the menu on the front door.
His story points us to another dimension of what faith is all about. Faith begins with believing what the evidence about Christ and the Scriptures say is true; but it then goes a step further into actually experiencing what the promises of God offer. This includes salvation, a new birth, the indwelling power of the Spirit, and victory over the fear and doubt that plague the mind and vex the soul. It was this kind of faith that delivered me from the clutches of mental and spiritual darkness when I was a third-year university student.
In fact, it happened for me the way it happened for Wesley. He knew what the Bible said about the importance of having faith in God. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of the those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV). The conundrum was how to have that kind of faith. It seemed to me that faith was something that some special people possessed, not me. My question was the same as Wesley’s: How can I stop the doubts from dominating my thoughts?
You see, there is always the opportunity to doubt. As we discussed, Christianity is true beyond a reasonable doubt, not possible doubt. What I needed was not to dwell on the possible reasons that my fears and doubts might be true but focus instead on the reasonableness of the Christian story and then act on the promises God was offering me. In fact, most of these promises are for “whoever.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 NKJV).
Then there is the kind of faith that moves mountains. It, too, is available to “whoever.” “And Jesus answered saying to them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him’ ” (Mark 11:22–23 NASB). The book of Romans gives us directions into this kind of faith:
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:13–17 ESV)
While restating the opportunity for whoever, it goes on to say that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. The secret is found in what you hear and hear repeatedly. If you continually listen to atheistic and skeptical rants against the faith, you will find yourself languishing in unbelief yourself. Don’t get me wrong. I have spent countless hours reading and listening to the objections to the faith. However, there comes a time when you have pretty much heard the criticisms and you have to make a decision about to whom you are going to listen. In fact, writing this book brought me into the writings of many skeptics that were brazen and shameless in their relentless efforts to discredit the gospel and dissuade as many as possible from believing. In the end it only strengthened my resolve to get the message out to as many as possible that Jesus is the promised Savior and Messiah of the world. This happens through people hearing the gospel. As the Scripture said, “faith comes from hearing.”
The more people hear the gospel, the better the chances they will believe. It’s that simple. In the same way, the more I hear the gospel, the more my faith is strengthened. It’s an amazing phenomenon: I sense my faith getting stronger the more I share it with others. That is why evangelism, or sharing the gospel with others, will do as much for you as it does for those who hear it.
This was the insight that John Wesley himself learned from his mentor, Peter Bohler, almost three hundred years ago. While continuing to be harassed by doubts, he approached Bohler and asked him the secret of finding real faith and thus real peace. It had become so troubling that Wesley considered ending his ministry of trying to help others if he was overcome by his own doubts. He recorded the dialogue with his mentor in his journal: “Immediately it struck into my mind, ‘Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?’ I asked Bohler whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered, ‘By no means.’ I asked, ‘But what can I preach?’ He said, ‘Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.’ ”6
He was told to preach faith until he got it. This meant spending time reciting the promises of God and what the Scripture says about constantly giving voice to fear and doubt. If faith can come to others because they hear your words, why can’t you encourage yourself as you speak these life-giving words? That was exactly what Wesley began to do. The result was a dramatic impact on the world through the forming of thousands of congregations that now make up the Methodist church. As Bohler predicted, because Wesley found faith through preaching it, he went on to preach it with greater force and conviction.
May God grant us a multitude of men and women who will go beyond the academic study of Jesus Christ and give themselves totally to communicating His Word to a desperate and needy world. There is no greater cause, and there is no better time than now.