What Is the Difference Between Doubt and Unbelief?

Doubt Is Common

If you’ve lived the Christian life very long as a believer, you know that every Christian, at some point or another, has that moment where they wonder whether the things they believe are really true. Maybe it’s something you watched on TV or heard in a podcast that raises that little tickle of doubt in your mind and you have this thought, What if everything I believe is a lie and that I’m really wrong and Christianity is false and that the non-Christian worldview is actually true?

If you’ve ever had that moment of doubt, one thing to be comforted by is that that’s a very normal experience in the Christian life. Doubting is not at all unusual for the average believer to go through at some point in their life. I often joke with people that if you’ve not had a moment of doubt, just wait. As life progresses and you find yourself living in a fallen world and facing the difficulties of life, eventually you’ll have that doubt.

The Bible’s filled with people who doubted. We, of course, often think of Thomas as the classic example of this, but he’s not the only person in the Bible who doubts. There are lots of people who wonder whether God is really doing what he’ll say he will do, whether he’s really active.

There are some people who are on the border of despair. I think of Elijah, who thinks there’s no hope and he says, Just take my life, God. Certainly, there are people in the Bible who don’t believe, and the disciples doubted often.

You should be encouraged to know that when you doubt, God is very compassionate on doubters. This line in Jude says, “Have mercy on those who doubt.” Christ is very gentle and very patient with those who doubt, very gentle and patient with Thomas, very gentle and patient with the disciples, and very gentle and patient with us.

And so the first thing to say about doubt is that if you doubt and have a struggle at some point about whether you believe what you believe, there’s not something wrong with you. This is a normal part of the Christian life.

Christ is very gentle and very patient with those who doubt, very gentle and patient with Thomas, very gentle and patient with the disciples, and very gentle and patient with us.

Doubt Is Not Apostasy

The other thing to understand about doubt is that it doesn’t mean you’re suddenly becoming non-Christian. It’s not the same thing as not believing. Doubt is a form of struggle. It’s a form of battle. It’s a form of holding onto what you believe.

The thing to realize about doubt is that, first of all, it’s very normal. The second thing to note about doubt is that we ought to resist it. We ought to fight against it. We ought to strive towards confidence in the promises of God.

So, you want to avoid what we could call “doubt-shaming,” on the one hand, but we also want to avoid what might be called “doubt-celebrating,” on the other hand. We don’t want to encourage doubt. We don’t want to revel in our doubt. We want to work towards confidence in what God has said and what promises he’s made.

So if you struggle with doubt, there are lots of reasons to be confident. The Word of God has proven itself time and time again over the generations of God’s people. And God has proven himself in your life time and time again.

If you were to go back and look at prayer requests and the way he’s blessed, kept, and preserved you, you’ll see God’s faithfulness. There are many things to latch onto to give you hope. And so rather than focusing on the things that you struggle with, focus on the things you hope in. And most of all, focus on the person of Christ himself.

Michael J. Kruger is the author of Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College.

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