Two myths about doubt A fundamental approach to take toward our doubts The main cause of our doubts The kinds of doubt we have When in doubt Doubting Gods love or goodness Four Major Areas of Doubt ID: 644388
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Slide1
When in doubt...Slide2
When in doubt...
Two myths about doubt
A fundamental approach to take toward our doubts
The main cause of our doubts
The kinds of doubt we haveSlide3
When in doubt...
Doubting God's love or goodness
Four Major Areas of DoubtSlide4
When in doubt...
Doubting God's love or goodness
Doubting God's power or sovereign control
Four Major Areas of DoubtSlide5
When in doubt...
Doubting God's love or goodness
Doubting the Bible's truthfulness and reliability
Doubting God's power or sovereign control
Four Major Areas of DoubtSlide6
When in doubt...
Doubting God's love or goodness
Doubting the Bible's truthfulness and reliability
Doubting God's existence
Doubting God's power or sovereign control
Four Major Areas of DoubtSlide7
When in doubt...
Two MythsSlide8Slide9
When in doubt...
Myth #1
- Comes from
within
the Community
Doubts are bad
Two MythsSlide10
Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest.
George MacDonald
Knowledge is gained by learning; Trust by doubt;
Skill by practice; And love by love.
Thomas Szasz
Faith is the answer to a question; and, therefore, it is out of work when there is no question to ask.
G. Campbell Morgan
Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.
Chinese proverb
When in doubt...Slide11
My hosanna has come forth through the crucible of doubt.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Do you love your faith so little that you have never battled a single fear lest your faith should not be true? Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there can be no growth.
George MacDonald
When in doubt...Slide12
When in doubt...
Faith
Doubts
Deeper FaithSlide13
When in doubt...
Faith
Doubts
Deeper Faith
The decision to doubt
everything deliberately,
as a matter of principle
Unbelief
Skepticism
The decision to not
have faith in GodSlide14
When in doubt...
Myth #1
- Comes from
within
the Community
Myth #2 - Comes from without the Community
Faith and reason are incompatible
Doubts are bad
Two MythsSlide15
When in doubt...
Reason
Logic
Science
Faith
Objective
Subjective
IncompatibleSlide16
ReasonLogicScience
Many think of faith as a decision to believe something independent of reason.
They think that faith is a simple choice to believe while ignoring the lack of evidence of what is believed.
Blind faith! Wishful thinking!
Faith
When in doubt...Slide17
ReasonLogicScience
Faith is trying to believe what you know ain't so.
Mark Twain
Faith
When in doubt...Slide18
ReasonLogicScience
Objective
Subjective
X
Faith
When in doubt...Slide19
ReasonLogicScience
“Two sides of the same coin”
Compatible
Faith
When in doubt...Slide20
ReasonLogicScience
In the Bible, faith is not wishful thinking
but
reasoned
confidence!
Faith
When in doubt...Slide21
ReasonLogicScience
You cannot be a Christian without
fully using your brain.
Faith
When in doubt...Slide22
Faith and Reason
The Bible says a lot about our minds and our thinking!
God is a God of reason.
He is called "the God of
truth
" (Titus 1:2).
John 14:6: Jesus said, " I am the way, the
truth
, and the life."
When in doubt...Slide23
Faith and Reason
Isaiah 1:18: God said, “Come and let us
reason
together.”
Matthew 22:37: Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’”
Daniel 1:3-4: “They showed
intelligence
in
every
branch
of wisdom
.”
When in doubt...Slide24
Faith and Reason
Daniel 1:3-4: “They showed
intelligence
in every branch of learning
.”Acts 17:2, 17; 18:4: “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he
reasoned
(
dialogos
- “dialogue”) with them from the Old Testament.”
1 Peter 3:14-15: “Always be ready to make a defense [
apologia
] to everyone who asks you to give a
reason
[
logos
- “logic”] for the hope that is in you.”
When in doubt...Slide25
Faith and Education
When in doubt...Slide26
Faith and Education
The first universities were started by Christians (University of Paris, Bologna University, Oxford University, Cambridge University)
Cambridge University Press (the world’s oldest publishing house) was started by Christian
All of the Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc.) were started by Christians
When in doubt...Slide27
All but 1 university started before the American Revolution was started by Christians
Of the first 110 universities started in the U.S., 100 of them were started by Christians
Most of the major universities in the world were started by Christians
When in doubt...
Faith and EducationSlide28
Faith and Science
When in doubt...Slide29
Faith and Science
Christianity
Modern
Science
Christianity provided the right environment for modern science to emerge. It provided the fertile soil needed for scientific experimentation!
When in doubt...Slide30
Faith in Science
Of the 52 most famous scientists of the 17th century, all but two of them were connected with Christianity
When in doubt...Slide31
Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Scientific Methodology
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Astronomy
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Celestial Mechanics
Physical Astronomy
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Hydrostatics
Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
Chemistry
Gas Dynamics
When in doubt...Slide32
Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
Nicholas Steno (1638-1687)
Stratigraphy
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Calculus
Newtonian Physics
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Magnetic Theory
Charles Babbage (1792-1871)
Computer Science
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873)
Glacial Geology
Ichthyology
When in doubt...Slide33
Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
James Young Simpson (1811-1870)
Gynecology
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Genetics
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
Bacteriology
William Thomas “Lord Kelvin” (1824-1907)
Energetics
Thermodynamics
Joseph Lister (1827-1912)
Antiseptic Surgery
When in doubt...Slide34
Christians Who Founded Various Disciplines of Science
James Clark Maxwell (1831-1879)
Electrodynamics
Statistical Thermodynamics
William Ramsay (1852-1916)
Isotopic Chemistry
Charles Sternberg (1850-1943)
Modern Fossil Paleontology
When in doubt...Slide35
Faith and Science
According to 1
00 Years of Nobel Prizes
(a review of Nobel prizes award between 1901 and 2000) 65.4% of Nobel Prizes Laureates have been Christians. Overall, Christians have won a total of:
78.3% of all the Nobel Prizes in Peace,
72.5% in Chemistry,65.3% in Physics,
62% in Medicine,
54% in Economics
49.5% of all Literature awards.
When in doubt...Slide36
I BelievE
Reason
Logic
Science
“Two sides of the same coin”
Compatible
FaithSlide37
When in doubt...
Intellect
Emotions
WillSlide38
When in doubt...
Emotions
Will
Intellect
ReasonSlide39
When in doubt...
Intellect
Reason
Emotions
Love
Will
Choice/
Commitment
Faith / Trust
RelationalSlide40
When in doubt...
Intellect
Reason
Emotions
Love
Will
Choice/
Commitment
Faith / Trust
Gap
Level of Uncertainty
Gift of Uncertainty
RelationalSlide41
When in doubt...
Intellect
Reason
Emotions
Love
Will
Choice/
Commitment
Rarely
Irresistible
or
Irrefutable
Faith / Trust
Gap
Level of Uncertainty
Gift of Uncertainty
RelationalSlide42
When in doubt...
Intellect
Reason
Emotions
Love
Will
Choice/
Commitment
Irresistible
or
Irrefutable
Faith / Trust
Gap
Level of Uncertainty
Gift of Uncertainty
X
RelationalSlide43
When in doubt...
Intellect
Reason
Emotions
Love
Will
Choice/
Commitment
Faith / Trust
Gap
Level of Uncertainty
Gift of Uncertainty
There are reasons for faith that go beyond mere reason.
Blaise Pascal
RelationalSlide44
When in doubt...
Intellect
Reason
Emotions
Love
Will
Choice/
Commitment
Faith / Trust
Gap
Level of Uncertainty
Gift of Uncertainty
Faith is not less than reason (or absent of reason),
but it is certainly more than reason
.
RelationalSlide45
2 Corinthians 5:7: We walk by faith, not by sight.
When in doubt...Slide46
Matthew 16:5-10: Jesus said, "You of little faith... why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not
understand
? Don’t you
remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?”
When in doubt...Slide47
Luke 12:22-28: (To his disciples of “little faith” )
“don't worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear....
Consider
the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!….
Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!”
When in doubt...Slide48
C. S. Lewis: Faith... is the art of holding onto things your reason has accepted, in spite of your changing moods.
When in doubt...Slide49
When in doubt...
Mark 9:24 -
"I believe, help my unbelief."
Being in the Word - Romans 10:17
Staying in community
Dealing With DoubtsSlide50
When in doubt...
Mark 9:24 -
"I believe, help my unbelief."
Being in the Word - Romans 10:17
Staying in community
Dealing With Doubts
Consider!!!! Think!!! Reason!!!Slide51
The Major ReligionsSlide52
JesusSlide53
Jesus
“I am the Messiah! I am the Creator! I am the true King!”
“Watch me!!!!”
Jesus had a public
message and performed public miraclesSlide54
Jesus
Matthew 12:38-40, Matthew 16:1-4, John 2:18-19
When asked by the religious leaders for evidence of what he taught
Jesus said that he would
rise from the dead
three days after being killed.Slide55
Jesus
Acts 26:25-26: Paul said to King Agrippa: “What I am saying is
true
and
reasonable. The king is familiar
with these events…. None of this has escaped your notice, because it was done in public;
not in a small, isolated corner of the world
.”Slide56
When in doubt...
Consider the Good
NewsSlide57
When in doubt...
For Doubt #1 - The Cross - October 19, 2009
For Doubts #2, 3, 4 -
The Resurrection
Consider the Good
NewsSlide58
When in doubt...
For Doubt #1 - The Cross - October 19, 2009
Jesus - Matthew 12:38-40, 16:1-4; John 2:18-19
For Doubts #2, 3, 4 -
The Resurrection
Consider the Good
News
Paul - 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17:
"If Christ has not been raised then... your faith is useless.... and futile."