Several years ago, there
appeared in the New Yorker magazine an account of a Long Island resident
who purchased an expensive barometer from a respected company, Abercrombie and
Fitch. However, when the instrument arrived at his home, he was disappointed to
discover that right out of the box the needle appeared to be stuck pointing to
the sector marked “Hurricane.”
After shaking the
barometer vigorously several times—which is not exactly a good idea with a
sensitive piece of scientific equipment—he couldn’t get the needle to budge. Thinking
that he’d bought a dud, that evening the man wrote a scathing letter to the
store. On his way to work in New York City he mailed it the next morning.
Much to his chagrin, that
evening the man returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing,
but his house as well! The needle of that instrument had been correct all
along. It was September 21, 1938, the day of the now-infamous “New England
Hurricane,” which claimed the lives of at least 700 people in the devastating storm
surge.[1]
According to the Word of
God, the thief of unbelief is one of the most devastating sins. Unbelief has
robbed the blessings from poor souls and left them as spiritual beggars. It has
run away with the doubter’s peace of mind and caused them to be hardened cynics.
Worse yet, unbelief has stolen salvation from untold numbers and damned them to
a Christ-less eternity.
The thief of unbelief has
a rap-sheet a mile long. When Jesus came to His hometown of Nazareth, Matt.
13:58 reports that, “He did not do many mighty works there because of their
unbelief.” Moreover, James points out that one reason why our prayers are
hindered is because of our unbelief, “But let him ask in faith, with no
doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by
the wind” (James 1:6). The writer of Hebrews commented that the chief reason
why the children of Israel were made to wander in the wilderness for 40 years
was because of their stubborn unbelief (Heb. 3:19). Then there is “Doubting Thomas,”
who would not believe that Jesus had raised from the dead until he verified it
with his own senses (John 20:25).
In my experiences there
are different forms of unbelief. First, there’s the doubter who says, “I can’t
believe.” Perhaps, they have trouble believing because they need more
information, or because they are control-freaks who are simply afraid to trust
God. This kind of doubter wants to believe but needs some help getting there.
Like the father of the demon-possessed boy who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe;
help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
There’s another kind—the skeptic
who says, “I won’t believe.” There’s a difference here because there is
not just an intellectual resistance, but a moral rebellion. They will not go
where the evidence points because they don’t like the inevitable conclusion.
Paul talks about this kind of person in Romans 1:18 saying that they “suppress
the truth in unrighteousness.” This is why many sinners clench their fist at
God because they don’t want to be accountable to a just and holy authority.
John Ortberg warns against
this kind of thinking, “If we want to, we can find ways to explain away every
reason for faith: the existence of creation, stories of answered prayer;
evidence for the resurrection; testimonies of changed lives; the unmatched wisdom
of Jesus; and the tugging and longing of your own heart for grace. If you want badly
enough not to believe, you will find a way not to believe.”[2]
Here’s the Good News if
you’re a doubter, skeptic or cynic—Christ can clear away the fog of unbelief. The
Light of the World has burned through the mists of doubt more than once. Thomas,
Augustine, Blaise Pascal, C.S. Lewis, on-and-on the list goes of skeptics who had
their doubt turned inside-out into faith. Don’t be paralyzed by what you don’t
know but take the first step by what you do. It’s time to doubt our doubts. “Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). -DM
[1] Charles
R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 593.
[2]
John Ortberg, Faith & Doubt (Grand Rapids: MI: Zondervan, 2008),
133.
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