Doubt plays a key role in doing apologetics because it is the doorway of apologetics. It is a doorway not only to the intellectual confusion about the nature of Christianity but also on the spiritual condition of people. A doubt gives you the idea that the person has not taken hold of the benefits of truth, understanding and wisdom on that particular issue.
Lalupa kung believer ang nagda-doubt. A servant of God then has to have a heart for the doubting. Hindi mo lang iisipin na ito ay intellectual problem, bagkus you also have to consider this as a spiritual problem ng believer. Ang apologetics kasi hindi lang interesado sa intellectual impact ng doubts but also sa spiritual.
Sabi ni noted Christian philosopher William Lane Craig,
doubt is never simply an intellectual problem. There is always a spiritual dimension to doubt as well. There is an enemy of your souls, Satan, who hates you intensely, and who is bent on your destruction, and who will do everything in his power to see that your faith is destroyed. And therefore, when we have these intellectual doubts and problems, we should never look at them as something that is spiritually neutral, or divorce them from the spiritual conflict that we’re involved in. Rather, we need to take these doubts to God in prayer, to admit them honestly, to talk to our Christian friends about them, to not stuff them or hide them. We need to deal with them openly and honestly and talk to people about them and seek God’s help in dealing with them.*Dalawa ang recommendation ni Craig sa mga taong overcome with doubts. Una --
by cultivating your spiritual life, engaging in spiritual disciplines like prayer, meaningful worship, Christian music, sharing your faith with other people, being involved in Christian service, so that you will foster the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life, be filled with the Holy Spirit so that when you come into the circumstances of doubt and the shifting sands of evidence and so forth you aren’t thrown into shipwreck because of that.Pangalawa, “pursue it into the ground until you come to intellectual satisfaction with it.”
Yang dalawang ‘yan ang tila baga anchor ng 4H apologetics. And it is brought into the fore by a realization ng role ng doubt hindi lang sa apologetics but sa Christian life. So kaya po sa episode na ito, we dive in to the most important introductory material ng 4H apologetics, and that is facing the giants of doubt.
Some of my favorite authors have chimed in on the topic of doubt for example, Alvin Plantinga who said, “Believers are constantly beset by doubts, disquietude, spiritual difficulty, and turmoil . . . It never goes well with us, and it often goes a deal worse. There is an unbeliever within the breast of every Christian.”
Tim Keller said that
[f]aith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic.My favorite Puritan of all time, Thomas Watson explains that ‘[h]e that can believe without doubting, suspect his faith; and he that can repent without sorrowing, suspect his repentance.”
Perhaps among the most insightful new writers I have been reading recently, Mitch Stokes said this about doubt,
All thoughtful believers – even those whose faith is mature – encounter doubt. Not a single person has had unadulterated faith. In any case, it certainly won’t do to ignore your doubts, and defusing them will only strengthen your faith. To be sure, doubts can be strong enough to become a trial in your life; but like all trials they’re meant to refine faith, not stifle it.If you consult yung Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, here is part of its discussion “doubt,”
It is possible to have questions (or doubts) about persons, propositions, or objects. Philosophically and epistemologically doubt has been deemed a valuable element in honest, rational inquiry. It prevents us from reaching hasty conclusions or making commitments to unreliable and untrustworthy sources. A suspension of judgment until sufficient inquiry is made and adequate evidence is presented is judged to be admirable. In this light, doubt is not an enemy of faith. This seems to be the attitude of the Bereans in Acts 17:11. Questioning or doubting motivates us to search further and deeper in an understanding of faith.If a person is in a sincere journey to understand life, then he most probably will have to wrestle with doubts by second guessing a lot of things along the way. What a person used to think about things, that person will begin to evaluate; especially, when that person thinks about his life or being self-conscious about what his life is, its purpose, its meaning and many more. Oftentimes doubt plays a key role there because when doubt happens, you are no longer thinking the same way you are thinking about life.
Sabi nga ni Os Guinness,
True seekers are different. On meeting them you feel their purpose, their energy, their integrity, their idealism, and their desire to close in on an answer. Something in life has awakened questions, has made them aware of a sense of need, has forced them to consider where they are in life. They have become seekers because something has spurred their quest for meaning, and they have to find an answer.True seekers are looking for something. They are people for whom life, or a part of life, has suddenly become a point of wonder, a question, a problem, or a crisis. This happens so intensely that they are stirred to look for an answer beyond their present answers and to clarify their position in life. However the need arises, and whatever it calls for, the sense of need consumes the searchers and launches them on their quest.
That need sa tingin ko is spurred by questions that challenge their state of affairs. They start to doubt. The Greek word for doubt is distazo. “Distazo is used only twice in the New Testament. Jesus uses it to Peter in Matt.14:31, when the latter floundered in his attempt to walk on the water.
When you think of doubt, begin with the number two.
The Greek word for doubt is "distazo". It comes from the word "dis" which means duo or two. Yung English word na "doubt" ay galing sa Latin na "dubitare" na Anglicized. Kaya may mga words tayo sa English na "indubitable" or "dubious." The Old English word was "tweogen" that comes from "tweon" which means two o yung idea ng two minds. The noun for "tweogen" is "twynung", and it is from this where we get the English word "twine" o yung sulsi ng dalawang sinulid o tali and also "twin" which is kambal o magkapares. Ang word natin ng doubt is "duda" na actually is a Spanish word that comes back to our earlier Latin "dubitare".
A good picture of this is a confused man facing a fork in the road wondering which way to go. Or a woman trying to make a choice which of the two dresses to wear for a party.
So when you are doubting, there are at least two things to deal with: what you think is true, and another one claiming to be true.When you doubt may nagku compete sa isa na alam mo -- minsan dalawa or marami. It doesn’t matter. Ang importante may kakumpetensiya sa isang idea. Para kang nasa daan na derecho, tapos all of a sudden nagmamaneho ka biglang nag sanga yung daan. Nag duda ka na which road you are taking. A doubt is a competing idea sa mind mo.
Usually you have an understanding of the world. Oftentimes this is called a propositional statement – it is a claim sa reality. Isa itong idea na sa tingin mo ay totoo. Doubt comes when there is a competing claim sa reality. So dalawa na. Meron ka nang dubitare.
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* William Lane Craig, "Dealing with Doubt," Interview with Interviewer, Reasonable Faith (website)
https://www.reasonablefaith.org/videos/interviews-panels/dealing-with-doubt/
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