The Problem of Doubt | by J. Dwight Pentecost

J. Dwight Pentecost

“A man came to my office several years ago, and I had the joy of pointing Him to Christ through the Word of God. Without my suggesting it, he dropped down beside his chair and poured out his heart to God, saying that he was accepting Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He walked out of my office radiantly happy. The next day he called me up and said, ‘I don’t know whether I’m saved or not.’ Then he told me something he had done. In the light of God’s Word, his action was wrong; and because he had sinned after he had accepted Christ, he couldn’t conceive of the fact that he was still saved. So over the phone I read him a number of verses, and it satisfied him—until the next day. Phoning again, he said, ‘I just don’t feel saved.’ Then he made this significant remark: ‘If I were God, and I had one who professed to be my son who did what I’ve done, I’d throw him out.’ In other words, ‘If I were God, this is the way I’d deal with him.’ He was trying to bring God down to his level in saying, ‘Since this is what I would do if I were God, God must do what I would do if I were God,’ and he was plagued with doubt. After that went on for about ten days, I said, ‘This isn’t something we can settle over the phone. Let’s get together.’ He came to my office again. When he walked in I said, ‘Well, how are things going?’ He said, ‘I just don’t feel saved.’ I said to him, ‘Are you married?’ I knew he was. He said, ‘Sure.’ I said, ‘Do you always feel married?’ He started to make a remark and then realized that I was serious. He began to see what I was getting at, so he said, ‘You know, whether I feel married or not doesn’t have anything to do with it. I am whether I feel it or not.’ I said, ‘Did you ever realize that whether you feel saved or not has nothing to do with it?’ He said, ‘It doesn’t?’ I said, ‘No. You’ve been plagued with doubts about your salvation because you’re ignorant of God’s Word and His power. The Word says, ‘He that hath the Son hath life,’ and the kind of life He has given you is everlasting life, but you didn’t know that. You’re plagued with doubts because you’re ignorant of the power of God, for you feel that He is unable to keep that which has been committed unto Him against that day.’ We talked awhile, and that was the last time I ever had a phone call from him.

 

The man said, ‘If I were God, I would do so and so.’ And that was Thomas’ attitude [in John 20:24-25]. Thomas said, ‘If I were God, this isn’t the way I’d work.’ Because of his ignorance he brought God down to his level; and if God is no bigger than you are, no wonder you have doubts about your God. [...] Martin Luther once said that you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair. You can’t keep doubt from coming into your mind, but a doubt must be retained there or it will dissipate in the light of the Word of God. If you insist on nourishing and retaining your doubts they will grow. But if you bring them into Christ’s presence and expose them to the person of Christ, then they will dissipate and God will reveal Himself through His Son as the one to be trusted and believed. The light of His countenance will cause the darkness of doubt to disappear. When this mind is subjected to the mind of Christ and to the truth of the Bible, we come to personal, intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Doubts must vanish as light dissipates darkness. May God deliver us from doubt as we confess that He is our Lord and our God.”[1] 

 

 

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[1] J. Dwight Pentecost, Life’s Problems God’s Solutions: Answers to Fifteen of Life’s Most Perplexing Problems (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1971), pp. 69-75, ellipsis added.