Recently Husband and I have spent time with people we love dearly but who are not yet believers.  It pains my heart that these dears ones are rejecting God either intentionally or by default.  Honest conversations revealed concerns that keep them from believing the Bible.  But even for us who believe, do some Bible passages bring up doubts? Do you ever cringe or scratch your head when you read a portion of Scripture?  I have to remind myself that just because I can’t wrap my brain around it doesn’t mean the Bible is wrong.  It’s the epitome of pride to set my own judgment above God’s Word.  Since when am I in a position to judge God?  How can I point to a ‘flaw’ in his Word when I myself am flawed?  Since I fall short of moral perfection, what gives me the right to call into question a holy God?

Not only am I morally disqualified to judge God, but I’m intellectually disqualified.   I approach things from a human perspective and therefore am inherently limited.  I don’t have access to even all of the human knowledge, much less supernatural knowledge.  My area of expertise is very narrow.  I will never comprehend the depths of physics like a brilliant friend of ours or the complexities of the medical field like a doctor friend.  I have no experience managing thousands of employees like a former neighbor.  I don’t understand the intricacies of economics like my business friend.  I’ve never explored the ocean like Husband’s good friend.  I can’t speak 5 languages like a precious friend we met overseas.  Not only does one person never possess all current knowledge, but we also don’t possess all the knowledge of past ages.  I don’t know how to build a pyramid like the ancient Egyptians, Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas.  I don’t know the herbal remedies of indigenous peoples or the locations of now lost ancient cities.  And, of course, I don’t possess future knowledge.  Think of the scientific, medical, and technological advances in just the past fifty years.  What will humans know fifty years hence?  Since I don’t possess all knowledge, how could I presume to pass judgment on the eternal God who created me and everything in the universe?

Not only am I morally and intellectually disqualified, but I’m emotionally disqualified to judge God and his Word.  I can’t possibly be objective in my evaluation of what the Scriptures say about this world because I’m not an observer of this world, I’m a participant.  Unlike God who is outside of time and space, my viewpoint is too close. I’m not the director, I’m one of the actors on the stage of history.  I can’t be completely objective because I’m involved in the story.  I can’t step back and impartially assess the situation.  Just as a judge has to recuse themself from a court case if they have had any dealings with those involved, or a juror must be excused if they have a bias in a case, so I’m disqualified from passing judgment on what God says about humans because ‘I are one’.

In reading Scripture there seem to be several areas that can trip us up in our faith and cause doubts.

Concepts too big for us.  The Bible is full of big ideas.  The fact that God is Father, but also Spirit, and Son is impossible to fully grasp.  Three expressions of one God is beyond our ability to reconcile yet Scripture speaks of all three as God.  My conclusion is that God is too big for us and that’s what makes him God.  Even his personhood is beyond us so it stands to reason that his thoughts and actions will also be beyond our comprehension.  This is not to say that he is illogical or unreasonable.  He is just so far above us that we can’t fully understand him.  But his Spirit enables us to grasp enough to trust him even for things beyond us.

“For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:9

Statements that don’t fit our knowledge of the world. In another blog, I mentioned one verse that always gave me pause.  Recently I read about new scientific evidence that confirms the Biblical statement.  (www.heartmindsoulandstrength.com/starsong ). Sometimes the Bible records scientific or historical data that hasn’t yet been confirmed by present-day scholars.  When there is a conflict between human knowledge and God’s record we can choose to believe God.  The Biblical record may or may not be affirmed by scholars in our lifetimes, but we can rest assured that Scripture is accurate in the original languages when understood as intended.  (Of course, there are poetic, allegorical,  hyperbolic, or other non-literal passages.  The Bible is not just a textbook, it’s also literature in all its richness.)

Moral dilemmas such as killing.  Scripture records a lot of killing.  Just like history books, the Bible documents many, many battles.  It doesn’t shy away from the reality of the part war plays in human existence.  It includes justified and unjustified wars.  What makes us moderns cringe is that civilians were wiped out sometimes even at God’s command.  What could make these non-combatants deserve death?  I don’t pretend to be able to make sense of this huge question in a tiny blog written by an average grandma, but perhaps part of the answer has to do with God’s judgment on cultures that had devolved into cruel oppression and needed to be wiped clean for a fresh start.  We see mothers killed but we don’t think about the fact that they themselves were killing their own babies in pagan sacrificial rites.  We see children killed, but we don’t think about the children growing up to kill because they had been brainwashed from early childhood to hate.  It appears that sometimes a society is so evil that it has passed the point of correcting course.  To give another society a safe space to flourish, the degraded society must be removed.

Misunderstandings due to language.  There are some cases when our English translations don’t adequately express the intent of the original languages.  Often further study will clarify what the original actually said.  Some difficult passages can become clear when we take the time to research.  God rewards those who seek and those who knock.  He will open our understanding when we come with honest concerns yet are willing to trust him.  Here’s an example from this week:  our pastor taught about an Old Testament hero, Jephtha.  For centuries there has been debate about the morality of what he did.  The sermon piqued our curiosity so Husband and I discussed it on Sunday and Monday.  We decided to look the passage up online in various translations.  Finally, we looked up a clumsy, but literal translation where each word is translated without any attempt to make it easy to read.  That word-for-word translation is what cleared up our concern.  See below for study tools.

Because we are often tempted to doubt, it’s important for us who do believe to spend time regularly in the company of others who believe.  This Sunday we were especially grateful for our faith community after missing one Sunday.  It was so clear that we desperately need to be taught Scripture by those who dedicate their lives to studying it. We need to worship together, be built up by godly friendships, engage in uplifting conversations, pray together for each other’s needs, and rejoice with others for God’s blessings.  It put life and healing back into our hearts and souls.  We left church feeling loved, renewed, and positive.  Please, please meet with other believers regularly.  We’re commanded to do so for good reason.

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”  Hebrews 10:25

Study Tools
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search