What if I Have Doubts? (continued)

Commonly Heard Objections to Believing in Jesus

Short Answer Version

The good news of Jesus is simple, yet profound. Nevertheless, I have noticed that for of the objections people give to it, I can sense the underlying common features are doubt and its cousin from Missouri, skepticism.

Doubt is often an emotional response, not primarily a choice of the intellect. Skepticism is more cerebral, but is based on lack of trust, not lack of evidence.

We have, built within us by our Creator, the ability to turn the tables on our doubt, thereby making room for faith. God can bring faith to us where our natural human abilities appear to fail.

Long Answer Version

First, let me explain that what you will read in this section (Commonly Heard Objections to Believing in Jesus) is largely drawn from my personal recollections about the many discussions I have had with people. I am the one who has commonly heard these objections.

I chose this anecdotal approach because it is first-hand information. As you read about my interactions, know that I respect all kinds of people and listen carefully to them, taking what they have to say seriously.

My use of the word “argument” means a case being made for a declaration. Whenever we say something with the hope others will accept it, we are making a case, an argument for it. Argument is not used in the sense of bickering or becoming angry about something.

To a person giving reasons for not believing, the reasons usually seem to have some element of virtue. Objectors feel attached to their objections on the inside. These are human tendencies, but not necessarily the most wise.

I'm saying these things to help turn the light up so people can see some of the less valid issues behind their doubts.

We will be examining doubts from many directions here, but let's start with this insight. To overcome a personal objection against believing in Jesus might be less an intellectual issue, than one of personal growth and honesty.

We will cover intellectual points later, but for now I'd like to uncover some of the defenses that might need to come down in a person before they can be open to the things in life that are the best for them.

I have been involved in leading thousands of people to salvation by believing in Jesus Christ. During the process I have encountered many “reasons” that people give for politely resisting my help and instead deciding not to believe in Jesus.

Some of the arguments I hear are rather well-thought-out and persuasive, though imperfect. We will tackle those later in the next sections. Others are less analytical. Below are some examples.

One of the first objections I heard as a new believer and a teenager, was from a close friend when I told Him I had received Jesus as my personal Savior. He said, “My parents are Mormons, and I know all about that stuff, it’s a bunch of rubbish.”

I didn’t know enough to explain that believing in Jesus for salvation, as the Bible teaches, is not at all the same as Mormonism. But I did know that he was mistaken.

I knew my friend very well, and the argument he gave for rejecting Jesus as Savior was not the real reason. My friend, a teenager like me, had been adopted into a family that was overly strict and very religious in the Mormon tradition. My friend had suffered abandonment and was hurting and rebellious. He also wanted to continue to lead a fun, rebellious lifestyle like the one we lived as friends in the past. He didn’t realize that I was having a lot more fun as a follower of Jesus.

Most of the verbal ''come-backs'' we hear cannot support valid reasons not to believe in Jesus as Savior. In some circumstances, they are a sidestep, shifting the issue away from Jesus.

Several times, people have turned the issue toward emotions based on human-relationships. It is possible for people to use a ''misdirect'' intentionally to pivot away from the offer of salvation by faith in Jesus. Doing so might evoke a sympathetic response from me and others.

Nonetheless, they are not worth letting the person die and miss the chance to go to heaven. Sometimes I hear reasons like, ''Jesus doesn’t answer my prayers'', or ''Jesus has never done anything for me'', or ''I tried Jesus and it didn’t work.''

Can you see that most of these are not particularly good reasons for turning down the free gift of eternal life? Jesus is Lord and Savior, not our personal robot and magician.

People have tried to point out what seems to them like a contradiction as if it is an excuse not to believe. My answer to all those kinds of questions usually starts with, ''Can you consider that in some way you do not yet understand? Couldn't God be good and at the same time also allow the outcome you are concerned about?'' Inexplicably, nearly everyone then says ''No.'' Human inability to identify options and possibilities is common, but it does not have any argumentative weight, even though some people may think it does.

People try to point out what seems to them like a contradiction as an excuse. My answer to all those kinds of questions usually starts with, “Can you consider that in some way you do not yet understand? Couldn't God be good and at the same time also allow the outcome you are concerned about?“ Inexplicably, nearly everyone then says “No.” The inability to identify options and possibilities does not have any argumentative weight, even though some people may think it does.

Without being insensitive to the seriousness of this dilemma, I would suggest that a clear-thinking person could come up with at least five reasonable possibilities of how a good God could allow anything to happen that specific humans judge as unjust, hypocritical, or impossible. Try it sometime. We might not know exactly which possibility is correct, or if there is another reason that is the right one.

Other arguments I encounter often start with “How can a good God allow . . . .” This is another strongly-presented statement in which a person is using the force of emotion as if it were a compelling argument. The mere fact that we can think of reasonable possibilities that might answer the hard questions means that the question, “How can a good God allow . . . .” is never without a possible good answer. A section of this topic covers these kinds of issues, it is called "The What Abouts", and can be found in a link near the end of this text.

Another argument I hear a lot pertains to the concept of hypocrisy. People seem to think there is an unwritten law that says if someone is found to be hypocritical, it negates their credibility in all ways, and proves that whatever they believe in is false. This is totally inaccurate.

People sometimes tell me they won’t believe in Jesus because this church leader, or that evangelist was hypocritically doing something contrary to their teaching. The more heinous the act, the more people think they are right in rejecting Jesus. This is so illogical.

It was not Jesus, rather an opposing force to Jesus that tempted the person to do the terrible thing.

The New Testament says Jesus was “tempted in every way as a man, yet without sin.” Ironically, those who appeal to hypocrisy as an argument are not in touch with the fact that Jesus is the only human being that can rightfully claim a lifetime devoid of hypocrisy.

The lack of hypocrisy in Jesus is a stronger argument to believe in Him, than any argument not to believe by appealing to hypocrisy. Sadly, without clear knowledge about Jesus many erroneous decisions are made not to follow Him.

Along with the argument of hypocrisy can exist an underlying error. It is the assumption that once a person is saved, they are supposed to be miraculously perfect and without sin the rest of their lives.

That error is the only explanation I can imagine for why people say hypocrisy in believers is a reason not to accept Jesus, while they say nothing against the hypocrisy that infiltrates society at large.

Although the excuses people give for rejecting Jesus are often based on negative emotions, I also hear cases built around what would be considered positive emotions in our society.

For example, one couple I met was living together. We were having dinner with a larger group at a restaurant and found ourselves in a discussion about following Jesus. When the man got up to use the facilities, the woman told me that she doesn’t want to follow Jesus because she loved the man, and he would not follow Jesus or want her to do so. She said, “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I could see this woman was in love. Love is usually considered a positive emotion. Yet she was not aware that having Jesus as her Savior would be an even better thing that “ever happened to her”.

In my considered opinion, Jesus is the best thing that could ever happen to anyone. The woman in love did not have spiritual insight to recognize that her failure to choose Jesus was the worst decision she could ever make. Being in love with a person is not a good reason to miss going to heaven.

Another woman in the same restaurant said she had tried Jesus but has now turned to cocaine to fill the emotional gap for happiness in her life. She said, “Cocaine never lets me down. Jesus does.” Apparently, she felt the center of the universe was her need for good feelings.

Drugs can give people good feelings, and good feelings are positive emotions, right? I have too many friends who died of overdoses over the years or spent years in jail because of drugs. I can tell you drugs do let a person down.

God created good feelings. They are healthy much of the time. There is one way to know when they are not healthy, and that is when they influence a person to reject believing in Jesus as their Savior. Conversely, when the closer you draw near to Him, the better you feel, those good feelings are healthy.

Some of the real reasons people reject salvation are things they refuse to admit. For example, “being afraid my friends won’t like me if I get saved”, or “I don’t want to give up one of my favorite vices if I get saved”.

People should take some time to examine their inner thoughts and determine their true reasons for shying away from Jesus. Most of these reasons won’t stand up to a little honest probing. Perhaps doing so would lead to clarity.

A common phrase is "the haves and have nots". Anti-Christians accuse believers of feeling superior to others because they can boast that they have something the others don't. This is not a good argument for rejecting Jesus when you could be a "have" with very little effort.

The Bible explicitly says not to think of yourself as better than someone else. Jesus promised that if you don't "have", you can ask and believe. That is the solution to "the haves and have nots" argument.

Nonbelievers often dislike the idea of becoming saved because they think Christians are judgmental. Jesus strictly taught NOT to be judgmental. This is similar to the discussion earlier in this section about hypocrisy. Jesus taught strongly against hypocrisy. It is illogical to reject Jesus, the teacher of good, because people who say they follow him, do the opposite of good. Jesus is not to blame for the actions of those who don't do what He teaches them.

I have heard some doozies. One person said to me “I am too stupid to become a Christian”. Another told me, “I want to get my life together first before I get saved.” That is truly putting the cart before the horse, as they say.

Many times I have heard people say something like, “I was raised a Christian, but when I grew up it did not appeal to me.” If we probe that answer, we will find many holes in the logic:

Jesus is not an “it”. He is not the church people attended as children. He is the Supreme being. To everyone who gets to know Him intimately, He is the most appealing person ever to exist.

Similarly, many of the objections people give begin with "I was raised in the church. My parents are strong Christians." After hearing that dozens of times, it started occurring to me that young people tend to rebel from the way they were brought up to behave.

Here's a twist: I had a work colleague who told me she was a born-again Christian, and that her parents were satan worshippers. Rebellion can work both ways. It is a common part of the process of "leaving the nest".

That might be insightful to people who aren't in touch with why they have strong objections to Jesus. They might have applied the generational tendency to stretch their wings and fly in a dysfunctional way.

Upon serious reflection, and some maturation the call to believe in Jesus might start to seem worthy of revisiting.

The Emotional Side of Doubt

Doubt often boils down to common human emotions or sensations such as fear, anger, selfishness, happiness, romance, ambition, life dreams, lust, loneliness, poor self-image, grief, rejection, loyalty, pain, pride, judgmentalism, arrogance, or self-aggrandizement.

God invented human emotions, so they can't be all bad. In fact, many emotions are blessings. His desire is for people to discover the specialness of emotions that are good for us. For example, courage is the opposite emotion from fear. It is a very strong and positive emotion, when applied with wisdom. When emotions cause doubt, there are opposite emotions we can summon to cause faith.

When people doubt, perhaps they have something in their lives they enjoy, and are not ready to give up. Maybe they are set in their ways. They value their traditions too highly. They don't want to go against their families or other loved ones. I respect their right to think and feel however they want. However, sometimes exercising those rights is terribly not good for us or those around us.

Fear is a powerful force that seems to be coming from outside of us. In reality, we are generating it ourselves. Sometimes there is a valid reason to fear, like when hiking through an area known for poisonous snakes. That kind of fear helps you stay safe. There is an opposite kind of fear that is not so legitimate.

"Fear of the unknown" is a common phrase. If you don't know Jesus, it is possible to be afraid on that basis alone. Fear of the unknown is not usually your friend, especially when it hinders you from making Jesus your friend.

If you can trace your doubt back to fear, try to identify the fears involved and determine how valid they really are. Sometimes fears are based on outright lies! Sometimes they are valid and you are unfortunately misapplying them by doubting God.

Many times Jesus told us kindly not to fear. He said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Jesus is the compassionate Great Physician, who delights in healing our emotional wounds when we turn to Him. He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He is safe, and not someone to be emotionally timid around.

Several people have expressed to me that their reason is fear. It has something to do with having gotten hurt feelings from something a church or Christian did or said to them. There are many versions of this common view, yet I can address them together. The answer is, “I’m deeply sorry that you were hurt. Don’t give up on Jesus just because human beings who associate themselves with His name have hurt you.”

I am not surprised that many people have been seriously hurt by believers in Jesus. I have been the recipient of similar hurtfulness. It is best to separate these imperfect humans and their insensitive behavior, from Jesus Christ and His wise, loving behavior. You might find there actually are unselfish, unhurtful people who believe in Jesus and want to be your friend.

Fear of getting hurt emotionally or physically is a very real thing. My hope is that people will not get confused and turn away the free gift of salvation because of fear. It is like rejecting a huge fortune out of fear that some temporary discomfort might be involved. Such an argument will always look unreasonable in hindsight to someone who has actually accepted the gift of a valuable fortune. The same is true with the free gift of salvation in Jesus. We need to be honest with ourselves about this. Jesus has never hurt you, even if it feels like He has due to misdirected logic.

To Know Him is to Love Him

We can know Jesus to some extent here on earth. In heaven we will definitely know Him better and experience the appeal of Him in full measure. Those who move on to discipleship and learn how to worship Him from the heart will find Him extremely appealing here on earth.

The Bible says “But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

That was a very insightful observation by the apostle Paul. When we receive the Holy Spirit and are born anew spiritually, it IS a second birth. We find ourselves able to understand spiritual things that we could never understand before.

This dynamic is clear when conversing with those who have not yet accepted Jesus as their Savior. I will say something that makes perfect sense to me, something that God has proven to me personally many times over. The listener is truly puzzled when I say these things.

You, the reader, have probably experienced this kind of puzzlement more than once while reading this information. If so, don’t be concerned. Take the step of believing in Jesus and soon, your spiritual “receptors” will be able to pick up spiritual truths much better.

What the Bible calls “the natural man” and “the spiritual man” is a set of word pictures that are also stated other ways as well, such as “the mind (way of thinking) of the Spirit” and “the mind of the flesh.” It says “We have the mind of Christ”, meaning we have the Holy Spirit living in us transforming us even to the point of thinking in ways we could never fathom before. The Holy Spirit is making believers into better people, more like Jesus.

God opens up the spiritual side of things to those who have a new spiritual nature. It is a new reality, a more real reality that we experience otherwise. This is especially understandable if you consider the spiritual reality of God’s kingdom lasts longer than our lifetimes and even than the earth itself.

It is not intended as a insult to say non-Christians are limited in understanding when confining their logic to the natural side of things.

In a sense, a believers grows to see not exactly supernatural things, but the OTHER natural side of things. God’s nature, His eternal reality. I have heard it said His kingdom manifested on earth is naturally supernatural.

I like to explain it in this way. Have you ever met someone who has absolutely no musical talent? That person is baffled by someone who is flowing with it.

The musical person is experiencing a side of reality that the untalented person cannot imagine. That does not make one person better than another.

Being born anew is like a person who was tone deaf, having no musical sense their whole lives, suddenly being given musical talent a little at a time until they are proficient at it.

That is an example from the natural world about what it means “the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them”.

When Believers Doubt

We are going to take a short detour here, and look out what believers can do when they experience feelings of doubt.

When it comes to believing in Jesus and a doubt comes to mind, do this: Set your mind on your friend, Lord, and Savior Jesus. It might take effort but give it your best try. Draw near to Him. Thank Him for His goodness and love. Prayer in relationship with God, does wonders to make the destructive doubts go away, and the good doubts clarified.

To a believer, a doubt that challenges the gift of salvation found in Jesus will inevitably be determined invalid with clear thinking, scriptural insight, and seeking the Lord for enlightenment. The way to salvation is “iron clad”. It is the truth that cannot be dismantled.

To believe in Jesus is to pass out of death into life, according to the Bible. It is to be given citizenship in heaven, starting the moment you believe.

Natural life can be hard whether or not you are saved. In fact, sometimes it can be harder after you are saved. At other times, it can be the opposite.

When blessings abound in your life because of your relationship with Jesus, you will see the hard times were all worth it.

After believing in Jesus, and growing in your new nature with His help, your faith will grow. You will learn to use it more powerfully.

Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit in your life. When you have doubts that pertain to things about God, exercise faith to squash those doubts. Take authority over your doubts and replace them with thoughts of faith. The Holy Spirit in you is the Comforter.

Here are few things the Bible tells believers about Doubt.

Eight days after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to eleven of the twelve disciples in a closed room, but the apostle Thomas was not with them at the time. Later Thomas came to see those eleven.

"The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. But Thomas replied, 'Unless I see in his hands the would marks of the nails, and put my finger into those wound marks, and thrust my hand into his spear would in his side, I will not believe.

And after eight more days, again his disciples were within the room, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst, and said, 'Peace be to you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach your finger out. Put it here and behold my hands. Then reach out your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing'. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have believed." -John 20:26-29

Years later, James wrote: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 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. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord?" James 1:5-8.

When your life feels like you are in a choppy ocean being tossed about, up and down, it might be as a result of doubts. Ask in faith without doubting that God will comfort you and help you get out of the trouble you find yourself in.

God knew that we would need His comfort in this world for its pains and difficulties. He promised to be our Helper. It might not happen in the way or time frame we expect, but it WILL happen if we learn not to doubt. God gives us the gift of faith, which is the both the opposite and the solution to doubt.

We have covered the subject of doubting from the perspective of a person who experiences doubts they would prefer not to encounter.

There are other kinds of doubts. On the Next Page is a section called “The What Abouts”. It explores some of the questions people ask that could lead to doubt on a thought level. After that is a section that gets a little more complicated and addresses major objections to believing in Jesus by philosophical, religious, and intellectual antagonists.

On the Next Page is a section called “The What Abouts”. It explores some of the questions people ask that could lead to doubt on a thought level. After that is a section that gets a little more complicated and addresses major objections to believing in Jesus by philosophical, religious, and intellectual antagonists.