I'm doubting my faith, and I need a scriptural perspective

Have you experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, yet? See Acts 19:1-5.

Vineyards and Assemblies of God can teach you about this.

I still don't understand, friend. Are you experiencing doubts about his existence specifically, like that you need proof? We need to know exactly what you are looking for in answering these doubts.

Faith.

Thats all we need. Nothing more.

A true follower of God needs no proof.

Its all about pure LOVE, BELIEF, FAITH in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

RoryIsABeliever said:

I understand that, I do. But why did the people in the Bible have clear evidence of God in frint of them and we don't?

Are there any biblical figures that had to believe in God with absolutely no proof at all that he was real?

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Early days of Christianity etc.

Today we have Scripture, Sacred Tradition etc. We know God so much more these days.

RoryIsABeliever said:

It's the issue of the Bible VS present day. I.e why doesn't God speak directly to us in the same way? Why don't angels appear with messages from God? Why doesn't God work through people in the same miraculous way?

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Confessions aren't meant to replace Scripture, they simply are used to affirm a church's stance on doctrinal issues. This is taken from my church's confession, they explain your question thus:

The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience (2 Timothy 3:15–17; Isaiah 8:20; Luke 16:29, 31; Ephesians 2:20). The light of nature and the works of creation and providence so clearly demonstrate the goodness, wisdom, and power of God that people are left without excuse; however, these demonstrations are not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and his will that is necessary for salvation (Romans 1:19–21; Romans 2:14,15; Psalm 19:1–3). Therefore, the Lord was pleased at different times and in various ways to reveal himself and to declare his will to his church (Hebrews 1:1). To preserve and propagate the truth better and to establish and comfort the church with greater certainty against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, the Lord put this revelation completely in writing. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures are absolutely necessary, because God’s former ways of revealing his will to his people have now ceased (Proverbs 22:19–21; Romans 15:4; 2 Peter 1:19, 20).

This makes sense to me for why God has stopped speaking to us directly, because all that is necessary for faith and life is set forth in this inspired book.

But the simple answer I give, besides this, is that miracles and wonders were unique and out of the normal. If God did them all of the time, in every generation, wouldn't they no longer be miracles? We see the sun rise and set, but how does it sustain heat and light for all this time? Where does it get this endless source of energy and helium to burn forever? Yet, though this is a miracle in truth, one that cannot even be explained by the natural scientists, we don't call it one. However, something really out of the normal (walking on water, flooding the world to the top of Mt. Everest, turning the nile into blood) is something unique and different than the daily course of life. It stands out. If it stands out, then God shouldn't have to frequently display it so casually.

All the miracles and wonders God did were done in certain times for certain reasons, as well. We read in the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 2:3-4) that the apostles performed them to testify to the word they spoke concerning salvation in Christ. There were times, even in OT history, where hearing God's voice and seeing visions was rare (1 Samuel 3:1). Of all of the OT history, the great events of the supernatural work of God happened in fragments here and there, they weren't consistently happening in every generation, in every place, before every person. But what was done was written to teach us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to build us up. In David's time, all he had was the Law of Moses. We have all sixty-six books with a great cloud of examples and references to real situations that occur in our own lives, we don't need to constantly see these miracles.

Besides this point, imagine if God did the kind of works he did in the past in the 21st century? Think about how people are today and how they would treat it? I am happy Christ was not born in this generation, but at the right time in history.

I hope these things encourages you, friend.

Lost4words said:

Early days of Christianity etc.

Today we have Scripture, Sacred Tradition etc. We know God so much more these days.

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That view is known as Cessationism.
The view that God is still available in the manner bemoaned in the OP is known as Continuationism.

@RoryIsABeliever , some will insist that it is no longer available, but I'm here to tell you that it still is.

I have to say that I am lucky. I got to see Jesus and my entire born again experience. It's not just me many people today have had encounters with Jesus some have even seen him in his glorified form and talked with him. So God still shows himself to us and speaks to us to this very day it's not just in biblical times. It's just that many people reject these encounters with Jesus as not real. They're real.

You cannot deny all of these encounters with our Lord. Not to mention that the world around us could not exist without a God. No, our faith is real. Christ is real and faith in Christ is not a blind faith.

RoryIsABeliever said:

Not sure if this is the right forum to post in, but I really need a biblical/scriptural perspective.

I've been an evangelical Christian for about five years now, but I'm starting to have serious doubts.

It seems to me that so many people in the Bible (Noah, Moses, Adam and Eve, Mary, the Disciples etc....) didn't need to "believe in God without proof". Proof of God was right on front of them. God spoke directly to some people, appeared as a burning Bush, angels appeared to Mary and the Disciples etc... if I had witnessed any of this, of course I would believe in God!

This seems so different to my own experience as a Christian. Looking back, all the times I've thought that God was "communicating" with me, or answering my prayers could just have been a coincidence. Or maybe just me thinking it was real? It's not even that I want PROOF, but I don't even feel like I have any evidence at all that what I believe in is real. Why is this? Have I not come to know Jesus yet? Has God really been speaking with me all these years and it's just doubt making me feel this way? A Minister I spoke with said that an answer to this is because, compared to biblical times, God now works "inwardly" with us, as opposed to direct communication. But i don't know....that just seems a bit too convenient?

Im confused and need help. If anybody has a scriptural or biblical perspective on this I would really appreciate it.

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It depends on what you are expecting. Many fall by the wayside because they are expecting bells and whistles, emotional experiences, sensory experiences, a greater sense of God's presence with them. Also, they try to measure up to what others expect of them and attempt to be the good believers they see around them. But there is absolutely no support in the Bible for any of those things.

The Scripture says, "This is the will of God, that you believe on Him whom God has sent." Jesus said that Himself, so there is no greater authority than that.

Believing on Jesus is to just believe in what He says, and start doing what He has commanded us to do. If we want to know the will of God for our lives, we need to read the Bible; if we want to do the will of God, we need to do the Bible.

When I asked God once how to be a real Christian, He said, "Just be yourself". I told him I couldn't do that because everyone will see all my sins and shortcomings. I think I was comparing myself with others and fearing that if I relaxed and stopped trying to be religious, others in the church would put me down and criticise me - even try to cast demons out of me! But God's reply to me was: "If I don't like you, I will change you!"

I then asked Him about dreams, visions and sensory experiences. He said that I didn't need them because I had Jesus with me and the Holy Spirit was right inside of me. He also said that most of life will be routine and that sometimes there will be highs and lows, but 99% of my time will be just doing the routine things every day. He said that the same Jesus will be with and in me, whether I am at a hyped up church service on Sunday night, or trudging off to work on a cold and grey Monday morning.

So, the Christian faith is not what we feel or sense, but what we believe. And b believing is act of the will. I decide to believe what God says about me in His Word, regardless of what I am feeling or sensing at any one time.

I pull myself out of bed in the morning (I am not a morning person), thinking, "Good Lord, morning!", and in my groggy state, I do say, "Thank you Lord for another day". Not because I feel totally fussed about getting out of bed right then, but that I decide to thank God for another day, regardless of feeling groggy and a little depressed, until I have my first cup of coffee.

You can have all the doubts in the world, but that is not a sign of unbelief. Unbelief is when I decide not to believe what God says about me in the Bible. Faith is when I decide that what the Bible says about me is true, and I base my life and conduct on it. If the Bible tells me to have faith in God, I am going to have faith in God, come hell or high water! I'm going to have faith in God regardless if the cat scratches me, my wife nags me, my boss bullies me, I miss the bus to work, it rains on me and I've forgotten my umbrella, the neighbor's dog [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] his leg and urinates on my trousers, and I step in its poo!

If Jesus says that He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, then it is true for me because I decide it is true.

The trouble is, we are too influenced by what others expect of us, and we compare ourselves too much with those who look and seem more spiritual than us and appear to be stronger in their faith than we are. But we don't know what their faults and shortcomings are. Often, they are struggling with life just as we are. We see them only at church when they are at the best behaviour. We don't seem how they are coping with the realities of life at home and at work. We don't know if they have sick children, nagging wives, loopy dogs, cats that catch birds and bring them inside, high mortgages, demanding bosses at work, children in trouble with the law, having their homes broken into and possessions stolen.

Having faith in God is the same whether we are having a hallelujah hootenanny at church, or washing the dishes at home, hanging out the washing, doing the accounts, sitting on a hard seat in the bus, running for the train, waiting for 5pm to come around after a boring work day, meeting a good friend for coffee, taking the wife out to dinner, counselling a friend in trouble, advising a daughter who has just lost her job.

Having faith in God is not determined by how we feel or what we sense, or our circumstances. It is dependent on our choice to have faith in God no matter what life throws at us, or the positive things that happen.

The standard for what you are experiencing is to draw nearer to Him and He will draw nearer to you. Get involved in some scripture reading, maybe a bible study or other activity. Volunteer with a hospital or prison chaplain and you will find evidence of God there.

FWIW, who says there aren't experiences today ? You could be visited by an angel and not know it, they don't have to appear with wings but look like you and I. Are your senses open ? I can tell you outright they aren't when walking in doubt. Seek Him and you will find Him. And actually your time is about right for a test of faith anyway, so what you experience right now may be part of the plan. Are you going to pass or fail the test ?

RoryIsABeliever said:

Thank you for your response

Is there biblical support for the notion of angels appearing just like you and me? I'm curious, i don't recall but I'm not as scripturally literate as others.

There's also times I feel like when I was a Christian I fall into a vicious cycle of just telling myself "God answered my prayer, yay!" Or "God didn't, so it's a test." I feel lots of Christians do this and that's another thing causing me doubt. It's like a never ending flowchart where you always end up at the conclusion that God is real, not by evidence but by reasoning .

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Actually yes, we are told to watch how we behave as we may be in the presence of angels but unaware. Here read it for yourself, new testament too :
Hebrews 13:2-4 KJV - Be not forgetful to entertain - Bible Gateway

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13%3A2-4&version...
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and.

Also I believe this has happened to me several times in my life, especially around the times of death in my family. Or times of turning back towards faith for that matter. You need to understand something, we aren't humans with a spirit but rather spirits in a human body and there is another whole spiritual realm going on around us 24/7.

RoryIsABeliever said:

Thanks for your response. I read the biblical link you sent.

This is maybe going in another direction, but I feel like the reason why my doubt is not going away is because I feel like a lot of the answers my Christian friends on here and in my life are giving me.... just don't hold up too scrutiny.

"You feel like there's no evidence? Look at the world, it couldn't exist without God."

"You're having doubts? God is testing you."

"You think you're Christian experience is different from what you read in the Bible? God operates differently now."

I just feel like these are not real arguments. It's just too convenient, it requires way too many leaps and makes my doubt even stronger. I just want to scream "Why??!" Why does god communicate to us in a scientifically unmeasurable way? Why is the only evidence we have anecdotal and subjective?

Can anyone relate to this?

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Look, we come to life through Christ by faith, believing, trusting. That's it . I took the leap in 1979 not knowing where else to turn. I just knew my life was a wreck inside me, oh it looked great outside but inside I was screaming this has to end. So completely 99.9% broken I turned my life over to Jesus. And everything changed and is still changing and I suspect in a million years will still be changing. Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. Period. But we all come alone, no particular evidence, we come because we heard.

RoryIsABeliever said:

Thanks for your response. I read the biblical link you sent.

This is maybe going in another direction, but I feel like the reason why my doubt is not going away is because I feel like a lot of the answers my Christian friends on here and in my life are giving me.... just don't hold up too scrutiny.

"You feel like there's no evidence? Look at the world, it couldn't exist without God."

"You're having doubts? God is testing you."

"You think you're Christian experience is different from what you read in the Bible? God operates differently now."

I just feel like these are not real arguments. It's just too convenient, it requires way too many leaps and makes my doubt even stronger. I just want to scream "Why??!" Why does god communicate to us in a scientifically unmeasurable way? Why is the only evidence we have anecdotal and subjective?

Can anyone relate to this?

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Yes, I relate to this feeling every day. But as a philosopher, I realize there's always more I need to take into account than simply what fellow Christians may be able to tell me........... Just the fact that there is still an ongoing debate between Cessationists and Continuationists, between non-Charismatic and Charismatic Christians indicates that this is the case. What this doesn't indicate is that it's time for you to jettison your faith in Christ. It just means there's more to learn.

RoryIsABeliever said:

I understand that, I do. But why did the people in the Bible have clear evidence of God in frint of them and we don't?

Are there any biblical figures that had to believe in God with absolutely no proof at all that he was real?

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This is something no one can answer satisfyingly because we do not know why God was more "hands on" as shown in scripture than he is at present day.
You are a thinking christian, so you (just like me) can't take just "have faith" as a satisfying answer because every religion validates it's beliefs with this statement.


However if you read past Acts you can see that God wasn't as personally active as in the OT (or when he walked the earth as man) either. Everything after Acts where letters from the apostles, we don't read Jesus appearing to them occasionally or speaking to them in visions (until Revelation comes in).

Maybe the reason why is that we are now at the age in where we are waiting for the return of the Messiah? Man has to come off it's "training wheels" and grow it's own knowledge.. however we will eventually lead ourselves to a corner (or our own path to destruction) in where the only solution would be Jesus returning.

One thing we can say is there is better evidence (circumstantial to most) for Jesus and who he is than anyone else. Other than different religions; there are also a lot of different myths, legends, and even controversies about Jesus (a prophet, an avatar, buried in Kashmir, the whole Di Vinci Code, the stuff in the Apocryphy, etc). But the very first belief about him was the Christian beliefs, and not only was this original but this was actually died for as documented in the events of Nero.