Views from an Evangelist

The goal of this post is for you to understand:

#1 where doubt originated

#2 its intended effect upon you

#3 what doubtful ideas sound like in order that you would reject them.

Genesis 1 – 2:3 provides the overview of God’s creation of the world and everything in it.  What was the means of the creation?  His word.  Read in Genesis 1:3; 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29 where God said and creation came into being.  Thus His Word brought forth creation.  Or you could say God spoke everything into being.

It’s a rhetorical question but did anything God spoke into being not come into being?  The answer of course is no.  All creation came into being as God desired and was spoken through His Word.

Thus His Word is of faith and through faith the Word brings forth what God desires.

#1 where doubt originated

What happened to bring doubt into the world?  Genesis 3:1 tells us, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Here you read the Serpent, who represents Satan or the anti-Christ, asking Eve if God really said something.  The serpent demonstrates he knows what God said by the fact he asked the question thus his question is a question of doubt intended to make Eve question what God had said.  Prior to the serpents question there was no being or spiritual force in the Garden of Eden that questioned God’s Word.

Doubt entered the world through the serpent’s question in Genesis 3:1.

The point is questions of doubt are from the serpent or Satan.  Statement’s of doubt are therefore from the serpent or Satanic. They are faithless and not of God.

#2 its intended effect upon you

What’s the goal of the question of doubt? To get you to not believe in God’s Word. To not have faith in His Word. Remember His Word is the source of creation, that would include you too, and to not have faith in His Word is to doubt the source of all creation: God Himself.  God intended us to believe in Him through His Word.  Thus if Satan can get you to doubt God’s Word you doubt God Himself.

This is the connection Jesus was seeking to establish with the Jews of His day.  He was was saying He was from the Father and if you believed in Him you would also be believing in the Father.  Of course we know through Scripture, God’s Word, that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate and that God’s Word comes from Himself.

Long story short if Satan can get to doubt God’s Word, Jesus Christ, he can get you to doubt God.

What are a few Christian expressions of doubt:

#1 The is a post-Christian society. This would imply preachers have to do something different than teach the Word for people to believe.

#2 People are different today. This would imply they have to receive the Gospel in a different way than before to believe It.

#3 Don’t offend your neighbor with the Gospel. In other words you can’t tell them the Gospel meaning you can’t trust the Word to do its work.

#3 what doubtful ideas sound like in order that you would reject them

Basically any statement that does not affirm God’s Word is a doubtful statement.  Your job is to not entertain it but reject it immediately.

How can you do that?

Like Eve in the Garden the serpent also tempted Jesus in the desert.  The two accounts are in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. In both accounts the serpent tempts Jesus three times and uses Scripture in one temptation.

To defend Himself, dismiss the question and defeat the serpent Jesus quotes Scripture back to the serpent.  In other Words He uses the Word to reject the doubt.

The lesson and charge to you today is to know your Bible.  The world is a world of doubt and you must prepare yourself to defeat the doubt with the Word that is of faith.