{"id":220,"date":"2018-07-24T12:08:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=220"},"modified":"2018-07-24T12:36:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T16:36:52","slug":"220","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2018\/07\/220.html","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Steven Furtick: Christians Should Expect to Doubt the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"holy-670718_640\"In the Christian religion, doubt has almost always been held up as the opposite of faith. As such, many Christians are horrified and ashamed when they struggle with doubt. They fear that they are losing their faith when they have doubts. According to Pastor Steven Furtick from the Elevation Church in North Carolina, however, doubt is not something that should shame Christians. In fact, it should be expected and almost required. \u201cIf you don\u2019t doubt [the Bible,]\u201d Furtick said, \u201cyou\u2019re not reading it or you\u2019re reading it with no intent to live it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furtick explained that \u201cfaith is not the absence of doubt; it is the means to overcome it.\u201d Asking questions, wrestling with challenges and struggling in order to reach understanding is natural and healthy. \u201cMy doubt is the evidence of my growth,\u201d Furtick said. \u201cThe closer I get, the more questions I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few Christians are willing to address the issue of doubt, and even fewer are willing to admit to struggling with doubt themselves. Furtick, however, was open about occasionally struggling with doubt himself. “I meet these people and\u2026they make assumptions about me, because there’s a Rev. in front of my name. They make assumptions about me that I don’t have real doubts,” he said. “One gentleman that I was doing business with, he put it this way. He [said,] ‘I envy you because I would love to have faith. I always wanted to believe in God. But I’m just always, I’m the kind of person that doubts a lot. And I envy you that you don’t have those doubts.\u2019\u2026[but] I have my doubts,\u201d Furtick elaborated. \u201cI don\u2019t believe [the Bible] because I don\u2019t doubt it\u2026I struggle to believe it. That I\u2019m forgiven, that He forgives me not only before I accepted Him but for what I still do\u2026I have my doubts. I have my faith, but I have my doubts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furtick went on to explain that many Christians seem to think that they are alone in dealing with doubt. \u201cWe doubt this stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t say we doubt this stuff because doubt is bad.\u201d To those who claim to have no doubts at all, Furtick said, \u201cThere\u2019s not one of you in the room\u2026[who] can honestly say [the Sinner\u2019s Prayer] without a doubt. And if you can,\u201d he joked, \u201chang on. You haven\u2019t had teenagers yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furtick\u2019s sermon has been met by both cheers and fierce criticism. Many Christians are thrilled at hearing that they are not alone or damned because they sometimes struggle with doubts. Others were appalled at what they saw as encouraging disobedience. Regardless of which side of the debate someone falls on, there is no doubt that this conversation is overdue. Christianity is struggling in the West. As such, it is time that people begin to truly discuss what it means to be Christian in this modern world and address the spiritual challenges Christians face today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Christian religion, doubt has almost always been held up as the opposite of faith. As such, many Christians are horrified and ashamed when they struggle with doubt. They fear that they are losing their faith when they have doubts. According to Pastor Steven Furtick from the Elevation Church in North Carolina, however, doubt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[155,60,154],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-news","tag-doubt","tag-faith","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nPastor Steven Furtick: Christians Should Expect to Doubt the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Faith and doubt are often seen as opposites. 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