Magyar Egyház, 1975 (54. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-03-01 / 3. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ comes. Sunlight falling on a dead log will increase the process of decay and decomposition, but sunlight falling on a living tree enhances its beauty and strength. Your doubt may be the most enriching experience in life, pushing back the foothills and lifting the horizons. Consider it in the matter of vocation. One day, after careful and serious thought, you determine upon a definite career. It is the one thing you want above all other things. It may be you want to become a doctor or a carpenter or a manufacturer of toothbrushes or a composer of symphonies. You prepare for it, and you train for it. Then the hour comes when you stand upon the threshold of accomplishment, and doubts arise. You begin to question if you have made the right choice. You wonder if it has a future. You wonder if you have talent. You wonder if your temperament fits into that decision. You wonder if there is an opportunity for you. And so you face your doubts. You look them squarely in the face. You sit down with them, and y°u resolve them. After a period of hesitancy, you wonder why you ever hesitated. In the end you become more convinced than ever that this, your choice, was part of the will of God. When Nicodemus came with his doubts, Jesus was not impatient or petulant. He did not brush him aside or shrug His shoulders or walk out on him. Jesus sat with him through the long hours of the night until dawn came. The light broke, and his uncertainty vanished. In complete abandonment he followed the Master and in the end, when even His closest friends had betrayed and denied and forsaken Him, Nicodemus risked his reputation, name, prestige, and standing to remove His body from the cross and give it decent burial in the freshly hewn tomb. Through doubt to certainty. John the Baptist faced doubt: “Art Thou he that should come or do we look for another?” In the end he remained with Jesus to his martyrdom. Thomas carried his doubt to Christ: “Unless I see the print of the nail in His hand I will not believe.” In the end he became the missionary of immortality. The woman at Samaria doubted: “Thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep; from when then hast thou that living water?” She remained with Him through doubt until she became the first city missionary. Do not be afraid of doubt. You do not have to leave your intellect in the vestibule when you come to worship God. Doubt is simply a negative expression of faith. If there were no faith, there would be no doubt. Doubt implies the presence of faith. You do not doubt what does not exist. We doubt what already exists. Doubt at best means that you cannot say yes, but you refuse to say no. Not many believers would dare to say they never doubted. One of the noblest qualities of man is his capacity to doubt. Not only is it your right, but it is your duty. When doubt comes, ask yourselves, what does God mean me to learn? Doubt may be a sign that God’s spirit is at work in your life. Paul said, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is true.” Put the Gospel to the test. If it cannot make good its claim, get rid of it. The most firm believers also have been great doubters. We glory in the triumphant hymn of Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” It is well to recall that he had periods of depression and doubt. There was a time when his doubt was especially deep. In order to shake him out of it, his wife dressed in mourning and so appeared in his study. When Luther saw her, he was shocked and amazed. He asked, “Why?” She replied, “I am mourning the death of God. From the way you behave, God must surely be dead.” Doubt may be one of the most hopeful signs of the times. Until now men were not sufficiently concerned to ask questions. They couldn’t care less. The next revival of religion may well begin at this point of questioning. Christianity is not a questionable religion, but it is a religion that lets you ask questions. Jesus made clear a second fact to Nicodemus. He offered a warning, not only an assurance. Doubt alone will never open the gates of the kingdom of God. Living by your doubt is different than living in your doubt. “The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.” We live in a world of mystery. Life throws roadblocks saying so far and no farther. It is a silly thing to carry your little lamp of reason into the darkness and say, “There is nothing there.” The absence of mystery is not a sign of intellectual acumen. Albert Schweitzer said, “The highest knowledge is to know we are surrounded by mystery.” There is so much that is unknowable, incomprehensible, and unapproachable. To say you will not believe until all doubt is removed is to reduce God to the level of human intelligence. There are in religion unrelieved and insoluble enigmas. We see through a glass darkly. There was a time when Mary asked, “Why hast Thou dealt thus with us?” There was the hour when even Jesus said, “My God why hast Thou forsaken me?” Religion is not a formal garden with carefully arranged beds of petunias, lilies, violets, and roses and well-manicured
