I was appalled! I visited another church in my travels where the subject of the sermon was “doubt.” The first thing that appalled me was that the preacher said that doubt can be a good thing. The implication is that doubt makes one seek the truth.
Truth is just that — the truth. In
the Hebrew “truth” (‘ehmet) is אֱמֶת (aleph -
mem – tav).
Truth is in accordance with reality
The crucifixion fixed the problem of doubt when Jesus overcame the
world. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Jesus never answered
the question but revealed reality to them.
The Holy Ghost of Jesus was His “Shadow” as the Hebrew word, selem,
means (Gen 1:27). Jesus was nailed rigidly to the cross so He could not move.
Then, He gave up the Ghost: “When the centurion, which stood over against Him,
saw that He so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, “Truly this man was
the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39).
The truth was revealed by the action of the Invisible God, “El” in
the Hebrew. El is denoted by the Hebrew letter aleph. The letter aleph
is the first letter in ‘ehmet (truth).
The letter mem represents movement, or in science, “dynamics.” The
virtue of Jesus in the Greek is dynamis.
The last letter of ‘ehmet is the letter tav, characterized by
the cross. What happened on the cross? All doubt was removed, and the
centurion was persuaded, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” As is learned from
the repentant thief, he understood that before it even happened. He understood
without a doubt that Jesus is the Son of God. That is theological “truth” and
is the minimum to inherit eternal life in heaven.
Most of the others around Jesus doubted, and after the soul of the thief
had gone to Paradise with the Holy Ghost, their doubt condemned them.
Jesus could have taken every one of them with Him to Paradise that day, but
most of them doubted even what they saw. Their own eyes lied to them albeit
Jesus was defying science. How so?
Shadows move with objects. Jesus was nailed rigidly and his Shadow — the
Holy Ghost — moved independently from his body. Plato revealed that was impossible
with his “Allegory of the Cave” to present truth. As such, “The shadow,” said
Plato, “was a fragment of the object.” In the case of Jesus, they were both one
and independent at the same time, thus revealing a new truth.
“Doubt” is either uncertainty or distrust. The repentant thief trusted
Jesus. Doubt is failure to be certain that Jesus was who He claimed to be, or
to depend on Him.
Back now to the sermon: The preacher said that doubt was not the lack of
faith. Jesus said a different thing:
O you of little faith? and seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, neither be you of doubtful mind. (Luke 12:29)
Jesus equated “little faith” with a “doubtful mind.” Obviously, doubt and faith oppose each other. In fact, faith is trust over time all the way to the end (Mat 24:13). Doubt is questioning God any time. Jesus also said about faith and doubt these things:
Verily I say unto you, “If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; it shall be done’” (Mat 21:21)
“Doubt” is missing faith. Faith is knowing that God can move mountains for
you. Doubt is disbelieving that.
Remember the “Aleph” of Truth in ‘ehmet? It means the truth
of God is Power. Doubting that God has Power to do any thing is “doubt.” For
instance, is you do not believe that God created all things (John 1:1-3), then
you doubt God. The concept of any god is that he has creative power; to move
mountains and such into the sea. God did that but so many of you believe evolution
did that. Your doubt has you in Satan’s virtual prison!
Jesus made the connection — “faith” is not doubting. Doubting God is
never a good thing. If Thomas had remained in doubt, he would have perished,
but when he saw the nail scars of Jesus, even without touching them, his doubt
was turned to faith. Doubt did not
change him; it was faith that did that!
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen” (Heb 11:1). Thomas was not present at the crucifixion to see the truth.
He saw the substance of the Cross — the scars — and that was the evidence
of what he had not seen.
Because Thomas saw the truth without ever witnessing the crucifixion is
faith. If he had seen the scars and still doubted, that would have been the
absence of faith.
The truth is that doubt is the absence of faith and Preacher “X” taught
wrongly. I believe, from his quotes, that he believed the writers of
commentaries over Holy Scripture. He had been deceived and went on to deceive
the entire congregation. My hope is that many others tested his misinformation,
for we are to “Prove (test) all things; and hold fast that which is good” (1
Thes 5:21). I did that, and I let go of his false teachings.
The pastor’s next statement was astounding: That John the Baptist doubted
Jesus! The congregation should have walked out. I held both my tongue and knees
to sit still and remained quiet. After all, it was not my church.
John was not an ordinary child, so he was certainly not an ordinary man.
John was extraordinary:
Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a
city of Juda, and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth, and
it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe (John)
leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. (Luke 1:39-41)
John knew Jesus before either were ever born. He not only believed in Jesus,
but the Holy Ghost bonded them. In scientific terms, John was quantumly “entangled”
with Jesus from the beginning as the Power of God left Jesus and entered John
the Baptist. That was the Power of God, “El,” that leaped from Jesus to
John in a transfer of Power. John never doubted Jesus, so the preacher was
entirely wrong, and it seemed that everybody but me were deceived.
John said to all who would listen:
I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I comes, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. (Luke 3:16)
Note that John said “One” and defined the One who would baptize with the
Holy Ghost and fire. The “One” was Jesus and the two other substances were His
Ghost and Power; in theology the “Godhead” or “Holy Trinity.”
John knew Jesus well from the womb and had even sensed His Power; which like
a surge of lightening, made him leap. John was certain of the One who would
come, and without a doubt understood that Jesus was the Head of the Godhead.
The preacher quoted the New International Version (NIV):
John’s disciples told him about all these things; calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else? (John 7:18)
Was that a question of doubt or a statement of certainty?
John sent them to “the Lord.” He did not send them to anybody else who claimed
that! The doubt seemed to have been derived from the question, “Are you the One
who is to come?” John knew the true “One” from the time in his mother’s womb.
He wanted those to whom he spoke to not waste his time on posers.
The historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote of some who claimed to be the
Messiah and even several others with the name “Yeshua.” Was John
questioning the “One” or was he telling them to validate which one they
would bring to Him?
Note that John had described the “One” before; the One that would baptize
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John knew explicitly the One True God
without a doubt. If the preacher had read the rest of the story, he would have
known that John was sure which One who they were to seek.
John was neither confused nor was he in doubt. What the preacher used to
justify his sermon, failed. John had no doubts at all; he knew from the womb the
true Jesus and had experienced the Holy Ghost and Power of Him! The verse the
preacher used to reveal doubt was really revealing the certainty of John
the Baptist.
The lesson here is never to believe what anyone says. The preacher, in
effect, created a good sermon that most bought into, but it was entirely
misinformation. Indeed, we are to test all things and hang onto what is good,
and that sermon was entirely deceptive! Add one to Satan and minus one from
Jesus, and the deception goes on.
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