Crossing the Bridge from Doubt to Faith

Do you ever have serious doubts about God–perhaps even question if He exists? Before I became a Christian in college, I never had doubts like that. Since God was irrelevant to my daily life, I was comfortable leaving the topic alone.

All that changed when I was studying at the University of Colorado. I accepted Christ as my Savior in my freshman year and experienced an unexpected transformation: a new desire to reach out to people, a better grasp of Scripture, answers to prayers. Because I wanted to know more about the Bible, I took two courses in biblical studies that summer at a nearby denominational college. What I didn’t know was that the professors and the textbooks they’d chosen for the courses would undermine my faith.

Naively, I thought the courses’ textbooks would contain well-researched, inspirational material. I assumed the professors would share insights to strengthen my walk as a Christian. Wrong! Those courses planted seeds of doubt. My Christian fellowship back at the university and Bible study kept those seeds in check for several years, and an amazing answer to a very specific prayer helped as well. (I’ve included it in Answers to Prayer Beyond Coincidence on this website.)

Ironically, however, the amazing answer to that prayer took me to Japan in my late twenties as a missionary and English teacher. The deep-seated skepticism held by my very likeable students fertilized those old seeds of doubt. The good news is that the Christian faith is built on a solid rock of evidence. I gained a much stronger foundation for belief through studying the New Testament’s historicity as well as learning of other people’s remarkable answers to prayer. Perhaps you, or a friend of yours, would like to examine more evidence for faith too. For starters, how about perusing the accounts of answers to prayer, beyond coincidence, on this website? Nothing could be more exciting than gaining the assurance that we have a Creator who really exists and loves us! Here’s the link.