Is doubt a sin? Some reflections on what Christian faith and the Bible say about uncertainty and belief
For many years, I believed that my doubts disqualified me from being numbered among true Christians. I never heard others expressing doubts; rather, I was told that only atheists express skepticism about God–for which I was given handbooks to arm me with pre-baked answers to any challenging questions atheists might throw my way. Since I didn’t have any models for engaging with questions from an open-minded and sincere posture, it felt like a forbidden practice that would lead me astray.
Yet exploring my questions in community with others, like we do in this Theology Lab podcast series on the existence of evil, has become one of the most formative and encouraging ways I’ve grown and deepened my faith. Deconstruction and reconstruction are increasingly recognized as a healthy part of faith life. But I still remember how afraid I was to face my questions about God.
1. Why doubt feels frightening
Doubt is understandably scary for many Christians, even though the majority of Christians experience it at some point in their lives. When I found the first inklings of doubt creeping into my life, I was paralyzed by fear, not wanting to probe the growing fractures in my faith, lest it all fall apart. If the foundation of my life crumbled, where would I find direction and purpose? What could I trust or hold on to?
In many Christian spaces, I had heard the same message: Doubting God is disobedient. It’s sinful. It ought to be nipped in the bud before it has a chance to fester and spread–or contaminate others. How can you doubt God’s character? Doubt is the opposite of faith.
When I imagined an idealistic notion of what spiritual certainty looks like, it was a circle of believers holding hands. It was belonging to a community and never wondering whether you’re a misfit. It was confidence in always knowing the right answer. In contrast, doubt looks like a hesitant foray outside of safe territory. It’s a precarious step on new ground. It’s a voyage into the unknown and unsanctioned. No wonder doubt can feel frightening!
2. When doubt becomes freeing
Yet through my journey in the spiritual wilderness, outside of these previously prescribed “safe confines,” I not only experienced God’s presence, but I was revitalized in a profound way. Venturing into unknown territory unleashed a new kind of faith, one in which I had to depend on a dynamic relationship with God to continue forward, rather than on prescribed, rote answers that others had spoon-fed me.
When I allowed my interactions with God to be dictated not just by what I thought obedient prayer ought to look like, but by my deepest emotions, frustrations, and recriminations, I was able to bring a much more authentic self into God’s divine presence to be shaped, remolded, and loved.
3. Biblical examples of doubts and questions
Scripture is filled to the brim with people who question God’s reality or commands. God doesn’t condemn them for their doubts; rather, God shows compassion, going out of the way to reassure, demonstrate God’s presence, and confirm instructions.
Moses’s question
Despite encountering God in a supernaturally burning-but-not-consumed bush and having a direct conversation with God, Moses pushes back repeatedly (five times, in my count) against God’s clear command to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of bondage. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Moses responds (Exodus 3:11).
With graciousness, God encourages Moses, telling him that God will be with him, and even providing him with miraculous signs: a staff that transforms into a snake; a hand that is suddenly afflicted with a leprous disease, then just as suddenly, is healed. God answers each of Moses's protestations, only losing patience when Moses refuses to go even after all his questions are fully answered.
Gideon’s doubts
In a strikingly similar manner, Gideon, too, resists God’s call to lead Israel to deliverance in Judges 6. During this divine encounter with an angel of the Lord, Gideon expresses doubts about God’s presence and about his own ability to lead. Even after God reassures him, Gideon demands a sign to confirm that it’s truly God speaking to him. And God provides: The angel of the Lord touches meat and cakes with his staff, setting them on fire, then disappearing himself.
Yet even this wasn’t enough for Gideon. Later in the text, he asks God for yet another sign to confirm that God will deliver Israel via Gideon’s hand. At Gideon’s request, God allows dew to cover Gideon’s wool fleece, while leaving the rest of the ground dry. Gideon’s doubts persist, and he asks for God to perform the inverse. With what I imagine to be a degree of bemusement along with patience and forbearance, God grants Gideon’s desire. The next morning, the ground is wet but the fleece is dry. While Gideon goes on to lead military exploits on behalf of Israel, he also lapses into idolatry (despite having experienced these miraculous signs), yet he is counted among the faithful in Hebrews 11. Curious indeed!
Thomas’s unbelief
Perhaps the most famous example of doubt in the Bible, the apostle Thomas misses out on seeing the resurrected Christ when Jesus appears to his disciples in John 20. When he’s informed of these events, Thomas declares, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).
In his mercy, Jesus repeats his miraculous appearance through closed doors at another gathering of the disciples, this time with Thomas present. Extending to Thomas his marked hands and side, Jesus invites Thomas to feel his physical body and believe. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaims (John 20:28).
If Jesus had the grace to appear to Thomas, who knew him in the flesh, how much more understanding does God have for all of us, who have never lived alongside Jesus and yet try, despite ourselves, to have faith! If Jesus has compassion on Thomas's doubts and inability to believe without seeing and touching, I trust that his kindness extends to us, too.
4. How churches often respond to doubt
Although those of us who doubt are in solid biblical company, we may not always receive a gracious response from other Christians when we express uncertainties. Rather, from some believers, I’ve experienced a mixture of worry over my soul, fear that my questions might be contagious and mislead others, and exhortation to get over it and trust in God’s goodness. Thankfully, I’ve never been shunned for my doubts, but I’ve heard stories from people who’ve been viewed with suspicion after giving voice to their questions.
These responses from fellow Christians may induce us to try to squelch our doubts, or at least silence them when around others, leading to a lonely, uneasy path where we’re worried that we’re sinning by harboring unanswered questions, but can’t talk to anyone about them. They may persuade us to perform a false, unquestioning obedience that is not faithfulness at all, but an outward shell of conformity. Alternatively, if we don’t find an outlet for our uncertainties among other believers, we may end up leaving the church entirely, figuring that we certainly don’t belong to this band of the faithful and undoubting.
Yet this does not have to be the response. Instead, the spiritual communities that we form can honor questions as a sign of authentic engagement with God. Churches can make space for good-faith dialogues about areas of uncertainty (because, let’s face it, even academic theologians rarely agree on anything!), apparent contradictions in the Bible, and different interpretations of scripture.
As active participants in these communities, we can shape them to be spaces where curiosity is welcome, where congregants are good listeners, and where each person’s faith journey is given space to zig and zag. This is the kind of space I’ve experienced as part of Theology Lab’s podcast series, where we wrestle together through thorny questions.
It’s a gift to the Christian community when free thinkers, guided by love and humility, help shake things up a bit. It gives everyone a bit more breathing room to imagine outside the box. It reminds us that God is living and active, revealing different aspects of God’s character and nature to different people. It prompts those of us who’ve just been stuck in a rut to consider aspects of God and scripture anew.
God is big enough for our questions–and certainly is not afraid of them. If our spiritual communities can reflect God’s graciousness toward Moses, Gideon, and Thomas, perhaps doubters would feel less alone and be encouraged to come before God with our questions.
5. Bringing doubt to God
As we look at the biblical models of doubt, a unifying theme is that the questioners engaged directly with God. They didn’t wander off to nurse their doubts in a corner. Rather, their posture was oriented toward divine presence. Sure, they challenged God, argued with God, and demanded proof. But they didn’t give up.
Likewise, those of us who want to maintain our faith but feel beset by doubts can turn our faces toward God and incline our ears. We can be upfront about our frustrations, weaknesses, and uncertainties and ask God to meet us in those doubts. My hope is that the more honest we are before God, the more we’ll experience God’s boundless compassion for us.
I still ask God, “Are you real?” and “Are you with me?”
Sometimes, I hear nothing. Other times, a gentle breeze, a sense of calm, or perhaps the breath of the Spirit, passes over me and through me. That’s enough. And when it’s not, I know that I can always ask again.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is doubt a sin? This article posits that it is not a sin to doubt, but rather an opportunity to bring our questions directly to God, who invites us to be upfront with our spiritual qualms.
2. Does doubt make you a worse Christian? Given that many heroes of the faith harbored doubts of their own, despite encountering God’s presence, it seems that God certainly doesn’t think so! God honors our honesty.
3. What resources are there for people who doubt? While some might recommend traditional apologetics resources, those cut-and-dried “answers” never quite worked for me. Rather, books like Rachel Held Evans's Faith Unraveled and Inspired gave me room to explore questions in a genuinely freeing way.
4. Are there any suggestions you have for someone who doubts God’s love or care for them?
This is such a personal question as the reasons behind this doubt vary greatly. Especially for people who’ve been harmed or betrayed by those in their lives who are supposed to unconditionally love and care for them, it can be challenging to believe in a good, kind God. A helpful exercise is to imagine the person in your life who has shown you the most loving kindness, and to remember that God’s care for you extends unimaginably further. Alternatively, if you can’t think of any person like that, perhaps imagine the love you feel for those in your life you care most about, such as your siblings, friends, partner, kids, nieces and nephews. That tenderness is but a shadow of God’s immense love for you.
Others of us struggle to believe God loves us because we’ve been overly shaped by strains of Christianity that derive their image of God from teachings like Jonathan Edwards's influential sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (which states, among other things, “The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked”). We need to unlearn this mental image of God and replace it with biblical representations that highlight God’s gentle compassion for and delight in us, such as Zephaniah 3:17, which proclaims, “[God] will rejoice over you with gladness; he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
5. Do other Christians have doubts, or am I the only one? You are not alone! Not only are there many biblical figures who wrestled with doubt, but throughout history and in today’s world, Christians continue to ask big questions about fundamental theological beliefs. It wouldn’t be called faith if it didn’t require some measure of trust in something that can’t be fully proven, so our spiritual journeys will often be dynamic processes that include a mixture of both faith and doubt.
6. How can I help make my church more welcoming for people who doubt? Church communities can normalize doubts by giving congregants examples of questions that pastors and lay leaders still ask. Theological topics where uncertainty or disagreement exist can be highlighted as areas of freedom to explore multiple points of view. Moreover, people who doubt should not be viewed with consternation or condemnation, but treated with the same grace that God offered to Moses, Gideon, and Thomas. Some churches even form small groups for people to deconstruct and reconstruct, safe spaces that encourage questions that may not have tidy answers.
7. Is there any advice you have on how not to deal with doubt?
Don’t just close your eyes and hope that it’ll go away! Yes, sometimes a question that seems urgent and essential will slowly feel less pressing with time. But if a doubt persists, trying to ignore it requires some part of your mind and heart be cordoned off from God–the part that is suppressing your legitimate questions.
Stay open to God meeting you in your doubts in unexpected places through unexpected means.
If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in these Theology Lab episodes:
A Theology Lab series about searching for a theological vision when simple answers aren’t enough. Check out the episode page here.
Biblical scholar Karen Keen shares how we got the Bible, and how that can help us interpret it! Check out the episode page here.