The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 18 - What A Christian Should Do About Doubt

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody, thanks for being here. Thanks for watching and listening. You'll have to excuse me

00:00:04.520 for showing my Ravens pride today because it is the draft. The draft is ongoing. And it's so

00:00:12.040 stupid that people actually sit there and watch a draft. So you're just watching a guy over and

00:00:19.740 over again, walk up to a podium and say a name and then that for just hours. But I'm one of those

00:00:26.500 stupid people that watches it. It's I can't defend it, but I do. And it also shows why no matter what

00:00:33.440 anyone says, but oh, the NFL is falling off and some football or basketball or baseball or hockey

00:00:40.440 is going to take over. No, the NFL still football, still the number one sport in America. And if you

00:00:45.700 want evidence of that, just look at the fact that millions of people, millions of people like myself

00:00:50.440 will sit there and watch a draft. Anyway, so I thought I'd like to do kind of a mailbag thing

00:00:57.060 today, answering something from one of the many emails that I get throughout the week. And I had

00:01:05.680 that in mind this week and I was looking through my email to see if there's anything, if anyone raised

00:01:09.000 kind of an issue, that'd be interesting for a video. And I found one email that I'd like to try

00:01:16.860 to address, although I I'm a little bit hesitant because it's a very serious issue. And I, you know,

00:01:22.300 I want to, I want to make sure that I'm approaching this the right way and saying the right things.

00:01:26.560 So somebody emailed me with a distressing problem a couple of days ago. He, um, although this is not,

00:01:32.220 you know, I've heard, I've heard this from plenty of other people, this kind of thing, which is what

00:01:34.960 made me think, well, this would be a good one to address. He said that he's been, um, getting more

00:01:41.520 absorbed in his, in his faith recently, getting more invested into his faith. He's reading scripture

00:01:45.880 more, he's going to church, he's praying, he's doing all these things that he'd never really

00:01:50.420 done before. Although he'd always, always been Christian, but he never really been actively

00:01:54.660 Christian until recently, which is great. You know, yet he said, he's also been experiencing

00:02:00.280 doubt to a degree that he'd never experienced it before. Sometimes just questioning. I mean,

00:02:07.620 how can this be real? How, how could that have happened? How could Jesus be real? I mean,

00:02:11.480 what does, what does any of this mean? How, how is this possible? Is that, you know, those kinds of

00:02:15.980 doubts. Uh, he doesn't want to question them. He doesn't invite the questions in, but they're just

00:02:22.360 there in his head. And, uh, and so he's troubled by it and he wanted to know if I had any advice.

00:02:28.900 Well, before I say anything else, I just want to add my usual disclaimer that I'm not an expert

00:02:34.040 on this issue or on any issue. So if anyone is really going through a spiritual crisis,

00:02:39.220 you should certainly speak to your pastor or priest or spiritual director, somebody like that. I can

00:02:44.960 only, only share just a few thoughts. Um, I don't know if they'll be useful or not. Hopefully they

00:02:49.940 are. So let me do that. Okay. So first of all, we should establish that doubts are normal. Okay.

00:02:58.920 We all, we all have them. It's a normal thing. It may be kind of a taboo subject in Christian circles

00:03:05.620 to talk about because we're all supposed to pretend that we'd never have them, but everyone

00:03:08.880 does. Um, it doesn't mean, and I want to talk, I'm going to explain this more as we go on a little

00:03:15.620 bit more towards the end, but just because a doubt enters your head doesn't mean that you don't have

00:03:22.160 faith. So you can have faith yet be experiencing that as well. We're human after all we, we, so this

00:03:30.180 is going to happen. Even the people who knew Jesus and who saw him performing miracles, which,

00:03:38.900 you know, we, we, we have not, we read about the miracles, but in, in scripture, but we haven't

00:03:44.180 actually seen them for ourselves. Even those people had doubts. John the Baptist, who, according

00:03:48.420 to Jesus was the greatest man ever, the greatest mortal man ever born, according to Jesus was John

00:03:55.920 the Baptist. And even he appeared to have doubts and not only doubts, but he had the doubts after

00:04:03.140 witnessing God speak from the heavens after Jesus was baptized, announcing, this is my son. So John

00:04:12.620 the Baptist heard a voice from the heavens declaring Jesus is my son. And yet a little while after that,

00:04:20.600 he's in prison because he stood up to the sexual immorality of, of Herod, Herod threw him in prison.

00:04:24.840 He's languishing in prison and he sends his followers out to find Jesus and ask Jesus,

00:04:31.980 are you the one, are you the Messiah? Or should we look for another? Um, and Jesus's response

00:04:38.240 to that is, I think really interesting. Jesus says, okay, go tell, go tell John that, go tell him what

00:04:45.880 you've seen. The blind can see the, the, the, the lane can walk. The dead have been raised.

00:04:51.220 And he says, you know, blessed are those who are not scandalized in me. And what Jesus means by that,

00:04:59.160 he says, not scandalized in me, meaning blessed are the people who, who, yeah, I may not be acting

00:05:05.860 the way you thought the Messiah was going to act. This may not be playing out the way you thought it

00:05:10.320 would, but blessed are the people who just humble themselves before that truth and accept what's

00:05:16.520 actually happening rather than being, you know, kind of offended or outraged or taken aback by the

00:05:22.240 fact that I don't fit into this box that you had, you know, that you've this kind of fictional box of

00:05:27.400 what you think a Messiah is supposed to be. So he said, so he sends his, his, he sends them back to 0.98

00:05:31.740 tell John the Baptist that. So that's John the Baptist appearing to have doubts. Now I've heard

00:05:35.760 some Christians and some theologians have, have, have argued that you could interpret that passage a

00:05:40.940 little bit differently. And John sent his followers to Jesus to ask that question. He sent them for,

00:05:46.620 for their own sake so that they would know. John already knew he didn't question it, but he sent

00:05:50.800 them for their sake. That's a very generous interpretation for John the Baptist's sake, but I

00:05:55.540 don't see that in the scripture. There's no real evidence of that. All we see is John asking this

00:06:00.160 question. So it would really appear that he himself had doubts. So that's the first thing. It's natural

00:06:05.620 for our egos. Our egos are going to rebel against this thing, this truth that is so beyond our

00:06:12.880 capacity for comprehension. That's natural. Second, it's not actually surprising, although it seems

00:06:18.680 surprising, it seems counterintuitive. It's not actually surprising that somebody would have doubts

00:06:24.980 that actually intensify for a season as they delve deeper into their faith. And for two, for two

00:06:33.760 reasons. Number one, because Satan is going to see that you're drawing near to God. He's going to see

00:06:39.620 that you're getting all Christian on him and he's not going to like that. So he's going to pull out all 1.00

00:06:43.120 the stops to sabotage you, sabotage you. But, but for another, I think the Bible is, is much easier and

00:06:50.020 more palatable and much easier to ingest when we see it only in these little sound bites, these little

00:06:58.560 slogans, these little chunks, these little just inspirational tweets or whatever, when that's all

00:07:04.920 that we've seen of the Bible, just the things that are kind of out there in the culture, in the book,

00:07:10.380 in our, in our vocabulary, in our language. And that's all we see of the Bible. It's much easier

00:07:16.420 for us to wrap our heads around. But when we really study it and we read it seriously and we take it

00:07:22.160 seriously and we read it in context and we read it from, you know, the entire context of it, page,

00:07:27.440 cover to cover type of thing. Then we can, we, I think we begin to appreciate not only the scripture's

00:07:34.320 richness and beauty, but also its complexity and its challenges and its mysteries, and even its

00:07:41.240 apparent contradictions. Just as one example, if you've never really read, if you've never really

00:07:48.160 read the gospels, all you've done is you've just skimmed or you've seen the chunks, then you probably

00:07:54.180 think you've got it pretty nailed down. You've got the, the story of the resurrection in your head.

00:07:58.580 You think you've got it nailed down. You basically understand that the women go to the tomb and then 0.79

00:08:04.260 there's an angel and then they go back and, you know, you think you've got all the, you think

00:08:08.220 you've basically, yeah, you understand that. But then you go and you read all the gospel accounts

00:08:13.440 and you start to see, now, wait a second, hold on, what's going on here? Because there appear to be

00:08:18.400 several different stories that all contradict. And now you're more, you're more confused now than you

00:08:23.740 were before you even read it. Then it takes an even closer look to see how, okay, all these things

00:08:28.600 really do line up when we consider the different perspectives and the different ways that the gospel

00:08:32.980 writers are trying to tell this story, the different things that they're focusing on, and then it all

00:08:36.680 kind of starts to line up. So the point is, when we start to read the Bible, we see that it's not as

00:08:42.920 simple as we had thought based on our skimming of it. And this realization is fascinating and it's

00:08:48.200 invigorating and all of that, but there's also a certain anxiety that comes with it. And that's

00:08:55.540 normal. And we shouldn't panic over that. I think two thoughts occur to anyone who actually reads the

00:09:01.800 gospels carefully. Number one, there is so much here that is mysterious and impossible to understand.

00:09:09.160 Number two, nobody would make up a story like this. Even the hardest parts, the parts that seem to make

00:09:17.860 the least amount of sense, they actually only further prove the authenticity of the gospel

00:09:23.220 because nobody would make that up. Nobody, if somebody was inventing the story, they wouldn't put that in

00:09:29.240 there. They wouldn't write it like that. That's not the way it would be. So, you know, in the past,

00:09:33.640 I have felt myself challenged by the, what I would call kind of the, the, the spareness of

00:09:42.200 scripture. It's, it's lack of drama. It's lack of the kind of details that you would expect it to

00:09:48.800 have. It's, it's, you know, the, the way that, especially in the gospels, things aren't really

00:09:54.540 fleshed out the way you might think they will be. So you've got this whole gap in Christ's life

00:10:00.640 between infancy and his public ministry with just this one random brief scene in the middle where

00:10:06.040 he gets separated from his parents and his parents come back and find him in the temple.

00:10:09.700 But there's just that. And then, and then, but, but between, but besides that, it's just,

00:10:14.360 he's a baby and then his public ministry. And you think, well, why, you know, what's going on?

00:10:19.040 Why didn't you tell, why didn't you give us a few more, what happened in between that time?

00:10:22.500 Why aren't you telling us that? And then Christ enters into his public ministry and all of these

00:10:28.140 incredible things are happening, but the gospel for the most part just relays these things in a

00:10:34.340 really matter of fact way. It never dwells on anything for very long. So he multiplies loaves.

00:10:39.560 He walks on water. He heals the blind. He raises the dead. He casts out demons. He's doing all of this,

00:10:44.040 but there's so little drama in the way these incidents are told to us. These incidents themselves

00:10:49.880 are extremely dramatic, of course, and beautiful, but the way the gospel tells it, is it just, okay,

00:10:54.780 that happened. And then they just move on to the next thing. They don't spend pages and pages telling

00:10:59.000 us how people reacted to the fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. They're just moving on

00:11:03.920 really quickly. And then Jesus is arrested. And here we are at the climax of the story, right? If

00:11:10.340 somebody was, if, if this was being written by a novelist or a screenwriter or something,

00:11:15.300 this is the climax. We have Jesus arrested by his enemies, God incarnate, arrested, standing trial.

00:11:20.780 Um, and here's his chance to deliver one last great monologue or speech right in front of his enemies

00:11:28.520 while they're trying to trap him. And he can kind of stand up there with everyone looking at him. But

00:11:33.680 what happens? That's the way it would go. If somebody was making up this story, they wouldn't be able to

00:11:39.260 resist this opportunity for this climactic scene, but that's not what happens. He just,

00:11:45.000 he just remains silent for the most part. Jesus throughout his entire passion, he really says

00:11:53.520 very little. And what he does say and how he does react, it's very understated. He slapped across the

00:11:59.600 face by some servant. And, uh, he says, you know, what, what have I done? I haven't done anything wrong.

00:12:06.580 If I haven't done anything wrong, why are you hitting me? I mean, that's his response.

00:12:09.760 This opportunity for drama is seemingly wasted. And, uh, and then he goes off and he dies

00:12:16.380 and then he comes back from the dead. And okay, here we go. Now's another chance for some great

00:12:23.640 scenes. Again, if this was being written by somebody, somebody telling a story, making up a

00:12:27.860 story and they've got, and they've got their God, they invented coming back from the dead. Okay.

00:12:32.980 What's he going to do? He's going to go to the Pharisees and he's going to say, see, I told you so.

00:12:36.580 And there's going to be a scene with the Pharisees that are just, just collapse and shock. And maybe

00:12:41.860 he gives another sermon on the Mount, um, kind of a sequel. I mean, he'd do something, right?

00:12:47.620 Something, but no, he, he mostly just eats fish with his apostles. The very little happens.

00:12:57.960 And even when he, and then, and then, and then of course he, he ascends into heaven, which is, uh,

00:13:03.320 another scene, which you would expect a lot of drama, but that's not the way, that's not the

00:13:08.220 way scripture tells it. You know, he, um, the scripture, this, this is why scripture tells G now

00:13:14.480 this is Jesus Christ ascending into heaven. And he said, and it says, um, when he had said this,

00:13:21.080 as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight.

00:13:25.240 That's it. That that's the entire story of him ascending into heaven.

00:13:27.800 There's no more, there aren't any more sentences fleshing out what that looked like. And there

00:13:32.720 were, you know, just nothing. It's just, he ascended into heaven and then that's it.

00:13:37.000 And then immediately we're told to, so they're looking up and there's, and they're, and they're

00:13:40.280 in shock that Jesus just ascended into heaven and then he's gone. And, um, and then there are two men

00:13:45.980 in white robes, two angels that appear and say, what are you guys looking at? Okay, now let's get to

00:13:50.480 work guys. Come on, stop dwelling on it. Let's get to work on a very shallow level. You see that and you say,

00:13:56.380 no, that's not what would actually happen. What are you talking about? I mean, there'd be a lot

00:14:00.240 more to it, right? But then you realize, no, this is, this is the way that it's told. If it's just

00:14:06.640 true, the gospel writers are just telling us what happened. That's all. They're not, they're not

00:14:13.020 fiction writers. They're just telling you they're reporting the facts and the facts are the facts.

00:14:19.360 Jesus, because he is true. He is real. He confounds his critics. He subverts expectations.

00:14:28.140 He doesn't fit into any kind of box. He's not doing what you would think he would do.

00:14:32.120 He's not doing the things that anyone would ever predict. He's just, he's real. This is just what

00:14:40.880 was and still is. And that's all. And that's the way that it's relayed in the Bible. And I think when

00:14:48.260 you really read the Bible, after a while, you begin to appreciate that fact. Third thing about

00:14:53.540 doubt, we are mortal beings and we have an extremely finite capacity for understanding.

00:14:59.960 We will never be able to fully comprehend the mysteries of God. Don't listen to anyone who

00:15:06.560 says they have it all figured out because they don't. And anyone who claims to is a charlatan and

00:15:11.740 a false prophet, and we should steer very clear of them. But also don't listen to anyone who says,

00:15:18.400 well, there shouldn't be any mysteries in your faith. That's a cop-out. What do you mean it's

00:15:22.360 a mystery? That's a cop-out. I need you to explain the Trinity. Three persons in one. Explain that.

00:15:28.200 Three persons in one, but you're saying it's monotheistic, not polytheistic. Explain that.

00:15:31.680 How's that possible? You need to explain it exactly. You can't just say mystery.

00:15:37.380 Don't listen to that either, because no matter what we believe, all of us must submit ourselves

00:15:45.500 to the mysteries of life. We all have to deal with the fact that so much of life is mysterious.

00:15:55.260 And that goes for atheists too. An atheist cannot say how we came into being. He can't say how human

00:16:02.560 beings gained consciousness. He can't say where love and joy and despair and morality originate.

00:16:09.400 He can't tell you how a trillion impossibilities all came together so that you and I could come

00:16:14.700 into existence. He can't explain how inanimate matter became animate. He can't explain chaos and

00:16:20.200 how that became order and how unconscious became consciousness. He can't say what the universe is or

00:16:27.280 why it exists or why we exist or how. He just has faith. He has to have faith. He has his explanation

00:16:34.900 that he cannot prove and he just has faith. It's not like nobody has ever observed or seen or demonstrated

00:16:46.580 how inanimate material could become sentient. That's never been, that's never been, no one has

00:16:59.240 ever observed that. In fact, we know scientifically it's impossible. There might be a lot of science

00:17:04.620 fiction about, oh, maybe one day we'll create a robot that's sentient and has a human conscience.

00:17:09.140 No, no, no, that's never going to happen. It's impossible. You cannot build something with metal

00:17:15.900 and, you know, wiring that will become sentient. You can't do that because that's, sentience is not

00:17:22.300 a physical thing. You can't create it out of physical matter. Yet we know somehow sentience did

00:17:27.860 come into being. We all know that we're sentient. So atheists have their explanation that is based

00:17:33.060 entirely in faith. They cannot demonstrate it. It is not scientific. And their explanation is

00:17:40.520 physically, scientifically impossible. Yet they believe it. But there's a difference in our faith.

00:17:48.560 Okay. The secular world has a faith based on pride. It cannot answer very many questions or explain

00:17:55.240 very many things or describe how any of this came into being. But it assumes based on arrogance and ego

00:18:01.180 that it cannot be due to a force greater than themselves. So it looks at the world and it says,

00:18:06.560 surely there cannot be a power greater than myself. So however, this stuff came into being,

00:18:11.680 it must not have anything to do with any, um, power that transcends, uh, myself.

00:18:19.200 But the religious person looks at the world and says, surely there must be a power greater than

00:18:24.940 myself. I have so little control over anything in my life. I understand so little yet here I am.

00:18:30.620 And here is everyone. And here's the world. Here's civilization. Here's the ocean. Here,

00:18:35.080 here are mountains. Here are animals and the human brain and a billion fantastic and incomprehensible

00:18:40.280 things. I can see the design. I can see that I'm a part of it, but I know I didn't make it.

00:18:46.180 Somebody must have. Religious faith grows from humility. And this is what, you know, the atheist idea

00:18:55.040 that they desperately cling to that somehow, even though it's impossible dust somehow through some

00:19:04.420 accidental process became over time, human consciousness, they cling to that because they

00:19:13.980 are desperate to still, at the end of the day, they themselves still want to be top dog in the universe.

00:19:21.100 They cannot cede that place to anyone. Religious faith grows from humility. And that's why I think

00:19:33.300 we first have to have faith in God before we can understand anything about him.

00:19:40.340 So it goes faith first, then understanding. What we try to do a lot of, a lot of the time,

00:19:48.020 this is a mistake that people have been making since the time of Christ is where you try to flip

00:19:53.140 that around and you say, well, let me understand first and then I'll have faith. Make me understand

00:20:00.040 and then fine. I'll have faith. But first of all, that's not faith. If you just know you have full

00:20:07.800 comprehension somehow of the omnipotent God and you're able somehow to wrap your head around all

00:20:16.060 of that, well, then there's no faith involved. Faith is to submit yourself to this thing that is

00:20:22.680 greater than yourself and that you cannot fully understand. But if we have faith and we kneel

00:20:29.340 before God, then over time, he will give us more and more understanding. We'll never have perfect

00:20:35.560 understanding. We'll never have a complete understanding, but we'll have more and more

00:20:39.180 understanding over time. And he gives us that understanding just because, you know, because

00:20:46.520 we have opened ourselves to it. We humble ourselves before the mystery of God. We accept

00:20:53.280 with submission and obedience, the things we don't know and can never know or understand

00:20:56.860 with faith. And then over time, more, more understanding grows, but it's not an understanding.

00:21:05.660 And the reason that God gives us understanding in that case and not before is because when we demand

00:21:10.460 understanding before faith, then it's kind of like blackmail to God. We're saying, oh, you want me to

00:21:15.660 believe? Well, then you better, you know, hey, you better pony up and show me some miracles or

00:21:19.420 something. That's not the right attitude. But he gives us understanding after faith because he knows

00:21:25.840 that with that understanding, it's not like something that we're demanding so that we'll

00:21:29.520 believe in him, but just so that the more that we understand, the more that we can just be in awe

00:21:36.300 of the beauty and wonder of God. So we always have to recognize the origin of doubt, which is pride.

00:21:43.120 It's that part of our brain that says, this is challenging. This is difficult. This is beyond my

00:21:48.040 power of understanding. So therefore it can't be true. Now the atheist gives in completely to this

00:21:54.300 part of his brain. The Christian fights against it by the grace of God. So I think that's the answer

00:22:01.600 to doubt. Don't try to reason your way out of it. Don't argue with yourself. Don't go researching the

00:22:07.660 historical proofs of Jesus and so forth. There's nothing wrong with researching those things. It's a very

00:22:12.320 good thing to research, but not as an answer to doubt. If we research to cure doubt, then we're

00:22:19.560 still relying on our own understanding and we're demanding proof. And the doubts will only intensify

00:22:25.860 because we're looking for answers where they cannot be. And we're looking for answers in the wrong way.

00:22:31.840 Instead, we have to simply bring our doubts to God, humble ourselves and say, Lord,

00:22:35.960 I'm weak. I'm frail. I'm foolish. You know, please strengthen my faith. We just come to God

00:22:44.260 empty handed with nothing and just say, God, I got nothing. And if we do that, you know,

00:22:50.240 that kind of prayer, where we just come to God in humility and submission,

00:22:55.200 recognizing our own frailty, our own weakness. And we come to him asking for, we're not asking for,

00:23:02.560 you know, we're not asking for a job promotion. We're not asking to win the lottery. We're not

00:23:07.320 asking for any material benefit whatsoever. We're just saying, God, just give me, please give me

00:23:13.920 faith. Give me faith so I can glorify you all the more. Give me faith so I can be more of a light to

00:23:19.820 those around me. And God will always answer that prayer. He'll always answer that.

00:23:26.140 And that's really enough. It doesn't need to be specific. The prayer, I mean, you know, I know some

00:23:32.860 Christians think that our prayers need to be super specific all the time. God, I want this. I want 0.96

00:23:37.100 this. I want this. I want this. Okay. Like a child making a Christmas list or something. But Jesus tells

00:23:43.380 us that the father already knows what we want before we even ask for it. So sometimes the purest prayer is

00:23:49.140 just to take our brokenness, our doubts, our pride, our whole being and bring them to God in our hearts

00:23:54.520 and then just be there in his presence, contemplating him and his divinity. And that's

00:23:59.340 it. That's the prayer. I know in the past, I, you know, I, I have in the past gotten to points in my

00:24:04.500 life where there's just so much fog, so much anxiety. Uh, there's just this, this tangle of knots

00:24:11.320 in my head and in my soul. And I'm so confused and so lost that, uh, there was a point where I felt

00:24:16.820 like, you know, I can't even pray anymore because I don't even know what to say or what, where to begin.

00:24:22.560 There's just, you know, I don't even know. I don't know what I even need or how to ask for it.

00:24:29.820 But eventually I figured out that, that, that God is God and he doesn't need my explanations. He

00:24:35.560 doesn't need my speeches. He doesn't need me to persuasively argue, you know, my case for what I

00:24:41.560 want in my prayer. Um, all he needs me to do is just come to the cross, kneel before it and say,

00:24:48.180 I'm here, Lord, I'm here. Change me. Although we should always be very careful with that prayer,

00:24:54.180 the change me prayer. It's a dangerous prayer because it's so effective because if you, if you

00:24:59.940 bring that to God and you mean it, he'll do it. He'll do it in ways that you didn't expect.

00:25:05.700 So this is what we do with doubt. And if we get the, if we get into the habit of always bringing

00:25:10.580 everything to God and praying unceasingly, he will give us a deeper knowledge of his presence

00:25:14.560 and a deeper sense of it. And, uh, we may not be able to explain it. We may not be able to prove

00:25:19.460 it. He may not give us this knowledge accompanied by brilliant intellectual arguments so that we can

00:25:24.080 argue in favor of it. Although maybe he will, but for most of us, he won't, but he'll still give us

00:25:28.660 that knowledge, a knowledge that transcends proof. And then something really crazy happens

00:25:34.360 because you get to the point as your faith grows, because we remember that, you know, faith is a,

00:25:39.380 is a, not a stagnant thing. Faith is a living, breathing, growing thing. And as your faith grows,

00:25:47.320 you get to the point where even when you doubt, you still know, even when you doubt, you still

00:25:54.040 believe. Even when you have doubts, you still have faith. That doesn't change. The faith is there

00:25:58.480 because you've given yourself to God. You're holding onto him. He's holding onto you. You still have

00:26:04.240 that faith. And so those doubts are just, they're coming from the outside and they're bombarding your brain

00:26:08.840 but it doesn't change the fact that you're holding tight. And we become like, I think, Peter in what

00:26:15.940 I think is one of the most beautiful passages in the Gospels. And I, you know, I love Peter in the

00:26:21.400 Gospels. I think Peter is, is, he's such a great and relatable figure because he's, you know, he's kind

00:26:27.760 of, kind of brash and he kind of talks without, without thinking sometimes. And he's, obviously he's

00:26:36.100 weak. You know, he has, he has, he, he betrayed Christ. So he's got cowardice as well, but he's

00:26:42.140 also got courage. I mean, think about, think about it when, when Jesus was arrested before,

00:26:46.960 and then Peter would turn around and deny Christ three times. But before that, he lashes out with

00:26:52.740 a sword and he cuts somebody's ear off to try to defend Christ because he loves Christ so much.

00:26:58.280 He still has his weakness as a human being, but he loves him in that moment. It's just instinct.

00:27:02.060 Like, no, you're not going to touch Jesus. And that's what makes Peter so relatable is

00:27:06.600 that he's just human. He's a human being. He's a, so there's a, this scene in, in, in

00:27:12.480 the Gospels after Jesus tells the crowd that he's the bread of life and whoever consumes

00:27:20.780 this bread will be saved. And the crowds hear this and they revolt. And many of his followers

00:27:27.740 were told leave him that day because they just, they cannot accept, even some of these

00:27:32.020 had witnessed miracles, but they cannot accept this teaching because they just don't understand

00:27:37.420 it. And it's so far outside of their conception of things. And so they just get up and they leave

00:27:47.400 and they say, nope, I know, no way. So everyone's leaving. And then you can kind of imagine how this

00:27:53.100 plays out that just the crowd thins, everyone's leaving. They're walking away, mumbling to each

00:27:58.460 other. I mean, you know, saying, oh, this guy's crazy. That's, that's nuts. And they all walk

00:28:03.160 away. And then Jesus, um, turns to the 12 who are still standing there. And he says, what about you?

00:28:11.100 Are you going to leave too? And then Peter answers him. Peter doesn't say, oh no, Christ. I mean,

00:28:17.320 we totally understand what you were just saying there. I mean, we get it. Okay. Those other

00:28:22.320 people, I, they're just, they, they, they, you know, they're too stupid to understand, but we

00:28:25.540 understand we're totally with you. No, he doesn't give that kind of confident answer. Instead. He just

00:28:30.940 says, Lord, where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We know that you're the holy

00:28:38.320 one of God. Where else would we go? And that was his answer. It was a simple, helpless answer.

00:28:44.740 Not an entirely confident answer, but it was an honest one. It's Peter just throwing up his hands

00:28:52.460 and saying, where else am I going to go? Jesus. I, I'm in too deep. You're the Messiah. I know that.

00:28:59.660 I have no idea what you just said. I have no idea what that means. In fact, half of the stuff you say,

00:29:05.680 I have no idea what any of that means. Uh, it sounds pretty scary to be honest, a lot of it,

00:29:10.320 but, um, but you're God. I know that. And so I'm here. And I think that was a very crucial moment

00:29:18.140 for the apostles right there. Um, encountering this very difficult doctrine, but saying, no,

00:29:26.560 we're staying here. It's not a perfect journey after that. There's still doubt. There's still

00:29:31.220 denial. There's betrayal. All of that still lays ahead, but there's also persistence in the apostles.

00:29:37.100 There's weakness. There's cowardice too, but there's persistence where they keep coming back

00:29:43.440 to Christ. They keep turning back to him. And I think that's what we have to do.

00:29:50.000 We admit to God, I don't understand this. I can't wrap my head around this. It doesn't make sense to

00:29:56.960 me. There's a part of my brain rebelling, saying this can't be true. And we just bring that to God.

00:30:03.200 We admit, we might as well admit it. He knows anyway, what we're thinking, no point trying to

00:30:07.360 hide it. So you might as well just bring it to God and say, yeah, you know, that's, those are the

00:30:12.040 thoughts going on in my head. I don't like it, but it's there. And we entrust ourselves to him and we

00:30:17.660 say, God, I'm confused. I'm bewildered. My ego is shouting these doubts at me, but where am I to go?

00:30:24.160 I'm still here with you. Show me the way and I will follow you through the dark. And I think that's

00:30:34.140 faith, even when the doubts appear. So anyway, I hope that was an acceptable answer. It was certainly

00:30:42.380 a long one. So I'll leave it there. Have a great weekend, guys.

The Matt Walsh Show - April 27, 2018

Ep. 18 - What A Christian Should Do About Doubt

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