Psalm 10 beings with the words, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?Why do you always hide yourself in times of trouble?" It beings with acomplaint, with a doubt or question. There are many such doubtsexpressed in this psalm and in other passages of Scripture. As we readthese words we should consider, for our own lives if it is appropriateto express doubt oneself or to allow one's children and teenagers toexpress their doubts.

I have three sons who are all in their twenties now. They beganexpressing questions and doubts about all sorts of things before theywere five years old. All children express questions and doubts and attimes these doubts are about the Lord and about Biblical faith. This isan issue with which anyone who has ever been involved with young peopleneeds to wrestle.

Doubt Seen as a Danger Signal
Many people see the expression of doubt as a danger signal. A youngperson or adult with questions and doubts is perceived to be in dangerof losing his or her faith. Sometimes it is assumed that a person'sspiritual life is in poor shape, that he or she is struggling withdoubts because that person is not very committed to the Lord or justbeing rebellious. If doubt is perceived as a danger signal, then it isprobable that one of the following unhelpful reactions will ensue:

One of the most common responses to doubt is to tell a person, "Yousimply need to pray more and double your devotional reading time."Francis Schaeffer used to call this "loading everything onto the donkeyof devotion." We could all do with more prayer and reading, but thisproposal does not necessarily approach the particular problem withwhich the doubter is dealing. Schaeffer continued with his illustrationby saying, "when we load everything onto the donkey of devotion, thedonkey will eventually lay down and die!"

Another unhelpful response is to become acutely anxious about thespiritual well being of the young person. This simply adds furtherunease and discomfort to the doubts and questions with which the youngperson is struggling. The child thinks, "Now I've made somebody unhappywith me, or somebody anxious about me." That makes the doubt moredifficult to resolve.

In other situations young people are challenged to repentance, as ifrepentance were the solution to the problems of doubt. A CovenantSeminary student was met with this response during her college years.She took a literature class from a Marxist professor who raisedquestions that in turn brought up doubts in her mind about BiblicalChristianity. So she innocently went to her pastor for help. Herpastor's response was to tell her to get on her knees and repent. Thatdid not help much, to say the least. It made her think, "I'm not goingto talk to him about anything that I'm struggling with." He basicallytold her that her problem was her sin and that the issues on her minddid not need to be addressed.

The fourth unhelpful response is to assume that the child or youngperson simply is not busy enough. A young person is treated as if he orshe would not have these doubts if life were more full of usefulactivities. So parents just load on more chores to keep the child outof trouble - and perhaps even some punishment which might drive thedoubts away.

Perhaps the most extreme response I have ever seen to the expressionof doubt is that the teenager is actually thrown out of the home. Thishappened to a young German woman, a teenager who came to stay with usat L'Abri. She had expressed some doubts in a personal diary, which hermother read and then showed to her father who was a pastor. He declaredher "rebellious" and "reprobate" and cast her out saying, "You are nolonger our daughter, nor are you a child of God." She was one of themost difficult and troubled people I have ever tried to help. Herparents said it was clear that she did not love God or belong to Him sothey made her leave their home.

If you do not think people really respond to doubt in such ways, Ican assure you these are real examples. After working with L'Abri for20 years and having had thousands of young people come to stay with usfrom Christian homes and churches, I have seen how often these thingshappen when a young person is doubting.

Causes of Doubt
When we encounter a child (or adult) who is struggling with doubt it ishelpful to ask questions in order to understand the cause of theparticular doubts. The following is an outline of some of the morecommon causes: Many of the doubts with which young people strugglearise from the pain of their own personal experience.

One fairly typical example is the divorce of parents, often orinvariably including the absence of the father, at least for longperiods of time. Marriage and family are intended by God to be apicture to a child of God's faithfulness. When a marriage breaks up ayoung person is being given false messages about the trustworthiness ofGod, their heavenly Father. It is almost impossible for a child to gothrough the breakup of their parents' marriage or the abandonment ofone of their parents without doubting the love of God in a very deepway.

Another cause for doubt comes with severe sickness or even the deathof someone who is loved by the child. Death is abnormal. It is aconsequence of the Fall and children need to be taught that. But nomatter what teaching they have received, they are going to experiencedeath as an abnormality. Death will inevitably cause questions anddoubts because it is the ultimate expression that reality is not theway God intended it to be.

The experience of personal abuse or abuse of someone the child knowscan be a source of doubt. As a freshman in high school, one of my son'sfriends told him how she had been severely sexually abused. He was notreally old enough to handle that. He was just fifteen and one eveninghe came in our bed and just wept and wept. Finally he managed to sharewith us what he had been told. Such an experience, even in the life ofa friend, causes doubts and questions in a young person - and itshould. Why do such things happen? This is going to raise doubts andquestions about the goodness of God.

Young people can also experience doubt associated withdisappointment caused by a poor performance academically, in sports, orsome other activity. Problems in this area can be increased by parentsdemanding standards of success that are too high, especially when aparent's love is given or withheld as a reward for success or apunishment for failure. Inevitably this causes all kinds of tension anddoubts in the young person's mind.

Other doubts arise from observing and experiencing the generalreality of the brokenness of life in a fallen world. We can becompletely sure that many young people have experienced doubt as aconsequence of last year's terrorist attack on this country. All overthe country, not only young people but many adults too, areexperiencing deep doubts and questions because of what happened onSeptember 11, 2001, and the quite appropriate anxieties that havefollowed.

As children learn about the terrible plight of people around theworld, both now and at different points in history, this may raisequestions and doubts. For a child who is learning about such things forthe first time in some depth (such as the Holocaust), it can be veryharrowing and can cause very serious questioning.

Doubts may arise as a person learns about the involvement of thechurch in the evils of the past. It is very challenging, for example ifyou are an African-American, to learn about the involvement of churchesin slavery. Historical events such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, orpersecutions in the 1700s in France are also disturbing. Along thesesame lines today many young women experience doubts because of the lowview of women and the mistreatment of women that has often been areality in many churches.

Finally doubts and questions arise because of the intellectualclimate of the culture in which we live. By "intellectual," I do notsimply mean high scholarship. I am referring to the intellectualclimate of both schol¬arly and popular culture. The intellectualclimate is thoroughly naturalistic. Even though the overwhelmingmajority of Americans say they believe in God, almost our whole cultureacts and speaks as if God were not active in this world. You do notturn on the news and hear about what God is doing. You hear about whatnations, movie stars, and people on the street are doing. This is notonly true for the media. Christian believers often speak as if God werenot active in the affairs of this world. We sit in a naturalistic chairas we look at the world, rather than in the supernaturalist's chairseeing that God is constantly at work in our own personal lives and inthe history of this world.

All religions are regarded by the general culture around us asbasically different paths to the same end or as the varied colorsmaking up a rainbow. People believe that Christianity, Judaism,Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are all different ways to the same God.Or they believe that religion is basically a sociological phenomenon.

The most fundamental tenet of postmodern culture is to deny thatthere is any truth that can be known. This is the most skepticalgeneration that has ever lived on this earth. Skepticism iscommunicated in much popular music, as well as in schools anduniversities.

We live in a culture that is morally relativistic. Christians areregarded as arrogant for holding strong moral convictions. That ischallenging for a young person growing up in this society. It ischallenging for anybody to have your friends regard you as arrogantbecause you have particular views on topics such as abortion orsexuality. It is very challenging to try to hang on to firm moralconviction for a young person in this culture.

The Bible is simply regarded as a human book full of errors. This iswidely taught in schools, film, television, music, and literature - andeven in many churches. A young person (or adult) who tells friends thathe or she believes that the Bible is inerrant and true in all that itaffirms will be greeted with incredulity and mockery.

Appropriate Responses to Doubt
What are appropriate responses to doubt, whatever the cause? Instead ofresponding with alarm, we can help a young person when we: expresssympathy. Doubt is the right response to much of what happens in thisbroken world. I tell people, "I struggle with that too, and I am aseminary professor. I struggle with doubts." If you are a parent,pastor or youth group leader, make it a habit to express your owndoubts and struggles. Children and teenagers need to see thatChristianity is open to dealing with doubts, questions and problems.Set an example of vulnerability. They need to see that you find lifedifficult sometimes, that you have ques¬tions, that you have doubts.This is comforting to them.

Show Scriptural expressions of doubt. Help the young person see thatScripture itself encourages the expres¬sion of questions and doubts.There are many Psalms that are filled with doubt and questioning. Andthe Psalms are given by God as the Church's prayer book. The book ofEcclesiastes starts with "Meaningless, meaningless, everything ismeaningless." Ecclesiastes is still my favorite book of the Biblebecause it deals seriously with the problem of absurdity andmeaninglessness. For me, one of the turning points in becoming aChristian was going to a friend's apartment for a Bible study on thefirst two chapters of Ecclesiastes. Up until that moment in life, Ithought the Bible was just a book of fairy stories and legends that hadabsolutely nothing to do with reality. I saw that it is actuallydealing with the kind of problems with which I and other peoplewrestle. So help the young person see that Scripture itself encouragesthe expression of questions and doubts.

Ask questions that will help you uncover the cause of particulardoubts the young person faces. Jesus constantly asked questions ofthose who came to Him, seeking to uncover what was really going on intheir heart and mind. Francis Schaeffer used to say, "If I have only anhour with somebody, I will spend the first 55 minutes asking themquestions so that in the last five minutes I will have something to saywhich really speaks to them. Instead of speaking past them, I want tospeak to them." So ask questions.

Take the doubts seriously and answer them at the deepest level youpossibly can. Obviously if a five-year-old comes to you and says, "Howcan God be good when Grandma just died?" you would answer that in adifferent way than you would answer a 15-year-old asking the samequestion. But in either case, you must answer the questions seriously.We are forbidden by Scripture to say "Peace, peace," when there is nopeace (Jer. 8:11). So try to answer at the deepest level you possiblycan. This may mean you need to say, "I do not know how to answer thatquestion right now. But I will go and do some study on it." No honestquestioner minds a person saying that. When I went back to serve at theEnglish L'Abri after graduating from Covenant Seminary in 1971, I wouldsit at the dinner table with people expressing all kinds of doubts andmy knees would be knocking as I thought, “What am I going to get askednext?" Many times I would have to say, “I'm going to have to thinkabout that one. Maybe tomorrow we can talk about it." And I meant it.You need to be honest when you do not know what to say. You need toshow enough respect for the doubter that you are willing to prepare aspecial study to help answer their questions.

When we take doubts seriously it encourages a young person to seethat Christianity is indeed the truth, that it is not afraid of thehard questions, but rather can stand up to any challenge. This buildsconfidence in the Lord and in His Word, preparing the young person forthe trials ahead that life invariably brings. Throughout life peoplewill ask hard questions. Because the Christian faith is the truth,because this Word is the truth, you can take those questions seriouslyno matter how hard they are, and you can answer them out of compassionand love.

In the end, there are two things that must be behind everything weneed to remember about facing doubt. We need a deep conviction thatChristianity is true and we also need to love others enough to try tounder¬stand them and to take their doubts and questions seriously.

Jerram Barrs is Professor of Christianity and Contemporary Culture and Resident Scholar of the Francis Schaeffer InstituteCovenant Theological Seminary

This article originally appeared in Covenant magazine, the quarterlymagazine of Covenant Theological Seminary.

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