I have suggested to you there are certain factors that contribute to our doubt, as they did for John the Baptist. I have already talked about personal tragedy and popular influences. Now, let me look at two more.
These factors aren’t necessarily separate from each other; they are intertwined.
This is really the crux of the matter. John’s doubts came because he didn’t have full information.
John the Baptist didn’t have the information that Jesus would come and be rejected, and that the Lord would then turn from Israel to the Gentiles and establish the church, and Jesus would then come back and set up His kingdom. That’s a mystery in the Old Testament.
Zechariah had it exactly right in his sermon, that the Messiah will fulfill the Abrahamic promise of blessing in a land, the Davidic promise that Israel would have a great king, and the New Covenant promise of the forgiveness of sin. But the Old Testament didn’t show this mystery period — this 2,000-year (at least) period in which God turns from Israel and carves out a new channel of witness to the world, namely the church, made up of Jew and Gentile. Not until that period ends and Israel is saved does Jesus return to establish the glorious promised kingdom and bring to pass the fulfillment of everything He pledged to Abraham and David.
John didn’t have that information. The New Testament hadn’t been written. You couldn’t say, “John, you need to read 1 and 2 Thessalonians. It’s all there.” The book of Revelation wasn’t written. It wouldn’t be written for over half a century. And so, John was without the full information to see the timetable.
You and I don’t have that problem, do we? If you say to me that you have doubts, then what I’m going to say to you is, “Go to the Scripture,” because the revelation of God is clear. Read the Word. Learn the Word. Know the Word. Trust the Word. It’s in the knowledge of the truth that you understand the purposes and plan of God, and doubt is dissipated.
For me as a young person, those early doubts sent me into the search for the truth. And once I determined the truth, the doubt disappeared. Doubt is almost a foreign matter to me and to many of you, at this point, because the truth has so taken over your mind and your heart. You may be tempted to doubt what you know, but you don’t doubt because you don’t know. You have the evidence. You have the mind of Christ in Scripture. You can bring every thought captive to Christ.
John just didn’t have enough information to be certain. And that’s okay. If you don’t have enough information to be certain, then go to the one who has the information — the Lord. And where does He reveal His mind? It’s right here in Scripture. If you have some doubts, go to the Word of God and have your doubt turned into faith.
Now, John was a fiery prophet. He preached repentance and God’s judgment. He knew that the Day of the Lord is coming. All evildoers are chaff, and the Day is coming to set them ablaze. John thundered out that message about fire and judgment.
When the religious leaders showed up along with the multitudes, John said, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7) I mean, he called them snakes. They were like snakes scrambling in front of a prairie fire to get to a river before they were incinerated.
That was the kind of preaching he did. It was connected to the idea that when the Messiah comes, there’s going to be furious judgment.
Well, here comes Jesus, and what does He do? He heals everybody. That’s not judgment. It’s all compassion and tenderness and love and mercy. And He’s doing these works to unbelievers.
Where is the confrontation of the faithless and wicked people? Where’s the axe in the hand of the Messiah? Where is the fire? Where is the winnowing fork? Why doesn’t He blast His enemies, burn up the wicked, and bring the fury of the Day of the Lord?
It just doesn’t seem to be going the way John assumed it had to go. John was getting people to repent so that when the Messiah came, they didn’t get burned up. But when the Messiah came, they were getting healed, dead people were getting raised, and demons were being cast out.
These are the things that caused his doubt: expectations and lack of information. His doubt was a rational doubt. And it was a good starting point, because it drove him to the Lord to get the rest of the information that he needed.
This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 2001, titled “Why the Believer Doubts, Part 2.” In addition to serving as the pastor of Grace Community Church and the voice of Grace to You, Dr. MacArthur is the chancellor of The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, Calif. You can learn more about TMU at masters.edu.
