The events of Easter all point to the fact that Christ came back.  He showed Himself alive to people a dozen or more times.  His disciples saw He was alive.  The Roman soldiers saw the angels and knew He'd come back to life.  The Jewish leaders paid them hush money to keep the truth from being told.  The women knew He was alive.  The events of Easter all point to the fact that a dead Christ came back to life, and He still comes back to people today, to calm our troubled hearts and give us strength in our times of doubt.

          The people around Jesus generally believed Him, but not everyone.  The Bible says that even up to the point of His return to heaven, some doubted.  One of His disciples even got a new name.  "Doubting Thomas" wasn't with them when He came that first night.  When told they'd seen Him, he said, "Unless I see with my own eyes, I will not believe."  Thomas was a modern man who had to be shown, one who had to face his doubts.

          Modern people are doubters.  We want things proven before we will believe.  And even when shown proof, we're often still skeptical, wondering if important things are true, especially the things of God.  Doubting God is not new;  it's as old as the Garden of Eden.  Most Christians will have periodic doubts.  There is nothing essentially bad about doubting and it can even benefit us if it drives us to search the Scriptures.  Doubting does not condemn, but making it a philosophy of life does.  God deserves our honor and praise.  He must never become merely an object to examine, something we can take or leave, depending on how we feel.

          Thomas is mentioned in all listings of the disciples.  He was a fisherman from Galilee, a loyal disciple of Rabbi Jesus.  The Bible says he was willing to die with Jesus if He decided to go to Jerusalem.  Like Peter, he was bold and unafraid to ask questions.  He once said, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"  Though he didn't believe Jesus was alive until he saw Him, when he did see Jesus, his doubts were gone and his life transformed.  Thomas the doubter became Thomas the believer, the witness and great preacher.

          Modern people are doubters.  We want proof for ancient things, yet often accept contemporary claims for things as true without any proof.  We ignore centuries of witness about Jesus Christ, but accept the nonsense of some self-proclaimed teacher of the New Age.  We tread under foot the proven truth of the Ten Commandments, but then elevate our self-created truths of tolerance and diversity to the heights.  We reject morals that have held people together for centuries, but then embrace new ideals that have no moral basis at all.  We even tried to debunk marriage and family, solid bricks in the wall of society, and then wondered why the wall was crumbling.

          Jesus wasn't easy on doubters.  Often He said to His disciples, "Oh ye of little faith!  Why do you doubt?"  He said that if we'd stop doubting and believed, our prayers could move mountains.  One of His men, James, wrote, "He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."  Waves have no permanence.  They're here now and gone a moment later.  And yet one of His men, Jude, knowing our sins of doubt, wrote, "God be merciful to those who doubt."

          Modern people reject history and fact in favor of self-esteem.  You and I today are raising a generation of children who score miserably low in math, history and reading, yet feel very good about how they scored.  How can merely feeling good about self raise a family or serve the needs of mankind without basic skills?  We must wake up to the superficiality of some stupid ideas!

          It's amazing what modern people will accept even in the face of proof to the contrary.  How much proof will it take for young people to accept that tobacco is bad for their health?  How many copycat crimes must our children commit before adults realize TV and movies really do have a negative affect on them?  How much logic will it take to convince people that the life of a child before it is born is just as precious as the life of a child after it is born?  And how many times does Jesus have to prove to us that He really did rise from the dead before we stop doubting that He exists or cares about us?

          Modern academia seems to be staffed by doubters who've forgotten that all the first colleges and universities were founded by Christian churches.  Most of today's public colleges and universities have rejected the very beliefs they were founded on.  Few and far between are the Christian professors at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth.  Most public schools of theology are staffed by skeptics and cynics.  The Son of God, once scourged in Jerusalem, is scourged every day in classrooms of universities established to honor Him.

          Thomas generally gets a bad rap.  He wasn't the only doubter among the disciples.  They all needed to see Jesus to believe He was alive.  And when Thomas did see Him, he was transformed to a man of great courage.  On the day of Pentecost he was there with all the Disciples, and like them all, praised God in another language.  Perhaps it was a language of the orient, because he became a missionary to people of the far east.

          Tradition says Thomas travelled all the way to India to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, and that he died there.  Today in India the Marthoma Syrian Church, whose name means "from Thomas", has more than thirty million members who claim Jesus Christ as their Savior and Thomas as their founder.  Their bi-annual conventions bring together over two million Christians.  Because Thomas stopped his doubting and boldly spread the Gospel, the largest Christian gathering in the world today happens in Hindu India!

          But why do so many people doubt the things of God?  Perhaps we haven't seen enough of Him to accept His presence and power.  For any skeptics, I would like to engage you in gentle argument.  I'd ask that you consider, for example, the...

          1.   Historical Argument:  Historically, that which is recorded closer to the event is always more accurate.  Therefore, the biblical record should be far more accurate than writers who discount the truth of Jesus Christ from 2000 years away.  But some will say, "That's not enough!"

          2.   Archeological Argument:  Every day archeological discoveries are made showing the biblical record to be true and accurate.  They prove the Bible is true.  These discoveries have repeatedly shown the positive impact Jesus had on history.  But some will say, "That's not enough!"

          3.   Literary Argument:  All religious holy books were written by one man.  The book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith in few months.  The Koran was written by Mohammed in 22 years.  But the Bible is 66 separate books written by 50 authors over 1500 years.  And all 66 books have unity:  they say either the Messiah will come (Old Testament) or the Messiah has come and He's Jesus (New Testament).  But still some will say, "That's not enough!"

          4.   Argument from Prophesy:  There are over 300 Bible prophesies about the Messiah, and Jesus fulfills every one of them.  The laws of mathematical probability of one man fulfilling all 300 biblical prophesies about a Messiah are 1 in 50 to the 31st power.  But some will say "That's not enough!"

          5.   Genetic Argument:  DNA, our human microchip, contains billions of bits of information which determine human characteristics.  For this to be a coincidence of evolution is the same as saying that somewhere in some auto scrap yard, all the pieces will coincidentally fall together to create a new Toyota.  Humans are not an accident - we're created!  But some will say, "That's not enough!"

          6.   Argument from Emotion:  The Bible says God loved us enough to give up His only Son, even knowing most people would reject Him.  What father would give up his child for those who would execute him?  Yet our Heavenly Father did.  Are there still some who will say, "That's not enough"?

          What will it take to trust that Jesus is Lord?  More proof?  More witnesses?  Seeing Him in person?  I wish we could do that, but not even all those who saw Him still believed.  But remember what He said:  "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  That makes you and me blessed!  We believe, and so we are blessed with His eternal blessing!

          We all need to face our doubts, and God helps us when we do.  When Thomas saw Jesus, he believed and became a powerful witness.  Every time we receive Holy Communion, Christ comes to forgive us and help us face our doubts.  He writes off the past.  A pastoral colleague said he'd like to preach a sermon entitled, "Judas Come Home - All is Forgiven".  Jesus forgives any and all who trust Him.  He may gently reprove us for our doubts, but He takes us through them and makes us His bold witnesses.  "Christ is risen - He is risen indeed!"  Amen!

Copyright © 2000 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.