What is Unbelief?
Dictionary definition,
unbelief: The state or
quality of not believing; incredulity or skepticism,
especially in matters of faith or religious doctrine. -
Dictionary.com
Biblical definition,
unbelief: The choice of not believing: the finding of
incredulity or being
skeptical concerning
God, Jesus or the Doctrines of the Bible.
Simply put, unbelief in God and Jesus is the opposite of
belief in God and Jesus. Therefore, as
belief is like and is similar to having or possessing faith, unbelief is like
and is similar to possessing doubt. Unbelief receives its strength from doubt,
for without doubt, unbelief has no grounds or possibility to survive. Unbelief then is characterized by the
supposed rational position of reasonable doubt about someone or something. As it relates to Christianity, unbelief is
the supposed rational position of reasonable doubt about God, Jesus and the
Bible. It is the doubts of what
otherwise could be believed, which constitutes a person unbelief, about God,
Jesus and the Bible.
What Unbelief is Not?
It is not fear. Fear is the perversion of faith. As
faith is the evidence of things hoped for, (Hebrews 11:1) fear is the
evidence of things not hoped for. Fear works like faith but in the
opposite direction. Still Fear is not the opposite of Faith. Faith
and fear are polar opposites flowing in the same current of power. Just like we
have positive charges of electricity and negative charges of electricity
flowing in a single power line, we have faith and fear in the current of
belief. Both flows of electrical power are in the opposite direction, yet they
are same current. Fear is the negative
power, and Faith is the positive power, they are both are opposed by no power,
they are both opposed by unbelief.
Now, not all faith is good, there is blind faith, whereas a
person trusts without any wisdom, without any facts to substantiate its trust
in someone or something or in some event to happen. Neither is all fear is bad,
there is the fear of God, the fear of fire, these kinds of fears prevent us
from foolishly doing the unwise thing and harming ourselves. They booth work,
but in different directions, polar opposites if you will, for the purpose they
are designed to do when properly used.
What is unbelief then if it is not fear?
Unbelief is an entirely different matter. Unbelief can’t
be caused by faith or fear for unbelief has no faith in anyone or anything.
You either believe or you don't believe. Unbelief has no fear in
anyone or anything. This can be dangerous because having no fear of anything
can cause a person to be reckless and be a danger not only to himself but those
around him. A man without a health fear
about things is a reckless and uncontrolled man. (Proverb 25:28) Having no fear
is not necessarily having courage. For
courage is the position of challenging what fear presents. In short, courage
challenges false expectations appearing real.
The Bible states that God has given to each person is given a
measure of faith (Romans 12:3), I would also state the opposite is also true
that to each person is given a measure of doubt. This means that every person has a degree or
portion of faith. If that is true, then to every person is given a measure of
doubt, which is the foundation of their unbelief. The question is what do they
have unbelief about and why. In respect to the Christian testimony about
God and Jesus, it is the doubt that God is who he is and Jesus who he said he
was. Therefore, without doubt, unbelief has no strength in the minds of many
concerning God and Jesus. What is doubt then? It is the rational thought
based upon the evidence or the lack of evidence of an event, person or thing.
Addressing Doubt
When people doubt, they do it with a reason, or rational
That reason or rational usually begins with the word
"If" followed by the Christian claim to be challenge, followed
by the reason or rational why the Christian claim cannot be true or proven. For
example many people have said this doubt of Jesus's divinity, "If Jesus is
God, then who was he praying to, Himself?" This question shows the lack of
understanding of who God is and what is his constitution and attributional
makeup.
When people doubt, they do it with a reason, or rational
That reason or rational usually begins with the word
"If" followed by the Christian claim to be challenge, followed
by the reason or rational why the Christian claim cannot be true or proven. For
example many people have said this doubt of Jesus's divinity, "If Jesus is
God, then who was he praying to, Himself?" This question shows the lack of
understanding of who God is and what is his constitution and attributional
makeup.
God in the Christian view is Triune that is he is three
expressions of his person contained in one Godhead; Jesus came to reveal the
second member of the Godhead, God, the Son. When God sent Jesus to die
for mankind, he had to send his image, in the form of a man. If God can’t do
this then he is not God. The Bible shows us various images of God
appearing to aid people of faith:
In Genesis: God is the
voice that walked in the Garden, the voice that spoke to
Abraham before he
sacrificed his son Isaac, the three men that appeared to Abraham before he
destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the angel that wrestled with Jacob.
In Exodus: God is the
pillar clouds by day and the pillar of fire by night that
lead Israel from the Egyptians
as they pursued them across the
wilderness of the Sinai. God is the
erupting mountain in the
country of Middian, where God wrote on two stone
tablets his ten
commandments for the Israelites, to keep as his chosen people.
In Job: God
is the whirlwind, which spoke with his servant job concerning
his dispute.
I could name many other examples on how God became other
things to perform his will. So why can’t God become a man? It was possible for
him become everything else and he did not think it would make him less of the
God of Creation to do so.
Now someone would say to me: Ok, if that be so, then Jesus
was speaking to himself when he prayed? The answer to that question is both yes
and no. Yes, in that Jesus even though was a man was also God manifested
in the flesh while on the earth. No, because in his humanity he did not regard
himself alone, he always felt that he was in the company of and in communion
with God, his heavenly father. In his human state, Jesus was humble and
obedient to the will of his heavenly Father until death. As God
manifested in the flesh, Jesus was also well aware of his power and authority,
for he said to his disciples in regard to those who mocked him, after his
disciples requested that he call fire from heaven to consume them, "You do not know what spirit you are of.." (Luke 9:55). In another place he said to them
who heard him, "Do you not know I can
call 12 legions of angels..." (Matthew 26:53)
The only one that can call angels to do anything is God and nobody
else. Christians view God as omnipresent, that is,
he is always present at all times. They have cause to believe this for the
Bible states that "The eyes of the Lord is
upon every place, beholding the evil and the good." (Proverbs 15:3) In order for God’s eyes to be in
every place at the same time he has to be present everywhere at the same time. Being
omnipresent allows God to be in more than one place at the same time. The
question illustrates the doubt that God can be everywhere at once, even in the form
of the Spirit and in the form and image of a man. The Bible clearly opposes
this belief.
Jesus dealings with Doubt
Jesus throughout his ministry upon the earth had to deal with
the level of unbelief of the people he spoke to. Sometimes he had to tell his own disciples to
not doubt. There is a story in the Bible
about a Father who had a son that was possessed with a devil. The evil spirit vexed the boy so much that it
would toss the boy about causing him harm.
The father after exhausting every means to cure his son even went to the
disciples of Jesus and they could not cast it out of the boy. The Father turned to Jesus and cried out, “I believe, help thou my unbelief.” Jesus responded and
cast the devil out of the boy and restored him to his father. Later, the disciples came to Jesus and asked
him why they could not cast out that devil out of the boy. Jesus responded that, “This kind does not come out except by fasting and prayer,” (Mark 9:20-29)
This story illustrates to us the power a measure of unbelief
can have. The disciples of Jesus did not
have enough belief to cast out the devil out of the boy and the father was
having an inner struggle believing that whether or not his son could be
delivered of the evil spirit that vexed him.
After the disciples failure to cast the evil spirit out of the boy, the
father’s doubts and fears grew. The father of the boy was losing his measure of
faith and increasing his measure of doubt, so he cried out “…help thou my unbelief…” meaning in
my opinion that he wanted Jesus to put his unbelief back in check in regards to
Jesus and his exorcist power. When Jesus delivered the boy from the evil spirit, the fathers faith was
back in the correct measure. Now the
disciples inquired on why they were not able to do what Jesus did. Jesus said this kind, meaning the ones that
have aggressive evil spirits causing the sickness or disease requires a fervent
prayer life and regular practice of fasting of the exorcist, so that the evil
spirit would remove itself from the person affected. This also indicates that
all the other sicknesses are not the result of demoniac possession. We’ll save
that for another Bible study. The point
is that Jesus deals with doubt by encouraging faith and responding to it.
Jesus Experiences
Powerlessness
So what does the previous information has to do with unbelief?
Unbelief is the one thing Jesus or God can’t work with (Hebrews 11:6).
As long as someone has faith in him, he works in that person's life
according to that person’s level of faith. An example of how unbelief
does not allow Jesus, the Son of God, to perform any miracles is when he is in
his home town of Nazareth. (Matthew 13:53-58, Mark 6:1-6, Luke 4:16-32) Jesus could not do many miracles there
because the people regarded him as only the carpenter's son that they knew as a
lad. The people did not believe that he was God or even the son of God. This
illustrates that if you have no faith in Christ, you will have no power, but if
you have much faith in Christ, as small as a mustard seed you will have much
power. The people of Jesus's home town had little faith that Jesus had power to
heal and do the other miracles they heard about, their reason: He was only the
son of a carpenter. His brothers and sisters are living with us. This is Mary’s son. These facts made them doubt who Jesus really
was. They had doubt of who Jesus was reported, and was testifying himself to
be, the result was that not many miracles were done there.
You see, unbelief is very powerful in slowing the overwhelming
power of faith, so it is imperative that believers build up their faith in
Jesus and reduce their doubts about Jesus, the Christ and the Christian walk
they aspire to live. However, this is what the problem is with many
"Christians" today; many have no or little faith in who Jesus is and
what he can do for them. They are Christians in name only, because they
want their sins to be accepted as though it does not offend to God and still
miss hell.
Here is the sad news: If they don't get know who Jesus is, they may
hear these words at the judgment seat of Christ: "I never knew you"
and still be cast into the lake of fire. (John 3:36, 17:3; Mathew 25:1-13;
Revelations 20:15) All because they did not accept the free gift of eternal
life in Christ Jesus.
Here is the Good News: They still have a chance to lay ahold
of the salvation in Christ reserved for them.
How? All they have to do is
repent of their sins and sinfulness to God and start living holy according to
what God expects them to live. Many
believers say that this is impossible to do because no man is perfect. I used to believe that until I read this
verse.
“He that smith he abideth in him ought himself also so to
walk, even as he walked.”
-1 John 2:6
Which in my opinion means: if anyone says he is a Christian,
that is a follower of Christ, should also live as Jesus as Jesus lived. Jesus even said, “ I am the way, the
truth, and the life, no man cometh unto
the father , except by me” –John 14:6
meaning in my opinion that :
Jesus is the way we Christians we travel, the truth we rely upon and the
life we lead. Jesus didn’t just come
here to die for our sins and be raised from the dead. Jesus came here to show
us how to live this new life as a Godly Spirit Filled man. He came to show us how to live, in faith, in
power and in obedience to God, the Father.
So if he came to do that, it is not impossible to repent of my sins and
sinfulness and embrace a holy life designed by God, in Christ. The question for me as it is for many others
is are you ready to commit to living it?
If you are, a good starting point is making sure that you
have accepted God’s salvation offer. You do that by saying the following prayer
with all your heart:
Dear heavenly Father,
In Jesus’ name, I come to
you now as a repentant sinner. I confess
all of my sinfulness to you and ask you to forgive all of my sins for Jesus’
sake. Wash away all of my sins by the blood of your Son Jesus. For I now believe that Jesus died for my sins
according to your Holy Word, the Bible and that he was raised from the death
according to the Bible. I now invite
your Holy Spirit to come and live inside of me and make me your child. I
promise to strive to live holy everyday with the Help of your Holy Spirit and
by studying the Bible every day. I thank you Lord for saving me.
If you have recited the
above prayer with all sincerity, I welcome you the Family of God! Right now the
Angels of heaven are rejoicing because you have repented and believed in the hope
of all men’s salvation. Jesus, the
Christ, the Son of God.
The next thing you need
to do is find a bible believing church, so that you can grow up in Christ and
in God. To become what God designed you to be.
Isn’t that exciting!?!
