Dealing with Doubt and Uncertainty
- Mark Batterson
- Nov 11, 2022
- 18 min read
Updated: Dec 12, 2025
NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH
April 11, 2021
The Doubters Club: The Uncertainty Principle
Dr. Mark Batterson
In 1932, a theoretical physicist named Werner Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize for a
groundbreaking discovery in the field of quantum mechanics for hundreds of years, physicists
believed in a clockwork universe that was predictable and measurable and quantifiable. And then
along comes Heisenberg and his uncertainty principle. And it turns the world upside down and
inside out. Here it is, in a nutshell, the imprecise measurement of initial conditions precludes the
precise prediction of future outcomes. We cannot know the precise position and momentum of a
quantum particle at the same time and here's why. Sometimes matter behaves like a particle it
seems to be in one place at one time. And sometimes it appears to behave like a wave it's in
several places at the same time, it is the duality of nature. Simply put, there will always be an
element of uncertainty. Or as my Gramma Johnson used to say, "You can't never always
sometimes tell." Think about that. Here's the bottom line life is infinitely uncertain. Am I in the
right room?
Now let me flip the coin and I want you to juxtapose that with this. Benoit Mandelbrot is the
father of fractal geometry the study of complex shapes. Some shapes, like clouds in the sky, or
coastlines are infinitely complex. Any detail can be magnified to reveal even more detail ad
infinitum. I think theology is a little like fractal geometry. Any study of God can be magnified to
reveal more detail more dimensionality of who God is. Now it's true of God's Word according to
rabbinic tradition, every word of Scripture has 70 faces and 600,000 meanings, and it's true of
God's character. And there are fancy theological phrases for this. It is the transcendence of God,
the infinitude of God, the immensity of God, the irreducibility of God, the incomprehensibility of
God, take your pick. Simply put, God doesn't fit within the four space-time dimensions that he
created, let alone the logical constraints of our left brain. God cannot be reduced to a
mathematical formula, or the 26 letters of the English alphabet,
A Greek Orthodox theologian whose name I have forgotten, said it this way' "It is not the task of
Christianity to provide easy answers for every question but to make us progressively aware of
mystery. God is not so much the object of knowledge as he is the cause of our wonder." Long
story short, life is infinitely uncertain God is infinitely complex. Good luck, God bless. We'll see
you next week. I'm kidding. We'll keep going.
Whether you are in the house, or you're at our online campus, YouTube channel, NCC app.
Welcome to National Community Church, we are in a series called 'The Doubters Club. If you
have a Bible, I want you to meet me in John's Gospel chapter 20 and we'll get there in a minute.
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Okay, Faith is not the absence of doubt any more than courage is the absence of fear. In fact,
doubt is a key catalyst, a key component of faith. Why? Because it forces us to ask the hard
questions. It forces us to micro pile the foundation of our faith and reinforce the footers. It forces
us to deconstruct and reconstruct our faith. Doubt is the irritant in the oyster that eventually
produces the pearl of great price. When you go to the gym, or hop on your peloton, or do your
Cross Fit workout, you are building muscles by breaking them down. Faith is a muscle and like
every other muscle, you had to break it down to build it up doubt is what does that. Now if you
deal with doubt the right way, it actually stretches your faith. In a sense, faith is doubting our
doubt. And that'll make even more sense in about 20 minutes. And one or two things is going to
happen over time. Either your theology will conform to your reality because you doubt your
faith. Or your reality will conform to your theology because you doubt your doubt.
If you're taking notes, jot this down. Doubt is putting your circumstances between you and God.
Faith is putting God between you and your circumstances. At some point in your spiritual
journey, you run into something called reality usually at about 70 miles an hour. Everybody has a
bout with doubt. Something happens it doesn't make sense, doesn't add up and it causes this
internal angst Now the psychological term is cognitive dissonance. It's psychological conflict
resulting from incongruous beliefs.
Let me give you an example and it's a hard one to share. But I don't think you sweep things like
this under the carpet, as much as you wish they weren't true. When you dance with doubt, you
will step on a few toes so here it goes. A few months ago, I felt tremendous cognitive dissonance
when I heard some shocking news about Ravi Zacharias. Ravi ranks as one of the great
apologists of our time. Now, I didn't know him personally, we did share one meal and it didn't
take until desert to realize that he was brilliant. I have no idea how many people put their faith in
Christ because of Ravi, but it's a lot. Now, after his death, an investigation into his life revealed a
pattern of sexual misconduct that is saddening and sickening and sinful. When someone you
respect does something that is not in keeping with the character of Christ it's disappointing, it's
disillusioning, and it casts a shadow of doubt. I will say this, I respect the board of that ministry
for letting that private investigation go public, it was the right thing to do. And part of why I
share that is to share this we don't put our faith in people. I love Dick Foth. I would love him no
matter what. Dick Foth is a spiritual father to me. But guess what? I've never once surrendered
my life to Dick Foth. I've never put my faith in Dick Foth. I have put my faith; I've fixed my eyes
on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. And our faith is built on nothing less than Jesus
blood, and righteousness.
Now with that as the backdrop we jump into John's Gospel, John 20:24. We're a few days
removed from the resurrection. Jesus has already appeared to the disciples but one of them,
Thomas is MIA, now, no idea where he was but that's where we pick up the story. "One of the
disciples, Thomas, was nicknamed the Twin, was not with the others when Jesus came. The other
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disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in
his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand in His side, I will not
believe." Thomas is a card carrying member of the doubters club. And it's hard to blame him
there's no precedent for what just happened. There's no category for what just happened. I mean,
we have a tendency to reject anything that doesn't resonate with prior experience. It's called the
confirmation bias. And all of us are guilty to one degree or another.
Verse 26; "Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with
them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with
you," he said to them.” Then he says to Thomas, verse 27, "How could you doubt?" No, that's
not what it says. He could have said that, right? I mean, Thomas had heard all the sermons, had
seen all the miracles, but Jesus doesn't shame him or blame him.
"Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in
my side. Stop doubting and believe." Doesn't send them to the principal's office. Does a little
show and tell. God is not intimidated by your doubt. He's not surprised. He's not disappointed.
He's not patronizing. You know, I think right here Jesus gives us a glimpse of the heavenly
Father's heart. He's so caring, so accommodating, so loving, so patient, so gracious. Can I remind
us that we have a God who suffers with us. We have a God who shows us his wounds.
Verse 28, "Thomas said to him, "My Lord, and my God."
We call him Doubting Thomas. But this may be the most definitive profession of faith anywhere
in the Gospels. Yes, he doubted but that doubt was a catalyst for this incredible confession of
faith. I don't set a lot of commentaries in my messages but sometimes you can't say it any better
than it's already been said. So here goes. It was reserved for the most depressed and skeptical
mind of them all, the HONEST DOUBTER, the man who needed immediate and irresistible
evidence, infallible proofs, invincible demonstrations-it was reserved for Thomas to say to him,
"My Lord, and My God!" These words are the climax of the entire gospel. Every narrative points
to this unchallenged utterance. From the wedding at Cana to the raising of Lazarus, every prayer,
every discourse, every miracle, points to this superlative conclusion, wrung from the broken
heart of the man who said, "Unless I see the print of the nails, I will not believe." This was the
hour of the great confession; this was the birth-cry of Christendom; this was the epic-making
scene, which guided the pen of John from the prologue to the close of the Gospel. Thus, Thomas
doubted that the Church might believe. --The Pulpit Commentary, John's Gospel.
Verse 29, listening to what Jesus says, "Because you have seen me, you believed: blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed." Now sometimes seeing is believing that's
certainly the case with Thomas. He had to touch the nail prints but let me flip the coin. You're
taking notes jot this down, sometimes believing is seeing. We don't see the world as it is. We see
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the world as we are. So much of what we see is a projection of our personality, our pain, our
past, even our prejudice. This is why hurt people hurt people. This is why forgiven people
forgive people. What we see is a projection of who we are. Now, Abraham Maslow called it the
law of the hammer. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right?
Many years ago, read a fascinating book with a fun title, Mozart's brain and the fighter pilot. The
author Richard Restak says, "What the eye sees is determined by what the brain has learned."
Then he shares this maxim that has become a mantra for me, "Learn more, see more." Learn
more, see more, learn more, see more, learn more, see more. When astronomers look into the
night sky, they connect these dots called constellations. They see more because they know more.
When a musician listens to a song they hear the harmonies, they hear more, because they see
more, they know more. Endless examples but here's the bottom line, the more you know, the
more you see. Let me push that envelope, the more you know, the more you worship. We tend to
think that knowledge and worship is mutually exclusive, but there are two sides of the same coin.
You can't worship what you don't know. And I would flip that and say, you can't really know
what you don't worship. Stick with me.
In John's Gospel, Jesus has this encounter with a woman at the well. He says, "You Samaritans
worship, what you do not know." It's lip service at best. It's false worship at worst. They are
worshipping out of ignorance, which makes it meaningless. Now, when Lora and I get into an
argument, hypothetically speaking, I've been known to say sorry, without knowing what I'm
sorry about. Because I just want the hypothetical argument to end. Now, let's be honest, that's a
little lazy and it's a lot disingenuous. Why? If you don't know what you're sorry about, it's an
empty apology, and in my experience, empty apology, start more hypothetical arguments. If you
don't know what you're sorry about it's an empty apology. If you don't know who you're
worshipping or why it's empty worship. Jesus says the Father is seeking worshipers who worship
Him in spirit and in truth. In spirit is worshipping who you know. In truth is knowing who you
worship. One way or the other the only feeling on our worship of God is our knowledge of God.
And so the more you know, the more you see, the more you know, the more you worship. Let me
add another one to the mix. The more you know, the more you know how much you don't know.
Now, Oliver Wendell Holmes, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said, "There are two
kinds of simplicity, there's simplicity on the near side of complexity, simplicity on the far side of
complexity. I would not give a fig for simplicity on this side of complexity", said Holmes, "but I
would give my life for simplicity on the other side." There are a lot of Christians who settle for
simplicity on the near side of complexity. And I might add faith on the near side of doubt, joy on
the near side of sorrow and peace on the near side of problems. They live by platitudes, and they
clutch their clichés and we've got to do better than that. Listen, if you are growing spiritually,
you will outgrow some old wine skins the same way you outgrew the clothes you wore as a kid.
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At some point some of the things you believe shouldn't fit anymore. Why 'cause you know more,
and you worship more and the more, you know, the more you know how much you don't know.
Now the Apostle Paul said it this way, "When I was a child I talked like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” That word
childish means simple minded, its simplicity on the near side of complexity. Here's what I'm
getting at, as you grow spiritually, you outgrow the faith you had a year or two or 10 years ago.
In the philosophy of science, there’s a concept called critical realism, it’s the recognition that we
don't know everything there is to know. We can never expect at any stage to be absolutely certain
that our scientific theories are correct, and will never need further amendment. Now this week,
on Wednesday, New York Times ran a story about a groundbreaking discovery at Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory. Did you see this? Evidence is mounting that a tiny subatomic
particle seems to be disobeying the law of physics. I don't know why, I just kind of love it. In
other words, there is a form of matter, a form of energy that is not currently known to science.
And if it's true, it will fundamentally change every theory that we have. That's what critical
realism allows for. Can I suggest that we need to know what we know, what we know. We also
need a degree of critical realism when it comes to our theology. Listen, our faith is always being
deconstructed and reconstructed. We're always learning and unlearning and relearning.
And I found that almost every spiritual truth has a fascinating corollary in the physical realm and
so it's not unlike your body. You are not who you were 10 days, 10 months or 10 years ago. I
mean, you look like the same person, but you're a totally different person. The 10 trillion cells in
your body are in a constant state of regeneration. And you know this, but you don't see it when
you stand in the mirror. It's like, oh, wow, look at that, you know, you don't, it doesn't happen
like in real time, right? So the average adult has 10,000 taste buds, those taste buds are replaced
about every two weeks. The surface of our skin covers about 20 square feet and those skin cells
are replaced every 27 days. The cells that line your stomach regenerate every two days because
of digestive acid. But the internal intestinal cells take 16 years to renew. And no matter how old
you are, chronologically, your bones are about 10 years old. Long story short, oh, would you
hear this right here. Your body is going through a process of death and resurrection all day, every
day. In much the same way our faith is being constantly renewed. This is what the Apostle Paul
said. II Corinthians 4:16, “Though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being
renewed day by day.” Faith is a lot like the apps on your phone, right? If you don't update them,
eventually they aren't going to work. Why? Because they don't think with the operating system.
And so faith and doubt are this dance that we continue to grow and evolve and learn and
worship. And then the more we know, the more we know how much we don't know.
Well, one final thought and then a few applications. The more you know, the bigger God gets. I
love the moment in Prince Caspian’s second book in The Chronicles of Narnia, where Lucy and
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Aslan are reunited. Lucy says, “Aslan your bigger.” Aslan says, “That's because you're older,
little one.” Lucy is a little confused. She says, “Not because you are?” Aslan says, “I am not but
every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” And so it is in our relationship with God, the
more you know the bigger God gets. “How much happier you would be” said G. K. Chesterton,
“How much more of you there would be if the hammer of a higher God would smash your small
cosmos.”
A. W. Tozer said, “A low view of God is the cause of 100 lesser evils. A high view of God is the
solution to 10,000 temporal problems”. Do you know, everybody ought to have a few quotes that
they quote all the time. You can just close your eyes and throw them out. “Let God be as original
with others as he was with you.” - Oswald Chambers. “Never lose a holy curiosity.” - Albert
Einstein. “Sometimes the greatest opposition of what God wants to do next comes from those
who were on the cutting edge of what God did last.” - RT Kendall. I go back to these quotes all
the time but let me let me just throw a question at you. How big is your God? Is he bigger than
your biggest problem? Is he bigger than the biggest mistake you've made? Is he bigger than the
biggest challenge you face?
Let me close with a couple applications. You guys are doing so good. A lot of science this
weekend, right? There's not gonna be a quiz at the end of this message but five application when
in doubt, five things you can do. We're going to go fast.
1. Seek wise counsel, Proverbs 24:6 there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors. You
need people in your life who have been there and done that, who can empathize with your
weakness, who can call out your potential who can challenge your thinking, who can
speak into your blind spots. Sometimes it's a mentor. Sometimes it's a spiritual father.
Sometimes it's a literal counselor. Okay, I've been to two counselors in the last two years.
And I make no apologies because I need all the help I can get. When in doubt, seek wise
counsel. Don't isolate, don't isolate, invite people you trust into that process
2. Keep asking questions. I Corinthians 8:2 - listen, just as you ought to have a few quotes
that you quote all the time, there ought to be a few verses that you quote all the time. I
Corinthians 8:2 is one of mine. “He who thinks he knows, does not yet know, as he ought
to know.” Now, the more you know, the more you know how much you don't know. The
world doesn't need any more know at alls. We need to say, I don't know a lot more. We
need to quit acting like we have all the answers and start asking better questions. Jesus
asked 383 questions in the gospels. He often answered a question with a question. And so
if we follow the Jesus way, we're gonna ask a lot of questions. Now, according to the
research of Ralph Smith, kids ask on average, 125 probing questions per day. And I have
some parents and young kids, you're laughing right now you're saying, “That actually
sounds a little low”. Right? Adults ask six. So somewhere between childhood and
adulthood, we lose 119 questions per day. We got to get those back. Jesus said, “Ask and
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you will receive, seek and you will find, knock in the door will be open” Those are
present imperative verbs in the Greek language. In other words, keep asking, keep
seeking, keep knocking. When in doubt, keep asking questions. By the way, Alpha course
coming up here in a couple of weeks. A great place to ask honest hard questions
3. Create a Deuteronomy 29:29 file. Deuteronomy 29:29 says that the revealed things
belong to us but the secret things belong to God. Life infinitely uncertain, God infinitely
complex. What that means is there isn't an answer to every question. There's not a
solution to every problem. There is not a resolution to every injustice on this side of
eternity. Now, I know that sounds a little depressing but we don't believe in happily ever
after. I said it last week, we believe in happily for ever after. And so there are some
secrets that are only going to be revealed on the far side of the space-time continuum.
When my father in law passed at 55 years of age, prime of life prime of ministry, it's the
moment that I created this Deuteronomy 29:29 file. I didn't know what to do. I didn't
know what to do with the questions. I didn't know what to do with the anger, what to do
with the doubt so I just I created this file. And listen, it's gotten thicker over the years.
And this is not a platitude when you can't see God's hand somehow you have to learn to
trust his heart and you got to put them in that file. And so when in doubt, create a
Deuteronomy 29:29 file.
4. Take a two foot field trip. Now you've heard me say this 1000 times - a little formula.
Change of pace plus change of place equals change of perspective. Now I love this
moment in Genesis 15, God takes Abraham on a two foot field trip. What are you talking
about? Well, Abraham is inside his tent and God says come on outside. Okay. And he is
there. Now, why would God do that? Well, as long as he was in the tent, Abraham was
staring at an eight foot ceiling. The second he goes outside the sky is the limit. Doubt is
an eight foot ceiling. Sometimes you have to get outside and I mean that literally and
figuratively. Go take a hike. Get out in nature, or just go stargaze one night. Do you know
that there are 9096 stars visible to the naked eye in the Milky Way galaxy? But that's a
fraction of the stars, you know this. The latest estimate I've heard is about 300 billion
stars in the Milky Way and so let me try to put that into perspective. 31,560,000 seconds
in a year so 100 years, 3.1 5 billion seconds. So if Abraham tried to count every star just
in the Milky Way galaxy, one star per second, it would take 10,000 years. And that's one
galaxy. I mean, astrophysicist now suggest maybe 2 trillion galaxy, like just look up. And
all God is saying, “Would you trust me for one?” Would you trust me for one? When in
doubt, take a two foot field trip and remind yourself of God's promises.
5. When all else fails, eat a watermelon. You were wondering, weren't you? What is this
delicious looking watermelon doing up here? I'm about to tell you. I'm not gonna drop it.
I wouldn't drop it. In 1925, William Jennings Bryan played the role of prosecutor, do you
remember this, in the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. He was a former congressman,
Secretary of State, ran for president three times. But later in life, he taught a Bible study
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and he wrote religious books and one of those books he wrote about a watermelon. And
this is what he said, "I have observed the power of the watermelon seed. It has the power
of drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight. When you can
tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors the outside surface beyond the
imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within that again a red heart,
thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through
itself 200,000 times its weight ~~ when you can explain to me the mystery of the
watermelon, you can ask me to explain the mystery of God.” Anyone can count the
number of seeds in a watermelon. Only God can count the number of watermelons in a
seed.
I think one measure of spiritual maturity is feeling more comfortable with mystery than certainty.
Am I making you nervous? Just a little bit. I feel like I should… All too often we resort to
therapy instead of mystery. Kathleen Norris said, “Modern believers tend to trust more in therapy
than mystery.” Do you remember what that Greek Orthodox theologian said? “God isn't the
object of knowledge he is the cause of wonder.” Carl Jung said it this way, “A religion becomes
impoverished when it cuts down on its paradoxes.” Why? “Only the paradox comes anywhere
near to comprehending the fullness of life non ambiguity and non contradiction are one sided,
and thus unsuited to explain the in comprehensible.”
At the epicenter, we're almost done, I promise you. At the epicenter of our theology is the
Trinity. Okay, we believe in one God, three persons. Well, which is it? One or three? It's not
either or. It's both/and/and - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The concept of the Trinity is passed
our pay grade, and I would expect nothing less. If we could comprehend the Trinity, it could be a
human construct. Once again, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways than our ways.
And so I say when in doubt, eat a watermelon.
Let me invite our worship team to come. Let me double back to Doubting Thomas. Here's the
rest of the story; founding member of the doubters, club patron saint of doubters but that didn't
keep God from using him in a profound way. Now he walks off the pages of Scripture, but
fortunately we have a wonderful church historian. His name is Eusebius, a wonderful book to
read, his record of these early church, fathers and mothers. And so, Thomas it is believed
traveled beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. He was martyred on July 3, 72 AD, but not
before sailing to India, where he established seven churches. Thomas is widely regarded as the
patron saint of India. Simply put his life impacted in entire subcontinent. Why? And how? Well I
think it traces back to this loving gesture that Jesus makes. Jesus wasn't afraid of letting Thomas
touch his wounds. This is such an intimate, such a beautiful moment. He's not afraid of that. And
Thomas touches those wounds and then he says, “My Lord, and my God.”
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Romans 10:9 and 10, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead you shall be saved.” Have you ever made a profession of
faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ? You can do that right here, right now. If you're at our
online campus there's a place to raise a hand. If you're maybe at our YouTube channel,
somewhere else or right here in person was at ncc/re/followJesus. We want to help you take
those next steps in your spiritual journey. And so let me just say this “Welcome to the family.”
Doubt is both a common and shared experience for many of us in the Beloved community. Although doubt can be a disorientating and a confusing experience, Christ walked through a wall to sit with Thomas in his doubt and he would do the same for you. As Thomas Merton once said, “though I may seem to be lost… I will not fear, for You are ever with me.”