Bob Enyart
[Originally published as RSR’s List of Doubts Christian Have]
[Editor’s note: It is with great sadness that we honor the loss of Pastor Bob Enyart. This post was one of the last he published on his website before succumbing to complications of COVID-19. You can read more from his ministry here. This article seemed like an excellent tribute to Enyart’s confidence and humility. He will be greatly missed.]
In an online discussion over at Prometheus Unbound, Santi, an agnostic who’s had millions of visits to his blog, asked Bob Enyart about his doubts. Here I list first the Doubts I Never Have and then Doubts Christians Have.
Santi: Bob, I’d like to ask you a personal question. When you doubt, what is it exactly that you doubt?”
Bob: Well Santi, I doubt that the rising mountain of evidence utterly refuting Darwinism will bring a majority of evolutionists to acknowledge our Creator God. I doubt that the failed predictions of the Big Bang Theory will lead atheists to…
But wait. I’m sure those are not the kinds of doubts you’re asking me about. You’re asking me to indicate, of the beliefs that I hold, which ones do I sometimes doubt. To help myself think this through, Santi, I’ll first list the things I never ever doubt.
- I never doubt that I exist.
- I never doubt that truth exists, because, for example, it is true that I exist.
- I never doubt that reason exists, because I can reason to the truth of the previous sentence.
- I never doubt that there is a reality, because truth and reason exist.
- I never doubt that the universe exists, because I exist as part of it, and I can reason to the truth of its existence.
- I never doubt that the universe must have had a beginning, because stars still burn available energy.
- Since truth and reason exist, I never doubt that logic exists.
- Since I exist and logic exists, I never doubt that existence itself must be rational.
- Since logic and reason exist, I never doubt that whatever has a beginning must have a cause.
- Since logic and reason exist, I never doubt that the effect cannot be greater than the cause.
- I never doubt that whatever caused the universe must be powerful and even greater than the universe itself.
- Since logic exists, I realize that nothing that has a beginning can have existed forever.
- Since the Cause of the universe must exist, I realize that it has no beginning, and has existed forever.
- Since this uncaused Cause created the universe, i.e., its ingredients, I don’t doubt that it also created me.
- Since I’m a person, and the effect can’t be greater than the cause, I don’t doubt that the Creator is personal.
- Because we persons are creative like He is, I never doubt that we are made to some extent in His likeness.
- Because the Creator is a person, I never doubt that He must be alive.
- So I never doubt that the attributes of our eternal Creator are that He is living and personal.
- I never doubt that human beings refer to the living and personal eternal Creator as “God.”
- I never doubt that to be a person, one must have a will, so that it is by God’s will that I exist.
- Because we creatures have the ability to know our Creator, I never doubt that He is relational.
- Because He made us with the ability to love, I never doubt that the Creator Himself can love.
- Because God can love, and He made us to know good and evil, I therefore never doubt that He is good.
- So I never doubt our all-powerful, eternal Creator God who is living, personal, relational, good, and loving.
- I never doubt that all these things could be intuitively understood by everyone who’s ever lived.
- Because God is good and loving and made us, I never doubt that He cares about us and wants to save us.
- I never doubt that if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead as prophesied, that Christianity is false.
- Nor have I ever doubted that if Jesus did rise from the dead, then all other religions are false and as He claimed, He is the only way to eternal life.
Santi, these are some of the things I never doubt.
Now, what do I sometimes doubt? There are many particulars regarding the universe, the world, mankind, doctrines of Scripture, points of history, economics, science, etc., that I’m eager to learn more of and to be corrected where in error. The more significant errors I’ve made over the years are listed on our Errata page which we link to from our KGOV.com home page and from the footer section of every one of the 10,000 pages on our site. And when I make a lesser error in a radio program, etc., we correct that error on that show’s summary page.
Was this a sufficient answer, or would you like some particular detail?
Thanks, Santi!
-Bob Enyart
P.S. Santi, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”
