What to Do with Doubt
69
The word of God, like the character of its divine Author, presents
mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings. The
entrance of sin into the world, the incarnation of Christ, regeneration,
the resurrection, and many other subjects presented in the Bible, are
mysteries too deep for the human mind to explain, or even fully to
comprehend. But we have no reason to doubt God’s word because
we cannot understand the mysteries of His providence. In the natural
world we are constantly surrounded with mysteries that we cannot
fathom. The very humblest forms of life present a problem that the
wisest of philosophers is powerless to explain. Everywhere are won-
ders beyond our ken. Should we then be surprised to find that in the
spiritual world also there are mysteries that we cannot fathom? The
difficulty lies solely in the weakness and narrowness of the human
mind. God has given us in the Scriptures sufficient evidence of their
divine character, and we are not to doubt His word because we cannot
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understand all the mysteries of His providence.
The apostle Peter says that there are in Scripture “things hard to be
understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest ... unto
their own destruction.”
2 Peter 3:16
. The difficulties of Scripture have
been urged by skeptics as an argument against the Bible; but so far
from this, they constitute a strong evidence of its divine inspiration.
If it contained no account of God but that which we could easily
comprehend; if His greatness and majesty could be grasped by finite
minds, then the Bible would not bear the unmistakable credentials
of divine authority. The very grandeur and mystery of the themes
presented should inspire faith in it as the word of God.
The Bible unfolds truth with a simplicity and a perfect adaptation
to the needs and longings of the human heart, that has astonished
and charmed the most highly cultivated minds, while it enables the
humblest and uncultured to discern the way of salvation. And yet these
simply stated truths lay hold upon subjects so elevated, so far-reaching,
so infinitely beyond the power of human comprehension, that we can
accept them only because God has declared them. Thus the plan of
redemption is laid open to us, so that every soul may see the steps he
is to take in repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ, in order to be saved in God’s appointed way; yet beneath these
truths, so easily understood, lie mysteries that are the hiding of His
glory—mysteries that overpower the mind in its research, yet inspire