# Owen on dealing with doubt



## nwink (Mar 23, 2011)

Here is a section from John Owen's (modernized) work "Spiritual Mindedness." It talks about how to deal with doubts and blasphemous thoughts Satan injects into the minds of believers.



> The spiritually minded person will say, 'Truly there is a reward for the righteous; truly there is a God who judges in the earth.' This will follow thoughts of the immensity of God's nature, of his eternal power, of his infinite wisdom, and of his absolute sovereignty. These thoughts will hold the souls of believers firm and steadfast in the most destructive storms of temptation that may fall upon them. But there are two troubles which weaker believers may encounter. Satan, knowing the weakness of our minds, will inject blasphemous thoughts into them when we try and think of infinite and incomprehensible things. he will tempt us to atheism by raising doubts, 'Is there really a God? How do you know that there is a God?' Satan did this in his first temptation. 'Has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' This was how he tempted Christ. 'If you be the Son of God. Is there a God? What if there is no God?' So Paul tells us to take the shield of faith, by which you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked' (Eph 6:16). Faith will quickly reject such diabolical suggestions. Christ said, 'Get behind me, Satan.' If a man has a petrol bomb thrown at him, he does not ask whether he will be burned but immediately does everything in his power to put out the fire. So in the same way, we must deal with the devil's fiery darts. If blasphemous thoughts persist after every effort to cast them out, return at once, without further argument, to your own experience. When the devil has asked you the question, if you answer him, he has got you. But if you ask yourself the question, and then answer it by your own experience, you will frustrate all the devil's designs on you. We are not to argue with the devil. We are to take the shield of faith to quench those fiery darts. If Satan succeeds in diverting us into long arguments for the existence of God, he has succeeded in drawing us away from the duty of meditating on God. Soon, every time we think of God we will begin to wonder if he really exists. The believer, therefore, is to retreat at once into his own experience. This will pour shame and contempt on the suggestions of Satan. Every believer who knows something of himself and of God's dealing with him, and has time to exercise the wisdom of faith concerning the ways God has dealt with him in the past and is dealing with him now, has the witness in himself of God's existence and eternal power. He also has the witness of all the other perfections of the divine nature which God is pleased to reveal and glorify in and by Jesus Christ. So, on this suggestion of Satan that there is no God, the believer will be able to say, 'The devil might do better to tell me that I am not alive and not breathing, that I do not eat food or keep myself warm by wearing clothes, that I do not know myself or anything else, for I have personal assurance and experience of God's existence.'



Thoughts? Is this a good way to deal with these issues?


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## nwink (Mar 24, 2011)

Thoughts?


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## Frosty (Mar 24, 2011)

Nathan,

I thank you for posting this. It could be of much help to me, as I currently know someone struggling with these exact issues (thinking about God leading directly into questioning the existence of God). Ephesians 6 contains great advice on the matter.


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## nwink (Mar 28, 2011)

Is John Owen's advice from the work quoted above a good way to deal with these issues? Should we retreat into our own experience of God instead of answering blasphemous thoughts?


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## nwink (Mar 28, 2011)

Thoughts?


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## dudley (Mar 28, 2011)

Nathan ....Excellent post, thank you for sharing this...I will bring this to my next Bible class where the question of Doubt came up and the answer given was doubt is not the opposite of faith......then the minister leading the class said we will take that up on our next session...this is perfect timing...thank you...


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## MW (Mar 28, 2011)

nwink said:


> Is John Owen's advice from the work quoted above a good way to deal with these issues? Should we retreat into our own experience of God instead of answering blasphemous thoughts?


 
It is similar to the question as to the importance of presuppositional apologetics. Satan is using experience of God to undermine the existence of God. That is his modus operandi. Satan himself is a creature and tempts within the limited worldview of created entities. The temptation itself is only valid if the Creator and Sustainer of all things exists. It is that presuppositional experience which Owen is encouraging the believer to meditate on. The evil one does not in reality deny the existence of God; he denies the goodness, righteousness, and sovereignty of God. He denies the world of goodness which God created by focussing on a single tree which God has prohibited. The world of experience is a sufficient refutation for the singular experiences of deprivation.


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## VictorBravo (Mar 29, 2011)

Thank you, Matthew. That is a very insightful point.



nwink said:


> Should we retreat into our own experience of God instead of answering blasphemous thoughts?



I just want to add that Owen is not advising retreat, just as he is not advising advancing engagement with Satan. He is advising just what Paul says in Ephesians 6:16-18 and 1 Thes 5:8, that is, put on the armour God has given you and stand there--firm-- looking to his Word for protection, not to your ability to counter blasphemous thoughts or any sort of argument against God directed to undermine your assurance.

And as a practical help, I can say from personal experience Owen is right on. We can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking "what if I'm wrong about God?", forgetting that this very statement presumes that our thoughts are higher than God's. This is where recollection of Spirit's work in us in the past leads to putting our presumptions in their place. It is not a subjective feel-good sort of recollection, but an objective type: we recall that God has shown us the Truth. That is enough for belief and there is nowhere else to go--no other standard to measure against. That is enough to get the focus back upon God and away from our feeble and sinful thoughts that presume to doubt.

Again, stand firm. Our job is not to wrestle with Satan and his implanted doubts. Our job is to hold fast the faith God has graciously given to us.


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## hrdiaz (Mar 29, 2011)

VictorBravo said:


> It is not a subjective feel-good sort of recollection, but an objective type: we recall that God has shown us the Truth. That is enough for belief and there is nowhere else to go--no other standard to measure against. That is enough to get the focus back upon God and away from our feeble and sinful thoughts that presume to doubt.



Amen.

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69)


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