Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / ‘Help, I’m Struggling to Believe Anything Is True’

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‘Help, I’m Struggling to Believe Anything Is True’ · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast with longtime author and pastor
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  Speaker 1: John piper Well, there is an atheistic tendency within every heart,
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  Speaker 1: my heart, your heart, even your heart. Pastor John, you
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  Speaker 1: said this when we looked at this powerful atheistic tendency
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  Speaker 1: in every human heart about a year ago in APGA
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty, which is a sobering episode, so no surprise.
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  Speaker 1: We frequently get emails from listeners struggling with doubt an unbelief,
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  Speaker 1: like James, a listener who writes us this, Dear Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: I remember listening to your biography of William Cooper some
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  Speaker 1: years ago. It has stayed with me all these years later.
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  Speaker 1: There's something about his dark struggle that, in my own way,
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  Speaker 1: I can relate to. For about ten years now, it
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  Speaker 1: looks as though I've lost my faith, but I haven't
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  Speaker 1: been successful in completely shutting out the nagging questions and doubts.
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  Speaker 1: The struggle appears to be in believing there's a true
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  Speaker 1: narrative of how things are, while also believing that there's
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  Speaker 1: no way of little old me figuring all that out,
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  Speaker 1: especially when the best of the best within various academic
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  Speaker 1: disciplines disagree on these matters. So I find myself in
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  Speaker 1: this agnostic no man's land. It feels like an intellectually
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  Speaker 1: honest position, just not an overly satisfying one. The questions
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  Speaker 1: and doubts remain. So I'm a little struck on how
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  Speaker 1: then to make any progress, and would love to listen
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  Speaker 1: to any advice you might have for me.
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps God will use a few prayerful observations that I
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  Speaker 2: make from Scripture to awaken some new perspective that may
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  Speaker 2: help James get unstuck. So that's my prayer as we begin. James,
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  Speaker 2: you say, for about ten years now it looks as
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  Speaker 2: though I've lost my faith. Now to this, let me
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  Speaker 2: respond with two Peter three, verse seventeen. It says, take
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  Speaker 2: care that you are not carried away with the error
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  Speaker 2: of lawless people and lose your own stability. Now here's
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  Speaker 2: a warning to take care, that is to guard against
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  Speaker 2: and strikingly, the danger is lawlessness leading to deception, leading
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  Speaker 2: to loss of stability, that is loss of faith. It
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  Speaker 2: goes back to lawlessness. What is that a disposition of
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  Speaker 2: heart that chafes under authority and then comes up with
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  Speaker 2: authority denying ideas that don't fit reality. That is, they
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  Speaker 2: are deceptive, And James, you say that you struggle with
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  Speaker 2: quote believing there's a true narrative of how things are.
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  Speaker 2: That's amazing. That is a classic manifestation of lawlessness, doubting
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  Speaker 2: that truth even exists. There is no true narrative. Nothing
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  Speaker 2: can be more lawless than carving out a place to
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  Speaker 2: live where there is no such thing as reality outside
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  Speaker 2: yourself that you have to deal with. You doubt you
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  Speaker 2: say that there is any true narrative of what is
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  Speaker 2: in that world of lawlessness. The ego is totally untethered
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  Speaker 2: from reality. And Peter calls this a great deception, and
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  Speaker 2: he says it's the cause of losing our stability, our faith. Indeed,
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  Speaker 2: what could be more unstable than a world where nothing
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  Speaker 2: is real? There's no true narrative. So consider James, and
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  Speaker 2: be motivated to regain your stability. The writer to the
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  Speaker 2: Hebrews would say to you, here's how you regain your
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  Speaker 2: stability in the fog of lawless deceptions. He says, this
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  Speaker 2: is Chapter twelve, verse three. Consider Jesus, who endured from
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  Speaker 2: sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not
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  Speaker 2: grow weary or fainthearted. It is so easy and dangerous
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  Speaker 2: to become intellectually and spiritually weary, just exhausted at trying
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  Speaker 2: to consider hundreds of ideas that blow like leaves around
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  Speaker 2: our ears and make us feel disoriented and hopeless ever
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  Speaker 2: to regain any stability or faith at all. And Hebrews
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  Speaker 2: pleads with us, consider Jesus, Consider the sufferings of Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: Consider the hostilities against Jesus. Rivet your attention on this.
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  Speaker 2: This is where you can find stability. Jesus authenticates himself
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  Speaker 2: through his sufferings. Then, James, you add this to your
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  Speaker 2: doubt that any true narrative exists. You say, there's no
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  Speaker 2: way of little O Me figuring all that out, especially
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  Speaker 2: when the best of the best within the various academic
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  Speaker 2: disciplines disagree on these matters. And to this I would say,
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  Speaker 2: be careful that, in the name of humility, little O Me,
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  Speaker 2: you don't find yourself actually mocking God. The whole Bible
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  Speaker 2: is predicated on the decision of God, the creator of
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  Speaker 2: the universe, to make himself known to ordinary people to
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  Speaker 2: such a degree that he holds them accountable to be
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  Speaker 2: willing to die for him. So if we say we're
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  Speaker 2: just too little, too insignificant, too confused, too humble to
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  Speaker 2: understand or believe what God has revealed the true narrative
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  Speaker 2: of what is. We have decided that either God made
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  Speaker 2: a bad decision to communicate, or he pulled it off
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  Speaker 2: very poorly. He has not done what he said he
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  Speaker 2: would do, namely, communicate himself compellingly and his salvation to
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  Speaker 2: ordinary people. That's a very dangerous thing to say. It
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  Speaker 2: is an understatement when James describes his position as not
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  Speaker 2: an overly satisfying one. No, indeed, there is unwitting mockery
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  Speaker 2: of God built into it. If the sun is shining
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  Speaker 2: brightly at midday and you see it, and there is
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  Speaker 2: a debate going on around you as to whether the
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  Speaker 2: sun is shining, and these are very smart people compared
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  Speaker 2: to lull you, will you surrender your eyes and your
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  Speaker 2: joy to the debaters? Would you give them that kind
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  Speaker 2: of power over you? To which James might say to me, well,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure that's a fair analogy to say that
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  Speaker 2: I'm looking at the sun when I'm considering the truth
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  Speaker 2: of Christianity. Well, in communicating his truth to ordinary people,
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  Speaker 2: God does hold them accountable not to become philosophers, but
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  Speaker 2: he holds them accountable to see the sun, and if
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  Speaker 2: they don't see it, his explanation is that they're blind,
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  Speaker 2: and the solution he offers is precisely a sight of
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  Speaker 2: the sun. Here's what he says in Sewo Corinthians, Chapter four,
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  Speaker 2: verse four. The God of this world, that is Satan,
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  Speaker 2: has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them
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  Speaker 2: from seeing the light of the Gospel of the Glory
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  Speaker 2: of Christ, who is the image of God. And I
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  Speaker 2: would dare anyone to claim that the light of the
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  Speaker 2: Gospel of the glory of the Son of God is
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  Speaker 2: less compelling than the sun shining at midday. Then Paul adds,
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  Speaker 2: God who said let light shine out of darkness, has
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  Speaker 2: shone in our hearts to give the light of the
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  Speaker 2: knowledge of the Glory of God in the faith of
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  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. How bright is that? Well, here's what the
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  Speaker 2: apostle John says. His face was like the sun shining
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  Speaker 2: in full strength. Revelation one sixteen. James, God is pursuing you.
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  Speaker 2: You would not have written to me if he were
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  Speaker 2: not so, as you seek him in fresh ways. Now
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  Speaker 2: consider one last exhortation from the Lord Jesus in John
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  Speaker 2: seven seventeen. If anyone's will is to do God's will,
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  Speaker 2: he will know. He will know whether the teaching is
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  Speaker 2: from God. In other words, he will see the song.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, James, God is pursuing you. The hound of heaven
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  Speaker 1: is that your ankles. Thank Pastor John and thanks for
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  Speaker 1: joining us today. If you have a question to ask
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, even a question about doubts and darkness that
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  Speaker 1: you face, you can find a link to email us,
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  Speaker 1: along with finding our complete episode archive at askpastor John
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  Speaker 1: dot com of many episodes on this theme in the past.
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  Speaker 1: Every single episode that we've done has audio full transcript
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  Speaker 1: with it, and there you can find that APJA episode
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  Speaker 1: on that powerful atheistic tendency in every Human Heart. Search
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  Speaker 1: for nineteen eighty the episode number nineteen eighty. You'll find
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  Speaker 1: it at askpastor John dot com. Thursday is Thanksgiving here
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  Speaker 1: in the States. For us, there's a lot to say
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  Speaker 1: about Thanksgiving from the Bible. I'm looking forward to the day.
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  Speaker 1: A Thanksgiving Day meditation from Pastor John. That's up next time.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Rinky. See you on Thursday.