Latest / Homeschool Insights - Biblical Home Education Inspiration in Under 10 Minutes! / Chuck Black Doubted His Faith for 14 Years—Here’s What Changed - Chuck Black
Transcript
- speaker-0: As he was speaking, I I just thought, man, I I knew in my heart that that just wasn't true. And so I walked out of there and my doubt just kinda e exponentially increased to the point where I feel like I was really in a in a precarious state spiritually. speaker-1: Talk about dealing with doubt in our kids. It's another topic that causes parents to kind of get that feeling in their tummy. Like I my kids would never, or I don't think that my, you know, it freaks us out. ⁓ and really how we can help strengthen their walk. ⁓ yes, it produces fear when our kids start to doubt the truth, but we're gonna give you hope in this episode and we're gonna give you some tools in in how to deal with it as we pour into them. So, Chuck, you come to this conversation with a story of doubt. ⁓ in your life that what you that you went through kind of for your own season and actually it was kind of a long season, right? will you share a little bit about what triggered the doubt, how long that season was, how old you were, ⁓ and really what brought you out of it and and how did it shape you along the way? speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. ⁓ yeah. So, you know, last week we talked about spiritual warfare and got into apologetics a little bit. All of this kind of wraps in ⁓ and is there's a lot of overlap because there's a lot of it's tied together. For for me, ⁓ I was a a young guy, just ⁓ very excited about math and science. I just ⁓ I was born to be an engineer. It's just the way ⁓ the way I was ⁓ wired. And so but I I found my worlds colliding. At at about 13, I was at a I was in an evangelical Lutheran church and going through a confirmation process and ⁓ I was really starting to struggle because I was in a secular school but going to a Christian ⁓ church teaching the Bible and I I saw such a ⁓ an incompatibility between those philosophies and I I I finally came to the conclusion ⁓ that one or both of them had to be false. Both of them couldn't be true. So and how did I know? Because You know, I I I go to the school and and the science had a lot of evidence, you know, quote unquote evidence. And so ⁓ really struggling with that. And yet I I I couldn't see, you know, Noah's Ark and I and I couldn't see the miracles of ⁓ you know, three young guys getting thrown into the fiery furnace and and surviving that. And so I I really started to struggle with that. ⁓ were these just stories, were these just fantasy tales that were being told? ⁓ and so just before I was gonna get confirmed, the pastor called me into his office and said, Hey Before we confirm you, we just I just wanna give you a chance to ask any questions you might have. And as the doubt continued to become ⁓ s serious and problematic for me, I boiled it all down to to one question. And I thought, well, if the pastor can answer this one question for me, then then maybe I can resolve this. And ⁓ I I I asked I asked him, Well, Pastor, I do have one question and it is, how do the dinosaurs fit in with the Bible? ⁓ because I'd go to the museums and I'd see these massive fossils of Tyran Tyrannosaurus were extant. I these creatures actually existed. They roamed the earth. There's just no denying it. The evidence is right here. I can touch and feel it and see it. ⁓ and the pastor didn't really have all the resources back then, you know, that we have today. And he gave me a a pretty pithy answer. You know, he he said, Well, we think that between verses one and two it says the earth was void and without form, that maybe that the dinosaurs roamed and there was millions and millions of years for All of this happened and then finally, you know, at some point God created Adam and Eve and that's when Genesis, you know, you know, three on kicks in. And and as he was speaking, I I just thought, man, I I knew in my heart that that just wasn't true. It just it felt like a a a really pithy answer to a really hard question. And so I walked out of there and my doubt just kind of e exponentially increased to the point where I I didn't I I'm very grateful I didn't walk away from the Lord after that. ⁓ But I feel like I was really in a in a precarious state spiritually. Like at any moment, ⁓ if the wrong person had come along, ⁓ I I could I could have been my faith could have been completely stripped away. But what it did do to me is it muzzled me. I I I didn't dare speak boldly about Christ or the Bible because what if they asked me that question? I'd look like an idiot, you know, I'd look like a fool. And so I I was really, really quiet about my faith. and yet there was something, you know, the the Lord was still holding me and preserving me. ⁓ for about fourteen years. And so, you know, fast forward I I I go go through college, go to the Air Force, ⁓ I'm through my first career, enter my second career as a fighter pilot. And ⁓ I was I was supposed to be going to Desert Storm, but my training got delayed. So instead they sent me to Squadron Officer School. ⁓ so I'm twenty eight years old now and ⁓ I'm in Montgomery, Alabama and ⁓ my first my first night there at ⁓ Squadron Officer school I get a knock on my door and ⁓ th th this Fellow captain all of a sudden steps into my room and he's just got this exuberant expression ⁓ and and and presence about him. And and there was there was something I I immediat immediately recognized something in him that I didn't have. And that was this this joy and this confidence in the Lord. And ⁓ he was just gregarious and fun. And as we're talking, his conversation quickly turned to the Lord. And so it was evident that that he, you know, he was just is Christ was just bubbling out of him. And and as he was speaking, the whisper of God. you know, came to me into my heart. And it was like, Hey, Chuck, ask Johnny that question. And I hadn't I hadn't really considered this for 14 years, but there it was still lingering. And so as as Johnny took a breath, I said, Hey Johnny, I got to ask you a question. ⁓ how do the dinosaurs fit in with the Bible? You know, and I expected that same pithy answer. And that is not what I got. ⁓ he he got so excited. His eyes opened wider and his smile got bigger and he said, Well, where's your Bible? And I I showed my Bible and he says, Well let me show you. I'm like, What? You you're gonna show me in the Bible? And so he takes me to, you know, Beamoth and Leviathan and he starts to he starts to explain, you know, how the flood colossally colossally changed this, you know, the landscape and the geography and the climate and the biology of the planet. And it just as he was speaking and just it was just the most surreal peace came over my heart. And for the first time in my life, I knew that what was being taught and and told was truth and it aligned with scripture and and I could hold my Bible for the first time. with utter confidence and know that that everything God wrote was as was absolute truth. And and it it it completely I I spent the next seven weeks being discipled by Johnny and ⁓ and it completely removed the muzzle because I was able to go back to my squadron and start to boldly s share Christ with my fellow pilots. And so it just it just really was a a a rebirth of my faith in in the most a dramatic way. And it and honestly it it it changed how I approached my marriage and my children and my my role as a spiritual leader and the whole it just transformed everything. So wow ⁓ I guess my message to parents is ⁓ you know, be diligent about about finding where your your children have doubt because ⁓ don't let them linger for fourteen years ⁓ in in a in a shallow faith. speaker-2: This episode of Homeschool Insights is brought to you by BJU Press Homeschool, CTC Math, and the Explorer Bible for Kids. Visit the show notes to learn more about these excellent resources. And for more encouragement, listen to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast at Schoolhouseroct.com.