{"id":62430,"date":"2026-09-06T13:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kernbeisser.ch\/?p=62430"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T16:00:26","slug":"doubt-is-part-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kernbeisser.ch\/en\/doubt-is-part-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubt is part of faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”197607″]Anyone who is entirely certain in their convictions may not be doubting enough. That is a bold claim for people who equate faith with certainty. Yet that is precisely what happens in many communities. [\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”645608″]Are faith and certainty the same thing? Is faith only \u201ctrue\u201d when it radiates unshakeable certainty? This is not a minor question, because although one can be certain in one’s convictions, faith and certainty are two entirely different things.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h3″ text_size=”h3″ uncode_shortcode_id=”956503″]Whoever trusts, believes [\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”657819″]What we believe is a construct, an idea. Such an idea can be accepted or rejected for oneself. Everyone colors this judgment with whatever palette they have available. So what we believe in detail is probably different for each person. We may agree in broad strokes with others in our faith community, but that is far from meaning that everyone believes, feels, or understands the same thing.<\/p>\n

Faith is neither knowledge nor certainty but essentially trust. Faith does not stand for things that are \u201ctrue\u201d, any more than unbelief can be linked to \u201cuntrue\u201d. Even if these occasionally overlap, that does not establish that they are the same in essence.<\/p>\n

Trust and faith are not convictions but ways of living. It is more about an act of trusting and believing than a list of convictions one would have to affirm. Whoever trusts aligns their heart. That is the essence of trust. In the languages of the Bible there are no separate words for \u201cto trust\u201d and \u201cto believe\u201d. They are one and the same. Someone who hesitates at the idea of \u201cbelieving in God\u201d, but can say without difficulty that they have \u201ctrust in God\u201d, has grasped what matters.<\/p>\n

A reluctance to say one \u201cbelieves\u201d something may then be aimed at a particular form of faith convictions. Perhaps one has seen or experienced it somewhere, in a way one cannot claim for oneself. The rejection or caution then applies to a culture or a conception, not to faith itself.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h3″ text_size=”h3″ uncode_shortcode_id=”351225″]Faith is not the same as certainty [\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”171532″]In communities and personal conversations, I have repeatedly heard how people experience \u201ccertainty\u201d in faith. They even point to a Bible verse:<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith is (the confident) acceptance (of what one) awaits, (a) conviction (of) facts that (one) does not see.\u201d<\/em>
\nHeb 11:1<\/p>\n

Faith is an acceptance. That is certainly true. Being able to accept something is a human capacity. What matters, though, is what follows from it. It is an acceptance of what one awaits, a conviction of facts one does not see. Faith, then, has to do with expectation, encouragement, and reassurance, and that speaks of things still to come. This expectation does not build faith on visible things but on things one does not see. We do this every day, with or without faith convictions. Here, though, the concern is with acceptances mentioned in the testimony of the Bible. Expectation, encouragement, and reassurance are human responses, and they show what living faith can lead to. Faith \u201cgives wings\u201d.<\/p>\n

Are you looking for a description of how faith works in life? Then perhaps this: faith is the confident acceptance of what one awaits, an inner certainty of that expectation, drawn not from visible things but from encouragement. Faith is human, but it can be touched and aligned, for instance, by good news (gospel). People believe in many ways, experiencing and practicing this in everyday things, but the same capacity can also lead to trust in God.<\/p>\n

Faith, then, is not certainty, even though many people confuse faith with it. Faith is an acceptance. It is something one takes as a starting point for thinking and for everyday life. Believing, if we draw this further from the verse, is a conviction of unseen things. If we think, for instance, of terms like \u201cconfidence\u201d or \u201cspiritual horizon\u201d, these arise as faith convictions through what one hears, not through what one sees.<\/p>\n

Faith is powerful because it gives confidence. With confidence comes an alignment of the mind. This alignment is carried by a confidence that can also be felt. The breath grows calmer, the spirit settles, because one looks ahead with confidence. Faith has this power not because it concerns visible things, but because it draws encouragement from things unseen.
\nConsider, for instance, the words of Jesus:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.\u201d<\/em>
\nMatt 6:19-21<\/p>\n

Faith is the alignment of the heart, the reassured development of trust.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h3″ text_size=”h3″ uncode_shortcode_id=”475109″]Faith speaks of development [\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”158741″]Words can move us. Faith comes through proclamation, Paul wrote to the Romans (Rom 10:17). That is undoubtedly the point: words touch us and inspire trust. The word \u201cinspire\u201d is a deliberate choice here, because in the same letter to the Romans the apostle writes that \u201cGod’s Spirit testifies with our spirit\u201d (Rom 8:16).<\/p>\n

Elsewhere Paul testifies that \u201call Scripture is God-breathed\u201d (2 Tim 3:16), that is, carried by God’s Spirit. This is not explained any further, except in its effect. The words of the Bible have this quality, as many Christians attest. It is often assumed that Paul is\u00a0 referring to the Bible as we know it today. He was not, of course, because that Bible did not yet exist. When Paul spoke of \u201call Scripture\u201d, he meant the writings known to him, not, say, his own letters (!).<\/p>\n

Here is the connection within this experience, which can be viewed from different angles:<\/p>\n