Barnabas Piper - Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith

.Barnabas Piper, The Pastors Kid: Finding Your Own Faith and Identity (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2014).

.John 3:16.

.Revelation 21:4.

.Mark 9:2027.

.In the famous 1973 film The Exorcist , Linda Blairs character, Regan, is possessed by a demon. During one iconic scene she vomits out a disgusting substance. In reality the discharge was made of pea soup and oatmeal.

.Robert Farrar Capon, Hunting the Divine Fox , in The Romance of the Word: One Mans Love Affair with Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 250.

.Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason , trans. Max Mueller (New York: Doubleday, 1966), xxxix.

.Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Mariner, 2008), 77.

.For a helpful and accessible exploration of asking well, read Matthew Lee Andersons The End of Our Exploring: A Book about Questioning and the Confidence of Faith (Chicago: Moody, 2013).

.Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life under Christs Control (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2006), 6162.

.Luke 22:42 NIV .

.Mark 15:34 NIV .

.Matthew 19:1622.

.The five solas are the defining doctrines of Protestant Christianity as developed in the Reformation, the churchs revival during the 1400s and 1500s. They are Latin phrases explaining key doctrines: sola fide (by faith alone), sola gratia (by grace alone), solus Christus (through Christ alone), sola Scriptura (in Scripture alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). They were created specifically to address Roman Catholic practices and theology, such as reward and merit, the sacrament of holy orders (unique rights and privileges of the clergy), and apostolic succession, including the infallibility and position of the pope.

.For a helpful look at demonic activity and how Christians should interact with it, read Mark Bubecks The Adversary: The Christian versus Demon Activity (Chicago: Moody, 2013).

.Thomas Fuller, quoted in Bob Kelly, ed., Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2003), 27.

.Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends radio broadcast, Joni and Friends ministry, date unknown.

.Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Mystery of Life, in Riverside Sermons (New York: Harper, 1958), 22.

.Tracy M. Sumner, ed., Faith, in The Essential Works of Andrew Murray: 12 Complete Books Covering the Entire Christian Life (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour, 2008), ebook.

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.Deism is a belief system dating back to the seventeenth century that states there is a supreme deity who created the world and should be worshipped but who does not interfere in the doings of the world. Deism developed primarily out of the dissatisfaction people felt with organized religion and the failures of the church.

.Isaiah 45:7.

.For a fantastic explanation of worldviews, God, and suffering, read Tim Kellers Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (New York: Dutton, 2013). The book offers a more philosophically detailed explanation of different views and how each fails to represent rightly God and a good answer for suffering.

.Job 38:112.

.Job 40:4 NIV .

.Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity (n.p.: Indo-European Publishing, 2014), 95.

.Psalm 136:19.

.Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality , ed. Maudemarie Clark and Brian Leiter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 52.

.Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology , vol. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975), 116.

.Sren Kierkegaard, paraphrased in Donald D. Palmer, Kierkegaard for Beginners (Danbury, CT: For Beginners Books, 1996), 54.

.Matthew 23:27.

.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 285.

.Sren Kierkegaard, quoted in The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations: Over 6,000 Quotations Arranged by Theme , comp. Martin H. Manser (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 261.

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.C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 14748.

.Genesis 15:6 NIV .

.Genesis 22:8 NIV .

.Genesis 22:12 NIV .

. Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (London: Routledge, 1897), 502.

.Madeleine LEngle, A Wind in the Door (New York: Square Fish, 2007), 153.

.Revelation 21:35 NIV .

.Lewis, Mere Christianity , 137.

.1 Corinthians 3:6.

.For a fantastic explanation of God as the Trinity and why it is so important to the Christian faith, read Fred Sanderss The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010).

.James L. Snyder, comp. and ed., The Blessed Hope and the Curse of Curiosity in A. W. Tozer: Preparing for Jesus Return: Daily Live the Blessed Hope (Bloomington, MN: Bethany, 2012), ebook.

.A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Rockville, MD: Serenity, 2009), 16.

.Hebrews 4:12.

.John 3:8 NIV .

.Matthew 18:3.

.Psalm 139:6 NIV .

.Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (New York: Dutton, 2014), 114. The Peter L. Berger quotes are from The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York: Anchor, 1967), 7475.

.Keller, Walking , 121.

.Hebrews 7:25 NIV .

.From a sermon preached by Art Azurdia as heard on Beautiful Eulogys Blessed Are the Merciful, Instruments of Mercy 2013 Humble Beast.

.Daniel Taylor, In Praise of Stories, in The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing , rev. ed., ed. Leland Ryken (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2008), 410.