Not sure if you believe the Bible or everything you’ve been told? Starting to question things?

You’ve come to the right place! Here are some resources for handling doubt, no shame involved.

Embracing Doubt: The Journey to Resurrection Faith

This is a summary generated by AI of a Sunday message from our Asking for a Friend series about doubt, church trauma, and the in-between. You can also find the audio recording of the message itself, called “Why the Resurrection of Jesus Matters.”

On Easter Sunday 2025, Pastor Phillip Santillan opens Asking for a Friend, a series about doubt, church trauma and everything in between, by reading John 20 together. The resurrection story has two sides, he says: Jesus is alive and has defeated death, and doubt and skepticism have always come before belief. Weeping Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize Jesus until he speaks her name. Grief and hurt, especially hurt caused by people who claim to follow Jesus, can make him hard to see. Thomas vows never to believe, yet Jesus invites him without shame to touch his wounds, and Thomas answers, “My Lord and my God.” Real faith, Phil says, is not blind certainty but “the direction you’re walking, even if the road is somewhat foggy.” Studying Scripture in real community shows that doubt does not disqualify anyone. He closes with his reasons for faith: reasonable historical evidence for the resurrection, and the good news that Jesus freely forgives sin.

Matthew 11:1-15 – “How Jesus Meets Our Doubts”

This is an episode of our podcast recorded from a Sunday morning message in our series on the Book of Matthew. Give it a listen!

Returning to the Gospel of Matthew, Pastor Phillip Santillan looks at John the Baptist’s crisis of faith (Matthew 11:1–15). Most people wrestle with faith at some point, he says, and honest questions are not a sign of weak faith. John had baptized Jesus, yet from prison he sends his disciples to ask whether Jesus is really the one, because Jesus is showing mercy and grace rather than the judgment John expected. Instead of retreating, John brings his doubt to Jesus, since “faith is choosing to trust in the midst of uncertainty.” Jesus doesn’t condemn him. He points to the evidence, the blind seeing and the dead raised, and affirms John to the crowds as more than a prophet. Matthew even records that some disciples doubted while looking at the risen Jesus, who still came near and sent them out. Jesus isn’t threatened by our doubt, Phil says, and he urges listeners to meet others’ doubts with encouragement, not shame.

Believe: When Jesus Meets Us in Our Doubts

This is a recording of our Easter Sunday 2022 message. Check it out!

On Easter Sunday 2022, Pastor Phillip Santillan challenges a common myth: that faith means blind belief and certainty. That view makes doubt the opposite of faith and leads people to seek only evidence for what they already believe. Biblical faith is about relationship, not measurement: committing to a course of action with a reasonable amount of trust, the way couples marry without knowing the future. So Phil urges listeners to lean into their doubts and ask questions. To friends who reject God as they picture him, he says, “I don’t believe in that God either.” Jesus answers the real question, what God is like: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He shares why he trusts Jesus: reasonable evidence for the resurrection, including the eyewitnesses Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 15, and Jesus’ free forgiveness of sins. God is not rattled by our questions, Phil says, inviting everyone to keep seeking clarity on who Christ is.

Why Doubt is Expected and Required

This is a recording of an Easter Sunday message that began a series on doubt. Check it out!

On Easter Sunday, Pastor Phillip Santillan launches a series on doubt in the Christian life, arguing that doubts do not disqualify anyone from following Jesus. Reading John 20 together, he points out two sides of the resurrection story: Jesus is alive and has defeated death, and doubt and skepticism have always come before belief. Grieving Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize Jesus at first, and Thomas refuses to believe until Jesus invites him to touch his wounds. Phil warns that treating faith as certainty leaves us wanting God to agree with us rather than change us. Over the coming weeks he invites listeners to lean into their doubts, ask questions and gain clarity on who Jesus is. He trusts Jesus because of reasonable evidence for the resurrection and the free forgiveness of sins, though he admits he still has questions. As he puts it, “The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is inaction.”

God’s Love Overcomes Our Doubts

This is a message from our 2019 series Better: Jesus is Greater. Listen to it here!

In the second message of the Better: Jesus is Greater series, Jeff Varughese, one of Clarity’s community leaders, follows Abraham’s story to Genesis 22:1–14 to show how God’s love overcomes our doubts. Doubt usually begins as doubting God’s provision, Jeff says, and ends as doubting his love. When Abram voices his doubt in Genesis 15, God doesn’t scold him but reassures him like a loving father, so we never have to be ashamed of our doubts. Our culture trains us to see ourselves as the hero of our own story, but God will not play a supporting role. “When it comes to your story, who is holding the pen?” Jeff asks. On the mountain, a ram caught in a thicket takes Isaac’s place, and God the Father later gives his own Son, crowned with thorns, in ours. Jeff closes by urging listeners to talk honestly with God about their doubts, share them with their community and cling to the cross.