Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 7
For “volitional doubt,” he tells the Paul Little story where a student refused belief because “belief in Jesus would mess up the way that he’s living”; what desires for independence or control in your life would become threatened if Jesus’ lordship were taken seriously in specific areas (money, sexuality, conflict, vocation, enemy-love)?
Another way to ask: If you took Jesus as Lord seriously, what parts of your life would be hardest to surrender (money, sex, relationships, career, loving enemies)? What desire for control does that reveal?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, volitional doubt isn’t mainly about lacking evidence but about a will that wants independence from God; Jesus’ lordship threatens self-rule. The transcript pushes us to ask whether our resistance to belief is really about facts or about protecting a preferred way of living.
- “Volitional doubt arises from the will… a desire to be independent of God.”
- He says some admit “no amount of evidence will persuade them,” because the doubt comes from a “stubborn, rebellious will.”
- He describes the person who wants to be “totally self-sufficient and autonomous” and will “doubt God regardless of the evidence.”
- Paul Little story: the student said his intellectual questions were answered, but refused because belief “would mess up the way that he’s living.”
- The refusal had “no good reason except personal preference.”
- He ties genuine faith to “submission to Jesus’s lordship,” meaning placing oneself “under that authority.”