Even when the disciples still lived doubt was present, and people could not accept that what they were being told could be real. Yet the Bible does not avoid speaking of these facts and makes it known that people did question, that people did doubt.
2 Peter 1: 16 – For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes 17 when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” 18 We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
1 Corinthians 15:3 – I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church.
Here are important points that must be made.
Christ resurrected was seen by Peter then by the Twelve.
Christ resurrected was seen by more than 500 people at one time.
Christ resurrected was seen by James his half-brother, whose mother and father were Mary and Joseph. Someone who knew Him all His life and had rejected Him as Christ until this encounter.
Christ resurrected was seen by someone that despised them and he became known as Paul.
As for his brother James. He is mentioned in a non-Biblical history. In fact the history was written by Flavius Josephus. The mention of James is in “Antiquities of the Jews” book 20, chapter 9 and states this:
“Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done”
There is also mention of John the Baptist and Jesus by Josephs, but due to doubt many choose to not call them credible especially the direct reference to Jesus because that mentions his resurrection.
“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” Antiquities of the Jews Book 18, chapter 3.
Yet doubt is the problem with Christianity today. We are seventeen year from the anniversary of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Two thousand years of doubt, yet at the same time two thousand years in which people still say they belief in these very statements. Nothing can truly compare in recorded history or even in religion to these statements. Yet as we see above it is not just recorded in the Bible, but its very existence is mentioned in non-religious history.
So why is there doubt? Because without doubt people cannot justify their actions if it is without doubt. They use the doubt as a scapegoat which allows them to live in sin to their pleasure and enjoyment. For without doubt they must accept responsibility for their sins and since they do not wish to leave their sins behind doubt is their only refuge for the truth. The truth that tells them that if they live in sin they are destine to a pit of fire.
So they must doubt. They must question, because they fear that the truth is all too real and will lead to damnation. That is why there is “doubt.”