SOME BACKGROUND

This article (and much of what you will read in the future from Against Doubt) was carefully pre-written long before you’re seeing it. It has already been polished, proofread, and put on an auto-timer to release by itself. At this moment, the future me is probably scrambling around on my college campus trying to finish work.

When I first created Against Doubt, I was averaging about 2-3 hours of sleep per night. The daily pressures of exams, labs, homework, major projects, volunteering, and extracurricular activities were thrown at us science students in a never-ending barrage. The busyness has not ceased, and likely never will, which is why I covet your prayers and value your support.

One thing I’ve learned in all the craziness, however, is that God will give strength and joy to those who faithfully serve him. I may not have the luxury of doing full-time ministry unimpeded, but those times when I do get to write for Against Doubt are as spiritually refreshing to me as the times when I pray, take in something new from the Bible, or serve in my home church.

That being said, we’re taking a new direction with Against Doubt, one that I think will help provide richer and steadier content while accommodating our schedules. Let me give you snapshots of a few key moments that helped shape this future direction.

GOING MONTHLY

“Are you sure you’ll be able to write an article a week?” one of my close friends emailed me during the inception of Against Doubt. To which I basically said: “Sure.”

Well, that was an overestimation on my part. Doing article research every week on top of the academic madness is not an option at this point, and it often left our team drained and gasping for breath.

So we’re switching to a monthly schedule. Instead of releasing one article a week for a period of time, stopping to take a break, and then continuing the cycle, we believe that releasing one article a month will be a sustainable method to ensure that richer and more in-depth content is published here. Essentially, it will allow us to continue in ministry faithfully amidst our busy schedules and allow you to truly grow in your faith.

(The only exception will be the first article in this series, released this month shortly after this opening article is published.)

BECOMING MORE RELEVANT

In the spring of this year, our team had a quick huddle and discussed how we could make Against Doubt more unique. I felt that there was already so much incredible apologetics-based literature online, and I didn’t want to waste time republishing information that is already known.

Furthermore, some of our readers have said that they don’t struggle as much with doubt as they do with how to live the Christian life. How could we help with that in a unique way?

At one point, there was a phone call with a close Christian friend who said: “Don’t focus on being unique. Focus on being faithful.” While this was helpful, I still needed clarity. I had a few more chats with the team, but we decided to leave things in God’s hands.

THE ANSWER

Then came this summer. I was reading through the book of Mark for my devotions, and it hit me: why not explore the person of Jesus as seen in Mark, the Gospel considered to be the earliest by most scholars? Countless Christians today have a warped perception of who Jesus is. This often forms the basis for faulty theology, church splits, anger against fellow believers, and lack of Christlikeness. As a result, many Christians are called hypocrites and liars.

In many ways, studying the person of Jesus is the most pure form of apologetics. If we can have confidence about what Jesus stood for and practiced, we can defend our faith like never before, because he is the center of our faith.

I pray that our journey through Mark will be insightful and helpful both to doubters and strong Christians alike. Personally, I am as excited as I’ve ever been to continue on this journey, and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in the years to come. And as we study our Savior this fall, let us remember that it is through him that we truly can conquer doubt.

Welcome to the third season.