{"id":49924,"date":"2001-03-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-03-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/secondhand-doubters\/"},"modified":"2001-03-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2001-03-19T00:00:00","slug":"secondhand-doubters","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/secondhand-doubters\/","title":{"rendered":"Secondhand Doubters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We hear so much criticism from skeptics about what they often brand as &quot;secondhand faith.&quot; It is implied that many people believe in God only because of the context of their birth or family or determined conditions.<\/p>\n\n<p>If the criticism is justified, and undoubtedly it sometimes is, why do we not show the same distrust of secondhand doubt? If it is possible for a person&#39;s belief to be merely an echo of someone else&#39;s faith, are there not hypocrites in doubt also?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3450,3827,4205,4992],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-49924","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-doubt","tax_ctp_tags-ideologies-belief-systems","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Secondhand Doubters - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/secondhand-doubters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Secondhand Doubters - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We hear so much criticism from skeptics about what they often brand as &quot;secondhand faith.&quot; It is implied that many people believe in God only because of the context of their birth or family or determined conditions. 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