Stephen Whitsett
Student Amridge University, Montgomery, AL
ABSTRACT
If the end result of Deconstruction is the destruction of a Christian world view and the abandonment of the Christian faith by a single individual then the process has in inherent flaw. The goal for deconstruction by many people is to examine what they have been taught verses what they believe the Bible teaches. The process is a subjective mental exercise where a negative element is encapsulated in the thought process that actually leaves a person vulnerable to deception. This article will deconstruct the thought process that leads to the vulnerability of misinformation and the misconception that somehow the Christian faith is exhausting and give an answer why deconstruction is not a biblical concept or endeavor that enhances one’s faith but is a deliberate attempt to justify the “giving up” of trying to live by works and not by faith. The deconstructionist never grasps the concept of what they are trying to give up is the misperception of truth where they now exchange the lie for another lie and somehow perceive their endeavors as noble.
Keywords: Deconstruction,Christian world view, Atheism, Theism, Adam, and Eve,
- INTRODUCTION
In this essay I will walk through the basic pattern of deconstructionism and why such a thought process is actually not a reasonable questioning of what one believes about God but a mental gymnastic to explain away the need to believe in God in order to justify the relinquishment of feelings of guilt for not living up to a preconceived expectation of behavior that was never biblical in the first place. Guilt and condemnation are arbitrarily self-imposed ideals on the believer’s thought process when a person has become convinced that the Christian life is based on performance and not relationship. When a person seeks to silence personal guilt in the process, they fall into the trap of self-deception thinking that the denial of Christ’s death on the Cross for their sins is the easier way to live a life of sin. For the deconstructionist, the struggle was never about the difference between right and wrong but the ability to justify wrong behavior in such a way that appeases the conscience but eventually discovering that no amount of mental gymnastics can ever free a person from what does not exist in the first place.
I will first examine Eve’s fall from grace in the garden as a backdrop for understanding the deconstruction process and why the process was initiated in the first place. The final phase is an acceptance of a lie in exchange for a truth. Secondly I will explore the fallout and the fruit it produces in the once self-proclaimed Christian. Thirdly I will explore the elements and steps necessary to bring balance back to Christianity that actually restores true freedom
To begin with I will post the initial statement made by someone who has fallen under the spell of Deconstructionism. This is not meant to be a word for word refutation but an explanation of where, what, and how things went wrong.
Something that needs to be talked about more is how exhausting Christianity is. Weighing every single decision against the bible and if it’s “god’s plan” even small and arbitrary things, worrying if this show/movie/game/etc is okay or if it has just one too many swear words or gay characters, will other Christians judge me for enjoying said show/movie/whatever, the mental gymnastics when bible and the real world aren’t lining up together, guilt for having natural human thoughts and desires, and so much more… Deconstructing and ultimately leaving Christianity has made things so much easier for me. atheism suits me.
- my post might have made it sound like I’m ditching my faith because it’s exhausting or because of the Christians that act horribly. That played a big role in starting me off deconstructing but it’s not why I’ve decided to leave Christianity. I left because once I started asking questions, even of the most basic elements of it, the parts that I always just assumed were true, grew up hearing all the time, it seemed to all fall apart. it’s a long story, maybe I’ll tell it sometime. took me years to sift through 30 years of belief.
- I’m not fully ruling out that there could be a god or gods, but I don’t believe the god of the bible is one of them and I’d need some pretty undeniable evidence before I start having faith in any god again.
(Faith is believing in something in which there is no “evidence” for.)
- Also, I know everyone’s reaction when talking about leaving is to assume the person leaving is in a worse place than they were when they were religious. That’s not the case with me I assure you all. I’m happy, I’m healthy, I still live a moral principled life, I don’t hate anyone for believing in god still.
(Putting blinders over your own eyes does not undo what you already know. Blind people walk into ditches and declare how happy they are so yes they are in a worse place and denying it doesn’t make it true.)
- EVE’S FALL FROM GRACE
In the beginning Adam and Eve enjoyed a relationship with God that was free from the struggle of right and wrong, or good and evil. They dwelt in the presence of God with out worry if what they were doing was right or wrong, if they were doing enough to please him or even struggled with impure thoughts as they were both naked and unashamed.
Until that day when a so called “created” being that was “good” appeared before Eve and started the questioning process. Eve had no inclination that the serpent was anything else but an extension of all the Good that God had created in the garden. Eve’s desire was to obey God and follow his dictates as her husband had been given the command to not eat of the tree of good and evil. It was the serpent, invaded by the evil of Satan, where Satan presented himself as the “angel of light” and in that manner questioned Eve about what she believed.
“Did God say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Did God ask you to question what he said?, “what your parents have taught you all your life about what the Bible teaches is it really true?”
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
Who was guilty of placing upon themselves restrictions of what God never said?
What did God say to Adam?
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
“No, God never sad you couldn’t touch it.
Eve was simply adding her own thoughts of what she believed was being Holy but that was not the question that Satan addressed or the point of attack
Satan: “You will not surely die.”
But God said I would die if I ate of it, not because I touched it.
Satan: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Doubt enters the mind. Justification is produced.
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,”
TRUTH: But God had said as her husband had told her, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.”
Let me now make several observation from this very simple dialogue. Questioning is not wrong in itself but questioning what has been told to you as truth leads to the doubting process. Did your parents deliberately lie to you? Was their intention to mislead you? Were they just repeating things in ignorance themselves? Were they seeking to inhibit your fun or take away the joy of your life by what they taught you? At what point did you go to your parents (Pastor) and question them about your doubts?
Jesus in the wilderness temptation was asked by Satan; “Did God say!” That line of attacked has not changed in 2000 years.
- Bible verses the World
God Said, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Satan: “Did God say that?”
The World “He never said a thing about Homosexuality in the NT”
Paul did in Rom 1., “the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men.”
– or the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality,
– or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality
– Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities near them, which like them committed sexual sins and pursued homosexual activities, serve as an example of the punishment of eternal fire.
The world says, “But that word, doesn’t mean Homosexual…?
arsenokoites: a male engaging in same-gender sexual activity – from /árrhēn, “a male” and /koítē, “a mat, bed” – properly, a man in bed with another man; a homosexual.
So yes someone lied to you about the word.
Satan: “Well that just an OT law, are we not supposed to eat shellfish or wear two different clothes at the same time, those are just old-fashioned outdated laws that don’t apply to us anymore.”
In the same chapter, “And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.”
So I suppose since it’s an old-fashioned outdated law it’s okay if we sleep with animals.
Moses also stated, “Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.”
So, I suppose since it’s an old-fashioned outdated law it’s okay if I sleep with my sister, or mother.
Romans 1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
So, the Bible and the real world aren’t lining up together because the “real” world is run by a lie. There is no god that I should be accountable to him. I can lie to myself and say that I am happier, and healthier and pretend there is no God and in the process spit on everything my parents ever stood for but the reality?
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Pretending there is another God, but the God of the Bible doesn’t exist is simply the most insane thing any person can say. Somehow appealing to this other God, you invented in your own mind (pretending this other God is actually real) will justify your life of rejecting the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will save you in the afterlife is much like popping a hole in the only life raft you have in the middle of the ocean surrounded by sharks. Sink or swim baby, sink or swim.
Maybe the real issue is that many people do not know the word of God. Their Bible is a good book that they take with them to church but otherwise sits on the corner table collecting dust. We are not simply weighing what the bible says against what we struggle with, the issue is one of a heart issue.
Relationship with God is not based on right and wrong but in relationship. When you disobeyed your parents were you automatically cut off and no longer their son or daughter? They corrected you and sought to restore the relationship with you even though YOU violated their trust. The single law or commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and then your neighbor as yourself. Parents make laws to protect their children from being hurt.
Children need laws.
Adults do not. Adults listen to the voice of reason that guides them not a list of rules. They have learned to listen to the wisdom of their “grandparents” because it will not lead them to harm.
So which is the worse sin: Murder or stealing a pack of gum from the store?
Neither.
It wasn’t the law of “Thall shall not murder, or “Thall shall not steal” that you broke but the law of love. In both instances you failed to demonstrate love, to treat your neighbor as you would yourself which God said was the primary law, you violated the law of love and therefore they are both equal in the eyes of God. I don’t ask myself whether something is wrong or right as to where I go, what I watch, I don’t measure it against the “plan for my life.” Or do I worry about the judgment of others against what I do or say. It is simply a question I have to ask myself; am I loving the other person more than myself? I am accountable to God and to him alone.
16Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. … if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
It’s not that you don’t know the truth, but you don’t like the truth.
Yes, I have human thoughts desires and such that are contrary to my relationship with God. But in the same way I don’t cheat on my wife I don’t cheat on God. So, what stops me from doing “wrong” is not by measuring it against a list of do’s and don’ts. I simply do not have the desire to engage in activities where I can’t take my best friend with me. My relationship with Christ is more important than my personal comfort therefore its not a struggle to be good, it’s the natural outcome of how a person lives who is so in love with Christ that there is no option to engage in a lifestyle of sin or question: Does God really still love me even though I _______?
The hard truth: The struggle of the person who seeks to deconstruct is they place themselves above any type of relationship with God. Yet the real tragedy is not that they reject God, they are renouncing Jesus who loved them so deeply he died for all their “supposed sins.” If the penalty for sin was paid why keep score? If He died for you 2000 years ago, long before you were ever born in what sense was He measuring the number of your sins and determining if you were good enough for Him to die for?
It’s not that you are rejecting God, that’s a cover story for the real issue. What you are doing is rejecting and denying Christ. The deliberate shifting of focus in claiming to not believing in God never abdicated the mind from knowing that Jesus is His son. In fact, what you are doing is standing on the hill of Golgotha, looking up at Christ on the cross and spitting on him as He dies for your sin. But then you will justify yourself with the idea that “you are a good moral person.” You’re rejecting all the love He has poured out for you all of your life because you don’t think in your great wisdom and years of knowing God that he exists. How is rejecting someone who passionately loves you morally right? How is it morally right to pretend the God who sent His son to die on the cross doesn’t exist.
- Coming Back
I am not going to pull back my punches for one reason. Truth is what sets you free.
Step one is accepting the fact you’re an idiot and you’re acting like a spoiled little brat. Be honest with yourself all you have done is think about yourself and what you want and what makes YOU happy.
“Poor baby” being a Christian is just too hard for you. There, there, now I’ll make it all better.”
So No, I am not going to coddle you and play nice. You need to hear the truth and act like a man and quit being a baby. You have refused to make your relationship with Christ a personal one where you hold your self accountable to him and him alone. You never pursued HIM as the primary thing in your life. You Christianity was always a secondary issue and you never made Jesus Your Lord but your personal assistant where he was supposed to reward you for every good deed you did. Jesus said, You want to be my follower, pick up your cross, die to yourself, and follow me. You never surrendered yourself to Him. You chose the world over him then can’t figure out why you have conflict in this world. Trying to live in two worlds will always rip you apart and instead of doing the hard things like giving up your life for Christ you surrendered to the enemy.
Who cares about what other Christians do or don’t do. What they think or believe, I am not responsible for them nor are they responsible to me. I am accountable to God alone and I don’t care what pastor so and so did or didn’t do or what terrible things people did while claiming to be Christian. Oh wait, they called sin a sin and you didn’t like that? Sorry truth hurts to those who choose to believe the lies.
God is truth. His word is truth, and any person who opposes the truth is made himself an enemy of the cross.
Accept the fact you have been wrong.
Humble yourself before God.
Repent of your rebellion.
Submit yourself to God and His word.
Learn the truth.
He has placed people in your life and around you, those WHO do not capitulate to this world and stand opposed to it and that is probably every person who offends you and you claim is “unloving” because they don’t accept someone else’s sin or live in deception.
Am I being Judgmental? self-righteous? NO.
Because if I didn’t care I wouldn’t say a word to you at all, but you won’t see this as love, instead you will claim I am hateful, bigoted, and a poor excuse for a Christian. Have I offended you? Oh yes but it’s time to build a bridge and get over it.
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