Deconstruction & False Teachers (Testing The Spirits Podcast - Episode # 1)

Deconstruction as Apostasy and Social Pressure

Continuing the program there's a really important topic I've touched on it before but I want to cover it again and that subject that we're just going to hear more and more about is the subject of deconstruction.

I did a video a couple days ago about Andy Stanley how and I'm not going to recover that but Andy Stanley basically praises people who are deconstructing their faith. He said good for you that's wise.

It's honest it's mature because Andy Stanley basically he has come out as open and affirming towards homosexuality and in his recent sermon from this past Sunday he talked about how there's some churches that believe that you know these nice people are actually going to hell and what can you know what kind of God would send someone to hell.

I can't be that kind of.

Christian because I don't think Jesus would treat people that way. I don't think Jesus is going to send my brother to hell. He's one of the finest people I know I have. I just have to step away and think about this.

You know what needs to be left behind. And if you know what needs to be left behind look up here. Good for you mature of you honest of you. So what I took away from that and I'm.

Pretty well convinced this is true but Andy Stanley seems to think that everybody goes to heaven and he's affirming gay marriage. And when people deconstruct that's what they're doing. They want to hold some people deconstruct and they become atheists.

I did a sermon on this at Morse Corner Church about two months ago. But when people deconstruct they either deconstruct and become an atheist or they hold on to some semblance of spirituality. Maybe they even still claim to be a Christian but they believe that there is no hell.

Everybody's saved. The church doesn't know what they're talking about. There is no absolute truth. One thing we do know one thing that is true is that homosexuality is great. We need to support LGBT so they're certain about that.

They don't know doctrine and what the Bible to how we don't know but we are sure about that. So that's just the the scam that's and I call it a scam because all that is is apostasy. These people are falling away from the faith.

These guys that are teaching this they're false teachers. But they've kind of attached this trendy label that was deconstruction and there's actually a guy locally who is he has deconstructed. He has admitted to it on on video and he's going from church to church to church and presumably trying to recruit people into his way of thinking.

And you know talking about Eli in our study of the book of first Samuel you know Eli the priest he knew what was right and wrong and he recognized that what his sons were doing was wrong. He just wasn't willing to do anything about it and God judged him for that.

So there are certain people leadership positions just your average Christian. They say okay that's wrong. I recognize that's wrong. I don't agree with this but I ain't willing to do anything about it.

And well we saw what happened with Eli. This is a very serious thing matter of fact in the book of second John those who would receive a false teacher they become partakers of their evil deeds. That's what John said.

This is a very serious issue. But people are deconstructing. It's because let's face it it's because of social pressure. You know 40 years ago if you were a Christian and you believe that you needed to believe in Jesus in order to go to heaven and you are against homosexuality.

You're just like hey yeah this guy's a Christian. That's what Christians believe today believing that. You know you could lose your job if you vocalize it. So there's all this pressure from society to compromise on Jesus being the only way compromise in this heaven and hell stuff believing Jesus.

You know issues regarding marriage and sexuality just need to compromise on this and this and this and that. And of course there'll be no end to it. And people are doing it because everyone's just covering their own tail.

You know people are hey I'm looking out for number one. So if this is gonna hurt me if I'm gonna lose money if I'm gonna lose my job if I'm gonna lose friends you know I'm gonna throw Jesus in the trash.

I'm gonna throw the Bible in the trash before I hurt my income. That's what's happening. Because of societal pressure people are abandoning the teaching of the scripture and it's called the fancy new term for it is called deconstruction.

And pastors need to know about this. Deacons and elders and just your every everyday church member you listening at home maybe you've never heard this term you need to know about it. And I just want to read this article because again this is an issue it's not going away anytime soon.

What Deconstruction Is and Why It Appeals

So here's the article says what is deconstruction. What does it mean when people say they are deconstructing their faith says deconstruction is the heading most recently applied to the process of questioning doubting and ultimately rejecting aspects of Christian faith.

This is an application of deconstructionism an approach that claims to disassemble beliefs or ideas while assuming their meanings are inherently subjective. So one thing you'll see from these people that they they're postmodern.

They don't really believe in absolute truth. You know we don't really know what the truth is. Everything is subjective. We don't really know except for the things they feel strongly about. They know they know about those things they just.

It's just a way of kind of getting around thorny issues. The article says both the trend and its title reflect backlash against the unfortunate habit within some religious circles to downplay deep questions.

It ignore those who hold to them to openly investigate the nuances of belief. Even changing one's conviction is a biblical concept and let me just add it's only biblical is if you're changing something you're wrong about.

In practice though deconstruction almost always acts as a polite cover for demolition. Modern deconstruction usually means replacing uncomfortable tenants with culturally or personally popular ideas. And that's absolutely true.

And there are no beliefs and teachings within Christianity more unpopular than number one Jesus is the only way of salvation. That's one of the most unpopular beliefs. And then obviously the social issues homosexuality abortion etc.

So people want to deconstruct throw away those traditional beliefs and adopt new more progressive ideas but still claim some sort of spirituality. So that's what deconstruction is. You know it's really just a way of replacing Bible doctrine with popular ideas.

The article says a fundamental belief in biblical Christianity is that of man's limited understanding compared to God's unlimited understanding. Scripture often draws this contrast explicitly. And then a listen verse Isaiah 55 8 9 Job 38 1 through 4 John 6 45 and 46.

Scripture also teaches this truth indirectly noting how sincere Christians often come to different conclusions. Romans 14 1 through 5 first Corinthians 10 28 through 32. The Bible says we can be stubborn and interpret his will wrongly.

That's true. This does not mean however that everything is subject to opinion. Rather it means everything should be open to sincere questions. Deconstruction claims to explore such issues though it its ultimate motivation is often not to understand but to undermine.

And I'll just say this at Morris Corner Church people if you have if somebody has a sincere question then ask your question. Even if you think it's a dumb question. Hey ask it. I encourage people to ask questions.

And if you have a doubt about something maybe if you have a doubt it's best to come and talk one-on-one. But hey my my door is always open and I tell people if you have some sort of doubt you're struggling with.

If you have a sincere question come and talk to me. And I've always treated people respectfully even if I don't agree with what they're saying I listen to them. And I think it's a very important that a church has that atmosphere where people can ask questions.

So I agree with that. However sometimes when people ask questions they're not really asking a question. I remember one person that used to attend years ago they would ask questions and they did have doubts.

And they expressed all this publicly. Like in a Sunday school class they would ask questions. But it really wasn't a question was always to undermine anything that kind of went against the culture went against the grain.

You know the question would be like what kind of God would do that. What I'm not really sure that's a question. So yeah deconstruction we want to have an environment where people can ask questions and even express doubt to their pastor.

But probably best to do it in private. But sometimes and with these deconstructionists their questions are really meant to undermine. Okay. So the article continues. Jesus's parable of the sower includes two groups who demonstrate a response to truth only to be overcome by worldly pressure or persecution.

The Apostle Paul. New people often succumb to attractive lies. 2nd Timothy 4 3 4 he says for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires. Because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers.

And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. And that's what a lot of people want. They want someone to tickle their ears. Tell tell me something that I want to hear says because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers.

And there's a lot of pastors who have themselves deconstructed. And now they are acting as a deconstructionist. You know holding the office of pastor. I think Andy Stanley is the perfect example that he is.

Clearly you know whether I would question whether or not he ever really believed. A lot of people will say. And I realize people think they don't know any better. They heard positive things they don't really know.

But people say Andy Stanley used to be really solid a great Bible teacher back 20 years ago. Well he never was. People assume that because of his dad was but he was never a Bible teacher. He was a vision casting leader and opening the Bible and expounding from the text of Scripture.

Just not something he ever did. But this is what people want. They they have itching ears so they want to heap up for themselves. Teachers notice it doesn't say they want preachers. They want teachers.

They don't want someone preaching at them. They want to be told what they want to hear. The article says Paul witnessed close friends yielding to popular trends. 2nd Timothy 4 verse 10. Even Christ saw people walk away because they did not want to accept his message.

Remember in John chapter 6 when Jesus preached a a difficult message many people walked away to say. Deconstruction means choosing easier beliefs is an oversimplification. And yet deconstruction almost always means adopting views palatable to the unbelieving world.

Almost always all too conveniently. It means moving away from positions on sexuality gender salvation sin hell and other issues not embraced by popular culture. So this article from got questions dot org they hit the nail on the head.

The vast majority who claim to be deconstructing move with the flow of their surrounding culture not against it. This movement demands a quote. Safe space. Okay. This movement demands a safe space to ask questions.

Difficult questions. Yet ironically modern deconstruction often settles for easy comfortable answers or simply chooses which aspects of faith to retain based on personal preference. While deconstruction implies openness in theory and most often manifest as an escape clause when it comes time to justify one's new or progressing views.

Ironically those who reject Christian culture for not engaging questions can themselves be deeply evasive when asked to do that very thing. So if you meet a person a man or woman who's deconstructed you know if you ask them a question many times they're not going to give you a straight answer.

I mean what are they going to come out and say yeah. I'm an enemy of God. I've abandoned the faith. I'm trying to corrupt people. I'm trying to like they're not going to say that. It's like a false teacher never comes out and says hi my name's I'm a false prophet.

Nice to meet you that they don't do that. So they're very evasive. It's easy to ask hard questions. The article says complex mysteries can be posed in just a few words. Answering those questions. Whoever takes time and effort simply listening or excuse me simply listing complications or nitpicking is not the same as sincerely assessing ideas.

Identifying oneself as in deconstruction can become an easy excuse for never taking a position but merely rejecting something one dislikes. And that's really what it's all about. There are certain teachings in the Bible they don't like.

So they deconstruct. They throw those beliefs and teachings in the trash. But once you get rid of the idea of hell and you know everyone saved you know if there even is a heaven that everyone would go there and then you just adopt whatever the world is doing.

Yeah you can call it deconstruction which I guess sounds better than being an apostate. But it's really the same thing. So in conclusion we need to pray for these people. Unfortunately and I don't want to make some absolute statement that someone who has turned away from Christ you know has like committed the unpardonable sin and they can never return to faith.

I you know I wouldn't say that but it almost never happens. Things only go one way. It's like when a church goes bad it it never goes liberal and then comes back and gets right with God. It only goes one way.

Liberal churches don't become Bible believing Bible believing churches become liberal Christians professing Christians will go apostate. Apostates and people who deconstruct almost never come back to the faith and hold their original belief.

It's just I've never seen it. I'm not going to say it's impossible but I've never seen it. So not only would I pray for those who have deconstructed. I think I would target my prayers more towards the people.

They're influencing their spouse their children their family members. You know when they go to church to church and they make friends with people what are they doing. They're trying to get them to go along with their belief system.

So we need to be praying for people that they wouldn't be influenced by these deconstructionists by these false teachers by these apostates. And I know it's an unpleasant subject but it's something that we have to deal with.

We are called to fight spiritual warfare. And if we care about God's people we want to see God's people protected and it's really the job of a pastor. It's a job of a shepherd to to fight off the wolves.

You know protect the sheep and fight off the wolves. And there's a lot of men and they are willing to you know engage in that spiritual fight and God bless them. But we're only going to see more of this.

So I just want to encourage you God is still in control and don't get discouraged because we know how the story ends. Amen? Amen.