John MacArthur Weighs in on "Christian Deconstruction" Movement

Hello, in this video I just want to play a clip from Pastor John MacArthur where he is addressing the movement known as Christian Deconstruction. Basically what is happening, people are deconstructing their faith and what that means is things they once believed about Jesus in the Bible, now they reject many of those things.

So a person who deconstructs either becomes an atheist or sometimes they will continue to say they are a Christian. Often they just deny the parts of the Bible, the teachings of Scripture they don't like.

And often they will adopt the doctrine of Universalism which says there is no hell and if there is a heaven, if it does exist, then of course everyone is going there. One person I talked to recently who deconstructed, they said that the God of the Bible is like.

A villain.

Picking and Choosing the Bible in Christian Deconstruction

So here is what happens, the parts of the Scripture they don't like, they reject. But the parts of the Bible that talk about love and peace, well they will quote and hold on to those parts. So 1 Corinthians 13, that's the love chapter, hey you're good to go.

But the book of Revelation with all that wrath, no, no, no, we don't believe that. Or the book of Genesis, well that contradicts evolution, so that gets rejected. And really, if they deny the first book of the Bible and the last book, why would you expect them to believe anything in between?

But many times they will affirm some of the things that Jesus says at least. So when Jesus is talking about love and forgiveness, well we believe that. But when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and said, how can you escape the damnation of hell, oh no, no, no, we can't believe that.

That must have been added by the Catholic Church or some church council must have kind of snuck that in there. But then again, if you can latch on to that and accuse your opponents of being Pharisees, maybe you can use that.

But you know, you get the point. They pick and choose what they want to believe. So here is the clip of Pastor John MacArthur talking about Christian deconstruction.

Watch.

MacArthur on the Appeal of Defecting from Christianity

I don't think it's ever been quite as tempting to false disciples to abandon the church as it is today. Because being a defector from Christianity carries with it in this culture a kind of victimization heroism.

In the past you might not want to walk away from the church and walk away from Christ openly, publicly, because you would be shunned, you would be isolated, you would have nowhere to turn, you would be treated like a pariah, like a Judas.

But today you can go on the Internet and find tens of thousands of friends who will applaud you as a hero, the same as they do those who are caught up in the lie of transgender behavior. There's plenty of support for what's wrong.

This is a massive movement of Christian deconstruction, exvangelicalism. You can actually express your heroism in a blog or a podcast. You can go to a conference of ex-Christians, exvangelicals. You can be a speaker at one of those.

Plus, you can become a shining heroic victim of what the culture would deem as false religion. So never has there been this much support for defectors.

Church Discipline for Heresy and Division

So what John MacArthur said is really true. There is a lot of support for these people who deny the faith. In that sermon, he was first talking about Judas Iscariot, the traitor, and how he fell away and then he moved into that segment.

So this is a big issue, like John MacArthur says. It's a massive movement right now. And even locally, I've talked about this before on the channel, even locally there are people who have deconstructed and they started a podcast teaching heresy.

And the sad thing is, the churches in the area, most of them, they even at this point refuse to excommunicate the false teachers. And when I have tried to reach out to these pastors to discuss this, because our church has excommunicated them, the pastors, most of them won't even respond.

But if the heretics reach out to them and want to meet, they'll fall all over themselves to rush and meet with them. One local pastor told me and I quote, we cannot turn them away from us. Yeah, they said that.

And they said, we must show the heretics love by welcoming them into our churches. My friends, this is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. Titus 3 verse 10 says that the heretics who cause division are to be admonished once and then one more time.

After the second admonition, if they don't listen, they're to be rejected. That is, they're to be excommunicated. Second John says, do not greet them nor receive them. And Paul in Romans 16, 17 and 18 says they are to be marked and avoided.

Why?

So that they don't pull anyone else into their movement because they are convincing people and more and more people are deconstructing. Again, this is a movement. And when something is a movement, a lot of people start buying in and following along.

So Paul says, mark them and avoid them. But these local pastors are letting them into the churches. They're sitting down and talking with them. And that's again, the exact opposite of what the Bible says.

Paul warns that the heretics in the false teachers, they have smooth words and flattering speech where they can deceive the hearts of the simple minded. And that's exactly what is happening. In Acts chapter 20, Paul warns that these wolves in sheep's clothing, their purpose is to devour the flock.

And they do that by teaching things that are divisive and it causes much division. And it's causing division, not only in our area, but all throughout the United States and beyond. So John MacArthur in this clip, he recognizes this is a massive movement.

It is a huge problem and every pastor needs to be aware of it. And every pastor should follow what the Bible says about this, but that's just not happening. So what should we do? Obviously follow scripture and those passages that I mentioned, but we need to make an urgent appeal to people who are in the process of deconstructing their faith.

Maybe they just started. Just let them know by unhitching from the scripture because they really want Christianity without the Bible. So warn them that when you unhitch from the scripture, you are unhitching from Jesus who is your only hope for eternal life.

The only thing you know about Jesus comes from the Bible. So you cannot reject the authority of scripture and still claim somehow to be spiritual but not religious because I believe some of what Jesus says.

I mean, that just doesn't make sense. Either you believe what the Bible says about Jesus or you don't. You can't just pick and choose because then you are the authority. And how do you know what's true and what isn't?

I mean, you're just making it up. And really there's growing evidence to suggest that people who begin to deconstruct, eventually they just go all the way. They go all the way into full-blown atheism.

So saying you believe in Christ or some of the teachings of Christ while rejecting the Bible, I mean, this is a religious form of schizophrenia. I mean, it's an untenable position which again, usually gives way to full-blown atheism.

A Warning Against Rejecting Scripture and Ending in Atheism

So in conclusion, please pray for me and all those who are trying to protect people from this error. Thanks for watching.