Pastors Who Aid in Deconstruction (Testing The Spirits Podcast - Episode # 3)

Hello, and thanks for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. This is episode number three on the subject of pastors who aid in deconstruction. First let's again give the definition of this term, deconstruction.

In this context, it's when a professing believer in Christ abandons their beliefs. They deconstruct their Christian faith so that the things they used to believe, they no longer believe them. And they might not abandon all their beliefs, but they will abandon typically things like heaven and hell, that you have to believe in Jesus in order to be saved, the LGBT issue.

It's usually things like that. So another word for deconstruction is apostasy. This comes from the Greek word found in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3, where the apostle Paul speaks of those who will fall away from the faith.

Another definition is defection. The word defection is generally defined as the desertion of one's country or cause in favor of an opposing one. You might remember years ago, there was that American soldier who defected in Afghanistan.

He snuck away in the middle of the night and joined up with the Taliban. So he switched sides and began to fight for the enemy. Now that doesn't just happen. In fact, it probably takes years, starts off with discontentment.

Maybe a person felt mistreated. They began to question things and maybe they meet somebody who has a negative influence on them. Could be a combination of things. But over time, they deconstruct, they change what they believe.

If you're paying attention, you can usually spot the signs, but it might take years for them to finally come out and admit it. They might be afraid of the consequences after all. So they're reluctant to just come out and say what they're thinking.

So this is where we get into our main topic, pastors who aid in deconstruction. The first thing is when a pastor deconstructs, they realize that their job and therefore their income is at risk. This is part of why people deconstruct in the first place, because they see that being a Christian might harm them socially or financially.

So when a pastor deconstructs, it's a little different because now, you know, if you're in the world, deconstruction, you think is going to help you. But when you're a pastor who's deconstructing, you recognize it could hurt you.

So when a pastor deconstructs, that's a whole different thing. Because deconstruction, they realize if they just come out one Sunday morning and say, I don't believe the Bible anymore, they're going to lose their job.

And that's what they're trying to avoid. So what do they do? In order for them to keep their job and to keep their income, they recognize that they need to shepherd or lead their congregation to follow along in the deconstruction process.

That way they'll accept me when I come out with my real beliefs. This happened locally in my area. So I feel that I can speak to this issue because I was one of the first people who saw it. As far as the other area pastors go, I think I was the first who saw that this pastor of a large church in our area.

He was starting to teach things that were contradictory to the word of God. So I reached out to him. I thought that was the right thing to do before I said anything to anyone else. And his response was, well, not good.

It was not positive. And his response, more importantly, was not biblical, which made me even more convinced of what was happening. He basically told me that I was a Pharisee and that I should mind my own business.

But here's the thing. I had family members who attended there. That church at times expected our church to support their events. They had this big musical performance that all the churches would go to.

And there were members of our church who took part in that. And their show on the radio came on right before mine. So to make a long story short, I had several reasons to care about what was happening.

Besides, if a pastor puts his views out publicly, he opens himself to public scrutiny, especially if he is teaching things that are not right. I mean, I'm putting my views out there right now. So if somebody emails me with a question, it doesn't make sense if I just rip into them and tell them to mind their own business.

After all, we put this stuff out there for people to listen to it. Okay, so another thing. Evangelical and Bible-believing Christianity, we don't have a pope. We don't have a hierarchy. So we have to sort of police ourselves.

If a pastor goes off the rails, it's up to the leadership of that church to deal with him. That's true. But if they refuse and he's putting out his heretical beliefs, you know, out there for consumption, it's the local pastor's responsibility to protect the sheep.

If it's some church with 15 people that nobody is even aware of, sure, you can ignore that because nobody even knows. But if it's a large church, or in that case, the largest church in the county, I think, and everybody knows about it, it's going to have an impact.

So anyways, that local pastor deconstructed, and he was trying to lead his church to go in that direction so that he could keep his position. Well, it ended with mixed results. But what about on a national level?

Because this happens locally, and it happens nationally. What happens when a top evangelical leader deconstructs? And he not only tries to shepherd his flock, to lead them away into apostasy, because he is so famous, he's going to have influence on tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people, potentially millions of people all over the United States.

We need to care about that. And I do care about that. So enter Andy Stanley. And I only use him as an example because number one, he perfectly fits this situation. And number two, he is probably the most well-known evangelical who is currently doing this.

Here is a headline from the Dissenter website. Andy Stanley's North Point baptizes openly unrepentant transgender woman who became a man. Here is some of what the article says. A few years ago, it became clear that Andy Stanley was beginning to embrace a pro-homosexual, pro-feminist worldview for his church.

Andy Stanley once told the mother of an openly gay and practicing lesbian that her daughter was saved. A few years ago, we, that's the dissenter, broke the news that Andy Stanley's church had baptized an openly gay man who clearly identified himself as a homosexual living a homosexual lifestyle.

Since then, we broke the news in 2021, or since we broke that news in 2021, an avalanche of information has been coming out of North Point regarding their pro-homosexual stance. A few months ago, another video surfaced where Andy Stanley told the congregation that some homosexuals who quote, love Jesus, have a stronger faith than you do.

That homosexuals have a stronger faith than most Christians. Okay, so clearly Andy Stanley, he was brought up in his father's church, Dr. Charles Stanley. Obviously, that's not what he was taught. He went to Dallas Theological Seminary.

That's not what they used to teach. Obviously, Andy Stanley has deconstructed. He's trying to bring his church along with him. And people that you know who read his books and listen to his preaching, they might deconstruct if they continue to follow Andy Stanley.

So this is a very serious issue. And again, it's happening nationally with guys like Andy Stanley, but it's happening locally. So you probably know people who are in this process. Back to the article, it says, now it has come to our attention that not only is North Point baptizing open homosexuals, but also baptizing openly transgender people.

Transgender is in quotation marks, because of course, it's impossible to transition your gender. We'll talk about what the Bible says in a moment. In the video below, a woman named Elaine Scott baptizes Troy Zapp, a woman who is a practicing lesbian, and now identifies acts and dresses like a man who has assumed a male name.

Okay, so there are several problems. First of all, Jesus said in Matthew 19, verse 4, that he who made them in the beginning made them male and female. So there are no other options. The Ten Commandments, God's law, as reiterated by Jesus in the Gospels, it's very clear that all sex outside of marriage is fornication.

Therefore, it is sinful. Jesus defined marriage in Matthew 19 as being between one man and one woman. Also, Deuteronomy 22, verse 5, strictly forbids cross-dressing. So there is no biblical justification for any of this.

Andy Stanley knows that, but he doesn't care what the Bible says, because he has deconstructed. And in order to keep his position as sort of like the archbishop of the mini-denomination known as North Point Community Church, he must aid the people under him in deconstruction as well.

The article continues. So who is Troy Zapp? At one pro-trans website for a transgender event, Zapp's biography tells her story as a woman who dated women but refused to call herself a lesbian. She then goes on with her story.

And here's the part that stood out concerning what the leadership of North Point Church told her. This woman, who now calls herself Troy, she says that they helped me to understand that God loves us all.

In any shape or form, God loves us, because if he didn't, he would not have sent his son down to die for all, and all is in capitals, all of our sins, if they only knew how long I had been waiting on that comfort and those simple words.

My faith from that day on exploded with joy and persistence. And I watched another video for context, and I've heard what Andy Stanley has taught concerning this, and what she is communicating, and what North Point Church and Andy Stanley are communicating.

It's a universalist message. That's what it sounds like, that God loves everyone, no matter what. And that there's no need for repentance. God already accepts everybody. Why? Because Jesus died for all.

All of our sins are already taken care of. Now, there are some assumptions built into that, some real theological questions to where I would say, at best, that's half of the story, and it's misleading, because there are conditions.

You could say that, yes, God so loved the world, John 3, 16, but even in John 3, 16, there's the condition that you must believe. And then you have to look at, what does it mean to believe? Well, repentance and faith go hand in hand.

Why did Jesus die for our sins? So how can we affirm what the Bible calls sin? You see, it can get complicated. The average person, they just hear the flowery language about love, and God loves everyone, and isn't it great?

And they end up just kind of going along with it. But John 3, 16, yeah, you can say that it's true that God loves everyone. God so loved the world, okay? But remember, John 3 continues, and there's that verse, John 3, 36, which says, He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

But that's not a popular message, you see. That isn't going to fill up Andy Stanley's megachurch. And besides, a person who deconstructs, they almost certainly do not believe John 3, 36. In fact, I would say they don't believe the gospel at all, because the gospel, according to this person being baptized, is that God loves you, God loves everyone, God loves us no matter what.

That's not the gospel. That sounds more like universalism. The true gospel found in the Bible is that Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day, and that we must believe. And when we believe, we repent.

A person who gets baptized is supposed to turn from sin and turn to faith in Jesus. And the reason I know that this woman who calls herself Troy, how do I know that she hasn't repented? Because she's still identifying as a man.

She's still dressing like a man, calling herself a man. She has not repented, clearly. So what does it mean to believe? A person, when they get baptized, they're supposed to turn from sin and turn to faith in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul said in Romans 6, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or how do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So in wrapping this up, one last statement from the article.

The woman who calls herself Troy, she says, it is ironic that the one place that all LGBTQs fear the most to be involved with is the church. It was that same place that brought my transition upon me. I used to hate and fear the church, including all the people in it.

Now I am involved and loved and I know I belong. Did you notice what she said? She used to hate the church and she used to hate everybody in it. But now Andy Stanley's church, she loves it. Why? Because she comes right out and says that Andy Stanley and North Point Church, they helped her transition.

In other words, they affirmed her, aka Andy Stanley has deconstructed him and his church now affirm transgender lifestyles. And they put out a promotional video and I would say that Andy Stanley, you say, well, who cares what Andy Stanley is doing?

This is happening locally in your community. People you know, family, friends, co-workers, they are going to churches where the pastors are deconstructing and they're slowly leading their church along in that deconstruction as well.

It's happening everywhere. But remember, deconstruction is really just a fancy word for falling away from the faith. They are denying the word of God and by doing that, they are denying the Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead of seeking the praises of God, they seek the praises of men. So in conclusion, what can you do? Keep the faith. Tune out their manipulative arguments. If a pastor is not upholding Bible doctrine, don't listen to him.

Or if he seems to be siding with the world on the typical issues, the controversial issues, LGBT, abortion, going along with whatever the government says and the news media and Hollywood, the culture.

If he's going along with those things, he's probably either already deconstructed or he's in the process of deconstructing. And in order to keep his job, he's going to have to bring the church congregation along with him.

Maybe you think that I can build a coalition of a small group of us, we can complain. Honestly, it's probably just best to leave. Leave that church. You know, if every true believer just stopped going to these worldly churches, these apostate churches, if every true believer just left these places and they all attended and supported the good churches, that could have such a positive impact.

And I think many people are starting to wake up to all of this because it's quite frankly, it's getting so extreme. It's getting pretty obvious. So I'll end with this encouragement from Jesus in Revelation 3, 10 through 11.

He says, because you have kept my command to persevere. I also will keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly.

Hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown.