Leaders in England are getting ready to force church’s to exclude people who have not been vaccinated. 1200 church leaders sent a letter of dissent to the Prime Minister. The dissent is based on three issues:
Many great issues are brought up in this video. It’s well worth a listen.
The first people to deconstruct their faith were not young people in America — they weren’t people dissatisfied with American Christianity. The first people to deconstruct their faith were people in the Garden of Eden — they were people dissatisfied with God.
Adam and Eve are the first people to deconstruct their faith.
People deconstruct their faith when they’re dissatisfied with their faith — when they’re dissatisfied with God: and it always ends in disaster.
People who deconstruct their faith destroy their faith, and they destroy their souls.
Deconstruction is essentially just a fancy word for doubt. People who deconstruct their faith are people who doubt their faith. When people say they’re deconstructing their faith, they’re just using a pretentious phrase to say they’re doubting what God says in the Bible.
Actually, it’s worse than that. People who deconstruct their faith are not merely doubting or struggling with their faith: they are dismissing their faith. They are dismissing biblical truth.
Deconstructionism is an approach to critiquing literature and beliefs. People who deconstruct their faith critique the Bible (literature) and beliefs (Christian theology).
Specifically, deconstructionism is a postmodern concept that expands on Nietzsche’s theory that there’s “there is no such thing as facts, just interpretations.”
Therefore people who deconstruct their faith believe there is no such thing as biblical truth, just interpretations — interpretations mostly dominated by supposedly racist, misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic white people who — according to deconstructionists — preach American or Western Christianity as the only correct interpretation or version of Christianity.
In postmodernism, deconstructionism is a strategic approach to critiquing and attacking Western philosophy as an oppressive philosophy designed by Europeans to manipulate people into accepting harmful ideas as truth.
In the same way, people who deconstruct their faith critique and attack (Western) Christianity as an oppressive theology designed by Europeans to manipulate people into accepting harmful ideas as Biblical truth.
This is why deconstructionists tend to call themselves ex-evangelicals instead of ex-Christians. They believe evangelicalism is Western Christianity — not real Christianity.
So just as postmodernists attack Western philosophy, people who deconstruct their faith primarily attack (Western) Christianity.
Deconstructionists believe Christianity — or specifically, Western Christianity — was constructed by ignorant and oppressive white men — not God. Therefore according to them, (Western) Christianity needs to be deconstructed or destroyed.
For that reason, when people say they’re deconstructing their faith, it means they’re critiquing and attacking doctrines they believe have been constructed to harm others — doctrines like the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, the divinity and exclusivity of Jesus, complementarianism, Christian sexual ethics, justice and more.
Meaning, when people say they’re deconstructing their faith — they’re simply repeating what Satan said to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “Did God actually say…?”
When Satan said to Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1), he was attempting to deconstruct her faith. He was craftily suggesting Eve had misinterpreted God’s words.
Then when Eve said to him God said they shouldn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they’ll die — Satan suggested God was oppressing and manipulating Adam and Eve in order to keep them from becoming enlightened or “woke” about his harmful lies about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan said: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).
Does that sound familiar? Deconstructionists suggest we Christians do not want other Christians to deconstruct their faith because we don’t want them to become enlightened or woke to Western Christianity’s supposedly harmful interpretations and lies about sexuality, social justice, salvation and Scripture.
Deconstructionists, clearly, haven’t stumbled on a new phenomenon — Satan is the founder of deconstructionism. Adam and Eve became the first people to deconstruct their faith when they became dissatisfied with God’s words and believed Satan’s lies.
Nevertheless, deconstructionists acknowledge they haven’t developed a new concept. Actually, some deconstructionists suggest they are the new version of the Reformers. They claim when the Reformers protested Catholicism, they were deconstructing their faith.
That, of course, is a ridiculous lie. The Reformers didn’t deconstruct Christianity, they did the opposite. They didn’t reject the authority of the Bible — they returned to the authority of the Bible.
People who deconstruct their faith conform to this world. People who reform their faith, however, are transformed by the renewal of their mind by discerning the will of God (Romans 12: 2).
A Reforming faith trusts in Scripture alone. However, a deconstructing faith distrusts Scripture.
The people deconstructing their faith are nothing like the Reformers from the 1500s. However, they are a lot like Rob Bell and the emerging church from 15 years ago.
A little over 15 years ago in 2005, Rob Bell published his book, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. In the book, Rob Bell said:
“It’s possible to make the Bible say whatever we want to, isn’t it? … The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God … What’s disturbing, then, is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now. As a Christian I want to do what I can to resist Hell coming to earth: Poverty, injustice, suffering — they’re all hells on earth and as Christians we oppose them with all of our energies.”
At the time, young Christians weren’t deconstructing their faith on TikTok. They were deconstructing their faith through the emerging church, a postmodern movement led by people like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren.
But the connections between the emerging church and the people deconstructing their faith today are less interesting than the connections between the evangelical movements that attracted young people to the emerging church and attract young people to deconstruct their faith today.
Just as the seeker-sensitive movement made many professing Christians vulnerable to the emerging church 15 years ago, the social justice movement today is making many professing Christians vulnerable to deconstructing their faith.
The evangelical seeker-sensitive movement attempted to attract young people to churches by elevating culture over Scripture. However, elevating culture over Scripture eventually introduced many young Christians to postmodernism and the emerging church.
In the same way, the evangelical social justice movement today attempts to attract many people to churches by elevating our culture’s positions on racism and justice over Scripture. Naturally, that is introducing postmodernism and deconstructionism to Christians.
It’s interesting, some of the evangelical leaders preaching critical race theory — race-centric postmodernism — are some of the evangelical leaders warning Christians against deconstructionism.
For instance, Matt Chandler and The Gospel Coalition, who have been influenced by critical race theory for several years, have recently warned people against deconstructionism.
I’m grateful they’re warning people against deconstruction. However, their lack of self-awareness is frustrating. You can’t tell a generation of young people in churches that Christians have it all wrong on racism and justice and then expect them to not believe you.
Evangelical leaders who preach postmodernism shouldn’t be surprised when their listeners respond with deconstructionism.
For years, some evangelical leaders have suggested the Bible isn’t sufficient to address racism and justice — they’ve suggested (Western) Christianity and white Christians are racist, but they apparently didn’t expect anyone to believe them.
I know several people — including Reformed Christians — who deconstructed their faith and became apostates after they embraced critical race theory. And many of us have become familiar with stories of influential Christians deconstructing their faith. Some of these influential Christians were Christian rappers who have recently deconstructed their faith and denounced Biblical Christianity. One of these rappers actually released a song on deconstructionism.
When I mentioned on social media earlier this week that I was writing an article on the connections between critical race theory and deconstructionism, one person replied saying some evangelical leaders’ reactions to the George Floyd incident last year prompted him to flirt with deconstructionism. He said:
“I myself did start to deconstruct my faith due to getting heavily mixed signals about how to approach racism and anti-racism in the wake of the tragic George Floyd case.”
Preaching critical race theory while warning against deconstructionism is like preaching the Gospel while warning against repentance.
It’s absurd. Just as repentance is the appropriate response to the Gospel, deconstructionism is the appropriate response to postmodern ideologies like critical race theory.
If you do not want people to act like postmodernists, do not preach postmodernism.
Nevertheless, some of you might be struggling believers who are tempted to deconstruct your faith. You might be tempted to believe Western Christianity is constructed by Europeans. But that’s not true. Western Christianity is identical to Christianity all over the world.
I grew up in African churches. And I assure you, just as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever — He’s the same for Western Christians, African Christians and all Christians around the world.
Christianity — real Christianity — is the same in West Africa as it is in North America. In fact, there’s no such thing as Western Christianity or African Christianity. There aren’t different kinds of Christ, so there aren’t different kinds of Christianity.
Around the world, real Christians preach the same Gospel in different languages (Revelation 7:9-10).
So do not deconstruct your faith, depend on grace — depend on the grace of God. Deconstructing your faith will not save you from the penalty or pain of your sins. Only the justifying death and resurrection of Jesus Christ — received by persevering faith can do that.
Adam and Eve deconstructed their faith, and it resulted in disaster. If you deconstruct your faith, it will result in disaster for you too. So do not deconstruct your faith. Instead, ask God to decrease your doubts and increase your faith. Say to Christ what one person said to him many years ago, “I believe, help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24).”
Originally published at Slow to Write.
Samuel Sey is a Ghanaian-Canadian who lives in Brampton, a city just outside of Toronto. He is committed to addressing racial, cultural, and political issues with biblical theology, and always attempts to be quick to listen and slow to speak.
Less than half of Americans, including just 63% of churchgoing Christians, believe Jesus existed before His virgin birth in Bethlehem, a new study from Lifeway research shows.
The study, conducted Sept. 3-14 through an online survey of a national pre-recruited panel of 1,005 Americans, shows that only 2 in 5 or 41% of American adults, in general, believe Jesus existed before His Bethlehem birth. Some 32% disagree with the idea that Christ existed before His Bethlehem birth, while 28% say they’re not sure.
Researchers also found that even among Christians who attend church four times a month or more, only 63% agree that Jesus existed before His Bethlehem birth even though many Scriptures from the Bible support that position.
“Prophecies such as those in Isaiah 9 reflect that the Messiah would be the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. While these titles reflect the Trinity, some Americans do not connect the Jesus born in Bethlehem with the Messiah who already existed as God now coming in the flesh,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.
The religiously unaffiliated were the least likely among respondents in the survey to believe Jesus existed before Bethlehem, with fewer than 15% of them supporting the notion.
In John 6:62 for example, Jesus asks His many disciples at the time: “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”
The Scripture further highlights how difficult it was for many of them to embrace the idea of His divinity and pre-existence when it notes in John 6:66 that: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
In a 2016 presentation in New York City, the American Bible Society explained that despite the Bible being the most printed and sold book in the world over the last five decades, less than half of practicing Christians in the U.S. spend serious time engaging with their Bible and the rest of the country is even worse.
At the time, Samuel Harrell, director of Project Ignition at the American Bible Society, presented evidence gathered from a six-year assessment of the state of the Bible conducted by the Barna Group which showed that just 18% of the American population 18 years and older read the Bible. Among practicing Christians, only 37% were found to engage with their Bible.
A recent survey from Probe Ministries, a nonprofit that seeks to help the Church in renewing the minds of believers with a Christian worldview, also reflected unorthodox theology among born-again Christians when it found that nearly 70% of them disagree with the biblical position that Jesus is the only way to God.
Another study from Arizona Christian University published earlier this year, showed that among an estimated 176 million American adults who identify as Christian, just 6% or 15 million of them actually hold a biblical worldview.
The study showed that while a majority of Americans self-identified as Christians, including many who identify as evangelical, believe that God is all-powerful, all-knowing and is the Creator of the universe, more than half reject biblical teachings and principles, including the existence of the Holy Spirit.
In light of the Advent season of waiting, Louie Giglio, the pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia, shared with his congregation that Jesus is coming back “soon” yet many won’t make it to Heaven and some will be deceived by Satan’s “game” of deception.
“The enemy’s plan for you and for me, in light of the fact that Jesus is coming soon, is that you would get deceived,” Giglio preached in a sermon delivered on Nov. 29.
“If you ask the average psychologist to describe the psyche of the human condition, they would say to you’ futile, meaningless and empty,’” he said later in the sermon. “Why? Because man is already trying to plant God and already it’s fall in the Church, and hearts are growing cold.”
The pastor and author lamented that many will stand in the Church and say, “Forget about the blood of the lamb. We are good to save ourselves.” He emphasized that the state of the world will get worse before it gets better.
“Faith is going to wane. [Matthew 24:12] says that as wickedness increases, … the faith of most will grow cold,” Giglio told the crowd.
“There’s something you can be sure of, even in a time of uncertainty and chaos: Jesus is coming soon,” he stressed.
He warned, however, that “everyone won’t make it” and urged those watching the sermon to “live alert, not alarmed.”
“You don’t need to be alarmed. What I would prefer you to be is alert,” he said. “I prefer you to wake up tomorrow and go, ‘Jesus is coming soon, and He could come imminently, immediately, today.’ He could come in 100 years, which is also soon. But he could come right now.”
The pastor said he aims to be alert but not frantic about the Lord’s coming. He advised his listeners to do the same.
“Jesus said, ‘Don’t be alarmed.’ I’m going to put my confidence in Him,” Giglio said. “Stay close to the original. If the enemy’s game is deception, then what’s the best way to not get deceived? … Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your ears attuned to Jesus. Think your life in the words of Jesus. And don’t listen to anything else but Jesus.”
Deception from the enemy tries to take a Christian’s eyes off of who God is and overthink false prophecies, according to Giglio.
“Keep your eyes on the revealed Jesus, not on some hidden prophecy,” Giglio continued. “In other words, just keep leaning into Jesus every day versus digging around and looking for and listening to the next prophecy that someone’s going to say. Just keep your eyes on Jesus because if He’s coming soon, then you’ll have your eyes locked in Him when he arrives.”
People should “live ready,” he said, since “the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Everyone won’t make it to Heaven in the end, Giglio said.
“Two men are in a field, and one is taken, and one is left,” he described.
He said that all Christians have the responsibility to become evangelists by sharing the Word of God without quarreling.
“Everybody deserves an opportunity to hear the Gospel,” he said. “Skip the debate and spread the news. Go to your work, family, neighborhood, wherever you go, become an evangelist. … You’re an evangelist for your people. You want to arrive in Heaven as an evangelist.”
Giglio encouraged his listeners to “stay close to the flame,” or the Lord’s Holy Spirit.
“In Scripture, the flame is the Holy Spirit of God. … Draw close to the flame. … And live in a community of people who want to get around the flame,” the pastor stressed.
“Live in a community of people who know Jesus is coming soon; a kingdom mindset, a people who have hearts that are on fire for Jesus,” he continued. “And you’re not just hanging out with people who are talking about the wind. You’re hanging out with people who want to stay close to the flame. … So what am I doing today to make sure that my heart stays close to the flame?”
“Because in the end, the tell-tell sign of the Son of Man coming is that most people’s hearts are going to grow cold,” he concluded. “Start now, knowing Jesus is coming soon by making the move … the move from earth to Heaven.”
During the sermon, Giglio showed a graphic defining what “soon” means in the biblical sense. “Soon” is defined as a “relative term used in relation to the external nature of the ALMIGHTY, who exists outside time and space, yet concurrently operates within the confines of finite human history.” “Soon” could mean “right now” or within the next “100-1000 years, the latter of which, in God time, is the equivalent of one human day.”
Roman Catholics have an extremely high view of Mary and have attributed some astounding characteristics and abilities to her, such as her interceding for us, atoning for us, and delivering our souls from damnation. Do Catholics worship Mary? Most Catholics will vehemently protest, saying that they do not WORSHIP Mary, and sincerely believe they don’t. Let’s examine what the Church herself has said.
In his Ineffabilis Deus in 1854, Pope Pius IX established as dogma the immaculate conception of Mary, which preserved her from inheriting original sin. His concluding statements provide a good summary of the Catholic view of Mary.
Let all the children of the Catholic Church, who are so very dear to us, hear these words of ours. With a still more ardent zeal for piety, religion and love, let them continue to venerate, invoke and pray to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin. Let them fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared; nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race. And since she has been appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth, and is exalted above all the choirs of angels and saints, and even stands at the right hand of her only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she presents our petitions in a most efficacious manner. What she asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard. gty.org
In addition, here are some quotes from various popes and other Catholic sources.
In the celebration of the Marian year, Pope Pius XII accurately reflected the church’s view of the Virgin Mary when the Pope stood up to give this following pontifical prayer:
“Enraptured by the splendor of your heavenly beauty and impelled by the anxieties of the world, we cast ourselves into your arms, O Immaculate Mother of Jesus and our Mother. Mary, we adore and praise the peerless richness of the sublime gifts with which God has filled you above every other mere creature from the moment of conception until the day on which, after your assumption into Heaven, He crowned you Queen of the Universe. O crystal fountain of faith, bathe our hearts with your heavenly perfume! O Conqueress of evil and death, inspire in us a deep horror of sin, which makes the soul detestable to God and a slave of hell! O well-beloved of God, hear the ardent cries which rise up from every heart in this year dedicated to you. Then tenderly, O Mary, cover our aching wound. Convert the wicked, dry the tears of the afflicted and the oppressed, comfort the poor and humble, quench hatred, sweeten harshness, safeguard the flower of purity, protect the holy Church. In your name, resounding harmoniously in heaven, may they recognize that all are brothers, and that the nations are members of one family. Receive, O sweet Mother, our humble supplications, and above all obtain for us on that day, happy with you, that we may repeat before your throne that hymn which is sung today around your altars. You are all-beautiful, O Mary! You are glory, O Mary. You are the joy, you are the honor of our people!”
In 1745, St. Alphonsus de Liguori wrote a massive book called The Glories of Mary. What de Liguori did was collect all the great tributes to Mary going all the way back to the 5th century, and amasses them in this huge tome. Collective tribute from all the ages to Mary. Here are but a few:
“O Mary, sweet refuge of poor sinners. Assist me with thy mercy. Banish me from the infernal enemies and come thou to take my soul and present it to the eternal judge. My Queen, do not abandon me. I give you my heart and soul.”
“We have confidence, but in thee O most faithful Virgin. O great Mediatress of peace between men and God, the love of all men and of God to whom the honor and benediction with the Father and the Holy Ghost.
“O sovereign Lady, saint of all saints, our strength and our refuge. God, as it were of this world, Glory of Heaven, accept those who love thee.”
“O sovereign Princess. Turn, O Mary, thy loving eyes on me. Look at me and draw me to thee.” Another one: “Mary, Blessed Virgin, Immaculate Queen, I dedicate my family forever to thy service. I appoint thee ruler of my whole house. Bless us, defend us, provide for us, counsel us, comfort us, assist us in our infirmities, especially in the sorrows of death. Granted, we may go to heaven.”
I now place myself in thy hands. Tell me what I must do to recover the favor of my Lord and I will immediately do it. He sends me to thee, that thou mayest help me and He wills that I should have recourse to thy mercy, that not only the merits of thy son, but also that thy intersession may help me to save my soul. To thee, then, I have recourse.
These prayers give us clear evidence that Catholics do WORSHIP Mary. All of these are prayers that belong only to whom? To God. God says, “My glory will I not give to another.” If only Catholics knew the Bible.
Bethke unpacks contrasts similar to those he drew in the poem — highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair and hope.
Stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it — right to the feet of Jesus.
