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Don’t be fooled. At the core of deconstruction is the same rebellion we find in the Garden of Eden, articulated by the serpent: “Did God really say?”
Apostasy has been rebranded. Now, it’s called “deconstruction,” and it’s become one of the hottest trends in evangelicalism. As of this week, the hashtag “#deconstruction” had over 400,000 posts on Instagram.
But what exactly is deconstruction? Deconstruction is when professing Christians “rethink,” and even reject, their previously held faith, often to the point of no longer identifying as Christians. While it does have some traction in other countries, it appears that it is largely a phenomenon exclusive to American Christianity and particularly within Bible-believing denominations.
During the deconstruction process, individuals critically examine and question their faith and beliefs, often challenging traditional interpretations of Scripture and theological doctrines. Deconstruction is almost always characterized by a deliberate reconsideration of the foundational tenets of one’s faith; for Christians, this includes the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of the Bible.
Alisa Childers, who has co-authored a soon-to-be-released book with Tim Barnett titled The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond, defines deconstruction as “the process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with.” She goes on to add that “Sometimes the Christian will deconstruct all the way into atheism. Some remain there, but others experience a reconstruction. But the type of faith they end up embracing almost never resembles the Christianity they formerly knew.”
In the end, Childers argues that whatever faith the “deconstructor” (sometimes referred to as an “exvangelical”) has left “rarely retains any vestiges of actual Christianity.”
John Cooper, frontman for the Christian rock band Skillet, goes even further than Childers in his warnings about the dangers of deconstruction. He stated, “It is time that we declare war against this deconstruction Christian movement. I don’t even like calling it deconstruction Christian. There is nothing Christian about it. It is a false religion.”
Writing for Relevant Magazine, Tyler Huckabee suggests a milder view of deconstruction, arguing that those who paint it as a devolution into another religion, or as an act of apostasy, are going too far. Instead, Huckabee argues that it can be better described as a “process of re-examining the faith you grew up with. Sometimes, that can result in deconversion. Other times, it results in your faith looking more or less the same it always did. Most often, it’s somewhere in between — rethinking the things you’ve always believed and coming to a new, different understanding of parts of it.”
When you approach the topic from a biblical worldview, however, it quickly becomes clear that Childers and Cooper are right — and Huckabee is wrong.
At the core of deconstruction is the same rebellion we find in the Garden of Eden, articulated by the serpent: “Did God really say?” The animating principle of deconstruction is not a genuine effort to investigate “cultural assumptions” that may come along with Christianity in, say, the Bible Belt but rather the total abandonment of the authority and sufficiency of the Bible as our final rule for faith and practice.
The authority and sufficiency of Scripture serve as the cornerstone of sound Christian doctrine. The authority of Scripture reminds us that it serves as the ultimate source of guidance and truth, while sufficiency teaches that the Bible contains everything necessary for one’s faith and practice. The process of deconstruction both challenges and undermines these concepts, introducing a more subjective and relativistic approach to faith. Theologian Denny Burk warns that those who undertake deconstruction end up aiming “not merely at that which is false and destructive but also at that which is true and good. That is not a path to reform. That is a path to apostasy.”
Another notable concern for those who rightly view deconstruction as problematic is the correlation between deconstruction and a shift toward theological and political liberalism. As individuals question and reevaluate their biblical beliefs, they almost always adopt more liberal theological positions. This theological shift invariably extends into the moral and political realm, with deconstructors becoming more politically liberal, often embracing progressive views in support of abortion and so-called “same-sex marriage.”
This makes sense when one understands that deconstruction is also explicitly connected to critical theory. The name comes from the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who introduced the term and developed it as a method of critical textual analysis. His work aimed to challenge and destabilize traditional binary oppositions and hierarchies present in language and philosophy. Derrida’s philosophy of textual criticism, later expanded by Karl Marx, laid the groundwork for modern critical theory, which aims to expose “power structures and societal norms” with the goal of dismantling traditional “hierarchies” — such as the gender binary that God wove into the creation of the world or the biblical teaching on male-only pastors.
As theologian Jonathan Leeman notes:
“The basic charge of the deconstruction project is that evangelical doctrine or what we might even call “Christian doctrine” is more culturally conditioned and self-interested than we evangelicals realize… Therefore, the deconstruction project seeks to ‘deconstruct’ and ‘decenter’ and ‘decolonize’ white, patriarchal theology, which includes prophetically naming white supremacy and patriarchy wherever it shows up, even among friends.”
Because deconstruction is rooted in critical theory, it can’t ever just stop at surface-level cultural practices. Like an acid, it will eat away at everything the Bible teaches us, including what is good and right about how society, church, and the family should be ordered. Therefore, deconstruction will always end in radical egalitarianism, race Marxism, feminism, and progressivism, on top of the rejection of the authority of the Bible.
It’s good to consider how cultural, familial, or even personal preferences can sometimes get wrongly elevated to a place of Christian authority that they shouldn’t hold. Childers explains:
“As Christians, the process of evaluating our beliefs, traditions, and church culture in light of Scripture and rejecting any unbiblical beliefs with the goal of living more authentically as Christians should be a daily reality. But this isn’t deconstruction. It might be rightly called “reformation’… [but] Deconstruction has taken on a life of its own, and now is the time to accurately define our words. After all, if the word means everything, then it means nothing, yet it carries the potential to suck unsuspecting Christians into a dangerous vortex of influences from which they might not return.”
Deconstruction is indeed a dangerous business. Jesus reminds us that all of Scripture stands, and is fulfilled, in Him; therefore, it has enduring authority and relevance for our lives today:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
–Matthew 5:17-18
The Bible also has strong warnings for those who try to add — or subtract — from God’s Word:
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”
–Revelation 22:18-19
In conclusion, once examined through a biblical worldview, it’s clear that the deconstruction trend is dangerous, leading to both theological and political progressivism and ultimately apostasy — the abandonment of the Christian faith.
Don’t be fooled. Just because apostasy got a makeover and is now running around under the euphemism of deconstruction, it is not any less dangerous nor deadly. True Christians don’t deconstruct, they persevere. They hold fast to the full counsel of God’s Word, no matter how out of step with the world it might be or become.
So, when tempted to doubt, or entertain deconstruction, remember the cry of Peter in John 6:68 when Jesus asked His disciples if they wanted to abandon Him because of His teachings: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
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