Introduction and questions by Sam Rohrer
Answers by Renton Rathbun
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As we discussed in part 1 of Raising a Deconstructing Generation, today’s topic focuses on the growing trend of young people questioning and dismantling their religious beliefs, a movement known as deconstruction. While the movement is not new, its rise among the youngest generation is a recent shift. It’s important to distinguish between asking questions within the authority of God’s Word and deconstruction, which accepts worldly assumptions and seeks answers outside of Scripture. Understanding this difference is key to helping the next generation stay faithful to the Lord.
How did we get to the point where we are seeing this generation become so confused and so atrophied in their endurance?
One of the most impactful passages in Scripture is in the Old Testament after David had sinned with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan tells David the story of a rich man who took a poor man’s little lamb and slaughtered it while the rich man had plenty of sheep of his own. David was so angry he says, “Who has done this? I’ll make him pay it back, and then I’ll kill him!” And the prophet says, “Thou art the man!”
This is another one of those moments in which someone says, “Why is it that all this deconstructing is happening?” I would answer, “By permission of the church.” I mean it this way: we have turned Christianity into a product that must be marketed to the widest possible audience. We have assessed what the kids want these days, what they want to believe, and what is “true” based on the criteria the world has determined.
Many churches have bought into the idea that you can know what is true or false about the world based on your senses, your experiences, and your feelings. We have been convinced that God is real using what the world has told us are the passages or the pathways to truth. And so, the church has appealed to our senses, experiences, and feelings so that we will believe God. The church has used the world’s criteria of truth and then was shocked when that criteria leaves us walking away from the truth.
What is the real motivation for the contemporary deconstruction movement?
The motivation is as old as Adam and Eve, when the serpent stood before Eve and said, “If you want real knowledge, eat that fruit. This fruit will give you something that the Lord is holding back from you.” And this knowledge that God is holding out on us, this knowledge that God is not giving us puts us in a position that stands above God and above His law to make a judgment about God and about His law. And therefore, we think that as God, we would do better as God. We would be better, more merciful, more kind than God. And that motivation, that desire maybe is older than Adam and Eve. Maybe it goes back to Lucifer who gazed upon God and desired God’s authority.
Has the deconstruction mindset crept into Christian schools and colleges?
Yes, it has, sometimes out of ignorance. Even Christian institutions can begin to view Christianity as a product that must be marketed. They see that kids are heavily reliant on their experiences, on their senses, and on their feelings. So, they decide to appeal to those things. They say, you want to believe in God, use your senses and view all this secondary evidence we have compiled. You want to believe in God? We will give you high level experiences that will convince you that God is there. You want to believe in God? Let us help you see God in a more acceptable way so that you will have good feelings about Him. Inevitably, many Christian institutions use the world’s criteria for truth to determine the truth of God’s Word. Those tactics are always temporal. They will satisfy a young person for a little while, and then because the institutions have used the world’s standard of truth, that standard will turn itself on its head and destroy God’s Word.
Is there a healthy way to go through the process of deconstruction?
There is no healthy way to go through this process. I heard an interview with a Christian singer named Lecrae who said he went through the deconstruction process and it was the best thing for his faith. And now he believes he is even a stronger believer because of deconstruction. The greatest deception that has occurred in Christianity is when people believe that when they question something, their questions are coming from a pure heart of neutrality. Deconstructionism wants us to shift our authority to the world’s standard of truth and then approach God’s Word with that standard. How is God’s Word true? Are my feelings the authority? How is God’s Word true with my senses being the authority? How is God’s Word true with my experiences or feelings acting as the authority? We cannot be so foolish as to use those things as an authority. To think we need a different authority outside of God’s Word in order to decide whether God’s Word is true—there is nothing healthy about that.
Is there an antidote to deconstruction?
The antidote begins with our churches, our schools, our homeschools returning to God’s Word as the ultimate authority of determining what is true, false, real, right and wrong in this world. We have begun to believe that we can have several different authorities at a time, and we have got to return to understanding that God’s Word is the authority above all earthly powers. We need to become more aware of worldviews that are rising up against our God. We need to start teaching that the supernatural is real. That Ephesians 6 is real. That there are demons out there that have organized themselves to create these worldviews using flesh and blood to get it done. And that Satan is real, that he hates God, and that the supernatural world is the world we exist in, and it is played out in our physical world.
We need to teach that God’s truth is convincing—not through my senses necessarily, not through just my experiences or my feelings—but God’s Word becomes convincing through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. I don’t believe in God because my senses tell me to believe. I believe because the Holy Spirit has acted upon me. Now, our senses are great because they demonstrate the truth of God, but what determines the truth of God is the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts.