Deconstruction: Dealing With Doubts and Questions
Check out the first three posts in the series below:
Deconstruction: First, a Worldview
Deconstruction: A Quick Church History
Deconstruction: What Does It Mean and How Do You Do It?
Deconstruction is currently a very trendy topic and thing to do. Before we talk about helping those who are in the midst of deconstruction, let’s look at another related serious subject associated with deconstruction. Is it ok to doubt, question, and rethink things about Christianity? What does it mean when someone decides to walk away from Christianity based on their doubts?
Doubts and Questions
When it comes to deconstruction, many people share that their journey began with doubts or unanswered questions about Christianity and the Bible. Some would even say that they were judged for asking these questions or told to “just have more faith”. Is there room for doubt and questions in the lives of genuine Christians?
First of all, it is not wrong to have questions or struggle with doubt. In fact, God is not afraid of our questions and welcomes our weaknesses. Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett in “The Deconstruction of Christianity” write about questions, “Deconstructed beliefs nearly always begin with questions. It’s not that questions are bad. Questions can be good. Jesus himself asked over three hundred of them in the Gospels alone. But not all questions are honest questions. When it comes to faith, some questions seek answers, and some questions seek exits. There are questions that seek after truth, but other questions seek to avoid truth…in Genesis 3, Satan sought to deceive Eve by questioning God’s word. Incidentally, his game plan hasn’t changed.” The kinds of questions we ask are important, as are the reasons why we ask the questions.
When it comes to doubt and faith, thankfully, as Christians we are not saved by the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith. In Matthew 17:20 the Bible talks about the effectiveness of faith even as small as a mustard seed. In 2 Timothy 2:13, we learn that God is always faithful, even when we ourselves struggle to have faith. When doubts arise or questions are planted, we must be like the Bereans in Scripture (Acts 17:11) who compared everything that they heard or were taught to what the Bible said. Scripture is our guide in dealing with questions and doubts. When we reject Scripture, there is no other standard.
While doubts and questions are certainly welcome in the Christian faith and cannot be ignored, we also want to be careful to resolve these questions and seek answers. We don’t want to stay in a place of doubt or questioning. Ambiguity leads to anxiety. We need the solid foundation of God’s Word to keep us grounded when it comes to our doubts and questions.
Apostasy
We all know people who claimed to be Christians who have walked away or rejected their faith. Sometimes this could be a person who grew up in a church or Christian family; maybe it is a prominent Christian figure or pastor who has decided that they no longer believe in God. We call this “apostasy”; a major departure from the faith or a rejection of important Christian doctrines.
Apostasy is a very serious subject. Even Christians can be apostate; but we often wonder if those who reject the truth were even a Christian to begin with; or, we wonder if they are still saved even though they are no longer following God.
The book of Jude deals with those who have become apostate and others who are doubting or being swayed by false teaching. Jude 3-4 discusses the characteristics of “certain persons” who have crept into churches “unnoticed”: they are ungodly people, who live a carnal or sinful lifestyle, who use God’s grace as licentiousness to do whatever they want, including to satisfy their own lusts. These false teachers deny the Lord Jesus Christ and reject Jesus as God or His work on the cross. This is an intellectual decision; their conscience knows that they are wrong, so they need to intellectually decide that God and the Bible is wrong and they are right. In Jude, believers are encouraged to “contend for the faith”. Faith centers on the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. Contend is an action word; it has the idea to follow, obey, submit, and fight for the truth.
Later on in Jude 17-23, we find further information on how to respond to these false teachers and those involved in apostasy. According to verses 17-19, Christians have been warned since the beginning of the Church that ungodly people, or mockers, will exist. When we see this happening today, we need to remember that it is not new! In verses 20-21 we find instructions to be faithful and ‘contend for the faith’:
Build yourself on your faith
Prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit
Abide in God’s love (obey him!)
Anticipate the return of Jesus Christ / our salvation
Finally, Christinas are encouraged to take action towards those who are doubting. We must have mercy on those who are doubting; for example, fellow Christians who are struggling to determine truth from error. In this process, we must be kind and patient to help those who are genuinely struggling. In verse 23, Christians are told to “save others”, or those who apparently have already succumbed to false teaching. This is serious, but apparently there is hope of turning them back to God. We must recognize that God is not pleased by their allegiance to false teaching, and we must be careful to not show approval for their lies. J. Sidlow Baxter wrote, "We must love, even while we contend against the errors of apostatisers. We must love their souls even while we oppose their words and deplore their ways. Sometimes it is delicately difficult to keep these separate, but the love of Christ in our hearts will put wisdom in our lips.”
In Jude 24, we are encouraged that God is the object of our faith, and the one who truly holds us fast. Because of God’s importance, we cannot allow false teaching about God to happen. While the Bible clearly describes the seriousness of those who teach and fall into apostasy, we are also given tools to encourage those struggling with doubt and reach out to confront false teaching.
Departure from the Truth
When it comes to matters of salvation, how should we view those who have walked away from the truth, especially when this involves the deconstruction process? The short answer is we can never know another person’s heart. Whether they are saved (have placed their faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to save them from their sins) is between them and God. Some may make professions for salvation that are false; we really can’t know. Some who walk away from the Lord were never saved to begin with. Others may be saved but have subscribed to false teaching.
Constable wrote, “a genuine Christian who denies the faith will not lose his or her salvation, because when a person trusts in Christ for salvation God declares that one righteous, seals him or her with His Spirit, and promises that nothing will ever separate him or her from His saving love (cf. John 10:28; Rom. 8:31-39; et al.). That one is "kept for Jesus Christ" (Jude v. 1) and is born again (John 3:1-21). He or she can never become unborn. As we are not saved by doing something good, neither can we be lost by doing something bad, though doing something bad is never God's will for His children.” (taken from his commentary notes on Jude). While we may desire to know the state of someone else’s salvation when we find they have walked away from the truth, the reality is that only God knows. We can take comfort in our own belief and security in the truth and pray for that same knowledge for those who we love who are searching for the truth.
Doubts, questions, and apostasy: these aren’t easy topics to discuss in the church, but we must not be afraid of them. The church must be a welcoming place for those who are struggling in their doubts, where they can find refuge and help. The church people may not know all the answers, but the church must welcome questions and seek to find Biblical answers in response. It must also be a place that stands firmly on the truths of Scripture, and does not waver in confronting false teaching. As Christians, we must work hard to find this balance because we love those who are seeking, searching, and deconstructing.
