Reformation Not Deconstruction

Deconstruction is dumb. There. I said it. 

Now, hear me out. Deconstruction, in its purest sense, is to take something apart—the exact opposite of construction—so that it can be put back together in a different way. If construction means to build something, often piece by piece, then deconstruction means to take something apart, similarly piece by piece, before examining it, and putting it back in a different way. In philosophy, it means to examine an idea, concept, or thing fully, in order to break down all its individual pieces, so that the inadequacies of the idea, concept, or thing can be revealed. 

A Lego set is a useful analogy. You painstakingly piece it together according to the instruction manual so that your children can enjoy the completed piece. Then, one day, they decide to take the whole thing apart while you’re not around. But they don’t have the instruction manual, so they try to piece it back together the best they can. The result? A confused mess that, once upon a time, looked like the Death Star from Star Wars, but has now become a triangular shaped castle. Somehow.

The Insanity of Rebuilding without Direction

Like a child tearing apart their Lego set and then trying to rebuild it without instructions, deconstruction can never piece the faith back together.

People often use the term "deconstruction" to refer to how they left behind certain tenets of the Christian faith, and sometimes how they left the faith all together. In modern nomenclature, it isn't uncommon to hear someone speak of how they "deconstructed" from Christianity. These testimonies of deconstruction are typically paired together with emotional "tell-all's," that really only serve one purpose: To emotionally convince and manipulate the hearer into believing that the testifier was once blind but had come to see the truth that their former religion was antiquated, misogynistic, legalistic, and dead. This is a form of what I've come to refer to as narratival gaslighting—a manipulative tactic that depends on making the hearer think they're insane for holding the beliefs they do, accomplished by spinning a narrative web dependent on the feelings and subjective experiences of the story-teller. 

Deconstruction has thus become something of a buzzword among ex-evangelicals. It's the cool thing for all the smart and respectable people in the room to do, who have become increasingly wise in their own eyes. Unfortunately, there's often more hope for fools than the vain and conceited (Prov. 26:12). These individuals continue the self-subterfuge described in Romans 1:18-32. They exchange the truth of God for their own lie and, in place of worshiping the true God, they construct an idol of self to fall before. Their deconstruction from Christianity is little more than self-destruction from reality. 

We Don't Need Deconstruction

Those who deconstruct typically say that they do so because they want to find the truth for themselves. They want to leave behind the legalistic baggage of false Christian doctrine and teaching they were sold when they were children, and they want to reach out and embrace the truth, no matter the cost, or what they must leave behind to get there. 

Though it may sound good at first, there are several serious issues with the concept of deconstruction. 

First, truth is not a relative or subjective concept dependent upon the experiences of the individual. Is it possible that false teachings may influence us? Yes. Is it equally possible that we may need to recognize and leave behind those false teachings? Undoubtedly. But to recognize falsehoods from truth, one must examine more than oneself. In fact, to learn any sort of meaningful truth at all, one must consult the Scriptures. To begin anywhere else is a mistake, and to begin by peering first into the self is tantamount to trying to fix a leaky faucet with a battle ax. 

The second issue is that without Scripture there is no way for man to determine what is legalistic and what is lawful. It's easy for someone to say, "It was legalistic for my church to say I couldn't wear short shorts," and it's equally easy to say, "It was legalistic of my pastor to preach that sex before marriage is a sin." But are either of those actually legalistic? The first may not be a command in Scripture, but Scripture does state that we are to dress modestly (1 Tim. 2:9). By good and necessary consequence, a Christian can deduce from Scripture that wearing short shorts is not really virtuous, prudent, or commendable. Meanwhile, Scripture contains numerous verses, like Matthew 15:19, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Hebrews 13:4, and Exodus 20:14—and others—that call sex outside of marriage sinful. 

Scripture must be our guide. It is our instruction manual, and there can be no meaningful construction outside of the Bible’s guidance.

We Need Reformation

Christians over the centuries have had to contend with the fact that they were taught to believe and practice non-biblical teachings. Can there actually be a healthy response to such revelations apart from deconstruction?

History would tell us that, yes, there is a healthy response, and it's called reformation. 

The Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century are probably our best example. As they awoke to the reality that the Roman Catholic Church had dimmed the light of the gospel, added works as a requirement of salvation and taught the opinions of men as the Word of God, they realized there was only one thing to do: They had to consult God's Word and live by it. 

Here, then, is where reformation differs from deconstruction. Deconstruction tries to tear down everything because it finds even the foundation lacking. What it pieces together in its place is often a strange amalgamation of confusing beliefs and contradictory feelings. Reformation, however, looks at the foundation and everything built above it and says, "The foundation, which is Christ and His Word, is good. Some of the design is wrong, but that can be fixed." Rather than destroying, reformation seeks to build atop the solid rock foundation of Christ by removing non-biblical doctrines and, in their place, inserting the true and undefiled Word of God. 

The Reformers did not deconstruct from the Christian faith; rather, they Reformed the Christian faith by returning to Scripture, the creeds, and the Church fathers. Deconstructionists don't reform their faith; rather, they destroy their faith by shredding the Bible and listening to the currently trending secular gurus as the ministers of their new and ultimately godless faith. 

Let us seek to be like the Reformers. Or to put it another way, let us be as the Bereans, who searched the Scriptures to see the truth for themselves. And then let us put into practice that which is truly biblical.