You’ve probably read, or heard of the poem by Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken”. You know the one that starts “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”. If you haven’t, you should. It’s a beautiful example in writing of the loss of possible missed opportunity, or wondering of what could have been if you’d take a different path. Would your life be for the better? Or worse? Sadly in the history of the church in regards to postmodernism it seems to be a pull to re-examine the road NOT taken and instead try to go back and take the one that is much broader and nicer.

  Last week we looked in a semi-broad way about Postmodern Philosophy.  This week we will break that down in a better way to defend against this trend of deconstruction, or deconstructing ones faith. The idea of deconstruction comes out of the emergent church movement, so one can’t be viewed without the other. While postmodern thought was publicly pushed by Jean Francois Lyotard (who we talked about last week), deconstruction in culture and art as well as thought was really fine-tuned and pushed by Jacques Derrida. He was a Sephardic Jew  who grew up in French Algeria in the 30s and 40s. He was raised in a semi-orthodox home, but because of antisemitism in Algeria in the 40s left school and began reading and studying the likes of Marx, Darwin, and Nietzsche. All who had a profound impact on him. He developed the idea of deconstruction as a way to get back to an original in any given subject and from there start with a re-creating of what it should be based on a modern meaning. He called it “under-erasure”, which basically means you use any tradition term, like marriage say, as long as you need to until it has been replaced with an accepted, and reformulated idea.

  There are many errors with deconstruction, the biggest being you cannot actually give it a definition. It is such a loose construct whose end, possibly by design, is to only cause distrust and skepticism in one’s trust of an established truth or tradition or even an institution. Another problem with deconstruction is the relationship it has with Communism, and atheistic thought. The core belief of deconstruction is to question everything, break something down and rebuild it into something that does not define an absolute. Which every communist revolution and dictatorship has used in the past. You must break down what society trusted in, i.e.. governments, churches, laws, and instead replace it with a wonderfully newfound truth that is to be worshiped. Out of all this we have the philosophical fallacies of Deconstruction. 

  So what does this have to do with the Church? Everything, because we have an enemy who wants to destroy the Bride of Christ by any means necessary and that includes seeding the church with doubters and false teaching; cue the emergent church. The emergent church has become an ever encroaching group that seeks to bring the church into a more relevant relationship with society. Through the use of different Bible translations, looser teaching on biblical standards and using a “Jesus only” approach to soft peddle false teaching into the church. Like the philosophy of deconstruction, the emergent church has no clear definition, so it’s very hard to combat its teaching because it’s very fluid it it’s approach. However, we can look at a few of their main issues. One, being the idea of “Jesus only” teaching. It is a Motte-and-Bailey fallacy. Now we all agree God in the person of Jesus Christ has supremecy in our teaching and instruction (Motte) they would go further and state that we look to Jesus for our guide in social issues to solve the wrongs of society, similar to how people view Gandhi, or Martin Luther King. So while we look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our Faith (Hebrews 12:2) we don’t just look to Him about salvation. We view him as a great social justice warrior to whom we can go to to look to restructure our society into a more fair, and equitable way.  That is not who Jesus is. And we can look in two different places in scripture to see that; John 18:36, and 1 John 4:2-3. Both deal with who Christ is, and what was His mission.

   By combining the two processes of the emergent church, and the deconstructing fallacy, you have a clear picture of what is going on, regardless of lack of proper definitions in both thoughts, and despite having clear biblical truth in both to draw from. The definition is this: it is a Motte-and-Bailey fallacy based on the idea that we should go back to the basics of Christianity, back to the beginning and then reconstruct it based on a relevant truth perspective for today’s church that will comfortably fit together. And I call it a Motte-and-Bailey because scripture DOES tell us to seek out the old path and walk therein(Jeremiah 6:16), to keep and remember the gifts and faith that we have (2 Timothy 1:5-6) to study and discern God’s truth , not our own, in Scripture ( 2 Timothy 2:15).  So there you have the part of deconstruction that is true, let’s get back to the fundamentals, study and learn it, grow in it. Where the Bailey is, is in the idea that we then need to RE-construct the Word of God into some playbook for social justice reform, or make scripture less offensive, or make Jesus into a great social figure for us to look at for a model on how to go about reforming a society. The Word of God is to change the heart of the hearer, not society.  To bring about salvation to the hearer and bring them into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, not to make everyone equal, or make society equitable. The Word of God, and the truths of Salvation through Christ are not some relative version you can twist and mold it to what you think society, or the church should look like. They are Absolutes. Just as gravity is an absolute, or the Laws of Thermodynamics. You cannot argue with the laws of nature God has created, just as you cannot with the moral laws and truths of God’s Word.

   there are all kinds of books out there explaining deconstruction or postmodernism, and I don’t want to oversimplify the process of deconstruction, or mitigate the dangers of the emergent church but they can both be summed up in this process: The emergent church is a product of deconstruction, which comes out of postmodernism. Which in turn is a fruit of radical communism and atheistic thought brought about from the influence of Karl Marx. Those things all trace back to this one simple truth: we have an enemy and it’s Satan.  Who has been an accuser of the brethren, a liar, and at odds with the Lord God Almighty since his rebellion and expulsion from Heaven. We can’t see it from the human side, but we’d see the spiritual warfare that goes on if we simply stop and take a moment to understand trends through the lense of Scripture and not though our own fallible emotions and desires. It’s when we do that, that we actually see some of these things for what they truly are: lies, and false teachings. Of course we want to see people rise out of the clutches of sin, or addictions. To see people treated fairly and lovingly! However, that is only done through a surrendered heart to God, accepting the gift of salvation through Christ and not by some social justice cause championed by well-meaning, but misguided Christians who are falling victim to ploys of Satan to corrupt God’s word.

  We have the truths we need to fight in this battle, and they are in the Bible. It does take diligence, and determination to learn and study to Bible and apply God’s truths into my life. These fallacies can only last as long as people aren’t challenging them and exposing them to the light of Scripture. So we as Christians have to be on guard against these false teachings and their variants as they raise there ugly heads! Keep strong!

Here are the last two verses of a beautiful hymn to help us boldly stand for Christ! Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
stand in his strength alone;
the arm of flesh will fail you,
ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armor,
each piece put on with prayer;
where duty calls or danger,
be never wanting there.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
the strife will not be long;
this day the noise of battle,
the next, the victor’s song.
To him that overcometh
a crown of life shall be;
he with the King of glory
shall reign eternally.