As of the last week or so in particular I have noticed a plethora of deconstructionist type videos appearing on You Tube. I am not sure if something I looked at recently triggered this; or it is something which at this time is gaining traction (which I would assume in general it is).
I have seen a number of interesting topics on this site recently; but as with the first thing I mentioned I have concerns about endless intellectual arguments that lead us nowhere. That can be true to some extent even with scripture; although I am glad to see so much of it coming up of late with such topics as the Trinity in particular there also needs to be the realization that we never will understand everything about the scriptures and mysteries of God and second there has to be some sort of agreement and there should be unity on the basic concepts of scripture as believers. Without this concept then anyone can throw us off; because even with true faith more questions inevitably arise whenever one is answered. This seems like blind faith to some degree; but I would characterize it as a trusting faith in a God that gives us enough guidelines to remain on the straight and narrow to make it to the Promised Land. We can't always put our understanding as the standard of whether we accept or reject something. We trust that the scripture is sufficient for all doctrine; teaching; etc ( 2 Timothy 3:16 I believe).
Some things for the future are clear enough; certainly there is no end for instance to the Father; Son or Spirit even if we have some issue with eternity past; but in the same token if we start to doubt one thing likely the enemy will cause us to doubt other things. One could look at Predestination in light of this concept as well; whether we believe in free will or not in the end we should agree that God is fair and the number saved and lost will be set in stone in the future even if we don't believe it was in the past.
Hi Richard. You mentioned deconstructionism. This is a new term for me. Can you please explain what the idea is of deconstructionism is and how it affects Christian doctrine? Thanks, I appreciate that.
In light of my last posting a few seconds ago; when we wrestle with tough scriptures and go through emotional sadness over the condition of sin and its effects I thought of something else.
It probably goes without saying here how we in this country still even with all that's going on have it pretty good compared with most of the rest of the world. They wouldn't admit it of course; but this lack of scriptural knowledge on how we are called as Christians to suffer and have God chastise us has made us very weak indeed in general as believers in the USA today. If we are willing to suffer for His Name's sake; then all the arguments about the evils of the world at least can be relatable; that is hard for the prosperity teachers to grasp no doubt until perhaps some personal tragedy comes forth in their lives (which in their minds may be a financial bankruptcy due to their own greed for gain). No doubt many atheists will argue that they are concerned about evils in society; which is justified to a point as to how the compromised churches handle it or ignore problems in the world today. I'm sure some deconstructionists aren't concerned that much about others but that of course won't be an honest admission; unless they become diehard Satanists.
We of course have to be aware of how media may be bolstering views for those who disavow God and of course suppress those who do preach truth.
On the positive side there is much historical evidence for scripture; some of which is a couple hundred years old but nonetheless valid. I'm still learning myself but it is good when we can show evidence for a skeptic who is actually seeking validity of the scriptures in regard to the history. That doesn't seem to be the focus today. The whole "unhitching" concept brought up by Andy Stanley from the Old Testament seems only a step away from what many detractors are saying about Yahweh being a cruel and tempermental God.
I wanted to emphasize that those who spend a lot of time on social media are going to be blindsided by the rebuttal of well known teachers of truth by these individuals. I haven't the time or heart to stomach it; except for the rare instance when someone is discussing politics and how people are putting certain individuals on a level of worship (won't mention any names).
Sometimes there are Christians who can critique these things; but you can't be sure until watching certain videos where the narrator stands.
There are a few pastors and well known musicians who have embraced this mentality. Again; it is important for those who do believe to be aware of hypocrisy within the church so that a claim can be judged valid or invalid that is hurled as an accusation.
We can't of course win every intellectual or historical argument; but knowledge of the Bible and some worldly wisdom benefits us if we seriously engage these people; otherwise we may very well get steamrolled attempting any discourse with these individuals. Again; not for self justification-but I have attempted to bring out Calvin and Luthor as not being exactly steller examples of believers demonstrating the love of God to each other; but in the same token showing that they indeed grasp some deep truths in regard to characteristics of God's sovereignty and predestination in particular.
The hard verses I have also attempted to give some answer for where women and children; and men and animals were called for destruction. One of them is that some were giant offspring and therefore not human; and the other is that their sin (such as rampant infant sacrifices) were so heinous that if anything future suffering was relieved with their quick demise. The other point was that physical death doesn't always equate spiritual as for instance appears to be the case for children under a certain age.
If we can't struggle with the angst these truths show us we aren't very human.
In a nutshell; it is verbage intended to justify a move away from faith in the Bible. My concern is that we are able to grasp some of these concepts to have wise answers for those who examine the tough scriptures and find the God we believe in illogical; or just plain mean. These people at least are going to these passages and for those who aren't scripturally knowledgeable that is one issue; but for those who are easily swayed by these arguments will be tempted to fall away. I believe that this is part of the falling away and God judging the church; and its intended result by God would be to galvanize those of true faith to shine their light ever brighter.
It wasn't intentional on my part to focus on God's "emotions" as a direct rebuttal for such individuals; but I'm trying to go through tough scriptures. The hardest ones; of course talk of God destroying men; women and children. I suspect part of the problem is with professing believers who take concepts like God's love and want to forget about His wrath as having to be the other side of God's character; the same idea exists with blessing and cursings which also are prominent throughout scripture.
Misuse of scriptures by professing Christians; of course has justified in some minds adultery; abuse of women and children; and violence; a greedy "prosperity" gospel; etc. I believe we need more individuals weeping as it were in front of the altar; genuine remorse for sin; of course only comes from those transformed within; and most atheists cannot deny when a person is genuine; even if they hate what they have to say.
It used to be years ago that some would quietly walk away from church; often because they cherished their sin too much; but they had enough sense not to continue in church as a hypocrite with their lives contradicting in action what they were called to claim to believe. Nowadays; the pride of society seems to have brought many who want to prove through arguments how dumb our faith is.
As of the last week or so in particular I have noticed a plethora of deconstructionist type videos appearing on You Tube. I am not sure if something I looked at recently triggered this; or it is something which at this time is gaining traction (which I would assume in general it is).
I have seen a number of interesting topics on this site recently; but as with the first thing I mentioned I have concerns about endless intellectual arguments that lead us nowhere. That can be true to some extent even with scripture; although I am glad to see so much of it coming up of late with such topics as the Trinity in particular there also needs to be the realization that we never will understand everything about the scriptures and mysteries of God and second there has to be some sort of agreement and there should be unity on the basic concepts of scripture as believers. Without this concept then anyone can throw us off; because even with true faith more questions inevitably arise whenever one is answered. This seems like blind faith to some degree; but I would characterize it as a trusting faith in a God that gives us enough guidelines to remain on the straight and narrow to make it to the Promised Land. We can't always put our understanding as the standard of whether we accept or reject something. We trust that the scripture is sufficient for all doctrine; teaching; etc ( 2 Timothy 3:16 I believe).
Some things for the future are clear enough; certainly there is no end for instance to the Father; Son or Spirit even if we have some issue with eternity past; but in the same token if we start to doubt one thing likely the enemy will cause us to doubt other things. One could look at Predestination in light of this concept as well; whether we believe in free will or not in the end we should agree that God is fair and the number saved and lost will be set in stone in the future even if we don't believe it was in the past.
Just observing
In light of my last posting a few seconds ago; when we wrestle with tough scriptures and go through emotional sadness over the condition of sin and its effects I thought of something else.
It probably goes without saying here how we in this country still even with all that's going on have it pretty good compared with most of the rest of the world. They wouldn't admit it of course; but this lack of scriptural knowledge on how we are called as Christians to suffer and have God chastise us has made us very weak indeed in general as believers in the USA today. If we are willing to suffer for His Name's sake; then all the arguments about the evils of the world at least can be relatable; that is hard for the prosperity teachers to grasp no doubt until perhaps some personal tragedy comes forth in their lives (which in their minds may be a financial bankruptcy due to their own greed for gain). No doubt many atheists will argue that they are concerned about evils in society; which is justified to a point as to how the compromised churches handle it or ignore problems in the world today. I'm sure some deconstructionists aren't concerned that much about others but that of course won't be an honest admission; unless they become diehard Satanists.
We of course have to be aware of how media may be bolstering views for those who disavow God and of course suppress those who do preach truth.
On the positive side there is much historical evidence for scripture; some of which is a couple hundred years old but nonetheless valid. I'm still learning myself but it is good when we can show evidence for a skeptic who is actually seeking validity of the scriptures in regard to the history. That doesn't seem to be the focus today. The whole "unhitching" concept brought up by Andy Stanley from the Old Testament seems only a step away from what many detractors are saying about Yahweh being a cruel and tempermental God.
I wanted to emphasize that those who spend a lot of time on social media are going to be blindsided by the rebuttal of well known teachers of truth by these individuals. I haven't the time or heart to stomach it; except for the rare instance when someone is discussing politics and how people are putting certain individuals on a level of worship (won't mention any names).
Sometimes there are Christians who can critique these things; but you can't be sure until watching certain videos where the narrator stands.
There are a few pastors and well known musicians who have embraced this mentality. Again; it is important for those who do believe to be aware of hypocrisy within the church so that a claim can be judged valid or invalid that is hurled as an accusation.
We can't of course win every intellectual or historical argument; but knowledge of the Bible and some worldly wisdom benefits us if we seriously engage these people; otherwise we may very well get steamrolled attempting any discourse with these individuals. Again; not for self justification-but I have attempted to bring out Calvin and Luthor as not being exactly steller examples of believers demonstrating the love of God to each other; but in the same token showing that they indeed grasp some deep truths in regard to characteristics of God's sovereignty and predestination in particular.
The hard verses I have also attempted to give some answer for where women and children; and men and animals were called for destruction. One of them is that some were giant offspring and therefore not human; and the other is that their sin (such as rampant infant sacrifices) were so heinous that if anything future suffering was relieved with their quick demise. The other point was that physical death doesn't always equate spiritual as for instance appears to be the case for children under a certain age.
If we can't struggle with the angst these truths show us we aren't very human.
It wasn't intentional on my part to focus on God's "emotions" as a direct rebuttal for such individuals; but I'm trying to go through tough scriptures. The hardest ones; of course talk of God destroying men; women and children. I suspect part of the problem is with professing believers who take concepts like God's love and want to forget about His wrath as having to be the other side of God's character; the same idea exists with blessing and cursings which also are prominent throughout scripture.
Misuse of scriptures by professing Christians; of course has justified in some minds adultery; abuse of women and children; and violence; a greedy "prosperity" gospel; etc. I believe we need more individuals weeping as it were in front of the altar; genuine remorse for sin; of course only comes from those transformed within; and most atheists cannot deny when a person is genuine; even if they hate what they have to say.
It used to be years ago that some would quietly walk away from church; often because they cherished their sin too much; but they had enough sense not to continue in church as a hypocrite with their lives contradicting in action what they were called to claim to believe. Nowadays; the pride of society seems to have brought many who want to prove through arguments how dumb our faith is.
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