Deconstruction Or Reconstruction?

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to Tuesday Talks With Titus! Today, we will be talking about deconstruction, specifically what it is and how we can help people who are backsliding or deconstructing. What is deconstruction? There are two types of deconstruction: #1 is what I like to call "the next high," which is the type of deconstruction where someone wants to try out Jesus to see if He will make them happy, but they never make a commitment to fully follow Christ. (That is the type we will be talking about later.) 

#2 is: Christians that are having a crisis of faith and this can follow with "backsliding" To be clear, backsliding, in this case, is when a person of faith begins to justify sin and fall into habits that of an unbeliever. While doubt is connected to backsliding and deconstruction, I believe this topic needs to be discussed further in the next episode. But first, I wanted to take a minute to talk about why a Christian can backslide without losing their salvation. I want to be clear, please don't use what I am about to talk about as an excuse to not repent of this sin because when a Christian backslides, there is a major problem that needs to be dealt with by God and with Biblical accountability. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5:17  "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  When Christians are saved, they are made new through Christ and will never be the same again. Sadly, though, Christians are still humans, and we fall into the sins of this world. (1 John 1:8).

Deconstruction brings a lot of questions, let's break them down. The first question that I had was, "Can a born-again believer completely deny God?" First off, I do want to say that a Christian can backslide. Christians might choose to sin, but those sins are paid for. But a Christian cannot choose to fully walk away from God. 1 John 2:9 says, "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."

Is it possible to doubt? Yes, but when you truly have Jesus in your life, God will help you know what to do with those doubts. Let's look at Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Doubts should drive us to the Bible for answers from God to affirm our faith, or if you're not a believer, point you to salvation. The Holy Spirit does not leave you hanging, (Romans 8:16). Also, remember that Satan is not in control of your life, God is. Tell Satan to shut up! Resist the devil, and he will flee from you - James 4:7. Christianity is not meant to be a solo road. When you don't have a church family it can be harder to deal with these doubts, so if you aren't already, get plugged into a Bible-believing church. If you are plugged into a church, talk to your pastor or your brothers and sisters in Christ, because that is one of many things the church is for. And if anyone looks down on you because you are having doubts, they need to take a look at themselves. We all have doubts. It's part of the curse of being human, but God can help us through those doubts. 

When I was doing research on deconstruction, one of the things I heard a lot of was something along the lines of, "People keep telling me If I fall away now, I must have never believed, but for me, that's not the case. I went to church every week, read my Bible every day, and was a part of the choir, worship team, etc. I have to have been a Christian according to your standards." Before I say what I think about that statement let's see what God says. Ephesians 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works so that no one can boast." Our works will do nothing to get us saved.

If you have not accepted God's gift of salvation, your works will mean nothing in the end. I want you to notice I said gift. Let me give you a fictional story with nonfictional truths. "Once, there was a young man named Paul. Paul was ecstatic! It was Paul's birthday. Paul had been dreaming of getting the newest gaming system, but It was way out of his price range (Paul didn't have more than a dollar.) And because of how much it was, Paul was sure his parents would never be able to afford it because it was the only one of its kind, and because of that, it was priceless. After all the birthday celebrations were over, Paul and his family sat down to open presents, but there was only one present. Paul began to open it, and he couldn't believe his eyes, It was the gaming station! "How did you afford this?!" Paul asked his parents, "We didn't." said his mom. "WHAT?!" said Paul. "You need to pay for it in full." said his dad. "But, I thought it was a gift," said Paul, beginning to cry. Paul then got a job to try to pay for the system, and in 5 years, Paul made over $500,000. He gave it to his mom and dad and asked if it was enough, and his parents laughed because it wasn't even close to how much he owed. From that moment on, Paul was always wishing that what he would give his parents would settle the debt, but it never did; not even his children's children could pay the debt." That story is fictional, although there are people who believe they can do enough to earn the gift of God. All this to say, these people are saying that they had faith in God, but God says if you truly had faith in Him in the first place, you will NEVER lose your salvation! Galatians 4:4-5 Says this, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,  so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters."  We are no longer bound by the law. When you are saved, doing good works is what God wants you to do but it doesn't save you. There are many reasons people go through the deconstruction process, this is only one example of many. 

At this point, you may wonder what the "reconstruction" part is. When people begin to deconstruct, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ need to help them reconstruct (Galatians 6:1) so here is a list of questions you can ask someone who is undergoing the deconstruction process 

What do you mean when you say you are deconstructing?

What started you on this journey?

What are some of your biggest questions?

Who is helping you in your deconstructing process?

Where are you looking for answers?

Are you questioning Scripture or questioning Christianity?

How can I help you rebuild your faith?

(Credit: Answers in Genesis.) 

These are some questions to help get the conversation going.

Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today, but remember to join me on the 30th of this month when we will dig deeper into the topic of backsliding. If you have questions on this, you can email me at Tuesdaytalkswithtitus@gmail.com. 

Let me end with this: If you're saved, put it in the words of “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” and "No turning back, no turning back.” Thank you so much for reading this blog of Tuesday Talks With Titus! If you haven't already, please consider following my podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget, to listen to the podcast version of this, because you'll miss some things I don't write in the Blog and it works the same way around! We'll see you next time on, Tuesday Talks With Titus!


Written by Titus Kitchen.