Deconstruction can be a powerful thing if applied in your life. Its true purpose is the identification of human wisdom, traditions, and cultures that have infected your mind and soul, preventing you from fully walking with the Lord. These “other truths” are a part of a religious system that holds no kingdom value. They are like unruly weeds that strangle the life out of the garden, reducing harvest, making everything struggle.
As each “fake truth” is removed from your garden, greater levels of freedom come into play. However, just as the old saying in patriotic circles often says, “Freedom is Never Free.” That truth is also true here. Weeds regrow, errors resurface, and must be dealt with from time to time. Once they have been kicked out for a while and the real estate of your soul has been free, we start to become quicker in response, more aware of the lies.
We learn to transition from cultivating a poverty garden of finely managed weeds in rows to a substance garden of real food that will eventually become abundant enough to share with others.
One of the primary issues is the fact that many weeds, early in the growth cycle, can be very hard to distinguish from valuable plants. Darkness likes to use traditional misplaced religious words to hide behind. We often will not challenge them for a variety of reasons.
A prophetic woman who is no longer active, by the name of Hollie Moody, once had a vision of two Jesus’s speaking and teaching groups of people. Confused, she asked the Holy Spirit about them. The Spirit told her to get up close and look at them. Looking very closely, she finally noticed a small crack in the face of one of the teachers. When she finally became aware of the flaw, suddenly the face changed, and a demon of anger and rage replaced the fake Jesus.
This could only have happened when Hollie closely examined this entity. And once the flaw was found, the disguise was removed, and she could see the truth. Let’s use an example for teaching purposes.
The following quote is from a Lutheran Substack writer who uses his platform to teach Lutheran theology.
“The original righteousness that once aligned human nature with God's will was lost in the Fall. What remains is a will inclined toward darkness and a reason turned inward, no longer capable of seeking or trusting in the true saving God. Only through the intervention of His written Communication with us through Scripture can this bondage be overcome.”
The first thing that should be noted is the replacement of Jesus’s participation in the restoration of mankind back to the Father. In His place, scripture has been lifted up to god-level as the only means of salvation through a work-based system of personal dedication. This can be directly connected to Galatians 2:21 NASB. “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
The second thing is that the understanding of sin has been replaced as well. With this, the true issue has been sidestepped, and the conversation has been replaced with a type of mysterious righteousness that has no apparent connection to blood or faith. This can be connected to Romans 3:21-26 NASB, where God's righteousness is revealed through faith in Jesus Christ, separate from any legalistic system or human works. Let's take a quick look, “V 22 - but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction”
As a whole, this Lutherian paragraph points the reader away from the faith in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus to a work-based system of reasoning and human effort. In this subtle religious system, the reader is stuck on the hamster wheel of always trying, but never acquiring. Under Jesus, righteousness is freely given as a gift, with the rest of your life learning to walk in the reality of it.
Lutherian Theology Statement Rewritten
“The original relationship that once co-entwined the human soul with God's presence was broken in the Fall. What remains is a soul infected with the dark poison of sin from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This has turned our race inward, with a heart of doublemindedness, incapable of seeking or trusting in the true saving God. Only through the intervention of the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus. As well as the guidance of The Holy Spirit, can the demonstrations of wisdom written to us through Scripture be useful in breaking and overcoming the bondages of this world.”
All of Christianity is a relationship, as a result, all actions should be viewed through this lens. As a relationship, the systems of the Earth are broken and exposed. Performance-based religion, no matter how good it looks or feels, must be exposed to ourselfs and other for the light of truth to work.
Other Examples
Many Protestant faiths can be nothing more than works of the flesh dressed up to look fancy before the world, even the Charismatic.
Another area that requires work is an issue playing out before many of us right now. At this moment, the Lord himself is exposing rebellious leader after rebellious leader. Part of this is preparation for the next step in the Lord’s plans, and part of this is to make the body fully aware of the evil so that we are without excuse for our actions.
Consider this scripture concerning Elders. “Do not accept an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.” 1 Timothy 5. Is this not what we see happening, playing out in real time before the Body? Leaders are getting exposed, more witnesses arrive, and the leader remains defiant, so they are now getting rebuked before everyone. Sound simple, right?
Not really, in this case, bad teaching and culture get in the way. Preventing the work of the Lord from moving forward.
Even though my dad was born in Arkansas and I was raised in the Pacific Northwest. There were many aspects of Southern Culture I did not truly comprehend until I moved to South Carolina. Despite mass overcrowding, and the bugs, to me, the south felt like I was going home.
It was not until one day, a young black man from Alabama decided we should go to a local restaurant to have a talk, that some of my questions got answered. You see in the west, if a pastor gets caught doing something, or teaching something that makes people uncomfortable. Well, it’s not uncommon for the elders to call him on the carpet. The same often goes for any other leader.
I remember a young man who was in youth ministry who got accused of rape of a student. The board jumped on that case very quickly. He was arrested, the girl got help, and the elders spent serious time with his parents. The sin of a leader was not tolerated.
But as the young black man explained, the South was a completely different playing field. As he told me, “If you (speaking of me) started a church, then all of us joined we would automatically follow whatever you said, because you are the man of God and your word is not to be challenged.”
This was a shocking revelation to me, so blind is the following that if the “man of god” does something unbiblical, it is justified because you do not oppose the high leader.
In this great error, people are trained to accept the filth of leadership and look the other way out of some sort of distorted, twisted concept of serving God.
This is why I feel so many of the fallen we now see are either in the south or have connections to it. This slave/master mentality resident in the Body I feel can be directly connected to the slave/master spirit that gave rise to the Civil War in the 1860s. In this way, the spiritual stronghold is still present and better at hiding.
The road of Deconstruction is not quick, simple, or without pain. You will lose friends, but gain a small number back, and often wonder if it was all worth it. You will fall into patterns that can be good and, unfortunately, sometimes bad, all in an effort to get away from the mess you are looking at. But repentance, forgiveness, and wisdom are the road to rebuilding a stronger faith. I’m still on the journey, how about you?
I like the questions Wanda Is asking here.
I am hoping in the next few post to start driving deeper into not only deconstruction, but possible (as I see it) some of the roots of this mess.
I have hinted at some of this in previous posts, but I will say thins here for now. I am starting to wonder if the Charismatic has been on a 40 year detour, and small errors have been layer on top of small erros like a bad cake. Stay tuned.