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Is God’s justice retributive, restorative, or both?
by George Sidney Hurd
The nature of God’s justice has been the topic of much debate in recent years, alongside of the polemic concerning the nature of Christ’s atonement. Some Conservative scholars only seem to acknowledge God’s retributive justice, whereas many Progressives insist that all of His judgments are purely restorative in nature.
Brian Zahnd, in his typically sardonic and polemic communicative style, is representative of a growing number of Progressives who mock any idea of Christ’s death involving a payment for our sins as our substitute in order to save us from God’s retributive justice. He says:
“The cross is not a picture of payment; the cross is a picture of forgiveness… The justice of God is not retributive; the justice of God is restorative… The cross is not where God finds a whipping boy to vent his rage upon; the cross is where God saves the world through self-sacrificing love. The only thing God will call justice is setting the world right, not punishing an innocent substitute for the petty sake of appeasement.” [1]
While Brian deliberately mischaracterizes the beliefs of his opponents with false dichotomies and inflammatory statements in order to gain an emotional advantage, rather than simply reasoning from the Scriptures, he is nevertheless representative of a growing number of Progressive scholars who offhandedly reject any notion of God’s justice being in any way retributive, or of Christ’s death satisfying God’s justice in our stead, thereby enabling Him to justly justify sinners. I consider the arguments for Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement in my blog “Did Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross change God’s Attitude toward Us?” and also in my book “The Ways of God (As seen through the eyes of a Conservative Restorationist)”. In this blog I simply want to briefly consider their claim that God’s justice is in no way retributive.
First, I would like to define the terms being used. Our word “retribution” is from the Latin re- + tribuere “to pay,” thus meaning “payback or retribution.” The term “retributive justice” refers both to the just reward of the righteous as well as the just penalty or payback for the sins of the unrepentant (cf. Rom 2:5-11; Rev 22:12; 2Thess 1:8 ).
Until now, our judicial systems have operated almost exclusively based upon retributive justice in which the wrongdoer is penalized, and the innocent victims receive compensation for damages inflicted upon them. However, shortly after the criminal psychologist Albert Eglash presented his thesis in favor of replacing retributive justice with a humanistic form of restorative justice in 1977, there has been a major shift away from retributive justice in favor of restorative justice.
Just as with Communism, the concept of restorative justice sounds good in theory, but in practice our whole justice system would fall apart if we were to abandon retributive justice in favor of a purely restorative justice, since it fails to take into account man’s fallen sinful nature. In order for restorative justice to work, both the offender and the victims must not only be willing to meet together in group sessions but the offender must truly repent and the victims must forgive the offender – something that rarely occurs in real life. The Progressive logic behind restorative justice goes hand-in-hand with recent arguments in favor of defunding law enforcement.
In my youth during the 1960s, before coming to the Lord, I served more than three years in correctional institutions and saw firsthand how often inmates managed to make parole early by playing the system, feigning repentance just to get back on the streets in order to continue their life of crime. It’s not hard to imagine how these same individuals would use this so-called restorative justice therapy to their own advantage.
In reality, the traditional justice system is not purely retributive but has restoration as its ultimate objective. If the judge sees that the offender is repentant and not likely to repeat the same crime it is taken into account during the trial. Also, within the penal institutions there are regular group counseling sessions designed to reform the inmates. Additionally, each inmate is periodically reviewed by the parole board, and if they feel that the individual has been adequately rehabilitated, they grant him an early parole.
As I hope to demonstrate, while ultimately God’s justice is restorative in that it culminates in restoration rather than eternal condemnation, it is more comparable to the retributive justice of our traditional penal system than it is to the progressive model of a purely restorative justice. God’s justice is best seen as retributive justice with a view to the restoration of the transgressor.
The main difference between our justice system and God’s justice is that He knows our hearts and judges with perfect judgment according to truth and not appearances. No one can play the system with God, feigning repentance. His punishments always fit the crime, and in His judgments He always remembers mercy. As soon as man repents, God relents.
God’s Retributive Justice seen in History
While God’s retributive justice is primarily eschatological, being “treasured up” for the day of judgment (Rom 2:5), His retributive justice can also be seen in history. While many examples could be cited, here I want to focus upon four major examples in the Old Testament: 1) the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 2) the flood 3) Sodom and Gomorra and 4) the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity in 568 B.C.
God’s Retributive Justice seen in Eden
In the very beginning we see God’s retributive justice being carried out when Adam and Eve transgressed God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were warned that it would result in their certain death, and just as God had warned them, they, as well as all of their descendants, were deprived of the tree of life and died as a consequence of their original sin. Also, the woman’s pain in childbirth was greatly increased and the ground was cursed, requiring man to toil all the days of his life until he returned to the dust from which he came (Gen 3:16-19). Here we can clearly see God’s retributive judgment. He sent them out of the Garden and placed Cherubim there to keep them from partaking of the tree of life (Gen 3:23-24).
God’s Retributive Justice seen in the Flood
The universal flood is another primary example of God’s retributive justice. God sent the flood in judgment because the whole earth had become corrupt and filled with violence (Gen 6:11-13). The Lord said to Noah: “the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” In His patience, God gave them 120 more years to repent while Noah prepared the ark (Gen 6:3; 1Pet 3:20). Then the Lord shut the doors of the ark and sent the flood. Jesus warns that the judgment at His Second Coming will be similar to that which took place in the days of Noah (Luke 17:26-27; Matt 25:31-46).
God’s Retributive Justice seen in the Destruction of Sodom
The third major judgment was that of Sodom. Their wickedness reached the point where there were not even ten righteous among them. The two angels said to Lot: “the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it” (Gen 19:13). The outcry of their victims against them became so great that God intervened and sent fire and brimstone from heaven, destroying them all. I consider the nature of this judgment with more detail in my blog: “Who Destroyed Sodom and Why?” Peter makes it clear that this is retributive justice, saying that God “condemned them (katakrino “to judge against, to sentence”) to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). Likewise, Jude says that they were “set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance (dike ‘justice’) of eternal fire (pur aionios, ‘age during fire’).” (Jude 7) The word dike, translated “vengeance” means justice. However, in the context it is clearly retributive justice and not restorative.
God’s Retributive Justice seen in the Destruction of Jerusalem in 568 B.C.
The final example of judgment which I would like to consider is that of the destruction of Jerusalem followed by the Babylonian captivity. God declared His judgment against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying:
“And you, even yourself, shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.” (Jer 17:4)
“behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, ‘says the Lord,’ and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual (olam) desolations.” (Jer 25:9)
Clearly, there is no hint of restorative justice in these pronouncements of judgement against Jerusalem and its inhabitants. If we were to stop here, it would appear that God’s justice is purely retributive. The same could be said of what we have seen so far in all the previous examples of God’s judgments.
God’s Judgments are Temporal, culminating in Restoration.
While it is true that God’s justice is retributive, many fail to see beyond God’s temporal judgments. They have mistakenly concluded that the end-result of God’s judgments for the great majority of mankind is an unending retribution, as if such a logical and moral contradiction were possible. Such reasoning fails to take into account the end of the Lord which is restoration – not eternal retribution. As James says:
“You have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.” (James 5:11 ASV)
While the Church during the time of the Apostles apparently saw that the end of the Lord is good, sadly, upon entering the Dark Ages, the Church in general lost sight of the truth of God’s immutable goodness, even in the midst of His most severe judgments.
Reading the above passages in Jeremiah concerning God’s judgment which resulted in Jerusalem’s destruction and their captivity in Babylon in isolation from the rest of Scripture gives the impression that retribution rather than mercy was the end of the Lord in their case. However, “eternal wrath” and “perpetual destruction” in this instance are clearly only for a time (olam). In the case of Judah, He specifies that olam, which was mistranslated “eternal” and “perpetual,” would only last seventy years, as we see in the following verses:
“And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 'Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord; and I will make it a perpetual desolation.” (Jer 25:11-12)
Then, in chapter 29, even before carrying out His judgment against Judah, He assures them that His plans for them, even in His most severe judgments, were for their own good:
“For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.” (Jer 29:10-14)
Even in the midst of God’s judgments against them, the prophet Jeremiah did not lose sight of the goodness of God. In Lamentations, when all looked hopeless, he could still declare:
“For the Lord will not cast off forever. 32 Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. 33 For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” (Lam 3:31-33)
Jeremiah understood a universal truth concerning God’s nature which applies, not merely to the Jews, but to all “the children of men” – the end of the Lord is good, He will not cast off forever because He is good and His mercy endures forever. Even in the judgments mentioned in Scripture without any specific mention of a final restoration, we know that the end of the Lord is always good and ends with the final restoration of all the children of men (Acts 3:21).
God’s Judgment of the Fall culminates in Restoration
This restorative end-result of God’s retributive judgments can be seen from the very beginning. The same day that Adam and Eve sinned, God shed innocent blood to clothe them, foreshadowing Christ’s offering of His own blood in order to take away our sins and clothe us with His own righteousness. Furthermore, God implicitly promised Eve that her seed would destroy the power of the serpent and reverse the fall (Gen 3:15). This Jesus did as our Last Adam. All who were condemned in Adam are justified in Christ and all who die in Adam will be made alive in Him (Rom 5:18; 1Cor 15:22). In the future New Jerusalem we see the tree of life and those still outside invited to wash their robes so as to be able to enter and eat of its leaves for their healing (Rev 22:1-2;14).
God’s Judgment of the Flood culminates in Restoration
While the judgment of the flood was indisputably retributive, we also see the Holy Spirit emphasizing through Peter that even those who perished in the flood will finally be restored. Peter said concerning those who perished in the flood:
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” (1Peter 3:18-20)
Here we see that Christ descended into Hades and preached the gospel to those who were formerly disobedient in the days of Noah. We can see that they were persistently and obstinately disobedient since God in His longsuffering waited 120 years while Noah prepared the ark before finally destroying them in the flood (Gen 6:3).
Some argue that the word “preached” (kerusso) doesn’t have reference to the preaching of the gospel to the spirits of those who were destroyed in the flood, but rather they take it as meaning that He went and proclaimed His victory over the angels who left their first estate and are being kept in Tartarus until the day of judgment (2Peter 2:4; Jude 6). However, there are at least three reasons why we should understand this as having reference to Christ preaching the gospel to the people who perished in the flood rather than Him proclaiming the defeat of the fallen angels held in Tartarus.
In the first place, 59 of the 61 times kerusso appears in the New Testament it clearly refers to the preaching of the gospel, and not once is it used to announce someone’s defeat. In the second place, while it is true that angels are spirits, the term “spirit” is not normally used to refer to angels. Spirits are actually distinguished from angels in Acts 23:9. When reference is made to a spirit in the New Testament it is either a demon spirit or the spirit of a dead person. In the third place, within the context of 1Peter 3:18-20, Peter further clarifies that the gospel was preached to the dead and not merely to fallen angels. Only eight verses later Peter gives more specific details concerning the proclamation made to the spirits in prison. He said:
“For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1Peter 4:6)
Here the phrase “the gospel was preached” is the single word “euaggelizo” which literally means “to bring good news.” What Jesus preached to the spirits in prison was the good news of the gospel in order that, even though they had previously been judged for being disobedient in the flesh, they might live to God in the spirit. Clearly, if the gospel is preached to the dead after having been judged in the flesh, God’s justice ends in restoration and not in eternal condemnation as traditionally believed.
God’s Judgment of Sodom culminates in Restoration.
Sodom is perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations that even God’s most severe retributive judgments culminate in restoration rather than eternal damnation as traditionally taught. As we saw earlier, Sodom’s destruction is a clear example of God’s retributive justice. However, we see in Scripture that the end of the Lord for Sodom is restoration, not eternal retribution.
In Ezekiel 16 the Lord tells the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they had become worse than Samaria and Sodom, and for that reason His retribution against them was impending. However, His pronouncement of judgment is immediately followed-up by a promise that they, along with Samaria and Sodom, will ultimately be restored. He said:
“Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity, 54 in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done when you become a consolation to them. 55 ‘Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state.” (Ezek 16:53-55 NASU) [2]
This restoration of Sodom can only refer to the very same individuals who were destroyed by fire in Lot’s day since no inhabitant of Sodom survived its destruction. Likewise, Samaria, referring to the 10 northern tribes of Israel (often erroneously referred to as “the 10 lost tribes”), will also be restored. Some, in spite of this text and many other passages to the contrary, still insist that neither Judah nor the 10 northern tribes will ever be restored. I counter their arguments in a series of blogs entitled: “Has God Rejected Israel?” God has sworn by Himself that all will finally be restored unto Himself, bowing the knee and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord (Isa 45:22-24; Phil 2:10-11; 1Cor 15:28; Ps 22:27; Ps 66:3-4; Ps 86:9, etc.).
In conclusion, God’s justice is presented throughout the entire Bible as retributive, and if we are going to be true to Scripture, we must emphasize it as such, even though it is rejected by our Postmodern culture (2Tim 4:2-5). Paul warns us saying: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7). It is a grave error to tell those who persist in willful sin that God’s justice for them will only be restorative, when in reality they are treasuring up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds (Rom 2:5-6).
God’s immutable justice requires retribution. That is why the cross was necessary. If God were loving but not just, He would simply look the other way when we sin. If He were just but not loving, He would have never sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins in order to be able to pardon or justify us without violating His immutable justice (1Jn 4:10; Rom 3:25-26).
Jesus saves us from the coming wrath (1Thess 1:10). He said that whoever believes on Him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is already condemned and the wrath of God remains upon him because he has not believed on Him – the only way to the Father. (Jn 3:18,36; Jn 14:6).
Rather than reassuring the unrepentant that all is well and there is no need to fear God’s retributive justice since it is purely restorative, we need to call them to repent and look to Jesus who alone saves us from the wrath to come (God’s retributive justice). As Paul says, knowing the terror (phobos) of the Lord we should persuade men (2Cor 5:11; cf. Heb 10:30-31).
[1] Zahnd, Brian. Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (p. 86). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[2] I quote here from a version other than the King James Version for a good reason. The King James translators changed the beginning of verse 53, making it read: “When I restore…,” which would leave open the possibility that the Lord didn’t really mean that He was actually going to restore them. However, most recent translators, even though they are not Universalists, have corrected this apparently intentional mistranslation of the text, making it correctly read: “I will restore…”
by George Sidney Hurd
The nature of God’s justice has been the topic of much debate in recent years, alongside of the polemic concerning the nature of Christ’s atonement. Some Conservative scholars only seem to acknowledge God’s retributive justice, whereas many Progressives insist that all of His judgments are purely restorative in nature.
Brian Zahnd, in his typically sardonic and polemic communicative style, is representative of a growing number of Progressives who mock any idea of Christ’s death involving a payment for our sins as our substitute in order to save us from God’s retributive justice. He says:
“The cross is not a picture of payment; the cross is a picture of forgiveness… The justice of God is not retributive; the justice of God is restorative… The cross is not where God finds a whipping boy to vent his rage upon; the cross is where God saves the world through self-sacrificing love. The only thing God will call justice is setting the world right, not punishing an innocent substitute for the petty sake of appeasement.” [1]
While Brian deliberately mischaracterizes the beliefs of his opponents with false dichotomies and inflammatory statements in order to gain an emotional advantage, rather than simply reasoning from the Scriptures, he is nevertheless representative of a growing number of Progressive scholars who offhandedly reject any notion of God’s justice being in any way retributive, or of Christ’s death satisfying God’s justice in our stead, thereby enabling Him to justly justify sinners. I consider the arguments for Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement in my blog “Did Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross change God’s Attitude toward Us?” and also in my book “The Ways of God (As seen through the eyes of a Conservative Restorationist)”. In this blog I simply want to briefly consider their claim that God’s justice is in no way retributive.
First, I would like to define the terms being used. Our word “retribution” is from the Latin re- + tribuere “to pay,” thus meaning “payback or retribution.” The term “retributive justice” refers both to the just reward of the righteous as well as the just penalty or payback for the sins of the unrepentant (cf. Rom 2:5-11; Rev 22:12; 2Thess 1:8 ).
Until now, our judicial systems have operated almost exclusively based upon retributive justice in which the wrongdoer is penalized, and the innocent victims receive compensation for damages inflicted upon them. However, shortly after the criminal psychologist Albert Eglash presented his thesis in favor of replacing retributive justice with a humanistic form of restorative justice in 1977, there has been a major shift away from retributive justice in favor of restorative justice.
Just as with Communism, the concept of restorative justice sounds good in theory, but in practice our whole justice system would fall apart if we were to abandon retributive justice in favor of a purely restorative justice, since it fails to take into account man’s fallen sinful nature. In order for restorative justice to work, both the offender and the victims must not only be willing to meet together in group sessions but the offender must truly repent and the victims must forgive the offender – something that rarely occurs in real life. The Progressive logic behind restorative justice goes hand-in-hand with recent arguments in favor of defunding law enforcement.
In my youth during the 1960s, before coming to the Lord, I served more than three years in correctional institutions and saw firsthand how often inmates managed to make parole early by playing the system, feigning repentance just to get back on the streets in order to continue their life of crime. It’s not hard to imagine how these same individuals would use this so-called restorative justice therapy to their own advantage.
In reality, the traditional justice system is not purely retributive but has restoration as its ultimate objective. If the judge sees that the offender is repentant and not likely to repeat the same crime it is taken into account during the trial. Also, within the penal institutions there are regular group counseling sessions designed to reform the inmates. Additionally, each inmate is periodically reviewed by the parole board, and if they feel that the individual has been adequately rehabilitated, they grant him an early parole.
As I hope to demonstrate, while ultimately God’s justice is restorative in that it culminates in restoration rather than eternal condemnation, it is more comparable to the retributive justice of our traditional penal system than it is to the progressive model of a purely restorative justice. God’s justice is best seen as retributive justice with a view to the restoration of the transgressor.
The main difference between our justice system and God’s justice is that He knows our hearts and judges with perfect judgment according to truth and not appearances. No one can play the system with God, feigning repentance. His punishments always fit the crime, and in His judgments He always remembers mercy. As soon as man repents, God relents.
God’s Retributive Justice seen in History
While God’s retributive justice is primarily eschatological, being “treasured up” for the day of judgment (Rom 2:5), His retributive justice can also be seen in history. While many examples could be cited, here I want to focus upon four major examples in the Old Testament: 1) the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 2) the flood 3) Sodom and Gomorra and 4) the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity in 568 B.C.
God’s Retributive Justice seen in Eden
In the very beginning we see God’s retributive justice being carried out when Adam and Eve transgressed God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were warned that it would result in their certain death, and just as God had warned them, they, as well as all of their descendants, were deprived of the tree of life and died as a consequence of their original sin. Also, the woman’s pain in childbirth was greatly increased and the ground was cursed, requiring man to toil all the days of his life until he returned to the dust from which he came (Gen 3:16-19). Here we can clearly see God’s retributive judgment. He sent them out of the Garden and placed Cherubim there to keep them from partaking of the tree of life (Gen 3:23-24).
God’s Retributive Justice seen in the Flood
The universal flood is another primary example of God’s retributive justice. God sent the flood in judgment because the whole earth had become corrupt and filled with violence (Gen 6:11-13). The Lord said to Noah: “the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” In His patience, God gave them 120 more years to repent while Noah prepared the ark (Gen 6:3; 1Pet 3:20). Then the Lord shut the doors of the ark and sent the flood. Jesus warns that the judgment at His Second Coming will be similar to that which took place in the days of Noah (Luke 17:26-27; Matt 25:31-46).
God’s Retributive Justice seen in the Destruction of Sodom
The third major judgment was that of Sodom. Their wickedness reached the point where there were not even ten righteous among them. The two angels said to Lot: “the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it” (Gen 19:13). The outcry of their victims against them became so great that God intervened and sent fire and brimstone from heaven, destroying them all. I consider the nature of this judgment with more detail in my blog: “Who Destroyed Sodom and Why?” Peter makes it clear that this is retributive justice, saying that God “condemned them (katakrino “to judge against, to sentence”) to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). Likewise, Jude says that they were “set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance (dike ‘justice’) of eternal fire (pur aionios, ‘age during fire’).” (Jude 7) The word dike, translated “vengeance” means justice. However, in the context it is clearly retributive justice and not restorative.
God’s Retributive Justice seen in the Destruction of Jerusalem in 568 B.C.
The final example of judgment which I would like to consider is that of the destruction of Jerusalem followed by the Babylonian captivity. God declared His judgment against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying:
“And you, even yourself, shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.” (Jer 17:4)
“behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, ‘says the Lord,’ and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual (olam) desolations.” (Jer 25:9)
Clearly, there is no hint of restorative justice in these pronouncements of judgement against Jerusalem and its inhabitants. If we were to stop here, it would appear that God’s justice is purely retributive. The same could be said of what we have seen so far in all the previous examples of God’s judgments.
God’s Judgments are Temporal, culminating in Restoration.
While it is true that God’s justice is retributive, many fail to see beyond God’s temporal judgments. They have mistakenly concluded that the end-result of God’s judgments for the great majority of mankind is an unending retribution, as if such a logical and moral contradiction were possible. Such reasoning fails to take into account the end of the Lord which is restoration – not eternal retribution. As James says:
“You have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.” (James 5:11 ASV)
While the Church during the time of the Apostles apparently saw that the end of the Lord is good, sadly, upon entering the Dark Ages, the Church in general lost sight of the truth of God’s immutable goodness, even in the midst of His most severe judgments.
Reading the above passages in Jeremiah concerning God’s judgment which resulted in Jerusalem’s destruction and their captivity in Babylon in isolation from the rest of Scripture gives the impression that retribution rather than mercy was the end of the Lord in their case. However, “eternal wrath” and “perpetual destruction” in this instance are clearly only for a time (olam). In the case of Judah, He specifies that olam, which was mistranslated “eternal” and “perpetual,” would only last seventy years, as we see in the following verses:
“And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 'Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord; and I will make it a perpetual desolation.” (Jer 25:11-12)
Then, in chapter 29, even before carrying out His judgment against Judah, He assures them that His plans for them, even in His most severe judgments, were for their own good:
“For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.” (Jer 29:10-14)
Even in the midst of God’s judgments against them, the prophet Jeremiah did not lose sight of the goodness of God. In Lamentations, when all looked hopeless, he could still declare:
“For the Lord will not cast off forever. 32 Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. 33 For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” (Lam 3:31-33)
Jeremiah understood a universal truth concerning God’s nature which applies, not merely to the Jews, but to all “the children of men” – the end of the Lord is good, He will not cast off forever because He is good and His mercy endures forever. Even in the judgments mentioned in Scripture without any specific mention of a final restoration, we know that the end of the Lord is always good and ends with the final restoration of all the children of men (Acts 3:21).
God’s Judgment of the Fall culminates in Restoration
This restorative end-result of God’s retributive judgments can be seen from the very beginning. The same day that Adam and Eve sinned, God shed innocent blood to clothe them, foreshadowing Christ’s offering of His own blood in order to take away our sins and clothe us with His own righteousness. Furthermore, God implicitly promised Eve that her seed would destroy the power of the serpent and reverse the fall (Gen 3:15). This Jesus did as our Last Adam. All who were condemned in Adam are justified in Christ and all who die in Adam will be made alive in Him (Rom 5:18; 1Cor 15:22). In the future New Jerusalem we see the tree of life and those still outside invited to wash their robes so as to be able to enter and eat of its leaves for their healing (Rev 22:1-2;14).
God’s Judgment of the Flood culminates in Restoration
While the judgment of the flood was indisputably retributive, we also see the Holy Spirit emphasizing through Peter that even those who perished in the flood will finally be restored. Peter said concerning those who perished in the flood:
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” (1Peter 3:18-20)
Here we see that Christ descended into Hades and preached the gospel to those who were formerly disobedient in the days of Noah. We can see that they were persistently and obstinately disobedient since God in His longsuffering waited 120 years while Noah prepared the ark before finally destroying them in the flood (Gen 6:3).
Some argue that the word “preached” (kerusso) doesn’t have reference to the preaching of the gospel to the spirits of those who were destroyed in the flood, but rather they take it as meaning that He went and proclaimed His victory over the angels who left their first estate and are being kept in Tartarus until the day of judgment (2Peter 2:4; Jude 6). However, there are at least three reasons why we should understand this as having reference to Christ preaching the gospel to the people who perished in the flood rather than Him proclaiming the defeat of the fallen angels held in Tartarus.
In the first place, 59 of the 61 times kerusso appears in the New Testament it clearly refers to the preaching of the gospel, and not once is it used to announce someone’s defeat. In the second place, while it is true that angels are spirits, the term “spirit” is not normally used to refer to angels. Spirits are actually distinguished from angels in Acts 23:9. When reference is made to a spirit in the New Testament it is either a demon spirit or the spirit of a dead person. In the third place, within the context of 1Peter 3:18-20, Peter further clarifies that the gospel was preached to the dead and not merely to fallen angels. Only eight verses later Peter gives more specific details concerning the proclamation made to the spirits in prison. He said:
“For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1Peter 4:6)
Here the phrase “the gospel was preached” is the single word “euaggelizo” which literally means “to bring good news.” What Jesus preached to the spirits in prison was the good news of the gospel in order that, even though they had previously been judged for being disobedient in the flesh, they might live to God in the spirit. Clearly, if the gospel is preached to the dead after having been judged in the flesh, God’s justice ends in restoration and not in eternal condemnation as traditionally believed.
God’s Judgment of Sodom culminates in Restoration.
Sodom is perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations that even God’s most severe retributive judgments culminate in restoration rather than eternal damnation as traditionally taught. As we saw earlier, Sodom’s destruction is a clear example of God’s retributive justice. However, we see in Scripture that the end of the Lord for Sodom is restoration, not eternal retribution.
In Ezekiel 16 the Lord tells the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they had become worse than Samaria and Sodom, and for that reason His retribution against them was impending. However, His pronouncement of judgment is immediately followed-up by a promise that they, along with Samaria and Sodom, will ultimately be restored. He said:
“Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity, 54 in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done when you become a consolation to them. 55 ‘Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state.” (Ezek 16:53-55 NASU) [2]
This restoration of Sodom can only refer to the very same individuals who were destroyed by fire in Lot’s day since no inhabitant of Sodom survived its destruction. Likewise, Samaria, referring to the 10 northern tribes of Israel (often erroneously referred to as “the 10 lost tribes”), will also be restored. Some, in spite of this text and many other passages to the contrary, still insist that neither Judah nor the 10 northern tribes will ever be restored. I counter their arguments in a series of blogs entitled: “Has God Rejected Israel?” God has sworn by Himself that all will finally be restored unto Himself, bowing the knee and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord (Isa 45:22-24; Phil 2:10-11; 1Cor 15:28; Ps 22:27; Ps 66:3-4; Ps 86:9, etc.).
In conclusion, God’s justice is presented throughout the entire Bible as retributive, and if we are going to be true to Scripture, we must emphasize it as such, even though it is rejected by our Postmodern culture (2Tim 4:2-5). Paul warns us saying: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7). It is a grave error to tell those who persist in willful sin that God’s justice for them will only be restorative, when in reality they are treasuring up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds (Rom 2:5-6).
God’s immutable justice requires retribution. That is why the cross was necessary. If God were loving but not just, He would simply look the other way when we sin. If He were just but not loving, He would have never sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins in order to be able to pardon or justify us without violating His immutable justice (1Jn 4:10; Rom 3:25-26).
Jesus saves us from the coming wrath (1Thess 1:10). He said that whoever believes on Him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is already condemned and the wrath of God remains upon him because he has not believed on Him – the only way to the Father. (Jn 3:18,36; Jn 14:6).
Rather than reassuring the unrepentant that all is well and there is no need to fear God’s retributive justice since it is purely restorative, we need to call them to repent and look to Jesus who alone saves us from the wrath to come (God’s retributive justice). As Paul says, knowing the terror (phobos) of the Lord we should persuade men (2Cor 5:11; cf. Heb 10:30-31).
[1] Zahnd, Brian. Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (p. 86). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[2] I quote here from a version other than the King James Version for a good reason. The King James translators changed the beginning of verse 53, making it read: “When I restore…,” which would leave open the possibility that the Lord didn’t really mean that He was actually going to restore them. However, most recent translators, even though they are not Universalists, have corrected this apparently intentional mistranslation of the text, making it correctly read: “I will restore…”
- Published on
Do you really want to go there?
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Chapter 0
by George Sidney Hurd
There is an unprecedented shift currently taking place within Evangelical Christianity, primarily among Millennials, in which traditionally held beliefs are being reexamined and more often than not abandoned altogether. This process is what is commonly referred to by them as the deconstruction of their faith, or deconversion. It is accompanied by a mass exodus from the local churches on a much larger scale than that which occurred in Europe during the last century.
One of the many support groups for the Deconstructionist Movement that goes by the name Deconstruction Network claims that presently 81,000 disenchanted individuals are leaving the church every month within the U.S. alone! According to this source, unchurched deconstructed Evangelicals are the fastest growing group in the Western Church and it is growing exponentially at a phenomenal rate. To quote them, “the Deconstruction/Dechurched movement is growing at at least double the rate of the evangelical church.” [1]
Many who are swept up in this movement are not consciously aware that their faith is being deconstructed. In fact, many who are deconstructing in their faith probably are not even familiar with the term. Spiritual Deconstruction is a process in which one begins to question their entire belief system, beginning with the reliability of the very Scriptures upon which it was founded.
Deconstructionism is an integral part of Postmodernism which denies the existence of absolute objective truth. The philosophical concept of Deconstruction was introduced into higher education in the 60’s and 70’s by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida who argued that the meanings of written literature are fluid and undefinable. From that he argued that there can be no definitive metanarrative (big story), such as that presented to us in the Bible, through which we can define reality and find meaning and purpose. He opposed what he referred to as the Westernization of our culture and advocated for the deconstruction of history, society and institutions, including the Church.
After a generation of university students had been indoctrinated in this new relativistic thought it began to filter down, resulting in the deconstruction we are presently witnessing in our society, in politics, and most importantly within the Church – especially among the Millennials. Deconstructionism was primarily introduced into the Church by the Emergent Church Movement through the influence of Progressive thinkers such as Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and Doug Pagitt. A more subtle and reserved move towards Deconstruction is being introduced into Evangelical Christianity by scholars like N.T. Wright, resulting in many otherwise Conservative Christians questioning long-held beliefs.
Constructive Deconstruction
What may confuse some is that there is a legitimate and even necessary form of deconstruction that we all must undergo if we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (1Thess 5:21; Rom 12:2; Eph 4:22-23). We have accumulated beliefs and practices which are not according to the truth that need to be identified and corrected. But how do we determine truth?
I have heard many share how their quest for truth led them away from Christianity into agnosticism or atheism. A prominent Deconstruction network said of themselves: “This group of people love the truth, they are no longer happy to accept things given to them at face value.” [2] However, the crux of the matter lies in our definition of truth. All too often what they regard as truth is nothing more than the truth-claims made by philosophers and secular scientists or the claims of the higher critics of the biblical text – all of whom tend to have a bias against the true truth which is God’s Word (Ps 119:160).
Many who have rejected the authority of Scripture as the only infallible source of truth say that they are followers of the Word, Jesus, and not the written word. However, in order to be a true follower of Jesus one must see the written Word through His eyes, and when Jesus prayed to the Father on our behalf He said of the Scriptures: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). He said that the Scriptures cannot be broken and that not one jot nor tittle could pass without being fulfilled (Jn 10:35; Matt 5:18; cf. Matt 26:54; Mark 14:49; Luke 24:44). Just as the apostles after Him, Jesus said that the Scriptures were God-breathed and that we were to live by them (Matt 4:4; cf. 2Tim 3:16). When He was challenged concerning an issue He would appeal to the Scriptures as authoritative (Matt 19:4-6; 21:42; 22:29; Mark 12:24). I consider Jesus’ affirmation of the Scriptures in my blog, “What does the word Word mean to Jesus?”
When Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” He was referring to the truth of God’s Word, not finite man’s truth-claims. That is why Paul said, “let God be true though every man be found a liar.” (Rom 3:4). Paul in 2Timothy 4:2-4 equates truth with the written Word of God:
“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
Foreseeing our day, Paul said that the time would come when men would no longer be willing to hear the truth of God’s Word because it goes against their own sinful desires. Instead they will have an insatiable appetite for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear – teachers who mythicize the plain truths of Scriptures in order to accommodate their sinful lifestyles. They will be “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” since the false teachers will only tell them things that tickle their ears (2Tim 3:7).
So, those who have been caught up in this new wave of Deconstructionism have been deceived into thinking that they are on a quest for truth while at the same time denying the very truths of God’s Word which is the only objective and infallible source of truth. Many of them think we are entering into a new renaissance when in reality the very opposite is true.
I believe that what we are witnessing is actually the great falling away which Paul said would prepare the way for the revelation of the Antichrist, the man of sin (2Thess 2:3). To me, it is tragic that prominent scholars like N.T. Wright have deceived many within the Church, saying that Paul’s warning here only had application to the generation prior to 70 A.D. and that we are now living in the new age of the Millennium. Nero wasn’t the man of sin and Satan is not presently bound in the abyss. Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D. In contrast, Paul says that the man of sin will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s Second Coming (2Thess 2:8). The man of sin was not Nero, and Christ did not return in 70 A.D.
Paul says that God will continue to restrain the mystery of iniquity until the time of the manifestation of the Antichrist. I believe that the present Deconstruction of faith, or to use biblical terms the falling away from the faith is the precursor to the manifestation of the man of sin. The deception will be so powerful that only those who love the truth enough to go against the flow and suffer for holding fast to God’s Word will be saved from this great apostacy. Paul says of this time:
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Thess 2:9-12 cf. Dan 11:32)
Constructive deconstruction is based upon a love for the truth of Scripture rather than an abandonment of it. Indeed, in order to avoid falling away from the faith in these final hours it is imperative that we carefully examine all truth-claims presented to us in the light of God’s truth, and if they do not align with the truth of God’s Word we must deconstruct and expose them as error rather than embracing them, even if it means that we must go against the flow of mainstream thought. The Bereans were commended because they deconstructed their former beliefs in the light of the Scriptures. It says of them:
“These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
In order for the Bereans to receive what Paul presented to them they had to be willing to deconstruct former beliefs. However, contrary to what we often see today, they didn’t measure Paul’s truth claims by the wisdom of the age, but rather they searched the Scriptures in order to compare Paul’s message with what God Himself had to say. To them, the plain, straightforward teaching of God’s Word was what separated truth from error.
In contrast with the Postmodern relativistic mindset of our time where all truth is relative and one’s opinion is just as valid as another’s, those whom Paul preached to believed in absolute truth. That is why Paul could reason with them from the Scriptures, resulting in some repenting and believing the truth (Acts 17:2,17; 18:4; 24:25). In doing this he was simply following Jesus’ example since Jesus also convinced by reasoning from the Scriptures (Luke 24:25-27).
Destructive Deconstruction
Postmodern Deconstructionism is a destructive dismantling of one’s faith in God and His Word rather than a perfecting of it. It undermines the very pillars upon which our faith is built, which is God’s written Word, and it leaves the individual afloat in a sea of relativity without anything to lay hold of.
Wrett and Link who are known for their popular YouTube channel Good Mythical Morning share how they deconstructed from being actively involved in an Evangelical church to becoming hopeful agnostics. [3] Wrett shares how he has remained in a sea of uncertainty along with his wife and children since the day he abandoned faith in Christ and Christianity upon deconstructing his faith. He confessed that he was an agnostic who had lost his appetite for certainty. This is what Paul refers to as making shipwreck of the faith (1Tim 1:18-19).
It is inevitable that we at times struggle with doubts, but doubt is not to be embraced but rather replaced with faith in God and His Word. Doubt is not a virtue to be nurtured as many Deconstructionists would claim. A believer may struggle with doubt from time to time, and if our doubts drive us to seek the Lord for clarity and conviction it can be useful. However, once we begin to embrace doubt as if it were a virtue, we become a skeptic rather than a believer.
Jesus on more than one occasion rebuked His disciples for doubting (Matt 14:31; 16:8; John 20:27-29; Luke 12:28; 24:25; Mark 11:22-23). If you are struggling with doubts, confess it to God and pray for revelation and grace to trust Him in the area where your faith is being tested. The father whose son was possessed with a spirit of epilepsy was struggling with doubt when the disciples of Jesus had attempted to cast the demon out without success. When Jesus came on the scene his faith was at an all-time low. He said to Jesus: “if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus responded: “If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes.” I love the father’s response to Jesus in the midst of his doubt because it shows us the proper attitude we should have in the face of doubt:
“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24; cf. Jn 6:60-69)
If we have a heart after God and a desire to believe Him in spite of our doubts, God will extend His grace to us and deliver us, just as Jesus did for the father, delivering his son to him whole. Most of the Psalms, as well as the book of Lamentations, are similar cries to God for the ability to believe in the midst of doubt, and they always end with God’s gracious intervention. God graciously responds when our heart’s disposition is to believe Him.
The testing of our faith in this life is an essential part of our spiritual development and for that reason God often allows our faith to be severely tested even as gold is refined in the fire (1Peter 1:6-7). However, without faith it is impossible to please God since our relationship with Him remains superficial and we never grow strong in faith as He intended (Heb 11:6).
The Scriptures exhort us to build up one another in the faith. Jude, the half-brother of our Lord, said:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” (Jude 20-23)
In spite of this, Deconstructionists speak of the deconstruction of their faith as though it were essential to one’s own spiritual progress. Paul says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. In contrast to this, Deconstructionists consider the undermining of our faith in the written Word of God as being essential to one's process of deconstruction.
A Deconstructionist by the name of Keith Giles wrote an article in the Progressive Deconstructionist group Patheos, entitled The 6 Pillars of Religious Deconstruction. In it he speaks of six pillars of the Christian faith which must be demolished in order to be able to advance spiritually. As always, the first pillar and foundation of the Christian faith which they say must be demolished in order to advance spiritually is our belief that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. He says:
“Because Christians tend to base their faith on the Bible, they also feel the need to overstate its importance, making it the linchpin for everything they hold dear. Therefore, once you start to doubt their claims that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, the rest of your faith is soon to crumble.” [4]
They understand that, once one’s faith in the Bible as the inerrant word of God is undermined, every other truth becomes relative and the process of deconstruction in all other essential Christian doctrines will naturally follow. They often insist that they are followers of Jesus and not the Bible. However, the name “Jesus” becomes nebulous once it has been removed from its biblical context. There are many so-called ascended masters who claim to be Jesus or the Christ, but they are antichrist and nothing like the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible warned us saying:
“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matt 24:24)
The Muslims believe in Jesus, but if you declare that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh as the Bible does they would adamantly deny it, and according to Scripture, that makes them antichrist. John said:
“every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1John 4:3; cf. Matt 1:23; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6))
Paul warned that in the latter days many would deconstruct the faith making themselves susceptible to demonic deception. He said:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1Tim 4:1-2)
Just as Jesus warned, today there are many spirits claiming to be the Christ spirit, but when examined in the light of Scripture we can discern that they are in reality antichrist and are communicating doctrines of demons rather than the sound doctrines of the Scriptures. Not every spirit who reveals himself as the Christ is in reality the Christ. That is why John said in 1John 4:1: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” If we have deconstructed our faith in God’s written Word as infallible, by what standard can we test the spirits? How do you know that your mystical encounter with Christ is the true Christ and not an antichrist spirit posing as Him? Or, how do we know that the spirit who is giving you revelation is indeed the Holy Spirit and not another spirit passing as Him?
That is why Paul in 2Timothy 4:2-4 said that we are to insistently preach the Word even when our culture says it is obsolete. That is why Jude, referring to the Scriptures said: “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3).
In closing, I am convinced that we are living in the last days and that the Second Coming of the Christ of Scripture is in our near future, and I believe that it is essential that the Church recognize this. However, this belief is under assault as never before. The fifth pillar of the Christian faith that the Deconstructionist Keith Giles says must be demolished is the belief that we are living in the last days. A new eschatology that is being put forth by Deconstructionists is Preterism or the belief that the last days ended and Jesus came with power and great glory in 70 A.D., destroying Jerusalem through the Roman armies. In my book “Last Days – Past or Present?” I demonstrate from Scripture that this new doctrine is unbiblical. This doctrine is causing many Christians to ignore the very signs Jesus and the Apostles gave us in order to avoid being deceived in this final hour. Also, it will doubtlessly result in many deconstructing into atheism as we enter into the prophesied times of great tribulation instead of the world progressively getting better, as Preterists have led them to believe.
To Paul it was revealed that in the last days many would depart from the faith, and that is the expressed objective of Deconstructionism. Jesus poses the rhetorical question: “when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The Church in this final hour needs to insistently preach the Word of God more than ever, earnestly contending for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, instead of seeking to deconstruct it. Paul said that the “Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation” (2Tim 3:15). As Jude says, rather than allowing ourselves to be caught up in the spirit of this age, we should build up one another in our most holy faith. As Paul said in Titus 2:13, let us continue looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
[1] https://thedeconstructionnetwork.com/
[2] https://thedeconstructionnetwork.com/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qbna6t1bzw
[4] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2019/08/the-6-pillars-of-religious-deconstruction/
There is an unprecedented shift currently taking place within Evangelical Christianity, primarily among Millennials, in which traditionally held beliefs are being reexamined and more often than not abandoned altogether. This process is what is commonly referred to by them as the deconstruction of their faith, or deconversion. It is accompanied by a mass exodus from the local churches on a much larger scale than that which occurred in Europe during the last century.
One of the many support groups for the Deconstructionist Movement that goes by the name Deconstruction Network claims that presently 81,000 disenchanted individuals are leaving the church every month within the U.S. alone! According to this source, unchurched deconstructed Evangelicals are the fastest growing group in the Western Church and it is growing exponentially at a phenomenal rate. To quote them, “the Deconstruction/Dechurched movement is growing at at least double the rate of the evangelical church.” [1]
Many who are swept up in this movement are not consciously aware that their faith is being deconstructed. In fact, many who are deconstructing in their faith probably are not even familiar with the term. Spiritual Deconstruction is a process in which one begins to question their entire belief system, beginning with the reliability of the very Scriptures upon which it was founded.
Deconstructionism is an integral part of Postmodernism which denies the existence of absolute objective truth. The philosophical concept of Deconstruction was introduced into higher education in the 60’s and 70’s by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida who argued that the meanings of written literature are fluid and undefinable. From that he argued that there can be no definitive metanarrative (big story), such as that presented to us in the Bible, through which we can define reality and find meaning and purpose. He opposed what he referred to as the Westernization of our culture and advocated for the deconstruction of history, society and institutions, including the Church.
After a generation of university students had been indoctrinated in this new relativistic thought it began to filter down, resulting in the deconstruction we are presently witnessing in our society, in politics, and most importantly within the Church – especially among the Millennials. Deconstructionism was primarily introduced into the Church by the Emergent Church Movement through the influence of Progressive thinkers such as Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and Doug Pagitt. A more subtle and reserved move towards Deconstruction is being introduced into Evangelical Christianity by scholars like N.T. Wright, resulting in many otherwise Conservative Christians questioning long-held beliefs.
Constructive Deconstruction
What may confuse some is that there is a legitimate and even necessary form of deconstruction that we all must undergo if we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (1Thess 5:21; Rom 12:2; Eph 4:22-23). We have accumulated beliefs and practices which are not according to the truth that need to be identified and corrected. But how do we determine truth?
I have heard many share how their quest for truth led them away from Christianity into agnosticism or atheism. A prominent Deconstruction network said of themselves: “This group of people love the truth, they are no longer happy to accept things given to them at face value.” [2] However, the crux of the matter lies in our definition of truth. All too often what they regard as truth is nothing more than the truth-claims made by philosophers and secular scientists or the claims of the higher critics of the biblical text – all of whom tend to have a bias against the true truth which is God’s Word (Ps 119:160).
Many who have rejected the authority of Scripture as the only infallible source of truth say that they are followers of the Word, Jesus, and not the written word. However, in order to be a true follower of Jesus one must see the written Word through His eyes, and when Jesus prayed to the Father on our behalf He said of the Scriptures: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). He said that the Scriptures cannot be broken and that not one jot nor tittle could pass without being fulfilled (Jn 10:35; Matt 5:18; cf. Matt 26:54; Mark 14:49; Luke 24:44). Just as the apostles after Him, Jesus said that the Scriptures were God-breathed and that we were to live by them (Matt 4:4; cf. 2Tim 3:16). When He was challenged concerning an issue He would appeal to the Scriptures as authoritative (Matt 19:4-6; 21:42; 22:29; Mark 12:24). I consider Jesus’ affirmation of the Scriptures in my blog, “What does the word Word mean to Jesus?”
When Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” He was referring to the truth of God’s Word, not finite man’s truth-claims. That is why Paul said, “let God be true though every man be found a liar.” (Rom 3:4). Paul in 2Timothy 4:2-4 equates truth with the written Word of God:
“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
Foreseeing our day, Paul said that the time would come when men would no longer be willing to hear the truth of God’s Word because it goes against their own sinful desires. Instead they will have an insatiable appetite for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear – teachers who mythicize the plain truths of Scriptures in order to accommodate their sinful lifestyles. They will be “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” since the false teachers will only tell them things that tickle their ears (2Tim 3:7).
So, those who have been caught up in this new wave of Deconstructionism have been deceived into thinking that they are on a quest for truth while at the same time denying the very truths of God’s Word which is the only objective and infallible source of truth. Many of them think we are entering into a new renaissance when in reality the very opposite is true.
I believe that what we are witnessing is actually the great falling away which Paul said would prepare the way for the revelation of the Antichrist, the man of sin (2Thess 2:3). To me, it is tragic that prominent scholars like N.T. Wright have deceived many within the Church, saying that Paul’s warning here only had application to the generation prior to 70 A.D. and that we are now living in the new age of the Millennium. Nero wasn’t the man of sin and Satan is not presently bound in the abyss. Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D. In contrast, Paul says that the man of sin will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s Second Coming (2Thess 2:8). The man of sin was not Nero, and Christ did not return in 70 A.D.
Paul says that God will continue to restrain the mystery of iniquity until the time of the manifestation of the Antichrist. I believe that the present Deconstruction of faith, or to use biblical terms the falling away from the faith is the precursor to the manifestation of the man of sin. The deception will be so powerful that only those who love the truth enough to go against the flow and suffer for holding fast to God’s Word will be saved from this great apostacy. Paul says of this time:
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Thess 2:9-12 cf. Dan 11:32)
Constructive deconstruction is based upon a love for the truth of Scripture rather than an abandonment of it. Indeed, in order to avoid falling away from the faith in these final hours it is imperative that we carefully examine all truth-claims presented to us in the light of God’s truth, and if they do not align with the truth of God’s Word we must deconstruct and expose them as error rather than embracing them, even if it means that we must go against the flow of mainstream thought. The Bereans were commended because they deconstructed their former beliefs in the light of the Scriptures. It says of them:
“These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
In order for the Bereans to receive what Paul presented to them they had to be willing to deconstruct former beliefs. However, contrary to what we often see today, they didn’t measure Paul’s truth claims by the wisdom of the age, but rather they searched the Scriptures in order to compare Paul’s message with what God Himself had to say. To them, the plain, straightforward teaching of God’s Word was what separated truth from error.
In contrast with the Postmodern relativistic mindset of our time where all truth is relative and one’s opinion is just as valid as another’s, those whom Paul preached to believed in absolute truth. That is why Paul could reason with them from the Scriptures, resulting in some repenting and believing the truth (Acts 17:2,17; 18:4; 24:25). In doing this he was simply following Jesus’ example since Jesus also convinced by reasoning from the Scriptures (Luke 24:25-27).
Destructive Deconstruction
Postmodern Deconstructionism is a destructive dismantling of one’s faith in God and His Word rather than a perfecting of it. It undermines the very pillars upon which our faith is built, which is God’s written Word, and it leaves the individual afloat in a sea of relativity without anything to lay hold of.
Wrett and Link who are known for their popular YouTube channel Good Mythical Morning share how they deconstructed from being actively involved in an Evangelical church to becoming hopeful agnostics. [3] Wrett shares how he has remained in a sea of uncertainty along with his wife and children since the day he abandoned faith in Christ and Christianity upon deconstructing his faith. He confessed that he was an agnostic who had lost his appetite for certainty. This is what Paul refers to as making shipwreck of the faith (1Tim 1:18-19).
It is inevitable that we at times struggle with doubts, but doubt is not to be embraced but rather replaced with faith in God and His Word. Doubt is not a virtue to be nurtured as many Deconstructionists would claim. A believer may struggle with doubt from time to time, and if our doubts drive us to seek the Lord for clarity and conviction it can be useful. However, once we begin to embrace doubt as if it were a virtue, we become a skeptic rather than a believer.
Jesus on more than one occasion rebuked His disciples for doubting (Matt 14:31; 16:8; John 20:27-29; Luke 12:28; 24:25; Mark 11:22-23). If you are struggling with doubts, confess it to God and pray for revelation and grace to trust Him in the area where your faith is being tested. The father whose son was possessed with a spirit of epilepsy was struggling with doubt when the disciples of Jesus had attempted to cast the demon out without success. When Jesus came on the scene his faith was at an all-time low. He said to Jesus: “if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus responded: “If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes.” I love the father’s response to Jesus in the midst of his doubt because it shows us the proper attitude we should have in the face of doubt:
“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24; cf. Jn 6:60-69)
If we have a heart after God and a desire to believe Him in spite of our doubts, God will extend His grace to us and deliver us, just as Jesus did for the father, delivering his son to him whole. Most of the Psalms, as well as the book of Lamentations, are similar cries to God for the ability to believe in the midst of doubt, and they always end with God’s gracious intervention. God graciously responds when our heart’s disposition is to believe Him.
The testing of our faith in this life is an essential part of our spiritual development and for that reason God often allows our faith to be severely tested even as gold is refined in the fire (1Peter 1:6-7). However, without faith it is impossible to please God since our relationship with Him remains superficial and we never grow strong in faith as He intended (Heb 11:6).
The Scriptures exhort us to build up one another in the faith. Jude, the half-brother of our Lord, said:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” (Jude 20-23)
In spite of this, Deconstructionists speak of the deconstruction of their faith as though it were essential to one’s own spiritual progress. Paul says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. In contrast to this, Deconstructionists consider the undermining of our faith in the written Word of God as being essential to one's process of deconstruction.
A Deconstructionist by the name of Keith Giles wrote an article in the Progressive Deconstructionist group Patheos, entitled The 6 Pillars of Religious Deconstruction. In it he speaks of six pillars of the Christian faith which must be demolished in order to be able to advance spiritually. As always, the first pillar and foundation of the Christian faith which they say must be demolished in order to advance spiritually is our belief that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. He says:
“Because Christians tend to base their faith on the Bible, they also feel the need to overstate its importance, making it the linchpin for everything they hold dear. Therefore, once you start to doubt their claims that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, the rest of your faith is soon to crumble.” [4]
They understand that, once one’s faith in the Bible as the inerrant word of God is undermined, every other truth becomes relative and the process of deconstruction in all other essential Christian doctrines will naturally follow. They often insist that they are followers of Jesus and not the Bible. However, the name “Jesus” becomes nebulous once it has been removed from its biblical context. There are many so-called ascended masters who claim to be Jesus or the Christ, but they are antichrist and nothing like the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible warned us saying:
“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matt 24:24)
The Muslims believe in Jesus, but if you declare that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh as the Bible does they would adamantly deny it, and according to Scripture, that makes them antichrist. John said:
“every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1John 4:3; cf. Matt 1:23; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6))
Paul warned that in the latter days many would deconstruct the faith making themselves susceptible to demonic deception. He said:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1Tim 4:1-2)
Just as Jesus warned, today there are many spirits claiming to be the Christ spirit, but when examined in the light of Scripture we can discern that they are in reality antichrist and are communicating doctrines of demons rather than the sound doctrines of the Scriptures. Not every spirit who reveals himself as the Christ is in reality the Christ. That is why John said in 1John 4:1: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” If we have deconstructed our faith in God’s written Word as infallible, by what standard can we test the spirits? How do you know that your mystical encounter with Christ is the true Christ and not an antichrist spirit posing as Him? Or, how do we know that the spirit who is giving you revelation is indeed the Holy Spirit and not another spirit passing as Him?
That is why Paul in 2Timothy 4:2-4 said that we are to insistently preach the Word even when our culture says it is obsolete. That is why Jude, referring to the Scriptures said: “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3).
In closing, I am convinced that we are living in the last days and that the Second Coming of the Christ of Scripture is in our near future, and I believe that it is essential that the Church recognize this. However, this belief is under assault as never before. The fifth pillar of the Christian faith that the Deconstructionist Keith Giles says must be demolished is the belief that we are living in the last days. A new eschatology that is being put forth by Deconstructionists is Preterism or the belief that the last days ended and Jesus came with power and great glory in 70 A.D., destroying Jerusalem through the Roman armies. In my book “Last Days – Past or Present?” I demonstrate from Scripture that this new doctrine is unbiblical. This doctrine is causing many Christians to ignore the very signs Jesus and the Apostles gave us in order to avoid being deceived in this final hour. Also, it will doubtlessly result in many deconstructing into atheism as we enter into the prophesied times of great tribulation instead of the world progressively getting better, as Preterists have led them to believe.
To Paul it was revealed that in the last days many would depart from the faith, and that is the expressed objective of Deconstructionism. Jesus poses the rhetorical question: “when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The Church in this final hour needs to insistently preach the Word of God more than ever, earnestly contending for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, instead of seeking to deconstruct it. Paul said that the “Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation” (2Tim 3:15). As Jude says, rather than allowing ourselves to be caught up in the spirit of this age, we should build up one another in our most holy faith. As Paul said in Titus 2:13, let us continue looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
[1] https://thedeconstructionnetwork.com/
[2] https://thedeconstructionnetwork.com/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qbna6t1bzw
[4] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2019/08/the-6-pillars-of-religious-deconstruction/