Deconstruction is a term that has become common in some Christian circles. It’s a term that is often used when someone opts to leave the church and sometimes the Christian faith altogether. I was forced to interact with it when a friend from university mentioned to me that she was ‘deconstructing’ her faith. I had noticed that some of her behavior was not conforming to the faith I thought we shared (She had hosted her boyfriend overnight and was about to move in with him). When I asked her about it, she said that she had been struggling with and questioning her faith. There was a lot to unpack, but it left me thinking hard about questioning the Christian faith and how this can be both a helpful and dangerous process.
Let me begin by saying that I wholeheartedly support questioning the Christian faith. It is important that we know what we claim to believe and why. Many of us claim to be Christians because our parents taught it to us or at least told us that is what we were. While it might be good that we receive a faith that has been handed down to us from our parents, perhaps we cannot continue to simply hold on to it “out of respect for them”. We have to be those who really think hard about what we claim to believe. There is a fallacy that matters of religion cannot really hold up to careful investigation because it is all about a leap of faith – a leap in the dark. While this might be true of other religions, it is not so with the Christian faith. The Christian faith welcomes those who are serious about asking questions and are ready to find answers. The Christian message is not a “believe it because I said so” religion, but a religion centered on putting trust in real evidence about a real person.
In the African context, this might not be the experience of many. Unfortunately, the African church has not been known for its openness to and reception of those who are questioning the faith. I think this is due to two things. First, African Traditional Religion was characterized by blind trust in the gatekeepers of religion. The ‘priests’ and medicine men and women were to be taken at their word without reference to any other source. For this reason, they were to be feared and their word taken as true, beyond doubt. What after all, did the commoner have to say to the person who had access to the ancestors and mediated the spiritual world? In this way, they had the-benefit-of-the-doubt, with no way to be held in check. This was also in the context of great fear of the Supreme being, who could be malevolent – best to avoid him and his minions, the spirits. Unfortunately, we carry this thinking with us into the Christian faith.
Second, I think the missionary effort that led to the establishment of the African church in the 20th century was not very good at handling questions and teaching that questions were good. In many instances from the history I have heard, becoming a Christian was not necessarily about understanding the gospel message but the message of the missionary (under influence of the colonialist). The message of the missionary might have involved a component of the gospel message but also served to encourage a receipt of Western education and culture which would be rewarded by the colonial master. With such a murky transfer of the faith, it is likely that locals received a faith that was more about the structure of the missionary than about what the Bible really said about the good news of Christ. While I do not want to throw out the baby with the birth water and say that there were none who really understood the gospel message, I would like to point out that asking questions was not generally encouraged. The education system many of us grew up in reflected this outlook since it prospered on rote learning. Church was expected to be just like school, where the ‘best’ disciple was the one who agreed with the teacher and could repeat what was taught. Whether or not we were truly persuaded about the truth was besides the point! And so, these two possibilities encouraged what looks like a faith that is to be believed without question.
But this is not the Christian faith offered up in the Bible. The Christian God expects that we will believe him from evidence that has been testified to and that we have understood, not from blindness. Blind faith, despite what has been asserted, is not a feature of the Christian faith. Poor articulation of the Christian faith and a poor witness to it in the lives of those who claim to submit to it are dangers that could fool you into thinking all is false. Don’t fall for it.
I think there are three fundamental things that we have to accept as we ask our questions and seek our answers, especially of the Christian God. We need an anchor in the storm-tossed sea of uncertainty and questioning, and there are certain truths that hold us fast so that we are not carried away into unbelief; a foundation to stand on while we dissect and hopefully reconstruct our faith. They represent truths that the Church through the ages has fought for in the midst of questioning and false teaching. They are: a trust in a Good God, a trust in the Bible as his true revelation and a distrust of reason as the final authority. The last one is an extension of the second one, but important enough to consider separately.
Firstly, when we are questioning aspects of the Christian faith, it is important that we begin with God. Christianity is not a man-made religion. It is a religion that starts with God and what he has revealed about himself and about what he wants in relationship with humanity. What we believe about God determines what we make of everything else within Christianity. The Christian God sets the tone for the Christian faith. The first thing God reveals of himself is that he is the Un-created Creator who made all that is [man included], from nothing. Because of this, he has the right to determine what is right for man to do (Genesis 1 and 2). Disobeying his standards means he is right to judge and punish humanity. But this God is also gracious, covering the shame of disobedient humanity, instead of completely annihilating them (Gen. 3). Reading through the rest of the story tells us that this God is good despite humanity’s repeated disobedience and growing sinfulness. His greatest goodness is seen in the giving of his Son for humanity’s sin (John 3:16).
But is this what the questioning soul believes? When we ask questions of the Christian faith, do we come to the Good, Un-created Creator for answers? This matters because it will determine what we are willing to hear and receive in the realm of possible answers. It affects our attitudes – determining whether we come to him in honest humility or with arrogant presuppositions that his answers are unsatisfactory. What we think about God, affects how we question and the answers we are willing to take in as true.
Those who confess to be ‘deconstructing’, unfortunately do not always believe in the All-Good, Sovereign Creator, who is above them and therefore able to answer their questions. Often, many will come wanting to rule over God in a sense, questioning him as though they were the ones in charge and not the other way round. In his grace, the Christian God has allowed and even opened himself up to receive our questions. He is ready to hear our whys, hows, and whats. He is not unsettled by them. But he asks that we remember that he is the Creator and we are the creatures. Some answers will settle our questioning but sometimes his answers will not resolve them, but teach us to humbly live under his will, though we might not have neat answers we seek. The truth is, for God to be God, there are things that will not and cannot make sense to us because we are simply too limited.
Secondly, when we are questioning aspects of the Christian faith we have to believe that the God, who has revealed himself, has finally and fully revealed himself in the Scriptures. The Bible as it stands with its sixty-six books, represents God’s authoritative, infallible and inerrant revelation. This has been the confession of the church since the days of the apostles though accepted as canon in the 4th century. To believe this is to accept that there is an authority to answer the questions that we have, even concerning the Bible itself. I know this sounds complicated and perhaps contradicting to use the Bible to defend the Bible but for the Christian faith and all that encompasses it, there is not higher authority than the God-breathed Word. Something cannot therefore be described as Christian without the testimony of Scripture.
As we come with our questions then, we are equipped for our quest by having our Bibles open, to hear what God has spoken about himself and what relationship with him should look like. Having the Word as an authority on the Christian faith is the anchor we need when we are unsure of what faith actually means. If we refuse to submit to this authority, we cannot be said to be pursuing Christianity. This is because the Christian God has spoken fully and finally in the Bible. Even if we accommodate that he can speak to people in dreams and visions, it is never in contradiction or addition to what he has said in the Bible. It is the Bible and the truth it reveals that will give true meaning to those dreams and visions. Christian truth is found within the bounds of the Old and New Testaments. To seek it, is to be a student of the Book.
Finally, when we have doubts and questions about the Christian faith, we have to realize that God in/through his Word is the authority and not us. Since the Enlightenment period of the 17th and 18th centuries, there has been a false belief that reason is the final authority for determining what is true. This is not true if we believe the Bible. The Bible tells us that though we have the capability to reason and come to meaningful conclusions, we are corrupted by sin and therefore susceptible to deception and delusion. Because of this, we can’t even trust our intentions – pure as we might think them, to lead us to the truth. We are those who are capable and usually tend towards suppressing the truth about God (Rom. 1:18-23). This means that just because we think we are open to hear from God about what is true, doesn’t mean we are. We might be closed off to him, being unwilling to receive what he says.
I therefore, advise that when we are beginning and proceeding in this journey of dissecting our beliefs that we pray for ourselves and for the journey. Pray to the God who claims to be there, to make himself clear to you as you read his Word and that he will watch over you in the journey to come to the knowledge of him. Ask others to also pray for you as you go through this journey, that your heart and mind might be truly open to hearing the truth, even if it’s not what you want to hear. In this way then, you will be treading the safe path that leads to truth and a firm foundation to build your faith on.
Let me bring all this together as I reflect on the conversation I had with my friend. She described her dissatisfaction with the ‘Christian’ faith from seeing hypocrisy and having questions about the Bible and how to interpret it. But as we spoke I realized that she did not have these three fundamental beliefs as a foundation. She did not trust God to be good, she did not trust his Word as infallible and inerrant and she trusted herself and how she felt to be the tell for what is true. Realizing this made me very sad for her. While I did point out the danger of getting these three things wrong, she didn’t seem won by the argument. She kept going with her life, and to my knowledge has not returned to the faith. I am left with prayer as an avenue for the powerlessness I feel where she’s concerned. While my arguments cannot win her, I can pray and hope that God would work by his Spirit to lead her back to him. I can also pray that I would be a good and patient friend, who points her to the three-fold foundation stones in hope that God will draw her to the truth in his abundant grace. Beware that should you embark on a journey of questioning, that you do not end up having discarded your faith because of the hardness of your own heart. Ask your questions but remember that you are not speaking into the void – you are speaking to the God of heaven who has spoken and longs to reveal himself to you. Be willing and humble to hear him speak!