Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages… I’d like to introduce you to the newest craze. It’s the newest trend. Deconstructionism! It used to be atheism. Then it was agnosticism. Now it’s deconstructionism.
The superiorly intelligent have found new and creative ways to justify their positions on their carnal desires while realizing that they sound stupid for believing in nothing. That’s where atheism went wrong. You have to be relying fully on the faith in nothing or be blindingly stupid to believe there is no higher being at all.
Then agnosticism came. So there’s a higher being somewhere. Maybe it’s us. Maybe its nature. Maybe it’s the 90% of our brain that we don’t use. But we didn’t just get here from nothing with all of our complications and intricacies. So there’s something. We just can’t put our finger on what that is.
So we believe this God thing is probably for real. Our parents told us so. But I don’t want to just believe what my parents said. I need to find out for myself. So far, this sounds like a responsible endeavor. Because my faith cannot be my parents’ faith. It must belong to me, or I have no faith at all.
Let’s take a quick detour. I am a big fan of basketball. And I would like to dismantle basketball and its rules to justify my inability to be able to compete with those in the NBA. So I’d like to change the rules so that I can experience the possibility of a great outcome, like a championship. So the rules are subjective now. I want them to mean that you can’t touch me or get within 5 feet of me once I say I’m uncomfortable. Then I’ll be able to score and achieve greatness and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.
This, ladies and gentleman, is the beautiful deceptive art of deconstructionism. Let’s take every scripture and “deconstruct” it to its simplest form. Then when we put it back together, let’s make it mean what we want to because it makes more sense to us in our super intelligent, creative, and emotional brains. After all, so much of what is in the Bible doesn’t make sense. And rather than attempt to understand it in its context and see what God was trying to say, I’d rather just make it mean what I’M trying to say. I mean, it’s been translated so many times, who knows what it really says. It’s all subjective.
What is an example of this? There are many. I’ll give you a couple. Deconstructionism will tell you that 1 Timothy 2:12 is a misunderstood verse. They will posit that there should be more female pastors in America. Another one is that there are many variations of translations of the Bible and one can’t trust the whole book to be true at its core, but must be dissected… by them! Interesting. It’s not enough that it has been dissected before they were born. Nope. They are smarter than those before them.
So let’s tackle those along with an examination of the fruits of deconstructionism. In 1 Timothy 2:12 is says, 12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” Yes, it has been mistranslated by some to mean that a woman cannot speak in church at all at any time. That is false. With a closer look, one would see that “quiet” is directed back to the issue of authority. There are plenty of verses that suggest that women are to help others. There are plenty of verses that show women teaching and helping many, men and women alike. However, when it comes to the authority of the assembly, church, that office is designed for men. That was God’s designation.
Also, don’t forget 1 Timothy 3:2, 2 “Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.” Some versions say one wife. But “His wife” implies one person. This will be very hard for a woman to accomplish. Yet it is one of the qualifications for being an elder or a pastor.
Well what about the Bible being translated too many times? I’m glad you asked. The first original scrolls were found to have been scribed around 895 A.D. Around 1000 A.D. there were more scrolls found. And in 1948, a boy was chasing after a goat who ran into a cave and found another set of original scrolls that were found to have been scribed around 200 B.C.! Interestingly, the three scrolls were compared, and they were found to be completely and unequivocally identical. There were zero differences. They were also found to be identical to the first translation of the Bible into English. There were so many requirements the scribes had to meet and were so were meticulous. Things like, each line had to be exactly thirty letters, and there had to be an exact amount of lines in a column. Also, if a scribe got to the end of the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) and it did not end in an exact line of thirty letters, they did not follow the demands and had to throw it away and start over. This is how the scrolls from 200 B.C. MATCHED the 1000 A.D. scrolls (check that out here, how we got the OLD and NEW testaments). But you already knew that. You’re smarter than everyone you know, remember?
That’s a very brief overview of deconstructionism, from what I’ve gathered so far. Next we will talk about the fruits that it yields… go to Deconstructing Deconstructionism: Part 2- The Fruit.
Stay Classy GP!
Grainger