Follow Me
Renouncing What You Don't Have
You can't renounce something you never had to start with.
Statistics never lie. Really? While I enjoy the plethora of hours I’ve spent researching, I have kept a few primary factors in mind: First, statistics are typically gathered from deceived people. Second, and more importantly, these statistics are compiled from followers of Christ, not indwelt believers, a distinction that holds a confession. Allow me to explain.
Toward the end of 2020, many leading Christian Research Institutions gathered data on the trending ideology of deconstructing one’s faith. Two of those institutions called it the "new normal." All agreed it is the fastest-growing movement within the church today. More alarming is that the lion's share of these deconstruction stories comes from pastors who deconstruct their faith. On one leading website, these pastors said, "Those who deconstruct their faith discover a life-giving and ultimately faith-affirming process." The problem with this kind of stinky thinking is that most who deconstruct their faith never return. Is this heresy at its best? You will need to decide.
The Word is always absolute. Today, the masses have made it relative.
A question found on a trendy website, which encourages Christians to deconstruct their faith, begs for clarity: “What happens when everything you once believed about God begins to crumble?” First, this is a foolish, subjective, and relative question. It isn't the doctrines of God that are crumbling, but rather the person asking the question who is melting into the progressivism of unbelief. The standard for those who suffer from unbelief is simple; someone must be blamed for their discomfort. And that someone is usually God.
While researching many stories of Christians renouncing their faith, I found a common denominator. In 100% of these cases, a traumatic event ignited the process. Most suffered from the loss of a loved one, and some had a dramatic social history of depression, frequently sustained by a history of suicidal ideations or attempts. In fewer stories, I found readers who stumbled across skeptical content online were challenged to question the reality and authenticity of the Bible and the existence of Jesus. However, in those cases, the readers' backgrounds were filled with atheism before exploring such misnomers. In every case, I found a disdain and fear of being judged by others expecting God to change all of life for their demise.
Doubt is the driving force behind deconstruction.
Doubt is a healthy and needed emotion. Without doubt, salvation(s) is impossible. Without a doubt, God can separate a lost generation from the demise of a demonic culture and church. The irony is that doubt usually refutes the absolute truth source, thus, blaming God. The displaced blame hinders, if not eliminates, the source that is put in place to deliver them from their difficult circumstances while offering hope for a new life in Christ. God does not reconstruct a new life in Christ by an existing life; He terminates a life through co-crucifixion with His Son (Rom. 6:6, Gal. 2:20). This absolute fact becomes the greatest fight-for-life in a lost soul. Remember, the miracle of salvation is in dying to live –eternal life.
Recently the UK released statistics regarding their people's faith, claiming 56% of their population have no faith. Americans are not far behind. The deception hidden within these statistical walls is erroneous, meaning the surveyed populous is non-religious and is confused about following Christ versus being indwelt by Him.
All humans are devout in their religious beliefs, even atheists. The question is, "Who is their god?" For self to be God, one must renounce all other gods. Once this is accomplished, the individual can form any god they desire, ultimately fulfilling Satan's goal perpetrated on Adam and Eve - “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Both Adam and Eve became their individualized gods since the sin of self-governance and self-authority was appealing. Hopefully, you can see that the ideology of theological deconstruction is not new. It was the first sin and certainly will be the last as well.
A progressive mind is the beginning of a stupid mind.
An independent mind is the most dangerous element in all of life. Before you react, allow me to explain.
Progressive thinking is not progressive at all; it is regressive. While many believe progressive thinking keeps up with progress, it does not. Progressivism is a political philosophy in support of social reform. The idea that progress is advanced through science, technology, economic development, and social organization is supposedly vital to improving the human condition without God, but rather through science. The movement was ignited during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe by the Masonic Temple worshippers, who were/are universalists. Their objective was to demonstrate that societies can better themselves by strengthening empirical self-knowledge and individualized self-as-God as the foundation of a progressive society. This movement replicated the original sin, spreading throughout the world as the dominant philosophical thought for all humanity. Also, historians determined this ideology or revolution as the leading cause for the masses to forsake their beliefs in God's absolute doctrines and His Holy Word. Since absolutes are the greatest enemy of dependence, Satan's objective took the front position through progressivism, an ideology stealing the hearts and minds of millions who once believed in the absolutes of God and His written Word.
It takes a stupid mind to determine what God means by what He says. Remember that stupid means knowing the Truth but refusing to act upon it. A mind such as this diminishes what God said: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8).
While churches make money from liberal educators, our theological institutions produce grave and depraved thinkers in the church. Their propagating followers of Christ to self-interpret what God means by what He says through deconstructing the Gospel for self-justified reasons results in endless translations, publications, interpretations, and erroneous disdained beliefs in who Jesus is. Meanwhile, the absolute doctrines of being born drift into progressivism's modality. When this happens, the need for the mind of Christ through indwelling/born-again salvation becomes faint.
People need to feel inferior to receive superior.
The absolute doctrines of God's essential reform start by making humanity feel inferior, a lifelong battle that most resist. The entire educational, social, and parental system is based on improving self-esteem - You are somebody and loved. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. You can be your own person. Meanwhile, Galatians 6:3 fades into post-modernism.
"For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." (Gal. 6:3)
Such fading becomes the church's greatest enemy of the Gospel. All the cultural problems today are centered in and around the fruitless attempts of humanity working to be something. However, the meat of the Gospel presents a much more challenging dilemma. Here is what the authentic Jesus said:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." (John 12:24-26)
Our passage reveals the basics, as well as the introduction of salvation:
Step one - we must die.
Step two - do not love yourself.
Step three - hate your life.
Step four - save us for eternity.
Step five - serve Jesus with an eternal attitude.
Let it be noted the Christ-followers’ group cut and pasted the phrase “Follow Me” and dropped it into the church's vocabulary. Here are the facts: Jesus used the words“Follow Me” because indwelt Christianity did not become a believer's reality until the day of Pentecost. After Pentecost and Jesus's ascension, believers were required to shift from following to walking in the Spirit (Rom. 6:4; 8:4). Big difference - one is external, and the other is internal.
Question: How well do you think the five-step salvation checklist is accepted in our depraved self-esteem society? It isn't. The authentic Gospel has shifted into the Laodicean think-tank of progressivism so simply that the average believer has been duped into the deconstructive philosophy that “follower of Christ” equals authentic Christianity. By the way, this is the group our Christian research institutions survey for their deceptive statistics.
I asked one of these leading research institutions, "What percentage of your surveys are directed toward born-again Christians who claim to have the Holy Spirit living inside their mortal bodies?" Their reply? “We don't survey this group. We survey those who self-claim Christianity as their primary religion.” Folks, this is a problem.
Since our research engines are surveying followers of Christ while ignoring authentic born-again Christians, the results are beyond elusive. They are confessing to surveying the white side of evil. Of course, their results will be that followers of Christ (non-indwelt believers) are deconstructing their faith. Since this crosses the blasphemy line, the unpardonable sin (Matthew 12:31), the Christian world is couching the deception in deconstructing their faith. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that Christ-followers deconstruct Jesus if we keep oranges with oranges? What is wrong with keeping to the original codex and the vocabulary of the Holy Scriptures?
I can assure you the average Christian believes that Christ-followers ARE authentic Christians; “surveys” prove it. I believe this is the greatest lie Satan has integrated into nominal Christianity. Yes! Those that resemble Christianity.
Nominal means “existing in name only.” Not life! Satan has duped the church into thinking nominal Christianity is Christianity. I hope the lost will discover these simple facts: First, that nominal is not the norm of God. Secondly, nominal Christianity must be deconstructed, not the absolutes of God's Word or Jesus Christ. And so, I implore all those who are leaving the faith – the faith of nominal Christianity, to reexamine the authentic faith - not through internet opinionates but through reading the non-paraphrased Word of God published before the NIV craze propagated in 1956. Typically, I only read translations before the post-modern translators began applying progressive ideologies to their culture-friendly interpretations.
I am told that somewhere between 2021 and 2023 will be when God separates the goats from the sheep - goats being those “believers" who will forsake their faith, hide behind the Grace of God, or use grace as a license to divide.
"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude 1:4)
The action required in this mass exodus is that we non-surveyed indwelt believers must be available to help the nominal believers forsake their nominal faith, confirming that their deconstructive efforts are healthy while reexamining the authentic absolute Words of God and the personage of Jesus Christ. That is great news! We cannot forsake something we didn't have to start with, and these nominal believers need to understand that. We need to show them how to receive the indwelling Life of Christ through the Holy Spirit possessing them, and finally, we need to show them how to release Christ's Life through their daily activities. If my memory serves me correctly, the Word calls this discipleship.
Welcome to the culturally neutral society but be on your guard because the devil is roaming about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). The whom is all of us!
