Faith.In.Life

#Deconstruction

Faith

This project started with me reading Alicia Childers’ book, The Deconstruction of Christianity while equally engaging with many people and podcasts talking about deconstruction.  Childers’ book has set a pretty solid framework for me to work on and just as she moves from toxic theology to faith, so will I.  However, this installment on faith will sound a little different than Childers’ section.

The key problem that Westerners and post post modern thinking has when it comes to faith or belief is that we emphasize ourselves.  We talk about “our faith,” or “our belief.”  To our credit, many English translations of the Bible have language that is centered around the individual.  A key example is Romans 3:22.  Here are three different English translations of that passage:

New Living Translation:  22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 

New Revised Standard Version:  22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

New International Version:   22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

Each translation puts all the emphasis on the individual and could actually be turned on its head to say something like:  

We are made with God by believing in Jesus Christ, and this is true for everyone who has faith.  

In Western individualism that caters towards tolerance and pluralism, we can easily do a play on words.  Because the emphasis is on an individual’s faith then each person’s version of faith could look different, and they all would be equally justified, valuable, and even viable.  This also creates an interesting dilemma:  While yes, Christianity will even say that the individual must call out and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we suggest that the individual can equally deny their faith in Jesus.  Such a perspective suggests that not only can an individual obtain their salvation in the blink of an eye, but they can also lose it when they deconstruct, deconvert, and essentially become apostate having gone astray.

The only problem with this perspective is it presents a very Westernized view of the faith.  When we look at the Old Testament to understand faith there are at least four terms that highlight faithfulness - but the emphasis is not on humans’ faithfulness, but rather on God’s faithfulness.  They are Hebrew terms: ’emet (faithfulness), ’emuna (steadiness, reliability), ḥesed (loyalty), and zacar (remember).  Here is a brief summary of each word based on an article by the Gospel Coalition (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/faithfulness-of-god/):

The word ʼemet occurs 127 times and is most frequently translated “faithfulness.” A core idea in this word is truth. God is true to himself and to his words. This word is used in the context of the relationships that God chooses to have with his people.

ʼemuna occurs 49 times and has the concept of steadiness or reliability at its core.  The words emphasize steady hands with the ability to be able to hold one another up in the midst of hardships.  God’s ʼemuna reaches to the skies (Ps 36:5). God is faithful from morning to night (Ps 92:2), and when he comes to judge the earth, it will be in righteousness and faithfulness (Ps 96:13).

The word ḥesed occurs 255 times and is frequently translated as “kindness/lovingkindness” or “mercy.” Even though it is not translated with a form of the word “faithful,” it is often used with some variety of words for “faithful.” The word is often in the context of highlighting God’s faithfulness to his people because of his covenantal commitment to them. As a result, some modern versions translate this word as “loyalty/covenant loyalty.”

Zacar occurs about 235 times and is usually translated with some form of the verb “remember.” Although the word is often used by people trying to bring back to mind some idea or event, it can also refer to the action that accompanies actively thinking about something. When it is used of God, it does not suggest that he has somehow forgotten something or needs to be reminded of something. It highlights that God is going to act on whatever he is “remembering.” This word is connected to God’s faithfulness in those texts where God remembers his covenant or his people and the promises he gave to them.

The idea of faithfulness is equally turned upon the covenant Jewish community both as individuals and the corporate community.  In the Torah Abraham and his descendants through Moses are given the law as the guide for their faithful living.  God’s faithfulness requires faithfulness is return.  The only problem is if any one person in the community failed to live in a faithful relationship with God, the covenant was broken and needed to be sealed anew once more.  Throughout Scripture, God acts first in his faithfulness creating the need for a response.  Scripture always interprets Scripture, and, as I have pointed out to Faith Church before, I had a professor in Seminary who pointed out that the first reference in Romans 3:22 to faith could be connected to the person, or could equally be connected to Christ.  Based on the Old Testament’s understanding of the faithfulness of God, Romans 3:22 ought to be translated in this way:

22 We are made right with God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 

Now that we have the Old Testament ideology at our fingertips we begin to understand Jesus’ faithfulness a little differently.  The idea is no longer subjective based on the individual, but rather on the very person of Jesus Christ.  We can then use each Old Testament category and apply it to Jesus himself where we could say:

ʼemet:  Jesus is faithful and fulfills every jot and title of the law.  As I presented in defining the Gospel - Jesus lives the life we could not.

ʼemuna:  Jesus is steady.  He endured the 40 days in the wilderness where Israel failed in their 40 years.  Jesus then endured the pain of Calvary, taking on our sins upon himself - because no person can stand in the presence of God and be steadfast - they would be crushed by the wait for his glory.

Ḥesed:  Through Jesus, God shows his lovingkindness or mercy towards us.  Even though we were still enemies of God, at just the right time Jesus died the death we deserve.

Zacar:  When Jesus sat at the table with the disciples he said “This is my body broken, my blood spilled, for you.  Take and eat, and do so in remembrance of me.”  Jesus died once and for all.  His job is finished.   When we remember Christ’ once for all death, though, we do not crucify Christ over and over again nor does God need to be reminded of anything.  Rather, God acts on the thing that is remembered and is faithful to his promises of salvation not based on anything we have done, but on what Christ has done for us.

This is where we need to be willing to throw our Western worldview and individualism out the window.  That is, a person’s eternity is at no point dependent on whether they are actively being faithful or if they are proclaiming their faith in Jesus.  Although it might be reassuring to see a person acting on their faith, just because they fail to do so does not necessarily equate that the person is elect (or saved).  In seeing some of my own family and friends deconstruct over the years does not bother me nearly as much as I see it bothering other Christians or are terrified if their loved one is going to be (as one loved one put it) in “their heaven.”  No, I am convinced that faith and faithfulness are simply something we are called to participate in, but the initial act of our election and our salvation is not based on our choice but on God’s choice through Jesus’ action.  Through this perspective, election and salvation are not based on something we can accept in a blink of an eye or lose just as quickly.  No, it’s based on God’s sovereign faithfulness to his creation to do what He sees fit through the lens of seeing His son being faithful once and for all.  This means that God’s sovereignty will actively work on behalf of those he has called, and as Jesus said he did not lose any of the sheep given to him.  This means that it is by the power of God we are saved, through the grace shown when Jesus died on Calvary, because of the action of the Holy Spirit.  Or, to put it another way, when I was first starting seminary I wasn’t all that Reformed and probably wouldn’t have said that I was a Calvinist (what is typically the title for what I am arguing for), but the older I get, the more Reformed and Calvinist I become.  I am convinced that if faith were simply up to me, then I would have deconstructed or deconverted from the faith a long time ago.  I then look at the world, I see the broken nature of it all, and I am even more convinced that we have no idea what we are doing and I am once again reminded of Calvary when Jesus said of the crowd calling for his horrendous murder:  "They know not what they do.”  

So we must take pause.  If we return to Derek Webb’s story who once said in his deconstruction how much he hated God, who since has helped lead music for a progressive church, to most recently re-recording the first album with Cadman’s Call.  While I mourn where Webb finds himself, the very Reformed God and sovereignty that Webb deconstructed is still at work in his life.  If God has called Derek by name, there is truly nothing Derek can do to somehow undue that call.  Many have tried to reject the calling, looked to many different wells to fulfill them, and said far worse things of God than Webb could come up with - and yet so many eventually fall to their knees weeping, only to say to God with a warmed heart “thy will be done.”

On the other hand, I just recently had a friend who talked about how when he was younger, people talked about the peace of God that surpassed understanding, only to then ponder that he had never experienced such peace, but he longed for it.  I find it strange that he would be drawn to such a statement when he equally will crucify Evangelicalism for the ways it has mistreated him.  There are a few things that I might say to this:  One Christianity does not rise or fall based on people’s faithfulness, but rather is the sweet folly that somehow attracts this world (while of course, we know it is the very wisdom and faithfulness of God that is so attractive).  Two, when we are living in the place where we yell to God “My will be done,” we are living into our fallen identity as “enemies of God.”  When we are enemies to anyone, let alone God, then there is no peace.  The person who wants everything their way and may only go to God if they have some desperate plea will not see God as kind and they may not even recognize God’s sovereignty if he answers their prayer.  You can be sure, though, that if God fails to answer their prayer on their agenda, well that is only further proof of God’s non-existence.  Such an existence cannot know God’s peace as they are not even seeking God’s thoughts.  And since they have rejected Christ, then how could they have the mind of Christ?  And if they don’t have the mind of Christ, then why would they have His peace that surpasses understanding?  Equally, for this person, the war will continue as long as they are saying “My will be done,” and God’s comfort will only come when their hearts are warmed to say “Thy will be done.”