Beyond Deconstruction: The Term Behind All Terms

The term on which we focus today in many cases is the term of all terms and the term behind the terms. I’ll get to it momentarily, but I want to set the context first.

Photo by frappo on Unsplash

Many in deconstruction grew up in the evangelical faith where making a decision for Jesus was the focus of so much evangelism. Others did not grow up in that but as teenagers or young adults accepted Christ and went through the common evangelical drill of praying the prayer. Many in the deconstruction mode have turned their backs on the all-sufficiency of making a decision as the portal into salvation.

They do so for any number of reasons, including (1) that it hasn’t transformed the lives of far too many they know, (2) that it doesn’t adequately distinguish those who are supposedly saved from those who aren’t saved, (3) that though such decisions are present in the Gospels and the New Testament – read those sermons in Acts – they are not the obsession of Jesus or the apostles they have become among many evangelicals.

They have been there, done that, and it no longer works for walking in the way of Jesus as they know it.

Christianity, often described as The Religion of Salvation, offers salvation but what does that mean? Is it reducible to a moment in time? To one’s personal relationship with God? To an inner spiritual reality, invisible to all but God? Is that what salvation means?

The fourth term for many who are moving beyond deconstruction to reconstruction is salvation. It is far more under assault than many think. Even many who have been saved question the category’s gravity and meaningfulness. Yet they have read enough New Testament to know this term matters immensely.

I realize this is controversial but it’s for real, friends, very much for real.

Something has happened and they want a way forward.

Some thoughts:

First, the gospel of personal salvation as embodied in the Four Spiritual Laws, The Bridge Illustration, and any number of salvation step-by-step cannot be found sufficiently in the NT to be of central importance as many teach it. Jesus called people to follow him, not so much to receive him into their heart so they could go to heaven when they die. Reconstructors want an appeal to enter into the Way of Jesus. It may include the former way but it cannot omit the latter.

Second, reconstructors want a holistic salvation and not simply a spiritual salvation. So much do they want this that I hear often a radical diminishing of the so-called spiritual side of the equation. For them salvation is personal and corporate, spiritual and social, justification and justice, church-y and politic-y, trauma-sensitive and gender-sensitive, orthodox and innovative … I could go on. A theory of salvation that makes me a loner with God isn’t what the Bible teaches, and they are sure of that. They read Amos and they know otherwise. They read the Gospels and they know otherwise.

Third, reconstructors have put paid to the in-out worldview that is embodied in evangelical-speak. They’ve heard their parents and siblings and youth pastors and pastors and platform-famous evangelicals talk about how few are saved. They look around and aren’t so convinced by those who think they are “in” and have some hope for those who are seen as “out” and they want a better way.

Fourth, they ask if Christianity is about going to church on Sunday to watch a platformed worship team, a platformed slick preacher who looks the part, and to look around and see people streaming in and then streaming out to return to their worlds – and they wonder, Is this what it’s all about? They ask why did Jesus call what he was doing “kingdom” and why did Paul grab a term from the political register of terms when he called his little groups churches, from ekklesia, a term that pointed to the gathering of the politically engaged? Was it about the gathering, the assembling, or the life lived between the gatherings? I am convinced the reconstructors care more about M-Saturday than the Sunday 1-1.5 hour.

So, the reconstructors are fine with salvation if it is deep enough to take root in the whole life, if it is wide enough to embrace all that God is redeeming, and high enough to be genuine religion and spirituality, and low enough to matter when they get in the car to fetch the kids at school.

I could be mistaken but I think this term matters the most. What say you?