“I DON’T KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE ANYMORE”

What happens when you don't know what you believe anymore? 

Over the last few years, the word deconstruction has become increasingly common. For many people, it starts with a difficult question, a painful experience, church hurt, hypocrisy, or disappointment. But too often, the journey doesn't stop at questioning. It ends with walking away from faith altogether. 

In this episode of Bible, Basically, we explore the difference between honest questions and a complete dismantling of faith. We'll look at what Scripture says about doubt, why God isn't threatened by your questions, and the danger of tearing everything down without rebuilding on something solid. 

Because Christianity has never been afraid of examination. The real question is: when the dust settles, what's left standing? 

If you've ever wrestled with doubt, uncertainty, or found yourself thinking, "I don't know what I believe anymore," this episode is for you. 

Bible, Basically — figuring out faith, together. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 2:19

All right. Well, here we are. I I've been putting this one off, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

This a this is a tough subject, and it might it might be something we circle back to again in the future. Last week we talked about legalism. The week before that we talked about church hurt, and all of that was leading to this. I want to talk about deconstruction. I have friends who, you know, they've deconstructed. And we'll get into what that means and everything that kind of comes along with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

But yeah, I mean it's natural to question, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Everybody questions, everybody has questions, everybody, nobody understands everything. Period. Like there's no real but to that statement. Nobody understands everything. But you have to be careful because questions become very quickly, can become a crisis of faith. And often you start asking yourself, I or telling yourself, I don't even know what I believe anymore. When you're first beginning, I mean, there's there was a time when faith felt simple, maybe not easy, but simple. You knew what you believed, you knew where you stood, you knew the answers, and then something happened. Something. And for every person, it's different. Maybe it was a question you had that didn't get answered. Maybe it was a disappointment in your life and you wondered why it happened. Maybe it was watching someone who claimed to follow Jesus behaved nothing like him. Maybe it was a prayer that seemed to go unanswered, or a church experience that left scars instead of healing. And before long, that certainty that you felt that felt so solid started feeling fragile. And now you're not asking, how do I grow my faith? But you're asking, do I even believe this anymore? Over the years, there has been a term that has been used to describe this journey, and it's called deconstruction. And it's a very popular term that is being used nowadays. You can find topics all over the internet about it. You can find people talking about their deconstruction journey. And look, some of the things that these people went through are horrible. And I am not discounting what they went through. They experienced a lot of church hurt, a lot of hypocrisy. You know, and and they've gone through it. Saying is bad. Like I said, it's natural to question. But when that question starts affecting your overall faith, um, then it becomes a problem. Deconstruction is a problem. And if we're honest, when most people use that word today, they're usually not talking about strengthening their faith. They're talking about completely dismantling it. Not questioning a doctrine, not questioning a doctrine, not examining a tradition, not correcting bad theology, but leaving, walking away, abandoning the faith altogether. So today we're going to talk about it. And once again, it's not from a place of judgment. It's not from a place of fear, but from a place of honesty, because Christianity's never been afraid of questions. But it should concern us when questions start to become an exit ramp. Most people don't wake up in the morning and just right off the bat decide to abandon Christianity. There's usually something attached to it. There's a wound of some sort, some way that they've been hurt or deceived, some disappointment, some betrayal. And many people begin deconstructing because of something that happened inside the church, not outside of the church, but inside the church. It could have been legalism. It could have been that they felt judged or manipulated, or that they were hurt by their leadership, or maybe they watched Christians say one thing and live another. That happens a lot. And Jesus himself understood that frustration. He knew that was going to happen. For you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness. I know we've talked about this verse in the past when we talked about hypocrisy.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

But hypocrisy is such a huge reason people leave. And I really want you to pay attention to who Jesus is talking to.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Now, if you've been with me long enough, you know that scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day, right? The people that looked most spiritual and that everyone assumed had it together. But he said they were whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but rotting on the inside.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Jesus wasn't blind to hypocrisy.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

No, he he stood on business. He confronted it. So if you're upset with hypocrisy, you are definitely not seeing anything that Jesus missed. The existence of fake faith doesn't prove that real faith is false. It proves that fake faith exists.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

And that's a very important distinction.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

See, a lot of people allow the failures of us humans, the Christians, to become evidence against Christ Himself.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

But those are not the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

They're going to. It is inherent in our nature. It may be something minor, it may be something major, but they will fail you. Pastor at your church may say something you don't like. Church leader may do something. You may see them out somewhere. You may question why are they going to that movie? Why are they talking? It doesn't matter what they're people.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

They are humans.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

As followers of Christ, we need to do our best to live as Christ-like as possible. But there's only one person who could truly live 100% as Christ, and that's Christ. And I'm not excusing behavior. But by the same token, I'm not going to condemn you for making a mistake. It's all in where the heart lies, right? Where is their heart? Sometimes we don't see that, or we know that their heart isn't in it, and we get dissuaded by those people.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

So we question. And we argue.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

And some people try to reason it, and others people write it, other people write it off. But other people start to question. Now here's something that many people never hear in church. The Bible is full of people asking questions. Difficult questions. And it's Habakuk. H-A-B-A-K-K-U-K. That's a name. Habakuk. Habakkuk 1-2. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Or cry to you violence and you will not save.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Habakkuk was calling him out.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

This was not a polite church question. This is a frustrated question. This is someone who is hurt. It's a person struggling to understand what the heck God is doing.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

And God didn't reject him. He answered Habakkuk. David said the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? David questioned God. David wrestled. David struggled. Yet David is one of the leaders in the Bible that is called a man after God's own heart. Why? Because questions aren't the enemy of faith.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Sometimes they're evident that faith is being exercised. Habakkuk question.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

David questioned. But they questioned God. They questioned a being that they had faith in, but they could not see or touch. Thomas, a disciple, questioned the resurrection itself. Questioned Jesus to his face. Questioned the fact that the resurrection happened. And he even told his brothers, he said, unless I see his hands in the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. But Thomas didn't just take the resurrection for granted. He didn't believe it. And he flat out said, unless I touch those marks and put my hand in his side, I'm not going to believe it all.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Think about that. He provided evidence. He invited him closer. He didn't push him away. He said, Come on. Look at this. Showed him his hands. Put your fingers in there. Here, look, this is my side. Put your hand in there. I'm here. I'm real, and I am risen.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

And this is important because Christianity has never required blind faith. The Bible doesn't tell us to stop thinking for ourselves. It doesn't tell us to ignore questions. It doesn't tell us to pretend that doubts don't exist. Questions are not the problem. Seeking truth is not the problem. The problems when questioning stops being a search for truth and becomes a reason to reject it. For a long time. I did the math the other day and I was a little shocked. It was for the better part of 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Plus. And mine, like I talked about a couple episodes ago, mine was church hurt. Mine was hypocrisy. I dealt directly with those whitewashed tombs. But I know others. And they will remain nameless because their story is their story to tell. But they faced judgment.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

They did things maybe a little bit different than someone in the church would have liked, and they heard it.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

And they leave. And ask questions. And what if it's not real? What if everything I've ever believed in my whole life isn't real?

SPEAKER_01 18:52

And those questions, once again, stopped being a search for the truth, but they became a reason to reject it.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

It went from what if it's not real to it's not real. And words matter.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Those words matter. And whether we like it or not, the word deconstruction has taken on a new meaning in modern culture. When most people use the term today, they're usually not talking about examining their faith. They're talking about dismantling it completely, leaving it, walking away from it, abandoning Christianity altogether.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Now look, let's be fair.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Not everything deserves to survive examination. Bad theology should be challenged.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Legalism should absolutely be challenged.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Church hurt should be challenged. Spiritual abuse should be exposed, and all of those things should be confronted.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Break those things down.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

But then ask yourself, what am I rebuilding on? Because if all you're doing is tearing those things down, eventually there won't be anything left.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

You'll have nothing.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Colossians 2 8 says, See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Paul wrote that to the Colossians. He warned them, don't be led astray.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

He didn't say don't think for yourself. He wasn't concerned about people thinking or if they were asking questions. His concern was that they were being led away from Christ.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

And that's the issue. I love my pastor. My pastor says all the time, please, please, please question me.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Question everyone you hear. And I will tell you that too. Look, I'm not going to promise to know the answers, but I want your questions. I want you to question what I say. If you disagree with something, tell me. We could talk about it together. We'll open the Bible together. If we have to meet in person, we'll open the Bible together and we'll talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Questions aren't the issue. Direction is.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Where are you taking those questions? Are you tearing down and dismantling your faith? Or are you trying to stand on the truth? And you're trying to uncover that truth to stand on the truth. And I'm going to tell you right now, Jesus said, I am the truth. See, anyone can criticize, anyone can point out flaws or identify problems. You're going to have a million people who are going to break down the reasons why something can't be true, or we can't do this, or we can't do that. But building something is harder. It's a lot harder. And one of the dangers of modern deconstruction is that people do become very good at identifying what they no longer believe, but struggle to explain what they actually do believe.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Eventually, skepticism becomes home.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Questioning everything becomes your identity.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

And absolutely nothing is allowed to stand. You have to have a Foundation.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

First Corinthians three, eleven says, For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Paul doesn't point to a denomination. Sorry. Paul doesn't say, no, man, you gotta be a Baptist. You gotta be a Catholic. Presbyterian. He doesn't say any of that.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

You know what he doesn't point to? He doesn't point to a pastor. He doesn't point to a specific church or a tradition. There's only one place he points, and that's Christ. Because Christianity ultimately rises or falls on Jesus, not the failures of his people, not on church culture or religious leaders.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

It rises and falls on Christ.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

James one, six through eight says, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like the wave of sea that is driven and tossed by the window. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

James isn't condemning honest questions.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

He's warning about living in perpetual instability. Once again, it's not that you shouldn't question.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

It's not that you're never supposed to doubt. Question everything except for one thing. Christ.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

There's a difference between honest questions and perpetual instability, and that's basically I have questions versus I refuse to land anywhere. At some point, every person must decide what they believe.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

So I will ask you.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

I will put this question to my vast audience.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

If you have questioned your faith, what are you rebuilding on? What are you rebuilding on? Everybody builds their life on something. Everybody.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

So what are you rebuilding your life on? The question isn't really, do you have faith? The question is now, what is your faith in? Matthew 7, 24 through 27. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

And great was the fall of it. Everyone builds their life on something. Christ is that rock. Everything else is instability.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

People talk about the inexplicable peace that Christ offers. I have been asked a hundred times, how can you be so calm during a time of adversity?

SPEAKER_00 29:34

How are you so peaceful? Because my foundation is strong. I built my house on him. It wasn't always that way. My foundation was shaky as I'll get out.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

And you think about it, with that analogy that he brought to the table, one builds a house on rot, one builds a house on stand.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

At first, both houses look fine. During peaceful, normal times, those houses work fine. But when the storm comes, that's when the foundations reveal.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

The point isn't whether the storms will come. The point is where are you standing when they do? And that's the question that deconstruction eventually forces us to answer. After the questions, after the doubts, and after the hurt and dismantling what's left.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

What remains standing?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

For real Christians, the answer isn't a denomination. It's not, oh, my Catholicness or my Baptist-ness or my Presbyterianness.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

It's not a pastor.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

My whole world isn't going to shatter and bless my pastor's heart. He's a beautiful man, but he's not going to be the only one left standing. It's not church culture. If my whole world dismantles, there's one thing that will be left, and it is Christ and his word.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Start here. Start with Christ.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

John six talks about disciples who actually stopped following Jesus. They actually walked away. And Jesus looked at the twelve and said, Do you want to go his way? Do you want to go away as well? And Peter responds back to him in John 6, 68 and 69. He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Peter didn't say, no, man, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

I'm with you because I understand everything. He didn't say, I have no questions.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

He just said, where else am I going to go? And that is a profoundly mature level of faith. Not certainty about everything in the world, but certainty about one thing. And that was Christ. So maybe faith isn't the absence of questions, but maybe mature faith is learning where to take them.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

You see, God's not threatened by your doubts. He's not intimidated by your questions. He's not surprised by your struggles. But questions were never meant to become your permanent address. At some point, every person has to decide what they're building their life on. And that's the real danger of modern deconstruction. I don't mind that it asks questions. But the fact that it tears down everything without rebuilding anything. That's the danger. Because eventually you need something solid to stand on. I can promise you from personal experience, without Christ, you will break. And all that's left is Jesus, then you will discover what remains is stronger than what was torn away. But not because you've stopped asking questions, but because you finally found that foundation. Colossians two, six and seven says, Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

There's a word in that verse that is key.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Rooted. You are grounded in Christ. He is your foundation, he is the base.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

And he wants you back.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

And I want you to understand again, and I've said it a million times during this podcast, it's okay to have questions.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

It's okay to not be sure about things. But you can be sure that Christ loves you. And you can be sure that He will never fail you. I still question and I still wonder why a lot. I look at things in my life and I look up at God and I'm like, bro. Really? And then my next sentence usually is, okay, you know what you're doing. And that's a hard sentence to say.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

But that's the piece of having him as your foundation. Understanding that no matter what you're going through, no matter what you've been through, God's got your back. He's never going to let you down. And if you're listening to this and you've gone through deconstruction, deconstruction usually means a presence of faith prior. And I want you to ask yourself, I knew that before.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Why don't I know that now?

SPEAKER_01 39:15

I knew what Dennis said before. I felt it before. At one point in your life you were on fire for God. You felt close to him. And then something happened to push you away. And I'll bet you 9.9 times out of ten, it wasn't him that let you down.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

It was one of us. It was a person. Maybe it was the whole church, I don't know. This is it's a difficult subject. I hope I have questions from you. I do. I want them.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

If I don't know the answers, I'll find the answers. I'm gonna tell you right now, I won't know all of them.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

This isn't just a clever title of the podcast. You and I really are figuring out faith together.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

If this podcast touched you, if you know somebody who has gone through deconstruction and has no foundation now, and they have torn their foundation into sand and you think this would help them, share this podcast. If you're going through this, share this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

If you don't know what you're doing, reach out to me. This has been Bible basically.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

As you guys know, we are figuring out faith together.