Deconstruction - how you take your faith apart matters (deconstruction, tools of deconstruction, inspiration, interpretation, what can we really know, epistemology)INTROThe following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.OPENHave you ever taken apart something that you couldn...  Read More

So is this really a question of truth, or is it a question of what you can know and what you can’t know? Or is it a question of what is possible to know, or is it something else? The philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and belief is called Epistemology, and it is a philosophical discussion that is important. Over the years the idea of studying this area has been rife with arguments, ...  Read More

This is a fair question. If the biblical narrative is not as simple as we have perhaps been led to believe, how can we really know what is happening in the Bible at all? This is one of the reasons we have put together Crosswalk Classroom for deeper study and understanding. The truth is that there is a great deal of information that we can incorporate into our understanding of scripture, but it mea...  Read More

So why can’t we just say that we believe what the Bible says and that we live our lives according to it? Wouldn’t that simply make things a bit easier? Yes, of course, it would.But unfortunately, that is not exactly how it all works. We are all involved in the process of interpreting what Scripture says to each of us. Wouldn’t it be easier if we all just read it and thought of it in the same way? ...  Read More

I was in a songwriting seminar with Rich Mullins, and he made an interesting comment. He asked if any of us had been in a talent show or had seen one where someone said: “God woke me up and gave me this song. . .”We all raised our hands, as this was a pretty common thing that is said in Christian music circles. He told us that we had to be careful with this kind of language because if a song had b...  Read More

Yesterday I mentioned some tools that I had used when I was 15 to deconstruct the room we had been given to remodel. What tools do we use when we deconstruct our faith down to its elemental pieces? Do we use philosophical and hermeneutical sledgehammers, or do we use dental tools so as to be more precise? There are a lot of tools in our toolbox when it comes to studying scripture and creating a ne...  Read More