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Join me on a journey from Deconstruction --> Reconstruction

#NoHiding #Reconstruction > #Deconstruction

"If you or a loved one have been harmed by Modern Western Christianity, sometimes known as 'Churchianity,' you may be entitled to a lifetime supply of skepticism, book recommendations that actually explore the historical and cultural contexts of biblical authors, and a complimentary subscription to podcasts that don't shy away from the uncomfortable questions. Symptoms may include but are not limited to: confusion over prosperity gospel, frustration with shallow 'worshiptainment,' or an unsettling suspicion that Jesus might not have been a blond, blue-eyed capitalist. Don't suffer in silence; help is available for those grappling with the gap between tradition and textual truth. Side effects may include #deconstruction / #reconstruction in the form of existential crises, deep theological discussions, and the realization that not going to a modern church service and 'forsaking the gathering' are not synonymous concepts."

* I asked GPT-4 to write this ad, and I was not disappointed! I tweaked it a little to fit my brand of thinking about this.

Sometimes church traditions and systems of theology leave people bound, broken, and confused. I help people understand the Bible better, so they can connect to the heart of the Father and find healing and Shalom in healthy, safe, spiritual community. 

NO HIDING - The Problem

Do you feel like there is something missing from your faith walk or Christian experience? 

• Does it feel like there should be more, you could go deeper? 

• Does Sunday morning feel shallow, or like it just wasn't enough?

• Does it feel like you show up every Sunday and feel no more connected with the people around you than if you'd stayed home and watched the OnlineLive experience?

It's gnawing at you. Something is missing, but you can't put your finger on it. 

• You believe in Jesus. 
• You try to read your Bible, pray, be a "good Christian" (whatever that is, you're not sure anymore). 
• You go to church on Sunday (but you can't quite tell anyone why or what you got out of it).
• You have more questions than answers about what faith is and how it matters.
• You can't quite connect how Sunday connects to the rest of your week.
• You just feel that something is missing. 

This Christian life should be alive, but it isn't.

Note: If you're committed to a particular theological system (aka Reformed/Calvinist, Fundamentalism, Pentecostal, Word of Faith, #MAGA or any other denominational distinctive) and you are happy with that system, then this site isn't for you.

This site is for those who feel that the Bible is true and Jesus is Lord, but modern western American Christianity has left them feeling empty or flat; as though they're missing something but they don't quite know what it is. It is also for those 

Join me on a journey from Deconstruction --> Reconstruction

What's NoHiding.Faith about? We throw away Christian Traditions, Denominations, Systematic Theologies, and medieval to modern concepts imposed on the biblical authors that those authors would never recognize... we ask, "What did the biblical authors want to communicate to their original audience (in their own original Ancient Near East and Second Temple Period contexts)?" before we ask, "What can the Bible teach me for my life today?" - That should be simple, it should be what every Bible teacher does. In my experience, at 100s of churches in three plus states, it isn't. Almost nobody does this. I've joined the revolution, will you? 

Why am I so passionate about these topics? 

Those descriptions and questions above were my life for decades... 

My Deconstruction/Reconstruction Journey started by facing my fear, brokenness, and pain. My "dark night of the soul" led me to the point where nothing else mattered but knowing Him.

I had followed Him from one faith-tradition to the next, looking for someone who had the "answers". 

I've been an:

• Old-Line Denominational Protestant (Disciples of Christ/DOC)
• Evangelical Free
• Calvary Chapel (Semi-Charismatic) 
• Pentecostal
• Word of Faith 
• Non-Denominational Quasi-Charismatic
• and I've dabbled in many other traditions (more on that here). 

I came to a place one day, where God told me stop reading the Bible (for a season) and get to know Him personally. We went on talk-walks, and I spent time in Christian community. By this point in my life, I had read the Bible through many times, and could quote more than most people I knew. So "Bible Knowledge" wasn't the issue, so I thought. 

That was a beautiful season, and my relationship with Jesus/Yeshua became more personal. 

Then, he lead me back into the Bible but in new fresh ways. God/Yahweh, left one primary way of knowing him, and accessing the others, so I needed to get into this book in a new way.

Once I was ready to let go of all traditions, one of the first steps I had to take was to ask one simple question:

"What does the text actually say?"

Have you ever believed something to be true with all your heart; only to later realize you were wrong (or incomplete, or inaccurate, or insufficient) in your knowing?

It can be scary to let go of what you thought you knew. It takes a brave soul to admit they were wrong. But as Albert Einstein is quoted to have said:

"To admit that you were wrong is to declare that you are wiser now than you were before." AE

I once said I would "never attend a church where the pastor didn't teach"... a certain doctrine. I have since let go of five such doctrines as I've studied the Bible for myself.

I invite you to take a journey of discovery and asks that two simple questions: 

What does the text of the Bible actually say?

How does that affect the life I live today? 

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NO HIDING - What is it?

NO HIDING is a philosophy that says there is nothing in life we need to hide from, nothing that requires we wear masks around ourselves or each other (metaphorically speaking).

A NoHiding Faith means:

Faith: We come to the Bible to see what Yahweh would say, not what our tradition tells us he said. We stop hiding behind our Doctrines, Systematic Theologies, Systems of Eschatology, and Church Traditions, and instead allow HaRuach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) to show us what God inspired the biblical authors to communicate to their original Ancient Near East (ANE) and Second Temple Period audiences. Jacob's name was changed to Israel because he "wrestled with God". Only after we see how Yahweh inspired the biblical authors to record their "wrestling with God" in their day and their context, can we then wrestle with God in our day and in our context. We center our wrestling in and around the life of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Anointed One, Iesus h'Christos). However, we do not read the Bible backwards. We allow the Tanakh (Old Testament) to inform our reading of the B'rit Chadashah (New Testament) first, before we then read backwards and allow the latter to inform the former.

Freedom: We come to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, and Darrell (insert your name here) fully exposed, allowing Him to make us into new, more fully alive, kinds of human beings. When we stop hiding behind our fears, addictions, habits, hurts, and hang-ups, we give Him room to make us new from the inside out. We become free, emotionally, mentally, physically, financially, socially, spiritually, and in all the other ways we live out of our human experience. This will mean allowing him to heal our brokenness and wounded hearts, reform our minds and theological ideas, and make us into his Imagers (one day at a time).

Family: The Kingdom of God is a call to community. He's called us into the FAMILY of God. The exact form that community takes is secondary. It may be a gathering of three human imagers, secretly meeting in a hut in Iran, hiding from the authorities. It may be a Sunday morning worship event with a concert followed by a public speaker. It may be a small local in home Bible study. It may be a meeting of hearts and minds at your local coffee shop. What it cannot be, generally, is a family of one. While the Bible certainly has a lot to say about our personal journey and how God cares for us individually, the Gospel is primarily a corporate call into a community of Jesus-People. How we meet together is secondary, but, we must find a family (or forge one) to be the People of God. 

Note on private "spirituality": As a fierce isolationist and introvert, this last part about Family was the hardest for me in my Reconstruction. While it's perfectly acceptable to have "alone times" with God, and I can certainly meet with Him alone in the forest, that cannot ever by my only experience (unless circumstances require it, being ship wrecked on an island, or bed-bound at home, and even then I should seek out visitors, phone calls, or facetime). We must seek to be in community with the People of God, it is what the call to follow Yeshua is all about. The call is a Community Call first, before it is an Indivual Call. This is HARD in our hyper-individualist culture, especially for people like me, but ask God to help find you connections. It doesn't have to attend what most Americans call a "church" or go to "church services". But it does have to be you meeting reglarly with other Yeshua Followers (Acts 2:42). Ask HolySpirit what he'd like for you, and let him lead you one step at a time.

Faith & Freedom lived out in Family, that's the essence of the call to NoHiding.

 

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The No Hiding Commitment:

If you like the sound of this journey, make the following commitments to yourself and your community:

• We are committed to study the text of the Bible for what it says, not what our traditions would tell us it says.

• We are committed to face hard truths, even if they require us to change our ideas and even our character.

• We are committed to be honest, open, raw, real, and vulnerable in our relationship with God and relationships with each other. That means sometimes we have to say "I don't know" and "I was wrong".

Who am I? 

I'm Darrell Wolfe, Bible Student & Storyteller

I am a recovering pastor's kid, and currently majoring in biblical studies and biblical history. I love Jesus, am devoted to His Word, and believe the bible to be authoritative for life and godliness.

• Check out my blog.
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Darrell Wolfe

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No Hiding.Faith

#NoHiding #Reconstruction > #Deconstruction

What is the Bible, really?

The bible must be understood in its own original Ancient Near East (ANE) and Second Temple Period contexts. Much of what we hear in modern westerm American Christianity (aka church) is at best a partial truth, and at worst isn't true at all. Let's look at real answers to tough questions, admit what we know and don't know, and see if we can put our heads together to find some wisdom along the way.

We love disagreement as long as its respectful; changing your mind is wonderful, do it often.

I love these Albertisms, because they apply to this journey so well:

• Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. Albert Einstein
• If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
• The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
• To admit that you were wrong is to declare that you are wiser now than you were before. Albert Einstein.

I reserve the right to change my mind. 

Part of being open, raw, and taking an honest look at our worldview and changing our hearts and minds is that it results in changes to the way we see things. I have written things in years past that I passionately disagree with today. It's tough to face your deeply held beliefs and then let them go for something that is truer than what you once held true.

All that being said, if you disagree with something you see or read here, that's OKAY! I might disagree with it too, tomorrow. Comment, share, find me on social media. 

Let's do this journey together.

Follow for more biblical reconstruction

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DISCLOURES

• Warning/Note for Christians from the USA: After a few months (or years) of listening to most of these folks listed on my Resources page, you will start to see that the "Emporer has no Clothes" may have been referring to far-right hyper-Conservative, MAGA, 'Murica, "Let's Go Brandon", toxic, "American" Christianity. While "those darn liberals" have issues too, those of us who came from the uber-right in the USA have a lot of re-thinking and growing up to do if we intend to be thoughtful, balanced, good-hearted, and biblical Christians. If that sounds too scary, this probably isn't the page for you. If you have had a sneaking suspicion that something hasn't been right in the way we uber-right folks practice the faith... check out the resources page. 

• Endorse vs Recommend: The Resources are recommended. That means I think they will help you in some way. That does NOT mean, I automatically agree with every word of every voice. I might recommend a book that comes to the wrong conclusion but presents good data for you to add to your library and thinking. In some cases, I do wholly endorse the individual but I probably still have minor disagreements with each of them on some point or another. We must learn to get away from being "I'm of Paul" "Well, I'm of Apollos" "Well, I'm of Peter". Nobody is recommended because you should believe every word they say, you shouldn't believe every word of what anyone says. You should use them as one more data source. The more sources of data one has, the better thinker they become. 

• Affiliate: This website includes several links to external websites, books, and products. Some, but not all, of these links may be "affiliate links". This means we may get paid for anything you buy when you click those links. Regardless, I only include links to items or places I found personally valuable or I have found helpful in solving people's problems and struggles. On that note, if you click on any Amazon link it helps this website, if you know you are going to buy from Amazon anyway, please click away.

#NoHiding #Reconstruction > #Deconstruction

© Topos Creative LLC March 02, 2022