Disappointment with Deconstruction

Oct 17, 2026

Josh Harris was a prominent evangelical pastor and the author of the bestselling I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In 2019, he publicly announced that he was leaving Christianity, writing that he no longer considered himself a Christian. His very public and dramatic exit from Christianity was a train wreck of how not to experience a faith crisis.

He himself acknowledged his own mistakes in an October 2025 post in which he pointed to three things as he reconsidered Jesus and faith:

I carried my black and white thinking into deconstruction.
I expressed my hurt by trolling Christians.
I too quickly tried to find a replacement community.1

Harris offers us both a sober caution and a hopeful lesson about those who jump on the bandwagon of abandoning Christian faith. The way we respond to a faith crisis matters as much as the questions that initiate it.

Deconstructing

The trendiness of faith deconstruction2 seemed to reach a fever pitch in the last few years. Deconstructing became a buzz word associated with those who began to ask sincere, sometimes doubting questions about Christian orthodoxy. While there were those who questioned the historic doctrines of Christianity, more deconstruction seemed to be centered on the organized church itself - whether Protestant, Orthodox or Catholic.

Joe Terrell identified five reasons that people deconstructed:3

Trust in large institutions is declining all across the board.
We live in a more diverse, accessible, and mobile world.
High-performing Christians are simply burning out.
The prideful prioritization of conformity over unity
The acceptance of political idolatry and conspiracy theories in Christian communities

The algorithms are algorithming

Our internets aren’t neutral. That’s perhaps one of the most important realities to remind ourselves of daily. Your social media feed, your search results and even your AI interactions are first shaped by inherent worldview biases. The “powers that be” want to shape you, your thinking, your opinions, your votes, your spending, and who you like or dislike. “They” want you to like the “right” people and to detest the “wrong” people. It’s glaringly apparent that the “wrong” people are most likely you.

It is a matter of life and faith to step away from your screen when you’re processing sincere questions. Why is that? Because your “screen” isn’t neutral when it comes to watching Reels, reading articles, and doing research. You are being fed a curated diet that is intended to confirm what you already think. You are not being challenged. You are digging a deeper hole, aided by algorithms. As a result, you and the public only become more entrenched, more divided and more convinced of your own “side.”

This is especially dangerous to life and faith when you’re processing problems with God.

To be clear, it is not wrong to ask questions about God. It’s an appropriate and healthy way to grow. It’s even healthier to ask God the questions you have about Him! He’s big enough to take your honest questions (and even your complaints, confusions, hurt and anguish). He’s also loving and will respond. The challenge is in the waiting for His response.

We live in a world where we can get what we want instantly. Once upon a time, marketing companies deployed the clever moniker of “Instamatic” to all kinds of products. This was intended to feed our perceived right to know everything, to have anything, immediately. We are a people who have cast off the ancient virtue of patience. We’ve dispensed with delayed gratification. We want it all now.

When Moses questioned God

Moses was in a pickle. God had appeared to him in a burning bush and told him to deliver His people from bondage to Pharaoh. Moses knew that people would look at him as if he were crazy when he said, “God told me…”

When in doubt, and in concern about what he was thinking, Moses asked God. Moses went directly to the source:

“Then Moses asked God, ‘If I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13)

The result of that conversation was convictional clarity for Moses. God answered him. Moses proceeded (after some wrangling) to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery.

Those who have honest questions, plaguing doubts, embittered hearts, and disappointed hopes would do well to do the same. Seek understanding from God rather than seek to have your doubts confirmed by those who would seek to lead you astray from Him.

Be mindful that scripture has explicitly taught us that there are forces at work that seek to lead us astray from trusting in God.

“Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.” (Hebrews 13:9)

“For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” (Mark 13:22)

Scripture also provides some insights into those who have at one time professed faith in Jesus and then walked away from Him and the church. Jesus told the following parable about soil:

“Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen.” (Matthew 13:18–23)

Later Jesus then explained exactly what He meant to His disciples:

“When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns — this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground — this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”

Jesus told us there would be those who spring up quickly and then wither away. Anytime someone jumps into Christianity with fervency and zeal, we should lovingly welcome them. And we should teach, counsel, disciple and be wary of promoting their Christian platform until they have matured in their faith.

When Paul wrote, “Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder…”4 he was encouraging us to not give leadership influence to recent converts. They may look like they’re growing, but Jesus’ parable reveals that their root may not have rooted.

Paul wrote that Demas had “deserted me, since he loved this present world.”5 Two others, Hymenaeus and Alexander, “have rejected and have shipwrecked the faith.”6 “All those in the province of Asia have deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.”7 Paul also called out Hymenaeus (again) and Philetus and said that these first century deconstructionists should be avoided because their teaching was a contagion, an infection:

“Avoid irreverent and empty speech, since those who engage in it will produce even more godlessness, and their teaching will spread like gangrene.” (2 Timothy 2:16–17)

Those who deconstruct very publicly and would seek to influence you to their ways of thinking are not operating in neutral. They are modern-day versions of:

Demas
Hymenaeus
Alexander
Phygelus
Hermogenes
Philetus

What about disillusioned deconstructers?

There are also those who deconstruct who bit off more than they could chew, so to speak. They jumped into faith with joyful hope, but they were not prepared for the demands of following Jesus in full obedience. They started, but they did not finish.

The disturbing reality is that too often the church is so zealous to win converts that we fail to communicate the cost of following Jesus. People are unprepared for the challenge, the trials and the difficulty. Yes, following Jesus is wonderful, AND following Jesus is hard.

Jesus said this:

“But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” (Luke 9:62)

There is a cost to following Jesus. Were those who abandon ship not informed or not prepared?

“For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:28–33)

Some who deconstruct are fearful of being identified with Jesus in moments of pressure.

Some deconstructionists become ashamed of Jesus in a broader culture that seeks to humiliate or accuse Christ followers as being less intelligent and more parochial. Peter faced that in the courtyard of the high priest when Jesus was arrested. “You are one of them!” was the accusation. Before the echo died, Peter denied, and then the rooster cried.

Pressure on faith reveals its source. When someone values what others think of them or if they seek to preserve their physical life and livelihoods over their allegiance to Jesus, they have allowed fear to subsume their faith.

When you share a post through email or social media, you’re encouraging the author and others.

Those who truly belong to Jesus will not ultimately abandon Him.

John Davidson asserts that those who abandon Jesus completely were not truly saved. He says that “Many ‘former Christians’ were never truly saved.” Their deconstruction typically stems from:

Bad theology that distorts God’s character
Selective reading of Scripture that creates an unbalanced faith
Making God in their image rather than accepting Him as He is
Building faith on the church rather than on Christ”8

Jesus clearly communicated that those who truly belong to Him will ultimately be saved:

“This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:39)

Many who publicly claim to have reconsidered their faith in Jesus may be wooed again by His amazing grace and love as time progresses. Josh Harris may be a good example of a slow return to Jesus. In a February 2026 interview with Skye Jethani on The Holy Post, Harris discussed his journey from fundamentalism through deconstruction and toward renewed curiosity about Jesus.9 One sober caution I offer - do not give Josh Harris more “air time.” Just as his leaving the faith was very publicly proclaimed by him, so his reconsideration is very publicly proclaimed. I have deep reservations about his motives and desire for limelight.

An enlarged soul

“Once your soul has been enlarged by truth, it can never return to its original size.” (Blaise Pascal)

I love this quote. It’s my contention that if a person has truly experienced and placed their faith in Jesus, counting the cost and embracing the Savior, that their heart has forever been “enlarged by truth.”

Consider Colossians 2:9-10:

“For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” (Colossians 2:9–10)

This means that the very fullness of who God is dwells fully in Christ. When a person receives Jesus by faith, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in their being, filling them. The Holy Spirit is a seal,10 an assurance,11 an eternal claim12 of God upon a person. Our doubts and fears and disappointments cannot override God’s possession of us. No one can take you out of God’s hands once you surrender your heart to Him - not even yourself.13

Thoughts to consider about those who deconstruct:

It’s ok to ask honest questions. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, asking honest questions, wondering if Jesus was who He said He was. Nicodemus later helped embalm Jesus’ body.
Some who deconstruct have never made their “faith” their own. If faith is simply that which we’ve learned or inherited, it is not faith. It’s a pedigreed religion. It’s no wonder that competing ideas and philosophies begin to cause doubts. Growing up in an insular Christian bubble doesn’t prepare a person to respond with conviction and confidence if their “faith” is just an inherited set of religious facts that they’ve always assented to.
We will be wrong at times as we seek to understand Jesus, even when we’ve said the right things once upon a time. Peter is a good example of this. After making a magnificent confession, Peter negated it with a sinful suggestion.14
Seeking full understanding before giving your full commitment eliminates faith. We can’t know everything. There’s a sweet moment of surrender when we simply say, “From what I can understand, I choose to believe.” Faith is a conscious decision to trust the truth of what you don’t fully understand.
Not everyone who deconstructs falls away from faith. In Terrell’s article, he distinguishes those who deconstruct from those who deconvert.

“While everyone who deconverts from Christianity probably deconstructs first, not everyone who deconstructs deconverts… the degree to which someone deconstructs varies wildly… there’s no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” deconstruction narrative.”15

Jesus stands ready to restore. His parable of the prodigal son has nurtured and invited a plethora of prodigals back into the loving, waiting arms of the Father. We see Jesus’ gracious restoration of Peter as a real-life example of restoration.

Notes from the Trail

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