The last task in compiling our quarterly 9Marks Journal is writing the editor’s note. I look over the table of contents and ask myself, how shall I summarize the whole? And are there any holes?
I did notice one significant hole: in a Journal devoted to sound doctrine, we failed to account for the growing deconstruction project presently occurring in and around so many churches against evangelical doctrine. 9Marks equates evangelical doctrine with the “sound doctrine” that Paul tells Timothy and Titus to teach and defend (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1). Therefore, I’ve decided to smuggle one more article here into the editor’s note, both to shed some light on the project and to offer counsel on how pastors might respond, particularly as some members strongly respond one way or another.
WHAT IS THE DECONSTRUCTION PROJECT?
The basic charge of the deconstruction project is that evangelical doctrine or what we might even call “Christian doctrine” is more culturally conditioned and self-interested than we evangelicals realize. One advocate of this project, liberal ethicist David Gushee, observes:
The indictment here is universal, as if to say everyone is culturally embedded and self-interested in their exegesis and theologizing. Yet really
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