I just found out over the past 2 or so months my wife of almost 20 years has been reading a lot about deconversion/deconstruction. There was an event about 5 years ago in which she was spiritually abused. For 22-ish+ years, she's been a daily bible reader. Then, it all stopped one day. She used to read a kids version to our 8 year old at bedtime each night, and that stopped too.
She confessed to me last night that she no longer believes in God at all. This is the first I'm hearing about things like deconstruction, but talking to my brother in law about it, it's apparently running rampant in his church, too.
Heads up patriots! I could use all the prayers you got.
Has anyone been faced with this? Has anyone been successful in stopping it? We have 6 kids and she now wants to divorce and go be free.
I hate the concept that some people have that God “punishes” people by sending them to Hell.
Hell is something created by a personal rejection of God; it is a place beyond His reach and that is why is it so awful. Why it’s permitted to be this way, I guess none of us can ever know for sure. But IMO, without Hell, without sin, free will essentially does not exist (if you are not free to not choose literally the most important thing in your life, what do any of your other choices mean in the end?).
God doesn’t condemn us to Hell, going to great lengths to save us from such a fate. That’s why Jesus was born, suffered, and died. So we would have a way out. There is always forgiveness, and grace, and mercy.
Satan and the rest of the fallen angels are the ones who actively try to get people to damn themselves to Hell. Every human soul snatched from God’s grace is a victory for him, not because there’s some kind of cosmic bean counting contest going on, but because Satan hates God’s creation. Destroying humanity serves that hatred.
I consider churches like the one you’re describing to be such a recruiting tool. Shit like that is Satanic. God is not, and should not be portrayed as, a cosmic vending machine. I’m sorry your wife went through that.