Audrey Assad: Why Christian musicians are deconstructing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Ex-Christian singer/songwriter Audrey Assad explains why so many Christian musicians such as Michael and Lisa Gungor, Dave Bazan and John Steingard have been undergoing 'deconstruction'.
For the full conversation on deconstruction and the Christian music scene with Fr. Chris Foley of the band Luxury: • Audrey Assad & Fr. Chr...
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I’m sure you don’t remember, but I got to meet you at a chicago concert over a decade ago. Not long after, your music had a great impact on my soul during the very hardest moments of my life. Your voice carried me through suicidal ideation and deep physical pain. Even if you aren’t making Catholic music anymore (which I do miss of course) please continue to bless us with your music! You have a gift, and maybe now it’s time for you to touch a whole new audience with the melodic groanings of a restless heart pursuing meaning and purpose. We love you no matter what your religion! 💛
Last I know, she was raised Christian in an almost cultish group and became Catholic after discovering some Catholic roots. I’m assuming that is what they mean by ex-Christian as in Protestant?
@@love2sing20101 no she went woke feminist cringe. And turned all atheist fedora.
@@mike-cc3dd how horribly sad. I hope she finds God again.
Amen me to her voice God used to heal me of depression one day.
@@love2sing20101 Lets all just pray for her. Trust that God will find her. God will leave the 99 to save the 1.
The biggest mistake we parents do is try to shield our children from the challenges to Christianity. Challenges are healthy. You must be able to defend the gospel IMHO. We need to be honest about those areas we are uncertain and be ready to explain that non-Christians have their own faiths too. They are simply ignorant to the fact they too must believe in something that is yet to be proven scientifically. Some of the best Christian music is written about that type of struggle.
wow that first sentence was very eye-opening, great points.
Struggle and faith aren't opposed. Israel, after all, means "He who struggles with God". There was a BBC film I watched years ago where Jewish men in a concentration camp put God on trial following Jewish law, and found him liable for their misfortune... but then went on to the gas chambers praying anyways. I found it deeply moving, and deeply relevant to the age we live in. It says something profound about what faith should be.
I'll be stealing that.
@rmwestjr Great comment. I work in a secular workplace and the most common challenge given me from my workmates is "have you considered all options or do you live in a closed mind?". They make a very valid point if I want even the slimmest hope of being a believable witness to them. A good Christian won't have a closed mind. Well, for many years now, I have listened to all the options and frankly, the idea that evolution created everything and that man's mind can evolve its own sense of morals and good and evil just doesn't stack up. It takes a great deal more faith to believe such immense complexity of humans, animals and the universe itself (right down to molecular level) happened by chance or that it can improve itself as it goes along.
I agree. My story is different as I came to faith later on but people have to know there are things out there that will contradict your faith. The problem so many make is not allowing kids to see them and understand why they are not things you should follow
When my wife died at a young age her music 'abide with me', 'it is well with my soul' and 'how can i keep from singing' were the songs that got me through. Later it was 'Nothing to Fear' when the pains were creeping back.
Now i see and hear a different soul in her song "Better". There are many things out there but only God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost is the TRUTH.
"THINK OF JUDGEMENT AFTER DEATH".
Wow... in my protestant denomination we were always taught to read and consider everything, that our beliefs could stand up to any scrutiny. I'm thankful for that.
Exactly she had no training in apologetics and succumbed to the false teachings of the world, the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God and she bought into the foolishness. Sad.
If you listen to Gungar the arguments are so weak.
😂😂😂
@henrka both u and the one that commented are so weak with ur position....absolutely abysmal 😅😊
@@captainmarvel76927 how so ?
I'm praying for Audrey! I Love her song, "I Shall Not Want." I pray she will fully embrace Jesus as her Savior, knowing that He said, HE is the truth and the Life and the way and that no man comes to the Father but by me".(John 14:6) I pray she will truly know in her heart that she needs or wants no other in this life. He alone truly satisfies. I pray she will grow in discernment as a beloved daughter "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1
sad. You sound like a robot.
God is big enough to handle our doubts and to walk us through them - IF we go to Him with them. I don't say this to criticize or judge anyone, but hopefully to encourage those who might find themselves in similar spiritual turmoil. It can be even more depressing to one who's suffering to find so much 'company' among the ranks of those who once inspired us...
I went through a crisis of faith many years ago precipitated by some traumatic events. I'm thankful for that time now - because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will never go through another. Sometimes it takes a 'shaking' to reveal what's unshakable.
God is not only able to handle our doubts, He's able to walk us out of them much stronger than we ever were before our faith was tested. But we've got to go to HIM with them. Even during my own deep inner turmoil I knew better than to talk to other doubters. The answer is not to be found in intellectual reasoning.
Doubts reveal where our faith is shallow. They reveal where we've built a belief system on something other than a true, vital, living relationship with GOD. This is actually a good thing. It is able to propel us to seek Him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH because nothing else will do.
If you're in anguish, plagued with doubts, I urge you to keep seeking. God is more real and more NEAR than you know, but it's the childlike, not the intellectually sophisticated, who encounter Him.
And it is ultimately ALL about encounter. Those mystical experiences you've read about? They're not for a select few. The Bible is full of them, and we're all meant to have them - those times when God shows up for us, when He meets with us, when He confirms things to us in a way that only He can. Don't stop seeking! Don't give up! Those are moments of transcendent truth that no enemy from hell can steal!
Right at the beginning when she talked about what is hidden. EVE jumped into my mind. She was also shown and told things that were forbidden and she fell for it. Same story here. May God have mercy on us all.
It's not saddening. It's MADDENING. It's sheer hubris under the cloak of "intellectual honesty".
Until we are brought to repentance and called out to the Lord and saved, spiritual blindness remains. Churches must teach sound doctrine and Christians must share the Gospel with all those the Lord brings to them.
Keep searching. God gave your mind the ability to reason. Don't listen to the skeptics. Use your intellect to arrive at your own spirituality. God will be there, along side you as you search on "your" unique path. Then, and only then, will you be an authentic child of God.
The great apostasy as predicted by the scriptures
Where exactly?
Are you talking about 1 Timothy 4:1?
_"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing a spirits, and doctrines of devils"_
@@polarisnorth4875 “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,”
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 NASB2020
The ESV translates it as “the rebellion”
The KJV translates it as “the falling away”
The NLT translates it as a “great rebellion against God”
Pretty much the different translations are pointing towards a great turning away from God and people leaving the faith for what 1 Timothy 4:1 calls “deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons”
Is she an atheist now, she doesn't sing gospel song anymore
I went through a difficult trial, during which time her music was very encouraging.
So called science has derailed many....she never mentions the irreducible complexity of God's creation....she may have been disappointed in God for her illness, who knows?
Christianity and religions of man have error and fear, is not where you will find the True Creator. It's not on the outside of you, it's within. It's a personal journey with Spirit the Divine within.
It’s hard to connect with what she is saying, as i tried to find truth everywhere - literally everywhere and after years heavy in the new age, found truth, freedom and love in Jesus our Lord. ♥️ I’ve never been the same since 🙏🏻
No, you dindn´t you didn´t try to find truth LITERALLY everywhere.
So what's your conclusion? @@Mavors1099
Sounds like a very legalistic church n "religion". I hope she builds a relationship with the One True Jesus.
Jon is an inspiration to us apostates. Christians don't realize how difficult it is to come out in a christian culture.
100%
Dear Andrey you don't have to live in fear, you can actually learn more about God, ask all the questions you want but if you really want to know about God, you shouldn't leave the source
Dear Audrey, i pray you know who God is, not the God that is so fearful and you have to keep up with his laws but a God who is love, loves you enough to die for you, loves you now but wants to make you better
Dear Audrey, Jesus sees you and He won't stop reaching out to you, you are so precious in his sight, He won't lay anything ill fitting to you, He will grant you rest
Dear Audrey, God wants you to know him, to know his ways
Dear Audrey, i would be praying for you
She’ll be back. Deconstruction is a good thing. Yahweh will rebuild her foundations with His truth. I did this after becoming an atheist. I realized that there are many traditions that have crippled theology. Yahweh had me question everything, and stone by stone rebuilt me again. It was awesome!
Love your confidence in the Lord! I agree
Staggering. I had no idea. So sorry. The River In The Rock blessed my wife and I so abundantly. So sad.
This is the result of a version of Christianity that lacks the life of God. Jesus is that life. I pray she finds Him if she hasn’t.
After my wife divorced me and moved to Florida my son moved with her and proceeded to breakdown over the lose of his family. He began drinking, smoking pot and sleeping around. Usually on Fridays he would call me, drunk, to trash me, for what he could never say. We talked for at least an hour each time.
Finally, one Friday he told me he had been desperately trying to become an atheist, or at least an agnostic, for over a year but couldn't do it. No matter how hard he tried her couldn't not believe in God and he blamed me for that!
"You were always so reasonable and you knew so much. I never had a question you couldn't answer but you always told me if something was your opinion or really taught in the Bible. And you told me more than once that I had to decide what I believed. I've never forgotten that."
Unfortunately, I found out a few years later from his sister that before our divorce and for years after his mother used to blame me for everything bad that had ever happened to her, and him! Sadder still, he is in thrall to his mother to this day.
🙏🙏🙏
Wow m so glad I did listen to her because she didn’t say anything that comes to me as a surprise!!! Could happen to anyone who just followed what they did because they were raised that way. They tend to get curious and question life which isn’t wrong. Bible says it’s fine to do it. But Christ wants a relationship and that can’t come if you just follow parole or what you’re raised to believe. There has to come a point in your life where you desperately need a saviour and there is no other way. I’m sure God has a plan In everybody’s life including her. And just because she’s turned away dosent change anything or the fact that her music once was for Gods glory and has helped many through storms. Christ is the same yesterday today and forever!!!!
Who is telling her that certain books are forbidden? The author she mentions is a source which supports the biblical writings.
And why would she be living in constant fear? Faith in God releases us from fear because the only thing we should fear is God. Jesus’s message was for us to stop fearing about the future, money, and what others think of us. To say that there is less fear by leaving the faith is foolishness and completely false.
It's good to question, to learn and to scrutinize the Faith. I didn't get the sense from listening to Audrey that she has abandoned her faith in God. If that's so, then the Spirit of Truth will help her. If she was in a real relationship with the Lord (as it seems for how her music touches and moves so many of us), then she will find His help, feel his gentle nudge and return to His embrace. For this I pray.
Genesis 2:16
16And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
We have to be careful about learning about other things. Some things can't be undone. Some things can't be unseen. Some things are an aquired taste- not good at first but the appeal grows...and stays. The final part of Deuteronomy 12 explains in a nutshell what we should and shouldn't do.
And if your life gets better after walking away from God it might be satan throwing you a bone. He tried with Jesus. But some religious groups do go beyond what is required. Jesus preached against it.
The fourth commandment does make it hard to be a semi-pro or pro musician. I gladly gave it up. I do miss it sometimes but I would miss God so much more.
The Bible tells the whole story
I deconstructed when the truth claims came up short. It's that simple. Also, a lot of people are leaving religions and not abandoning their faith. Churches are concerned because of the loss of power and money.
Jesus is King!!!! :)
All of Christ for all of life!
Yeah! The Bible says so, and I can prove it.
Absolutely! He is the greatest love in person ❤
...crown you in my heart...
I think you'll find that Elvis was King.
The heart of Christian faith isn't about what "I think" or even "I believe", but "Who do I belong to?" and "Where is my home"? People that allow questions to close the door on faith are making a sad and tragic mistake.
It was through reason that my faith was strengthened! I doubted my faith about 15 years ago. I asked God to show me that he is real or I am going to live for myself. My journey started with Biblical evidence. Creation vs evolution, the global flood, the Red Sea crossing, the resurrection. I was amazed at how much evidence there actually is! I didn't need to have a degree in archeology or biology to read about over 300 flood legends around the world. To read and see ancient art work of man hunting dinosaurs! Of secular writings about followers of Jesus that claimed to witness the death and resurrection of Jesus, and willing to die for it! I am convinced the bible is true! There are many messed up traditional doctrines within the churches for sure! The bible is my guide for truth. Not church traditions or modern culture!
As a Christian, it bothers me how other Christians talk about those who deconstruct their faith. If God is truly Love, then you have nothing to worry about where Audrey is concerned. Our journeys to meaning are personal. I've been through deconstruction and reconstruction myself. You can learn a lot from non-theists if you'll listen. God is in them too.
Thank you! I'm a new Christian and I am shocked at how short sighted and hard hearted people are. This poor woman grew up in an oppressive cult. She may well end up in another kind of Christianity that doesn't contain the cultish abuse!
Run to scripture, not the wisdom of man. No mention of Jesus or the Bible here.
i was very scientific and consumed as much education as i could get my hands on. it lead me to laugh at christianity at a certain point and my life ended up in multiple addictions and failure at every turn. i asked god to come back into my life and ive had so many blessings and so much growth in the past year and a half that its almost unbelievable. now im sober, i have my own place, i got that job, and im happier than ive ever been. ive also not been inside a church a single time since God came back into my life. im not saying thats right or wrong, im just being honest. im very skeptical of congregations and being lead the wrong way by others negative motives etc. all i know is when i sit with God im more than just a failure and my relationship with him is growing. i will sit with God alone until he shows me the church or the people he wants me to be with. i dont think we realize how sometimes christians can be the worst thing that ever happened to other christians but i do know that Jesus said if we beleive and receive his sacrifice then we are Gods children. i dont think we need to be a cult or to hide our christian children away from the world. i think we need to teach them and help them and let their strength in christ shine through. i know that takes a lot of faith but we arent prison wardens, were here to shine light, through us, not to be afraid of the darkness. im not saying we dont take it seriously or protect our brothers and sisters, im just saying at a certain point the control isnt christian, its just control.
Fear is opposite of faith and lots of religions use it to control people. Even God says he hates religion. True Christianity is about a relationship with God through Jesus not belonging or going to a local church. A lot of 'chtistian' writers and singers actually use Ghostwritters like me who have birthed these songs in great pain of circumstances. Someone with a beautiful voice can sing it but not have the same depth of experience as the writers or the song lovers. And they may not be Christians born again, so the Holy Spirit is blocked from ministering life and love to them as they can perform but not receive.😢
This is goobly talk. I don't think this women knows what she believes.
They went out from us because the were never really of us 😢
yep
If you were raised in an environment, allegedly Christian, whether there is a great deal of angst and fear, then you weren’t being taught Christianity. I don’t know how many times the Bible, including Jesus himself, say, to not fear, to have confidence,etc. etc. etc.
Not told the whole story you have the whole Bible God is about a relationship not following rules prays for you.
So sad walking away from Jesus and leaving the only way, truth and life. Jesus, not religion! Scripture clearly says if they walk away and never return the were never one of us in the first place. The "Rich Young Ruler" did the same extremely sad thing.
She didn’t meet Jesus personally but did things exactly as she was told.
That’s the problem with overshielding parenting, and a fear based understanding of Jesus’ teachings, who often greeted people with Fear Not. Same as the Angels of God when they appeared to people.
Audrey… What do you call? Fear-based is really where you're living now. You're afraid that you might actually have answers it will hold you accountable for your pseudo intellectual journey outside of the Faithe.
The fact is, that either you have the Bible as a standard or yourself. If you look at all the other books and sources that you're looking at, you're going to find a bunch of people who disagree. What a convenient for you. You'll be able to pick and choose what appeals to your particular brand of intellect and reason. Do you trust your own judgment so much that you're willing to throw away scripture?
Your music blessed me for many years. But now you've been bewitched.
Perhaps because the coming of Christ is close.. it's expected that many will fall away from the faith - matt 24:10. Certainly the verse before that about Christians being hated has become true on a worldwide scale.
(Mark 4:13-20; Luke 8:11-15)
18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
I hear the same story that they were told this and how to think so was I and struggled with it, so I spend 5 years
researching all religions and Christianity is the only truth for mankind. Do some reading, of all types, you will see it.
God's gift of salvation is free if you believe in him and the father who sent him. Jesus says this over and over in
the gospels. If you deeply study Genesis, Isaiah, and Job you will see a world view of everything.
She is missing her own deep experience with God. That does not happen until you leave religion and cry out to Him with all your heart...true faith wrought by sorrowful repentance for believinf OSAS and by asking Holy Dpirit to show you truth in His word. Then, stand on Him even though Father will then refine you and break you and put you through so much painful experiences. A test of true faith is will you still love him and be obedient even if He takes things from you so you will have no other Gods and none of your own ideologies. Loving His truth is what He is trying to teach you. If you took the jab, it will make his truth harder for you to hear. Maybe this is why the change. If so, that explains it. If you did, you must cry out to Him with repentance because Jesus is around the corner and judgement is here.
May Christians, unfortunately, will never know God. They never had an actual personal relationship…they only just went through the motions. They never actually met God. Once you’ve met God…it’s not even a question anymore if it’s all real or not. So many people are just going through the motions and never got to know him. And then we wonder why so many people leave the faith. Your faith was hollow. And because your faith was hollow….you never got to actually interact with him.
Most people just want a “fast food” Jesus. Something that seems to feed you, lots of hoopla….but it leaves you feeling unsatisfied, and regretting your choice. The real Jesus makes you realize that everything else in this world is like eating pig slop in comparison. Many self-proclaimed Christians haven’t met the real Jesus.
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Deconstruction seems to find its roots in individualism, there is one truth and that’s found in the scriptures alone. Read and stick to God’s word, don’t get dragged by the fluctuating culture, grow in God, rather than evolve with a fallen world.
So sad.
No we weren’t told the whole story. That doesn’t mean the story isn’t true. Jesus is the messiah Yahweh of the one true God and hours word is truth
Be careful and measure EVERYTHING against scripture.
We can be easily mislead by Satan’s charisma and lies cloaked in the Truth.
What about when scripture is what's making you have doubts? Like 2 Kings 3:26 for example
@@cindylou3524 It is a blessing to be favoured with the company of those who have power with God, and can prevail by their prayers. A kingdom may be upheld and prosper, in consequence of the fervent prayers of those who are dear to God. May we place our highest regard upon such as are most precious in his account. When sinners are saying Peace, peace, destruction comes upon them: despair will follow their mad presumption. In Satan's service and at his suggestion, such horrid deeds have been done, as cause the natural feelings of the heart to shudder; like the king of Moab's sacrificing his son. It is well not to urge the worst of men to extremities; we should rather leave them to the judgment of God.
She’s reading about the reformers, and that is GREAT! She’s questioning Catholicism which she should because Catholics are not Christian’s they do not believe in CHRIST as they should among other things Catholics believe… I pray the LORD will continue to draw her to him and she would find someone with sound doctrine to disciple her and lead her to the real CHRIST that would lead to salvation…
It actually doesn't matter what any Christians or Atheists are doing. What matters is determining what is actually true. It doesn't matter how you were raised, strict baptist or atheist. What matters is what is actually true. Many people simply reject God not because they don't believe he's real, but because they don't want anyone telling them what to do. That's where the real bitterness comes from...
She had been told for fear based reasons to "stay away from so much". That is not a healthy approach. I'm a musician and a very curious one at that. I try to learn as much as I can about opposing world views. She should feel free to explore, including a Christian perspective that isn't as closed minded as the one she grew up in. After over 40 years of looking into multiple world views, I'm still in the faith. I hope she keeps searching with an open mind.
She says she didn’t even know who Martin Luther was!! Don’t these folks go to school?? I’ve seen a few of these sorts of videos now and I’m afraid I don’t recognise the Christianity they seem to have been in.
Christianity is taught, even in churches, as a fairytale. It’s not taught as truth that engages all of the human experience. People don’t know how deep is Christianity and it’s intellectual history and it’s actual impact in the world.
If Christianity was taken seriously in the church then the outcomes would be different and more folks would come to Christ and remain in Christ.
She didn’t know because her denomination Wouldn’t allow her to learn about it. Being raised in a sheltered environment is terrible for a child’s mind
@@gfujigo They didn't embrace the full power of the Oxytocin Father, Serotonin Son, and the Holy Dopamine Ghost via Placebo Faith.
@@Iamwrongbut she left the faith as an adult. You can't blame parents/ church at that point. She didn't learn about her faith because she didn't care to.
@@User_Happy35 she left faith as an adult because she learned about these things as an adult haha. Did you even watch the video?
So sad. I loved her early records that really ministered to me. I had her same questions and became familiar with Josephus and others. I took my questions to the Lord and after further research became even more convinced of Jesus as Messiah and the Word as true. God is big enough to handle our questions and struggles!
Well said my bro✊🏾
Amen!!
Amen! I read Josephus myself many years ago and was encouraged in the faith instead of being dissuaded.
And God does not want us to live in fear. There is a healthy fear of God that is proper reverence of HIS sovereignty, HIS holiness and HIS power, but HE does not want us to be anxious or fearful. That is really sad that she has left for the world.
And that is the difference. You took it to the Lord. There's nothing wrong with having questions, curiosities, and even doubt and we go before the Lord with his Word open, letting the Holy Spirit teach us. Going before the Lord wanting HiM to teach us is not deconstruction. Deconstruction is walking away and would tell me that they never really were saved.
I'm trying to be compassionate towards people that had the nerve to be Christian leaders when they didn't know what they believed. The Apostle John would say "they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us." Still, I'm trying. But if we learn nothing else from this, let's learn that making kids our hero worship leaders is a very bad idea.
i wonder why would anyone forbid the reading if Josephus? That's even the secular historian who proved there was such a person as Jesus who was worshipped by His followers.
No, he reports on groups who claimed to believe in Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need to exist for that to be true.
You mean groups like the Jews, the Romans, and the Caesar of Rome? 😏🫴
Yeah, Josephus confirmed the existence of Jesus as a historical figure.
I know a million reasons to leave the faith, but there is one thing I cannot leave and that is the love of my friend Jesus who owned nothing and was rejected.Without that love I am a shipwreck.Thank you Audrey for your music which was a positive in my life.
Same! 1,000 times, same! I agree.
I just learned about her yesterday or the day before... and I'm heartbroken. It's so very sad. Why are so many walking away?
Deconstructing used to be called apostasy. I don't see what was wrong with the word apostasy.
@Matthew Oakley It’s still called apostasy, but honestly I think the word probably gets avoid due to both “Perseverance of the saints” and “OSAS”.
Some view deconstructing different from apostasy because they want to nick pick what they like and don't and at the same time still be a part of the church or have their version of the church.
Agreed! To me this new terminology is just trying to put a less negative twist on sinfulness and rebellion. It’s sad that legalism has pushed so many away from Christ though! This is a great lesson to parents today to talk to our kids more, rather than isolate them from the world!
Because apostasy is turning your back on christianity whereas deconstruction Is about removing the negative, mental health-damaging elements of systematised theology.
@@polarisnorth4875 aka heresy
This saddens me so much. I only recently discovered Audrey's music and have been blessed by it beyond measure. I thought I had found someone who truly understood how I felt about God and was able to express it in music better than anyone else. Her story I have heard too many times. America is cursed by these closed fundamentalist bubbles that, although well meaning, produce mentally crippled adults. It is totally alien to my experience. I was raised by Christian parents who valued education highly and encouraged me to read widely. I studied Biology at universlty before becoming a science teacher, and my circle of friends throughout this time were all atheists. I pursued a personal spiritual journey which eventually led me to Christ at the age of 30. I hope that Audrey will one day return to singing songs of praise, and to sing them from the heart, in the realisation that God is not an evil monster who requires us to "obey the rules", but someone who loves us with no strings attached and simply wants us to receive his love,
AMEN
Well said, and it sounds like you had a wonderful experience of being raised by open-minded parents and then coming to Christianity when you were in full, free-thinking adulthood. For those of us raised in a twisted version of Christianity, the journey of deconstruction and then healing is much more complex. However, I agree with all you said!
Thank you- very helpful to read that. Agreed.
Same here, I thought her hymn music was superb and now she's a disconstructionist???
Amém 🙌🙏
Personally my biggest frustration with music at church is modern contemporary Christian music is nauseating vapid. It has no real depth and most of the time "me" or "my" is the key word in most choruses. It doesn't inspire me at all and is often very self centered, so it's not surprising musicians are losing theirs too.
The great C.S Lewis detested church hymns. Fifth rate poetry set to sixth rate music, he said. Surely he would have considered modern Christian pop music a bore.
@@jamotter8967 what did Lewis prefer?
@@elstevobevo . . . C.S. Lewis loved Wagner operas, especially the Ring Cycle, Beethoven symphonies, Sibelius symphonies (and Finlandia, which reminded him of "Northernness") and some Mozart overtures.
@@jamotter8967 i meant for worship music. Did he have a preference?
@@elstevobevo . . . I think there was no worship music that Lewis especially liked. Even his non-worship musical tastes, though very good, were rather confined. Then there is this: Lewis also cared little for church sermons--"Sunday sermonizing" as he referred to them. He thought some clergy were apostate, many others far too liberal ("Christianity and water" he called it) and most other preachers a tad sophomoric for his tastes. He frustrated his local Headington Quarry pastor greatly because he would often leave before the pastor was finished with the Benediction. That said, although he was no Catholic and "not especially high" as an Anglican, Lewis seemed awestruck in the presence of the eucharist. And despite his distaste for perfunctory sermons he himself delivered (IMHO) the greatest sermon ever penned: "The Weight of Glory". If you are not familiar with it, do look it up.
She is right in a way. Churches directing people away from scripture as the ultimate authority leads to a bizarre, ritualistic, & thoughtless faith. But, it's a shame that (it sounds like) she has denied Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life as a result. If the latter is true, then she needs to repent and run into the embracing arms of Jesus, who is the only one that can save.
Ask the hard questions, submit to the truth of scripture, and worship God with your mind (in addition to your heart).
Aww. I was just starting to discover her songs. Life is too unpredictable
The words are true. Nothing can change that even when we are faithless.
I didn't hear her say she was stopping making music.
You can still enjoy her music
Yeah Sad to learn she rejected Christ…
I think she never had a real relationship with Jesus and then the enemy put doubts and confusion in her mind...We must pray for her.
So.... she grew disillusioned with her repressive Plymouth Brethren upbringing but then decided to leave the Christian faith altogether??? Leave your repressive Brethren sect and see what other Christians have to say. She says she's a thinking person but doesn't sound like she put much thought into her decision. Just emotion.
Salvation is of The Lord ( not of us ! ) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. I pray Audrey might know both the peace of forgiveness of sins and the joy of life eternal that only Jesus can give.
That's the problem with ritualistic religion. You think you are a Christian because you follow the rules, sing happy songs and go to megaChurch or cult church but it is empty religion and you are just going through the motions with no spiritual depth and no spiritual reality. If your life is not supernatural, if you don't have spiritual and supernatural gifts then you are not a Christian, you just think you are. Christianity is a supernatural state you cannot mistake. If you can leave Christianity then you were never a true follower of Christ.
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."
Praying for Audrey as she searches for truth. It took me 60 years to find it. Look to Christ. Read and study the Bible with the heart of a child.
I’m pretty sure she’s read the bible before
@@Sanddollar1 most Christians should have
Read and study everything with the mind of an adult
@@Sanddollar1 judging from this discussion the more theology she read the weaker her faith become.
@@Sanddollar1 you should not be reading the bible with the mindset of it already being true that’s confirmation bias.. you should be reading it with a critical and skeptical mindset.
This is crazy for me to see because I remember unsubscribing to her channel a couple of years back, I could tell she was a false conversion years ago. The American church is full of people just like this 😔
CCM is an apostate cesspool so when they become total infidels it's the fruit of that rotten movement.
You never know - the end result of this might be an honest faith. I see an open person in this interview, and not a Gothic Audrey. I think there is a big difference from doing something because you "should do" and "must do" it, versus doing it because you are a child of God
East answer: “Christian Music” has become big business. Lots of folks get into it for that reason. They never were bonafide Christian followers to begin with.
Lack of Faith. This is the time of the great falling away. Afflictions come upon all and only the faithful will remain. All things will be shaken so the things that will be shaken will be shaken and the things that will remain will remain. Do not fear, do not fall away.
definitely 😢
I actually love this. You’d have to be raised either as a Christian or in a cult to even have a context for where we are coming from.
smh why
Praying for you dear! ❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏
It boils down precisely to this: If you're actually saved, you will certainly be left with questions for your whole life. But, you judge issues whose ideas come from the world by the transcendent truth of God and pursue answers on the basis of that. That is faith, but it's not blind (which so many believe faith is meant to be). But, If you're not saved, but have lived a culturally devoted "Christian" life, when you're exposed to things from the world - especially those that resonate - you measure the transcendent on the basis of human ideas. Since fear is the context of this vid, one of the above is a fear of God (which is the beginning of wisdom), the other however *is* fear of man. It's still fear. How odd that fear of man has won for so many of these deconstructionists. And how odd they don't see that.
Love the comment
Well said 👍👌🙏
One who is truly born again will never ;leave. God will not let you. Sadly these folks were not born again. They may have said a prayer once as a child and believed themselves saved but they clearly weren't. Very sad. My faith was not fear based and was always based on evidence and what God had done and was doing in my life. I was saved at 31 and know well the truth.
100% Truth! Truly born again will not leave, walk away, deconstruct. We go before the Lord and cry "help me in my unbelief."
This is so incredibly sad to me. I'm heartbroken by this. I was raised in the church and I was never "forbidden" from reading other literature, authors, etc. I was taught apologetics, reason, and critical thinking. I'm sad to hear that these former voices of faith turn away before testing the truth with these tools in their "toolbox" so to speak. All the hardest questions in life find an answer, bedrock, and meaning in the Word of God and His unchanging truth. I sincerely and deeply hope that all who have deconstructed find that the end of their journey ultimately leads them back home.. I've been through incredible hardship, and for me, my faith is what held me together through all the chaos and pain life has brought. I have studied other religions and I have tasted the "promises" of the world, and it's all empty and fleeting--nothing holds up outside of the One True, Almighty God, and the Word He has given us. May the truth always win.
Another ‘Christian artist’ has left the faith. Shocking……not! It’s par for the course. I’ve never met a ‘Christian artist’ or ‘worship leader’ whose faith is as deep as we think it is. Notice I said “we think it is.” These people are hired or are famous because they’re great singers. Then people are shocked when they denounce the faith. I’m never shocked. “Another one bites the dust.”
all these people have one thing in common... they all blame people... the church,etc... have they even listen to the voice of God?... Christians follow God not man... stop blaming people and start following God...
Yes the devil throws alot to confuse you. The Way is narrow. Call upon Jesus and let Him lead you. He is all we have. He is All in All. Study Scripture and at some time He will call you back into a church where He wants you to be. If you are His, He will never let you go. He is the Good Shepherd. Interesting that you were singing about someone you didn't even know. Get to know Him, then sing about Him. It will be a more beautiful thing. Prayerfully, 🕊❤
Sounds like the church she grew up in was all about control, which, frankly, a lot of churches are. I don't share some others' views here that Audrey was "never saved to begin with". God hasn't given up on her. Who are we to judge? We can judge her present take on Christianity perhaps, but to judge whether she is saved or not? That's God's territory, not ours.
Religions aren't Christianity believe in our saviour the lord Jesus Christ n his blood shall cleanse us from all sin you must be born again
So is she deconstructing from Christianity or her past and the strict environment she was raised in?
So sad to see how mans failure has shaped individuals view of God.
Jesus set me free from fear with his love. ❤
Sadly, she still sounds very confused.
Our failure is when our lives become all about us instead of finding the God who made thsi earth and what He created us for.
People who grew up with strict rules did not learn to cope with questions and doubts.
In my opinion they are raised with a weird kind of perfection concerning their beliefs. This is so sad to see. It is their decision to leave, but I blame their parents too, who perverted the picture of God and destroyed so much. The kids were raised in fear. It is important to know Jesus Christ and in the first place to know a God of love.
God created the world. If Gods intention was to know all details about the creation or whatever he would give us the information.
I do not walk away from God, because things are not clear. Perhaps God created the world in a process similar to the evolution in 6.000 or in 6 billions years or in a different way? For me it makes no difference who is God.
Same lie Eve fell for!
Love your song "Eden" so much! Don`t worry, deconstruction is a normal thing. We all need to do it from time to time. Jesus still is the lord and sees the heart! Do you know Melissa Denyce? She has a channel called "love covered life". Would like to see a interview between you and her. Or is there already one?
How in the world would Josephus' writings help someone deconstruct? Are we sure she's even talking about Josephus here? His writing are some of the strongest non-Christian evidence we have for the existence of Jesus.
when a person is given over to a reprobate mind i think they interpret things according to the foundations of lies. its the lens they now see the world. when one rejects the gospel, their only option is to believe the lies upon lies as though they were true. even able to twist truths.
He’s good evidence for the existence of Jesus yes, but what’s striking is the lack of support he offers for any of Jesus’ miracles, except for the notoriously forged passage of course.
@@MoNtYbOy101 It's not striking at all. Of course a follower of Judaism would deny Jesus' divinity, and his miracles. But the fact that Josephus was affirming Christ's death, the martydom of james, confirming that John the baptist was killed by Herod is evidence in favor of Christianity, not evidence against it. How in the world anyone would pick up Josephus and lose their faith over it is beyond me. It's quite odd. It makes me think she misspoke and was referring to another ancient writer?
@@reevertoun I highly doubt she doesn’t know who Josephus is.. and it is striking because for an ancient writer form the same time and region of Jesus, that knew of him, that fact he mentions nothing about Jesus’ miracles might lead one to believe he wasn’t a miracle worker at all like the Christian writers like make out.
@@MoNtYbOy101 It seems you also lack familiarity with Josephus. How anyone could read this passage from a non-christian historian and question their faith is hard to fathom(completely ignoring Josephus confirming the post-crucifiction conversion of James the brother of Jesus)
Here is the non-disputed portion Testimonium Flavianum.
" Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and many of Greek origin"
So please explain how someone could pick up Testimonium Flavianum or Antiquities of the Jews and view it as a disconfirmation of Christianity. It's a bizarre claim to make on its face. The emperor has no clothes.
Did she end up with a mus lim dude? Her name is Assad, and is a middle eastern Syrian 🇸🇾 Mus lim name
There are Christians in the Middle East, including Lebanon.
It's her maiden name. Father is from Syria.
It's ridiculous to seek to improve or help the church in any way by asking the counsel of the apostate.
It doesn't sound to me like she actually ever knew Jesus. According to her, her religion was built upon fear. That isn't Bible Christianity.
Most Christians and most religious people in general have a foundation of fear, guilt, and shame. And judgment. It’s not Jesus’ teaching and is far from the nature of God
Religion built on fear? Yes, of course it is, what do you expect from a belief system deploying Hell?
Audrey is one of a growing trend of a movement away from institutions, and towards individual discovery. I look forward to what you'll be sharing with us as you travel this journey.
Her denomination is actually a cult which explains why she fell away
the whole christianity is a cut
I've heard several testimonies of CCM artists who leave the faith or who deconstruct. From what they say they never knew Jesus Christ in the first place. It's like an unbeliever saying that they have ceased to believe.
And... kinda reminds me of how the Roman Catholic practice of infant baptism makes Catholics think they are saved when they are not. In the Protestant church that's analogous to people who are born to Christian parents and everyone assumes they are Christians. What finally happens with most of these people is not that they leave their faith in Christ Jesus (apostasize). What happens is that they simply discover, realize, find out, that they had never believed in that Person in the first place. Simply put, in New Testament Biblical terms, they are lost and in need of the Savior.
The channel "Genetically modified skeptic" made a video about modern "Christian" worship groups and how they emotionally manipulate you.
He pretty much summed up my problems with those bands I had several years ago.
Several years ago I started to doubt my faith because all this worship stuff became like worshipping myself instead of the Lord.
It impacted me so much, I stopped being an active member of our little worship group in our church and I stopped singing worship songs. In fact I think that and something else I did lead to the collapse of our youthgroup (nothing illegal, just bad for group cohesion).
I had a great voice. Yet because of my doubts I sealed it away.
After a while I became so doubtful, I kind of fell away from the faith and opened myself to sin.
Today, I still don't sing worship. At least not modern worship.
But I have emersed myself for several years in studying and confronting my faith with atheist and Muslim polemics.
Today my faith is stronger than before, but for now I am non-denominational.
But I also have suffered "injuries".
Once you open the flood gates of sin, it's hard to close them again. It's almost like Pandora's box.
That which you do often is that in which you become proficient. And if you often sin then you become proficient in sin....
well said. Spot on. Todays Churches are full of "cultural christians" not born again believers.
Is the point to figure out the truth? Or to be a Christian no matter what?
Man, people be praying for Audry Assad, this is God's plan, a master plan, he knew that at this time, Audrey Assad will go through this phase... He knows everything, and no one can change that.... Just love her for who she is, man!! Christians can be f**ked up sometimes. If God wants her path to deconvert, then come back to him(or not), then who are we to change that
Regarding: “deconstructing" ---- This unfortunate and once trendy, now increasingly passe, notion of 'deconstruction' seems a poor substitute for the term apostasy and implies a diminished comprehension of both classical theology and the philosophy of Jacques Derrida.
As a mode of critique, questioning binary hierarchies and exclusive readings would, it seems obvious, be an adjunct to a well-reasoned faith and quite contrary to apostasy. The reading that atheism is, is by that metric neither cogent nor functional. For Atheism, sine ipsum esse subsistens, is by definition a null set of unprovable negations, and therefore a reading which can be positively neither cogent nor functional.
The term deconstruction is, on the other hand, readily attractive to psychological pubescence in that it implies a tearing down and effacement of perceived constraint-- and with no ability to erect a functional alternative. That is ironically, the same mindset Derrida sought to counter, at least early on, through his articulate and perhaps misrepresented works.
"And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned" (Isaiah 29)
They were never Christian to begin with…
Agreed. Their Christianity was cultural, and as soon as they had to choose between it and being part of the popular crowd they ditched it for the most trivial reasons.
Our pastor once told a story, can't remember if it was true or not, but doesn't matter. Maybe it was just metaphorical, but it totally impacted my life for Christ. He spoke of a silver miner who was the owner of a small silver mine and was making just enough to get by on. He made enough to pay for his food and supplies and that was about it. He got tired of NOT making the big strike he had always hoped for, so he sold the mine. The new owner spent a few weeks digging a few more feet into the mine and made the largest silver strike ever in that region.
I decided that day, if my pastor gave up on the Lord, if my wife gave up on the Lord, if my best Christian friends gave up on the Lord, if everyone said Christianity is a fraud, the Bible is a hoax, I STILL will stick with Jesus Christ. It's just too great a future (eternity in Heaven as a member of God's family) to give up on. NOBODY knows for sure if Heaven is real or not, NOBODY knows for sure if Jesus really is waiting for us, NOBODY knows for sure if there is an eternal hell waiting for those who fail to trust in Jesus Christ.
ALL of us will just have to wait and see. I, by God's grace, am not going to be like the foolish miner who gave up, just because things weren't working out quite the way he wanted.
I am going to stick it out with Christ. I have been for forty years.
Celebrating deconstruction - which is, in truth, forasaking the actual truth of the Gospel, Jesus, and salvation - is heart breaking. It's like, "ooh, look at us! look how smart we are! look how enlightened!" BUT, in actuality, unless we are missing something, you are forsaking your first love. And, it is not remotely anything to celebrate.
I don't think most people who deconstructed even wanted to go through it. It's so much easier not to go through that process esp a worship leader like her who has a following and people who look up to her. I wish people weren't so judgemental and understand that things are nuanced.
@@Varaidzo1 I agree nuance is often overlooked. But in this case she has openly shared that she has left the faith. Praying she returns.
…..” what you’re trying to do is critique and take down the structure you left behind….
“This raises an important point for those of us who have a deconstructing spirit, what are we after? What’s our motivating spirit?
A reactionary spirit, that wants to reject the community of our youth, versus a spirit driven by the quest for truth whatever it might cost to find it.” From the podcast Rise & Fall or Mars Hill
Deconstruction: the act of getting tired of hiding that you are living a double life.