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I probably wouldn’t have deconstructed my faith if it wasn’t for YouTube. On the other hand, I don’t know if I would still be a Christian today if it weren’t for podcasts.
Growing up as an only child and experiencing tremendous suffering, I dove into my faith early looking for answers, meaning, and anything that could help me make sense of what I was experiencing.
I would come home after the final school bell rang and instead of hanging out with friends or doing homework, I would spend hours in my room watching YouTube videos of pastors, teachers, scholars, and scientists talking about the things I was wrestling with in my faith (this explains why I was terrible at school). I wanted answers and I knew someone had to have them.
One night I stumbled upon one of the original deconversion stories on YouTube. It was a series of twelve videos that chronicled the systematic deconstruction of someone’s faith from Christianity to atheism. At the time, it was more than my brittle faith could stand. My house of faith collapsed and I began a long journey through deconstruction.
My deconstruction was spurred along by many podcasts including, as I’ve written before, The Liturgists. I watched countless hours of talks from Pete Rollins, Rob Bell, Richard Rohr, and many more. I all but dropped out of my youth group and replaced my pastors with podcasters. I stopped trusting those who knew me in real life—my struggles, my propensities, my sorrows—and only trusted those who delivered spiritual goods to me in the form of .mp3s and .wav files.
Soon, however, the exact opposite path also took place. I knew my faith couldn’t be built solely on the critique of what is wrong with Christianity, but had to be built on the good, the true, and the beautiful. For all that might be good in regards to mystery and mysticism, I needed a sure and firm foundation to anchor my soul. I needed a real, bodily resurrection. I slowly but surely changed my media diet to include less The Liturgists and more Bible Project, less Rob Bell and more John Mark Comer, less Richard Rohr and more NT Wright. I realized that there was much of the Christian tradition I missed because I jumped straight from the fundamentalist environment I was raised in to the progressive side that has no use for institutions and sacred texts. My eyes were being opened—through media—to a way of being Christian that I never knew was possible.
This new media diet of mine made me hungry for more. The church I was attending, progressive and therapeutic, had no resources available for those wanting to grow in their faith. I had to enroll in a theological training program at a different church that was an hour-long drive from my house in order to begin a theological journey that would change my life. Ultimately, my faith would be rebuilt stronger than before and I now find myself a member of a local church.
It was media that took me out of the church and media that sent me back to the church.
It was media that undermined my faith and media that helped rebuild my faith.
It is impossible to understate—for better and for worse—the role of digital content in my faith.
Devices of Deconstruction
All of this was before “deconstruction” was part of the mainstream conversation in the church that it is today. Much of it was before most people even had an iPhone. In many ways, my story was a precursor for much of the way that tech and faith interplay with each other today.
Now, I make digital content for Christians full-time. I am on the other side of the screen from where I was all those years ago, partly because I know full well the power of media for discipleship. Our media diets have the power to form our faith and deform our faith. And the algorithms that feed us our content diet aren’t neutral. They know exactly what questions we’re asking, what life stage we’re in, what fears we have, where we live, and who on the internet is speaking to those things.
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Never tire of marveling over how the Lord elected you from all eternity to be His chosen one (Col. 3:12)! Recall continually the incredible holy love that He has for His people, and how He wants that exhibited in the church (Col. 2:12-14)! Marvel again and again over the peace He has brought to you in Christ –  He tells you “to be thankful” for it (Col. 3:15)! Go to worship to fulfill your duty “to teach and admonish” your brothers and sisters with Christ’s Word so they remember His salvation as well!

As believers, we should not only be seasonally thankful but ever thankful. We can demonstrate our thanks to the Lord by obeying His Word, offering prayers of gratitude, and expressing appreciation to one another. But another means we have is that we can sing our thanks. The Apostle Paul told the church at Colossae:
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16)
On a Saturday afternoon recently, I was invited by the director of the Pittsburgh Gospel Chorale, Dr. Herbert Jones, to be a special guest at their concert at a historic African-American Baptist church in the city. He actually asked me to take center stage in the middle of the concert. Now, I’ve tried to relate this to my children in such a way that is sounds like I was asked to sing. But they know better! Dr. Jones just actually asked me to give a greeting on behalf of Reformed Presbyterian Theologically Seminary.
This wonderful concert expressed joy and wonder for Christ’s salvation from beginning to end that was off the charts. While listening and watching, I was reminded of something my junior high school choir director would often tell us, “Don’t only sing with your voices. Sing with your faces.” That’s what this choir was doing.
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At the beginning of the prophecy, Edom is high and lifted-up while foreigners enter Israel’s gates and carry off her wealth (v. 11). But a reversal is coming! Mount Zion shall gain ascendency and Mount Esau shall be stubble. The ascendency of Israel is described in terms of possession. They will possess Philistia, Edom, Phoenicia, Ephraim, Samaria, Gilead, and the Negev – in other words, every nation will belong to God’s people! 

Obadiah is a neglected text in the Old Testament. It is a short text, weighing in at twenty-one verses. A lightweight for sure. However, this is probably not the reason for its neglect. No, neglect likely stems from its subject matter. It is a book about Edom. You heard me right, Edom, the posterity of Esau (Gen. 25:19ff). A quick consult of various commentaries reveals the same basic outline. This outline is from Leslie Allen’s commentary in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Allen, 142):
The Destruction of Edom (vv. 2-9)
The Wrongdoing of Edom (vv. 10-14)
Edom on the Day of Yahweh (vv. 15-21)
The point is clear, Obadiah has Edom on the mind.  And if you’re like me, the posterity of Esau doesn’t really excite you. In fact, Allen describes Obadiah as “hardly a presentation of God’s whole counsel, even by OT standards” (Allen, 137). However, despite being about Edom, Obadiah teaches us, albeit briefly, about the kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is an Opposed Kingdom
According to Obadiah, Edom is representative of all the nations, which seems to find its parallel in Amos 9:12 where the “remnant of Edom” is synonymous with “all the nations.” When one thinks of Esau, the father of Edom, as the offspring that lives in rebellion against God, the imagery is fitting. This nation is full of pride toward self (v. 3) and animosity toward their brother Jacob (v. 10). The one nation of Edom describes them all.
This rivalry between Esau and Israel is heightened further by Obadiah’s descriptions of the two. The prophet speaks of Mount Zion (vv. 17, 21) and Mount Esau (vv. 8, 9, 21).
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