For the first 300 years the debate centered on an event not a book. That is why every Easter we start by saying Jesus rose from the dead but not because the Bible says so. It's way better than that! -- Andy Stanley
How revealing that a heretic would use the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior to mock His very Word. The same Word He said would not pass away. It's way better than that? So in the seeker friendly, purpose driven wicked heart of Andy Stanley his notions and carnal ideas are so much better than the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures. He actually then apologizes if your church sent you off to college with only the house of cards of faith to rely on instead of his earthly and fleshly wisdom. Seriously. He calls the pre-bible version of our faith defensible, endurable, persecutable, fearless, compassionate and compelling. By omission we are left concluding that he feels the post-Bible version of Christianity is indefensible, cannot endure, will not survive persecution, fearful, uncompassionate, and not particularly compelling. Wow. The arrogant heresy is breathtakingly sad. Mercifully, he would conclude:
"Now I challenge you to embrace the grown up God. Jesus loves me this I know because Matthew tells me so and he walked with Jesus; because Luke tells me so and he was really detailed; because Paul tells me so and he once persecuted the church; because His original followers were martyred believing so. The reason why you should consider following Jesus is not because the Bible says so." -- Andy Stanley
Embrace the grown up God? Can Andy Stanley be any more condescending to Christians? I know we are to have childlike faith but that does not mean you are only an adult when you start to believe the lies of the world instead of the Bible. That when man says he can't find any proof for something that happened 5000 years ago that you dismiss the Bible as infallible. What has Andy Stanley traded the inerrancy of Scripture in for? The testimony of man. We should believe God loves us because of someone name Matthew, Luke or Paul; who lived over 2000 years before we were born. I understand that their accounts and the authenticity of the manuscripts is an excellent source of reliability in the documents but that doesn't mean we toss God out for them. Their fantastic reliability only buttresses the faith argument, it doesn't discard it. Stanley also fails to see the immense logical disconnect in using Scriptures to say we do not need to use Scripture. Or maybe that these Scriptures we can rely on but the Old Testament? Nah, they were just a bunch of liars. I would expect this argument from atheist Richard Dawkins not a pastor in a Christian church.
It does however reveal the deeper problem facing the church today. The purpose driven hacks like Andy Stanley are eviscerating real faith. They are destroying it by raising humanistic logic and worldly reason over it. They employ systems and run churches that are completely devoid of the Holy Spirit. They preach a false gospel that saves no one. Can someone find God still within these systems and churches? Sure, God is not hard to find. But that is in spite of the false teaching not because of it. We are starting to see the end result of decades of the false purpose driven church system. Swaths of people who think they are saved having their faith unraveled by the opinion of man. Even someone who champions the false system like Andy Stanley can see it. He just cannot see that the answer is not in the church abandoning the Bible. The answer is in the church abandoning Andy Stanley and all heretics like him.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- September 1, 2016
