Stanley is back again to trash the Bible. This time he wants Christians to unhitch the Old testament from their faith...

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But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. - 2Corinthians 11: 3-4 (ESV)

https://www.christianpost.com/news/christians-must-unhitch-old-testament-from-their-faith-says-andy-stanley-223818/

With each passing day it seems Andy Stanley falls deeper and deeper into his heretical darkness, dragging his church with him. It was ten years ago when we started to see the cracks forming in his foundation. He was insisting that the term "shepherd" be stricken from the church landscape because it was no longer "culturally relevant"; ya know, the same argument used by worldly Christian sects looking to excuse their sin. The Gospel is no respecter of culture beloved. The truth is that Andy Stanley is a strict Warren adherent of the Purpose Driven Church model. As such he fancies himself a vision casting CEO instead of a shepherd so no wonder the word was bothering him. After this incident we started seeing compromise after compromise. Eventually, his worship band was singing Beatles melodies and 1990's boy band covers. Then came last year and the full free form belly flop off the theological cliff. Andy was upset because he found a large portion of his youth went off to college only to return as unbelieving as atheists. Thankfully Andy became introspective, prayerful and ok".I am just kidding -- he blamed the Bible! Yes it was our insistence that that Bible is inerrant that was causing all of his kids to come home as goats according to the mega-heretic. Never once did it occur to him to look in the mirror and assign correct blame. Instead he did a series on how we need to stop relying on Biblical inerrancy. That we instead needed to convince unbelievers by citing historical proof and rely on the eyewitness accounts. This is the end result of the purpose driven church rotting your brain. Beloved, we cannot convince anyone to be saved. The Bible is clear about that. We plant or water but God alone gives the increase! Only the Gospel has the power of God unto the salvation of men! What never occurred to Andy last year is that his kids were not saved to begin with. So let us reason again through his latest attack upon the Word of God, linked above. These are quotes from the Christian post, reporting on a recent Stanley sermon.

'North Point Community Church Senior Pastor Andy Stanley has stated that Christians need to "unhitch" the Old Testament from their faith. In the final part of a recent sermon series, Stanley explained that while he believes that the Old Testament is "divinely inspired," it should not be "the go-to source regarding any behavior in the church."' -- Christian Post

Unhitch the Old Testament from our faith? Seriously? Is Andy no longer aware that the entire Bible is one story, not two? So he claims to believe that God divinely inspired the Old Testament but we should not bother with it? God Himself breathed out the Old Testament and we should ignore it? Beloved, this is rank heresy. Do you know how you can tell this is ridiculous? Because Christ, and disciples and Paul all referred to the Old Testament! Jesus said not one tittle shall disappear from the Word and here is Stanley advocating the elimination of an entire Testament. Unreal.

'"To justify this, Stanley preached last month about Acts 15, which described how the early church decided that Gentile converts did not need to strictly observe Jewish law to become Christians. "[First century] Church leaders unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and regulations of the Jewish scriptures," said Stanley. "Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well." Stanley argued that it had to be done for the same reason the church in Acts 15 did so, which was so that "we must not make it difficult for those Gentiles who are turning to God."' -- Christian Post

Stanley is referring to the Jerusalem Council but he muddies the story to pretend it supports his nonsense. The problem the Jerusalem Council was facing was the same problem that was infecting the Galatian Church. A group of zealous Jews from the Pharisee party insisted that salvation required circumcision in addition to faith in Christ. There was a word for this that Stanley ought to know -- heresy. Circumcision was part of the Old Covenant and the Mosaic Law that Christ nailed to the cross. Galatians 5 makes it clear that if you insist on circumcision or any part of the law then you actually sever Jesus Christ from you! You render Him useless in your life! So, did Peter, James and Paul just decide to unhitch the Christian faith from the Jewish Scriptures? Absolutely not! Stanley is conflating two things -- the law and the Old Testament. The law leads to the New Testament. Peter, James and Paul had no power to "unhitch" the law of Almighty God and neither does Andy Stanley. Stanley however is not just talking about the law, which is only a couple of books in the Old Testament. He says ditch the entire Canon. Genesis and Exodus? Who needs Moses anyway? King David? He is so unworthy! All of the prophets? Why bother when we have the wisdom of Andy Stanley available to us?

"For Stanley, the difficulty lay with the Old Testament and his concern that many Christians are turning away from the faith because of certain passages in the Hebrew Bible. Stanley argued that the early church showed that there was a need to move past the Old Testament for the sake of gentile believers and that the resurrection of Jesus was enough. "Jesus' new covenant, His covenant with the nations, His covenant with you, His covenant with us, can stand on its own two nail-scarred resurrection feet. It does not need propping up by the Jewish scriptures," noted Stanley." -- Christian Post

The Jewish Scriptures do not prop up the New Testament. They complement it. They provide structure and context for it. Without the Old Testament there is no sacrificial system of blood sacrifice for sin for example. There is no reason for the cross. You show me someone who actually abandons their faith because of a scripture from the Old Testament and I will show you someone who was probably never saved to begin with. This sounds like he is referring to when his students would come back and say their science teacher explained that the earth cannot be 6000 years old or that the walls of Jericho never really fell. Instead of dealing with these disputes on a faith basis and having the tough conversations, Andy wants to concede the entire Old Testament to the pagan and unbelieving world. He wants to convince people into salvation and he is a gifted enough speaker that he might be able to convince people they are saved but without the actual Gospel and drawing of the Spirit they most assuredly are not. Not to mention that when you convince someone into Christianity based upon compelling carnal wisdom all it takes to convince them out of it is a different compelling carnal wisdom argument.

"The Bible did not create Christianity. The resurrection of Jesus created and launched Christianity. Your whole house of Old Testament cards can come tumbling down. The question is did Jesus rise from the dead? And the eyewitnesses said he did." -- Christian Post

The first point here is a silly strawman argument. Of course the Bible did not create Christianity but it provides us with direct insight into who this God is that we serve and Andy wants to erase the first 4000 years of it! His myopic vision of what matters is disturbingly ignorant. It is not just a matter of did Jesus rise from the dead. The issue is why He had to! Allow me to debunk Stanley using what God has said, within the New Testament:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. -- 1Corinthians 10: 1-6 (ESV)

Now while these verses are from the New Testament, the references are all from the Old Testament and here God is saying quite clearly that He provided them for us so that we might learn from them and not desire evil. Too bad that didn't stop Andy from teaching this evil.

'Stanley acknowledged that his comments may be considered "a little disturbing" to some, but then added that for many it is "liberating." "It's liberating for men and women who are drawn to the simple message that God loves you so much He sent His Son to pave the way to a relationship with you," Stanley said. "It's liberating for people who need and understand grace, who need and understand forgiveness. And it's liberating for people who find it virtually impossible to embrace the dynamic, the worldview, and the values system depicted in the story of Ancient Israel."' -- Christian Post

Throwing away half the Bible might be a little disturbing to some? Who knew! As for the faux liberation Stanley speaks of realize it will save no one. God did not send His only Son to pave a way for a relationship with you. That is not the Gospel beloved; it is an Oprah-ism. Note the last portion here. Andy Stanley correctly surmises that faith in many ways is a choice between the "value system" of Ancient Israel and the current carnal worldview (I don't know about dynamic). Yet as a pastor and an alleged minister of the Gospel his solution for this obvious conflict is to do away with the value system of Ancient Israel, you know, found in the Old Testament. How pathetic.

'While noting that he believed the church needed to unhitch itself from the Old Testament, Stanley still regarded the Jewish scriptures as having importance, saying they were "a means to an extraordinary end." "The Jewish scriptures are the backstory for the main story," Stanley explained. "They're an important backstory. They're divinely inspired. They are God on the move through ancient, ancient times." "It's the fabulous story of God the Founder playing by the rules of the kingdoms of this world, to establish a kingdom not of this world. To send a king who would be like no other king. A king who lay down His life for His subjects. A king who would introduce the entire world to God the Father."' -- Christian Post

So the entire Old Testament is viewed as a nice story by Andy. Not the main story mind you, but a nice one. It seems that Andy wants to keep that in the background, maybe to make Veggie Tales out of, and skip right to the resurrection. Were there witnesses? Why yes there were a bunch! Andy will then explain using academia how rigorous the sourcing is for the Gospel account -- and it is. He will use logic and history and accepted worldwide standards to establish that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. Then somehow parlay that into entering into some kind of relationship with Him. Say a two sentence prayer, promise the goat they are now going to heaven and add them to your salvation statistics. Except you never really addressed sin. How could you when Adam and Eve are just a nice story now? You never spoke about repentance. How could you when David's sorrowful repentance in Psalm 51 no longer matters? The Old Testament is referenced almost 1000 times in the New Testament. What do you do with those references Andy? You need to unhitch your brain from the carnality of this world. Mercifully, Stanley concludes.

'Stanley's sermon was the third part of a series titled "Aftermath," in which the pastor was trying to appeal to individuals who left Christianity over what they were taught the Bible said about certain things. "If you were raised on a version of Christianity that relied on the Bible as the foundation of faith, a version that was eventually dismantled by academia or the realities of life, maybe it's time for you to change your mind about Jesus," stated North Point Community Church. "Maybe it's time for you to consider the version of Christianity that relies on the event of the resurrection of Jesus as its foundation. If you gave up your faith because of something about or in the Bible, maybe you gave up unnecessarily." Days before giving the third Aftermath sermon, Stanley preached at the Orange Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, using Acts 15, as well as John 17, to argue that church unity was more important than "theological correctness." "[Jesus] prayed for our oneness, that we'd be on the same page," said Stanley at the conference last month. "This is mission critical. If they are not one, we will not win ... unity is mission critical and disunity disrupts the mission." "Will we prioritize our oneness over our politics? Will we continue to allow the kingdom of the world to divide the Kingdom of God that is in this world because of politics?" "Maybe it's time for you to consider the version of Christianity that relies on the event of the resurrection of Jesus as its foundation. If you gave up your faith because of something about or in the Bible, maybe you gave up unnecessarily."' -- Christian Post

As we showed when we reviewed that previous sermon, Jesus only preached a unity based upon sound doctrine. The sad thing for me is the utter disconnect Stanley has from anything that was once sound orthodoxy. He actually states here "Will we continue to allow the kingdom of the world to divide the Kingdom of God that is in this world because of politics?" Yet Andy Stanley is allowing the kingdom of the world dictate to him what to preach and not preach and to discard 4000 years of divine inspiration. There are not multiple versions of Christianity beloved. What Andy is actually offering you here is another version of Christ. One that started at the resurrection and lives to be in relationship with you. This is simply another Jesus. The Church at Corinth had similar problems. Just look at the key verses for today.

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. - 2Corinthians 11: 3-4 (ESV)

Do not fall for it beloved. Andy Stanley has had some of the worst, human based, carnal teachings out there over the past few years. This "unhitch" theology is the proclaiming of another jesus who will try to convince you to accept a different gospel. It has no power to save you or anyone else. Andy Stanley is in the business of scattering people away from Christ. We should mark him as such, avoid him at all costs and guard other sheep or even goats, from going anywhere near him.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- May 11, 2018

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.