Andy Stanley Tells Christians Not to Follow Jesus Through the Old Testament, But Only Through the Gospels
North Point Community Church ‘impastor’ Andy Stanley continued his wretched job of unhitching the church from all the scriptures by claiming that when we follow Jesus through the gospels, and specifically not the whole bible, we see that he’s establishing “something brand-stand-alone-new.”
Stanley also claims that pagans are right to criticize and ‘call out’ Christians on all sorts of cultural and political issues because the unbelievers “know enough about the teaching of Jesus to know when Jesus followers aren’t following (them).”
You’ll recall that Stanley previously said that it doesn’t matter if the bible is true, so long as it’s ‘mostly reliable, and that the “foundation of our faith is not the whole bible. In 2018, he got shellacked from all sides for saying that Christians needed to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament. He ensured rounds of barrage from conservatives and liberals, with even the late progressive priestess herself, Rachel Held Evans, taking a potshot at him for these comments:
“(First Century) Church leaders unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and regulations of the Jewish scriptures. Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.
…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. 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.”…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.”
Now, during an interview with Pat Flood of ESG, Stanley, who has mastered the art of clucking his tongue, shaking his head, and speaking in an exasperated tone like everyone should come to his conclusion, explains:
And again, this goes to the point of the book. And the reason I call it “Not in it to Win it’ (is) because regardless of your faith or a person’s faith, when you follow Jesus through the Gospels, not through the Bible, but Jesus shows up in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and then the apostle Paul writes about Jesus, when you follow Jesus through the Gospels, one thing was extraordinarily clear, whether you agree or not; he did not come to support or to facilitate or to further a worldview, or any kind of movement politically or religiously. Jesus came to establish something brand-stand-alone-new.
And throughout His earthly ministry, there were people on both sides. In fact, three different sides that were constantly trying to bait him into their worldview and to support their ideas. And Jesus refused to be co-opted because he came to establish something new.
And essentially, he was coming to introduce an ‘upside-down’ worldview, an ‘others-first’ worldview. You know, ‘submit-to-one-another’ worldview, a ‘what’s-best-for-people-is-what’s-best’ worldview.
So consequently, I call this, he came to introduce the kingdom of God. Well, we live in a culture, and every generation has grown up in a culture where it’s ‘kingdoms of this world.’ And in the kingdoms of this world, I’m in it to win it for me, regardless of what it costs you.
So the moment that church leaders or the church adopts that posture, or that tone, or that approach to anything, I’m convinced they have abandoned the agenda of Jesus. And this is why many in your audience, I would guess, who don’t want to have anything to do with the church, don’t really want to have anything to do with Christians, still have a high estimation of Jesus.
Because, and this is what’s so strange Pat, the folks in your audience, my friends, people, you know, that I’m around constantly, you know, in the ball field, you know, just socially. They may not subscribe to Christianity, and they may not call themselves Jesus followers, but they know enough about the teaching of Jesus to know when Jesus followers aren’t following. So they appropriately call us out, and in this book, I’m calling us out as well.
About Author
I have merely received my third bank check that very same that $16285 that I even have created simply in one month by operative on-line over my laptop.|ty32 This job is great and its regular earnings are much better than my regular geographic point job. be a section of this job presently and start making money on-line just by
Go Here……. http://fixpay1.blogspot.com
His false premise is that the rest of the Bible, less the Gospels, conflicts with Jesus’ teaching. It does not.
Underlying that is the ludicrous false premise is that God the Father and God the Son are in disagreement. They are not.
Seems to me Stanley is trying to manipulate and cherry-pick the scriptures to fit his own worldview, rather than God’s. We don’t ignore God’s Word in order to appease and appeal to blind scoffers who couldn’t begin to understand a tiny fraction of what they think they know. None of us could begin to know what God Almighty knows. But if Stanley understands anything at all about the Gospels, he knows that Jesus absolutely was not a people-pleaser, and He absolutely did not bend to appease the ignorant scoffers of the world.
Stanley is basically saying “I don’t know the answer or understand, therefore there are no answers” – which is extremely arrogant and completely devoid of faith.
While there may be some truth to the notion that what’s best for people is what’s best, it’s also true that only God knows what’s best. It’s also true that what’s best for God is best for mankind. He created all, understands all, and knows all. He defines good and bad. What He says is best is best. It is first about Him. And in my experience, most of the time the scoffers are going to attempt to insert their own idea of what’s best in the here and now, in conflict with what God say’s is best both now and for eternity – and therein is the conflict. The scriptures aren’t in conflict. They’re in conflict.
If He came to fulfill the Scriptures, as He said, that makes the Jewish writings paramountly important to explain the gospel. The scriptures that Jesus was referring to are only the Jewish writings.
If unbelievers heard Andy Stanley talk very much they would have quite a misconception about what Christians are actually supposed to be doing and holding near and dear to their hearts. Some things might align with scripture, but then other things would definitely be misrepresented. How would they then have an accurate perception of what Christians should be doing?
1 Corinthians 11:18-19 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
Galatians 5:19-20 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Titus 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
John 4:39 [Jesus said] Search the scriptures: for in them you all think you all have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Since neither John nor Luke had a Gideon New Testament in hand, and neither did Jesus, the Scriptures they were referring to were what we commonly refer to as the Old Testament, the very Truth that Andy wants us to leave behind. And as another brief reminder, Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. The New Testament is not brand-stand-alone-new. Ephesians 2:20 places the prophets squarely next to the apostles.
Andy is nothing but a grievous wolf that Paul warned the Ephesians about in Acts 20.