Andy Stanley’s Sermon Claim: The Bible is Not Equally Inspired or Equally Important
As North Point Community Church and pastor Andy Stanley continue to be embroiled in a series of controversies featuring the revelation of widespread LGBTQ-affirming pastors, church leaders, and sentiment within their churches (see endnotes), Stanley claimed in yesterday’s sermon that Christians need to stop treating the rest of the Bible as inspired or as important as the gospels and to stop treating the gospels like the rest of the ‘bible stories.’
Speaking in the context of trying to determine what are the bare minimum things Christians need to believe to be saved, he says Christians can disagree on things like bible translations or the literalness of the Genesis account, but they can’t disagree on fundamental, primary beliefs like and “Jesus is God’s Son and our King” and “Jesus came to illustrate what God is like.”
Stanley argues that the rest of the Bible is insufficient for determining God’s nature and character, and so if we want to know what God is like, it can only be done through examining Jesus in the gospels.
…And the problem is not the Bible. The problem is the way the Bible is traditionally talked about when people talk about the Bible, and how the Bible is taught. And the tendency- and I understand this, because I was raised, like many of you in church, the tendency is to equalize the importance of everything in the Bible, or to equate the importance of everything in the Bible. So if it’s in the Bible, everything is equally inspired and consequently, it is equally important.
But that is not the case.
And that’s what we’re going to discover today. In fact, that’s what we’re going to discover for the rest of this series. The events, and this is so important, especially if you’re raising kids in church. The events recorded by the Gospels, we’re talking about the life of Jesus, as recorded by Matthew, the life of Jesus as recorded by Mark, the life of Jesus as recorded by Luke, the life of Jesus as recorded by John, did you ever wonder why do we four versions of the same story, we only have one version of the parting of the Red Sea, one version of David and Goliath, one version of Noah, but we get to Jesus, why do we have four versions of the same life?
Because the events recorded in the gospels are not Bible stories. But, the events recorded in the gospels are oftentimes reduced to simply Bible stories, which equates Jesus story with all the other stories in the Bible.
He continues:
But Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are not Bible stories about Jesus. The Gospels document Jesus’ explanation of what God is like. And as obvious as that should be, it is not obvious for many of us, and it is not obvious to many in the church. …The problem is the way that pastors use and refer to the Bible, the problem is not the Bible. The problem is the way that the Bible is often positioned and taught.
Because when we equate, when we equate the importance of everything in the Bible, when we say ‘since it’s all inspired, it is all equally important,’ we unintentionally’ and I think it’s always unintentional, we always. we unintentionally negate or minimize the unique purpose of Jesus. Not the purpose of his death, the purpose of his life.
As John would say opening his gospel, that the Logos, the word, God, came and dwelled with us. He camped out with us. He pitched his tent with us. He came to live among us so that we could know. Not Bible stories, we get to know what the Father is like.
But this is some of the mistakes that we make; we equalize, we equate everything. Jesus was like, no, no, and I’ll tell you who didn’t make that mistake….And this is why we should take this seriously. The person who didn’t make this mistake is actually a Pharisee, who was absolutely 100% committed to Torah, who grew up under the Old Covenant, and then abandoned the old covenant for the new covenant that Jesus established. He lived under both covenants. The apostle Paul begs first century Christians: ‘don’t make the mistake of equating everything in our scriptures with what has just happened among us.’
…But anyway, he claimed to be not just a Pharisee, but a well trained, educated Pharisee. And he’s like, “Look, if anybody knows Torah, I know Torah. If anybody has a vision of God, as described in Torah, and through the prophets, it’s me, but I’m telling you, something new has happened. Someone new has come. God has revealed himself as he’s never revealed himself before. If we want to know what God is like, we don’t have to look back that far because he showed up among us. And everything that came before, everything that came before” he’d say, “those were, those were just shadows of the things to come.”
He concludes:
We don’t have an account of (Jesus’) life, we have four. Because the life of Jesus is by far, by far, by far the most important literature in the Bible. It’s all inspired. It’s not all equally important and everybody who lived in the first century who met Jesus understood that.
Not because what came before was innaccurate, it just wasn’t complete. You won’t know, as smart as you are and as insightful as you and as as much life experience as you’ve had, you won’t know what the Father is like until you take the time to discover what Jesus is like. And you’ll get the clearest picture of Jesus by following Jesus through the Gospels.
Editor’s Note. Our transcripts are generated by us and are lightly edited for clarity. Consult the linked video if needed.
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About Author
Squirming, weasel is like a carnival side-show contortionist. Every time he tries to use logic, he makes a fool of himself.
What the “genius” just did was to elevate the finite, imperfect knowledge of mankind above the parts of the Bible he deems to be unimportant. Denying creation, denying the fall, therefore undermining the entire Gospel, and is worse than negating or minimizing the unique purpose of Jesus, but is to entirely reject it.
It also doesn’t go unnoticed that he very sneakily tries to wrongly portray the problem with the pharisees. They were NOT committed to the law. They made up their own law, “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”. And that is why Jesus rebuked them. To be committed to God’s standards means to be committed to ONLY God’s standards. If one adds to, takes from, or tries to change God’s standards, as the pharisees did, then he is absolutely not 100% committed.
Of course, Stanley engages in such deceit because he himself is just like the pharisees. Adding to, taking from, and trying to change God’s word. It is Stanley who teaches as doctrines the commandments of men. And he apparently deems himself to be appointed to make it up as he goes, and to dictate for the rest of us that which is important and that which is not.
If there are any parts that are of lesser importance than others, that is something that only God could know. Andy needs to repent of many things, but first and foremost he needs to repent of his extreme pride, and humble himself in the sight of the Lord.
Jesus did NOT rebuke the pharisees for following the commandments of God, or for being committed to the law. That is ABSOLUTELY NOT why Jesus rebuked them. He rebuked them for their SIN.
Talk about negating and minimizing the unique purpose of Jesus.
Good God Almighty, what a disgrace. Andy Stanley is Jude 4 up one side and down the other.
In Matt. 19, Jesus specifically and purposefully referenced the Genesis account, God’s created order, and God’s design for marriage between one male and one female. And He specifically contrasted it against sexual immorality, as the valid reason given for divorce. (and condemned sexual immorality at other times, as recorded in Mark 7:21-23, and elsewhere)
If it weren’t important, Jesus wouldn’t have referenced it. Better believe it’s important.
It doesn’t take a great amount of discernment to see what Stanley is up to.
The main reason he affirms abominable sin is rooted in his rejection of the Genesis account of creation, and therefore rejection of God’s created order. He views those who are sexually immoral (pornos) as simply a result of evolution, and not as abominable sinners.
And that’s the “best case” – the alternative is that he does the reverse, and rejects the creation account specifically because he is sexually immoral and seeks to advance the cause of sexual immorality.
Sexual immorality, those who are given to it, and related subjects are found all through God’s word, from the Genesis account of Sodom and Gomorrah, all the way through to the very last chapter of the Bible, the 7th to last verse, and is given as a significant reason for God’s judgement.
And lest Stanley forget, Revelation is also given by Jesus, and contains the words of Jesus, given to John. In that very same last chapter, there are 4 quotes from Jesus Himself. You can’t stop at the Gospels. If you want to focus solely on the red text, you must include Revelation.
Jesus also authorized the Apostles, and is the source of that which is revealed in the Epistles.
Very wicked man, Andy Stanley. Apparently nobody ever had the courage or faith it takes to confront him, for fear of his father. I don’t know. Maybe he’s stuck in teenage rebellion mode. I don’t know. But it’s evident somewhere, somehow, something went very wrong.
Well stated, Mr. Weasels!
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2Tim. 3:16-17
Stanley has in essence called the holy spirit a liar, and is telling God his Word is incomplete and imperfect. Stanley has indicated that he is a god.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. Rev. 22:11.
Jeff
I pray for discernment for Stanley’s congregation – they are the real victims of his gross heresies.
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said …”
How did he get so stupid
Didn’t Paul explain Jesus works through the Old Testament? How would that have worked if only the Gospels show us Jesus?
Okay.
So just what does Stanley believe anymore ? If you don’t believe in most of the Bible are you even a Christian ?
His poor misled congregation 😢