Pastor Andy Stanley says the Bible is too hard to defend

Creation Ministries International ^ | 9-22-16 | Lita Cosner and Scott Gillis

[fishtank]

Pastor Andy Stanley says the Bible is too hard to defend

Evangelical pastor preaches that the Bible isn’t the foundation for the Christian faith

by Lita Cosner and Scott Gillis

Published: 22 September 2016 (GMT+10)

Andy Stanley has a church network of over 30,000 people in the Atlanta area, and his church was rated the fastest-growing in America in 2014 and 2015.1 Recently, he has been criticized by many evangelicals for saying that we need to take the focus off the Bible and put it on the Resurrection, because he claims that gives us a firmer foundation for our faith. As Stanley put it: “We believe Jesus rose from the dead not because the Bible says so. It is way better than that! Christianity does not hang by the thread of ‘The Bible told me so’.”2 And: “The original version [of Christianity], the pre-Bible version, was defensible, it was endurable, it was persecutable, it was fearless, it was compassionate, and it was compelling,” but he claims “it is next to impossible to defend the entire Bible”.2

[Theodore R.]

The Bible is the proof of Jesus and salvation; why would one demean it if he is stressing the Resurrection?

[faucetman]

Those of you who aren’t Christians, I mean REAL Christians. Not that your whole family is Christian. Not that you were baptized as a Christian.

I mean a Christian who has repented of their sins, asked God for forgiveness, and have accepted the facts that Jesus Christ died for YOUR sins and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.

If you haven’t done ALL of those things and claim to be a Christian, you are misguided and the bible likely makes no sense to you. It’s not supposed to.

So commenting on something (the bible) that you can’t possibly understand is .... well... foolishness. No offense intended.

1 Corinthians 2: (NIV)

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

[Theodore R.]

Then it would seem that C. Stanley stayed in the pulpit because he was not directly responsible for the divorce. I have of course never heard C. Stanley in his televised sermons ever mention his wife: he mentions his mother, the cruel stepfather, son, daughter, never the ex-wife of course.

[Theodore R.]

Maybe A. Stanley has simply concluded that the Bible is too difficult a text for the American people to understand. So he is stressing only the essential part of death, burial, resurrection, and salvation.

[faucetman]

Charles Stanley must be turning over in his grave!

Wait ........he’s still alive and well preaching the gospel every Sunday, with the Word of God clutched firmly in his hand.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Biblically, if it is the woman that wishes to leave, it is not the man that is causing her to commit adultery.
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
He has concluded, for his own convenience, that the scriptures and epistles are not the inerrant word of Yehova.

He’ll have his chance to explain that when he faces Yeshua.

I wouldn’t want to be him!

[Secret Agent Man]

He did not put such qualifications on his remarks.

[Mr. Douglas]

I’m not sure what other churches agree with me. I just know what I believe. It’s always evolving as I am perfected, of course.

[Tucker39]

Check yer Scriptures; which state that God prepared a great fish, which swallowed Johnah. As to whether he died and was resurrected, that would make him seem to be a type of Christ. My only problem wit dat is that Jonah was rebelling at the time. I’ll withhold further comment.

[Mr. Douglas]

Jesus tells us, at least twice, that Scripture is about Himself.

I do believe any understanding of Scripture should start with that.

---

I agree firmly. However, which scripture is he talking about?

[Know et al]

I will stay with 2 Timothy 3:16, thank you very much. (KJV)

[Mr. Douglas]

Jesus is the center of Christianity, but Jesus is only knowable via the Bible.

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I disagree. There are people that follow Him and have never seen a bible. Heck, the apostles did.

[Mr. Douglas]

Do YOU not breath your words? I mean, can anyone else BREATH your words?
Yes. I “breathe” my words.

[Mr. Douglas]

Aren’t those who face their second death after being judge separated from God in the end?

---

Yes. I believe they are. They are separated from him by being destroyed.

Regarding the penalty phase, I believe that as people are cast into the “lake of fire” and burned up, they will find themself in either, or both of these situations:

Weeping: they will suffer tremendous regret that they blew it, before they are quickly destroyed.

Gnashing of teeth: they will be angry at God and rebellious to the bitter end before they are snuffed.

[MIA_eccl1212]

like many intellectuals of the religious persuasion... he confuses two very different things...as if they are one thing. (that god needs their intellectual power to defend him, and that will be proof of his power) They believe they have to defend God, when He is fully able to do it Himself... see Ananias and Sapphira, Herod the great speech maker and the girl with the divination spirit, Paul on the road to Damascus... God does not need us to defend him... it is the exact opposite. That is why he cut Gideon's army down to almost nothing... from 30,000+ to 300 men.

Believers don't defend the Bible as God's word.
God's Word defends those that believe.

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"The LORD said to me, 'You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.'"
Jeremiah 1:12

and:

"But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not 'Yes' and 'No.'
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not 'Yes' and 'No,' but in him it has always been 'Yes.'
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."
II Corinthians 1 18-22

Islamokazis think they must kill the unbelievers to prove the power of their God by cutting heads off and ramming it down the throats of those who do NOT believe... on you tube.
But God does not NEED man's help to defend or protect Him... our lives are supposed to be the living testimony to God's POWER, ENGAGEMENT and ACTION in the world.
those who think they can argue and prove UNBELIEVERS into belief, who are willful unbelievers... keep doing the same stupid thing which is a guaranteed failure to work... it is NOT possible to prove anything to those who do not believe and don't want to.

"The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."
I Corinthians 2:14.

The problem is we have multitudes of people teaching scripture and faith that do not manifest God's power in their personal life or context... they do NOT believe fully themselves... and are trying to figure out HOW to intellectually convince others to believe that which is NOT believable by the natural mind. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Romans 8:7.

We argue about scripture, doctrine, commentaries, catechisms, source documents, infallibility back and forth out the kazoo, but no heart really are changed... God has to send his Word into the hearts of people and then demonstrate it to them on some internal, spiritual level or they are incapable of believing even if they want to... "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief."

And the more we try to Prove and Defend our God, his Word and his Spirit or his Church... the more we shred our Faith. The Spirit has to change hearts and minds.

and though religious forums may be interesting, educational and launch meaningful dialog... unless God changes my heart or anyone else's the "believing" mechanism within the human spirit will remain unbelieving.

The foolishness of preaching... works because of the Spirit of God's ability to penetrate and overcome the unbelieving hearts of the preacher and his hearers.
we generate so much strife (including yours truly) with one another that our prayers become ineffective while God sits there shaking his head... "I will come back and work here, when they are done trying to figure me out and prove how I am going to do this or that... Where is my favorite jackass who handled Balaam so well?"
God's word will prove itself... guaranteed... one way or the other...

[Doctor Freeze]

I hope those Christians who are being persecuted for their faith in other parts of the world don’t listen to a sermon from a pastor who states that the Bible is too hard to defend. What about those Christians who risk death to just keep a copy of the Holy Bible in their household?

[Theodore R.]

I believe the course which C. Stanley agreed upon is the correct one, as he did not seek divorce and may have had no responsibility for it. We don’t really know.

[MIA_eccl1212]

She did NOT believe the bible was the infallible word of God. Charles did. She divorced. He is (to my knowledge) still faithfully standing for the marriage to be restored...

Sometimes women, who want to get away from their husbands, will attack the husband’s faith, and indoctrinate the Children to the extent of their abilities... against the faith...

Biblically, many believe the church must not permit a wife to depart... for any cause other than outright adultery. And though a husband cannot ‘legally’ stop a state sponsored ‘divorce’ he is not required to remarry, and maintain as much loving support as possible for the wife who has departed.

I think it safe to say that Andy’s dad believes that way. Mom clearly wanted some things from this world that a pastor’s wife generally will not partake of... and the children caught in a the crossfire, will often get their faith torn to shreds by the tear in the family.

[BelleAl]

Andy is not discounting the letters of the New Testament. I have heard him preach on this on many occasions. He values the Gospels and writings of James, John and Paul to be that of eyewitness testimony to the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. If any of these critics listened to all five sermons in the series and not cherry pick lines out, they would acknowledge that.

I have read statistics that 2 out of 3 children raised in Christian homes are leaving the faith in college and their 20’s. This group is called the “nones” because that is how they answer surveys when questioned about their religious affiliation. More than anything else, this breaks my heart and I know it breaks Andy Stanley’s also.

His argument about the Bible is this. Do you need a birth certificate to verify that you were born and are alive? It is documentation and proof, but if it were lost, would you cease to exist? Of course not. One of the reasons that “nones” leave Christianity is that they see the Bible being in conflict with science. I personally don’t have an issue with that, but I’m not everyone. My faith is secure, I trust God and I don’t need the answers to everything. I don’t want to have an argument with a “none” about the age of the earth, the great flood etc... Faith in Jesus comes first and foremost and I don’t want to get off track. That should be the focus and the other discussions divert from the good news of the life of Jesus.

There is consensus among scholars that Jesus did live and died on a cross. The fact that his disciples and followers willingly suffered for the sake of his Gospel proves that they believed without a doubt in his resurrection. I’ll argue this all day long. Andy preaches that. I’ve never heard him directly question his belief in the Bible. To the contrary, he argues that point almost every week.