Posted on 09/22/2016 10:45:55 AM PDT by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at creation.com ...
That was substantive.
Yeah, if Andy is having trouble wrapping his arms around the gospel, he might trying listening to a few of his father’s sermons. Dr. Stanley seems to have a pretty good grasp on the Bible.
As many know, Andy and Charles Stanley had a long falling out over his father’s divorce and the younger Stanley’s more liberal theology. They’ve since patched things up (on a personal basis), but there is still a clear divide over where they stand on matters of faith.
God is omnipresent. You can’t be separated from him if you exist.
Man is not immortal, but Jesus offers immortality to those who accept His free gift. For the rest, well they should fear Him that can destroy “both body and soul”.
The other death Paul speaks of is what happens at the GWTJ.
When Andy first came on the scene, and Christians immediately swooned over him, I wondered to myself why I just never felt in my spirit that he was “honto”, as they say in Japan. Now I know.
The last part of the hymn “I Am Resolved” explains all of this:
I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay,
Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
We’ll walk the heav’nly way.
Hooosez they’re not supported by evidence? They certainly are. For instance, the Walls of Jericho. They didn’t just FALL DOWN. Archaeologists discovered that the instant the walls were destroyed, their very foundations were heaved up out of the ground, as by an explosion UNDER them.
I never understood why Mrs. Stanley filed for divorce from Charles. Was it ever said. He can’t remarry unless he resigns from the FBC of Atlanta.
Too much time in seminary destroyed the basis of his faith.
First I have read of A. Stanley catering to the Obamas: don’t think the father ever did that.
Expecting most cult members to leave their leader does not seem reasonable.
Jesus is the center of Christianity, but Jesus is only knowable via the Bible.
The reason the Bible canonization began in the second century was so that people could know who Jesus really is and what the Apostles who walked with him really taught about what he said and did.
People were saved because they knew who Jesus really was. But as the first and second generations passed away, syncretism and distortion began to enter in force, and Jesus became less than he really was.
Upon cojitating on this situation, I’ve concluded that Andy is passing the buck. HE himself doesn’t REALLY believe the Scriptures, but erects a straw man; a theoretical unbeliever who “doesn’t believe”. Man up Andy. Read Hebrews 11; especially verse 6. Right now, you’re just a garden variety backslider; a waverer. “He that wavereth.......”
Do YOU not breath your words? I mean, can anyone else BREATH your words?
“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”—Rev. 14:11
Forever and ever.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”—Rev.22:15
Outside ARE (not “were”).
It takes a lot of cheek for a clergyman especially to pronounce that they doubt God’s Word. I’d believe it if it said Jonah swallowed the great fish. As the old timer reportedly said, “I believe the Bible from cover to cover. I even believe the cover is genuine leather!”
Is this Charles Stanly’s son?
Actually Pastor Andy Stanley is on board with the “the seeker friendly church movement” which is what his church is. It’s a form of Marketing Churches so to speak.
They actually re-define the leadership roles of the church and use “hot button” corporate means to attract the masses as Steve Jobs or other corporate CEO’S do to attract and sell their product...it turns the church into a marketing agency that says what it thinks its supposed customers want to hear....presenting the gospel as a commodity.....which in another term could be called “seduction”.
Unfortunately..more often than not... forgetting the understanding of the church as ‘the body of Christ’ over ‘which Christ is the head’ who ‘Himself as the Lord of the church’ has already defined the ministry of the church and as well the content for that ministry and the leadership for that ministry and how that leadership is to function.
In most case your average church doesn’t have the resources financially or personal to pull those of this ‘seeker friendy” endevours off so we see the “Mega-churches developing that can....and when you do it often fractures and causes divisions with in the church......therfore there is there’s a lot of fallout to this movement.
Charles kind of turned me off when he didn’t step down after he got divorced. He said pastors who divorce should step down. He did not.
It was his own belief and he didn’t do it.
It undermines his credibility.
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