Andy Stanley preaches to an estimated 33,000 people every Sunday at North Point Ministries' five metro-Atlanta campuses. | Photo courtesy of North Point Ministries
Posted on 01/10/2019 8:11:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Andy Stanley preaches to an estimated 33,000 people every Sunday at North Point Ministries' five metro-Atlanta campuses. | Photo courtesy of North Point Ministries
Christians should quit erecting Ten Commandments displays and should instead consider making monuments dedicated to the Sermon on the Mount, popular pastor Andy Stanley said.
In a column published by Relevant Magazine, the North Point Community Church pastor argued that the Ten Commandments are “the old covenant” and no longer apply to believers.
"[I]f we’re going to create a monument to stand as a testament to our faith, shouldn’t it at least be a monument of something that actually applies to us?" he posed.
“Participants in the new covenant (that’s Christians) are not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles,” wrote Stanley. “Participants in the new covenant are expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of his new covenant: as I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
This new commandment is "a replacement for everything in the existing list. Including the big ten," he maintained. "Just as his new covenant replaced the old covenant, Jesus’ new commandment replaced all the old commandments."
Stanley went on to say that he believed so much of the evils committed by churches over history were connected to them trying to mix aspects of the old covenant with Christianity and that although “Jesus was foreshadowed in the old covenant, he did not come to extend it.”
“Dear Christian reader: Why? Why? Why would we even be tempted to reach back beyond the cross to borrow from a covenant that was temporary and inferior to the covenant established for us at Calvary?” Stanley continued.
“The author of Hebrews says it best. Jesus was the ‘guarantor of a better covenant’ (Hebrews 7:22). Later he writes, ‘the new covenant is established on better promises.’ Besides, you weren’t included in the old covenant to begin with! So why are we fighting to build monuments to it?”
Stanley's comments echo the arguments he made in his recent book, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World, which was released last September.
In the book, Stanley spoke about "old covenant leftovers," stating that he believed Christians had "an uncomfortable history and habit of selectively rebranding aspects of God's covenant with Israel and smuggling them into the ekklesia of Jesus."
Stanley wrote that while the covenant God made with ancient Israel was "divinely ordained," it was also "temporary," adding, "Careless mixing and matching of old and new covenant values and imperatives make the current version of our faith unnecessarily resistible."
Last year, Stanley garnered controversy when he argued in an April sermon that Christians should “unhitch” themselves from the Old Testament.
To justify this, Stanley cited Acts 15, which described how early church leaders 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," preached Stanley. "Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”
He argued that what launched Christianity was the resurrection of Jesus, not the Jewish scriptures.
Many, including Messianic Jewish author and radio personality Michael Brown, have denounced Stanley's “unhitch” comments.
"A pastor as influential as Andy Stanley needs to distance himself from such heresies, making a public, clear, and unequivocal correction that undoes the confusion he has caused. (He knows that I write this [as] a friend, out to help, not to hurt.)," wrote Brown in a column last year.
"He can preach against legalism and against Judaizing, exalting the grace of God and celebrating the newness of the New Covenant, without undermining the very foundations on which that New Covenant is established."
Ray Ortlund, senior pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and the president of Renewal Ministries, also denounced Stanley’s views in a speech at the Gospel Coalition's West Coast Conference last October.
Preaching from 2 Timothy 1:3-8, Ortlund noted that when the Apostle Paul was writing to Timothy, he stressed his religious heritage through Judaism.
"Paul looks back into his own deepest roots. He goes back to David, to Moses, to Abraham. He reveres the faith that came down to him even filtered through Jewish tradition," said Ortlund.
"Unlike some preachers today, Paul did not 'unhitch' the Christian faith from the Old Testament … And for him personally, Christian conversion did not take his Jewishness away. It made Jesus the Lord over his Jewishness and over his conscience, both of which, he continues to honor."
For his part, Stanley explained that critics needed to understand the context, especially since his remarks were more for an audience that is turned off by biblical arguments.
"I told my kids growing up, if anyone ever asks you 'do you believe Adam and Eve are real people?' here is how you are to answer: do not say 'yes because the Bible says Adam and Eve were real people,'" commented Stanley in an interview with Michael Brown last July.
"You say this: 'I believe Adam and Eve were historical characters because Jesus did. And when somebody predicts their own death and resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever they say.'"
Correct. Which is what the New Covenant addresses. Instilling the Holy Spirit in our heart to fortify us to keep His Laws inwardly as well as outwardly.
The Ten Commandments
Those new greatest commandments to me encompass the old ones. If you do those two things, you’re already following the ten.
I could show you a bunch of verses showing that. For example Col. 2:14-17. The differences between the Ten Commandments and the laws of ordinances are so plain only a person unfamiliar with Scripture would be ignorant of it. Are you a new convert, by chance?
Right, and how can you love God with all your heart mind strength and soul, and your neighbor, if you do not obey the Ten Commandments? Can you love God when you take his name in vain? Can you love your neighbor if you commit adultery with his wife? Or steal from him?
The earth takes precedence over human life, but man's laws are ascendant over any so-called deity who cannot be proven to exist. We are close now.
If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself then I would say that covers murder etc. You’re not murdering or stealing etc if you’re doing the two commandments Jesus mentioned.
Bunch of credulous Bible-slackers paying for his meals. He should get some real work, not slide in nder his father's halo effect.
Well Yeshua did say what the two greatest Commandment are.
Jesus’ quote can be construed as to mean live these two commandments and don’t worry about the other eight. I’ve always wondered why HE said that.
Jesus said, "I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Matthew 5:17-18
When Jesus fulfilled the law, the law passed away. The law is called a ministry of death in 2 Cor 3:7.
So you think that only two people were on the Ark? What do you base that on? certainly not the Bible.
A question, oh confused one, has Heaven and earth passed away? The earth seems pretty solid to me. I look up in the sky and the heavens remain.
Read and meditate on Hosea 4:6. It explains your dilemma.
Correct. Which is what the New Covenant addresses. Instilling the Holy Spirit in our heart to fortify us to keep His Laws inwardly as well as outwardly.
But not perfectly. Otherwise, why would John say (1 John 1:5-10 NASB):
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
Old testament is history and background. The New Testament and Jesus is what we follow.
I was clarifying, not accusing.
Very true; with that I can agree. Jesus’ commandment covers the others, but that does not mean they don’t apply. Perhaps you can look at it like this, the NT gives us the objective, to love one another, the OT, the Big 10 anyway, tells us how love is to be shown.
To follow up: just following the 10 commandments will not earn you salvation. We do depend on God for salvation.
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