Saturday, June 23, 2018

ANDY STANLEY - A MARCIONIC HERETIC?

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." - The Apostle Paul (2 Tim. 4:3-5)

I start by saying that I am pretty shocked right now. To be honest with you, I'm actually in pain right now.

Based on the alleged quotes from Andy Stanley's preaching series called "Aftermath" below, it would clearly appear that Andy Stanley, son of the respected teacher Charles Stanley and mentor to beloved teacher Craig Groeschel of Life Church, has now embraced and is promoting the latest form of heretical Marcionism - an ancient heresy recently revived and promoted by false teachers like Darrin Hufford, writer of The Misunderstood God.

Below I am quoting excerpts from a blog that I just read written by Steven Kozar. Steven's blog seems well written, well structured and thoroughly logical. Though I do not personally know Steven, his words below are sufficient, in and of themselves, to warrant distribution. I will be hearing the series myself personally in order to test the veracity of the quotes offered by Steven below:

*** BEGINNING OF EXCEPTS
"In Andy Stanley's latest series, called "Aftermath," he suggests that Christians can unhinge their faith from the Bible while attaching their faith to the historically reliable resurrection of Christ (which is something we learn about from the Bible). Along with propagating doubt in God's Word, Andy Stanley is teaching a modern version of Marcionism, which is an ancient heresy that eliminates the Old Testament. Here are some recent articles that explain this in greater detail:

Here are some direct quotes from this truly bizarre and confusing "sermon" series:

“Jesus’s most devout first-century followers never owned a Bible, never read a Bible, they couldn’t have read the Bible if there was a Bible because most of them couldn’t read and there was no Bible to read. And yet, these men and woman turned the world upside down, they’re the reason we’re here today worshipping Jesus but they never held a Bible because there was no Bible until the fourth century. Why are you so quickly persuaded to walk away from faith because of a book that didn’t exist when Christianity began?”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 1, April 14, 2018

“In order to remain irresistible, I noticed something we needed to address. And it had nothing to do with how we do church, it had everything to do with how we talk about the Bible, and specifically what we point to as the foundation of faith, which for most Christians, unfortunately, is the Bible. ”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 1, April 14, 2018

“Many of you-I’m in this group-we were raised to believe that the foundation of our faith is the Bible; that as the Bible goes, so goes our faith, and if some of it’s not true then none of it can be trusted; it’s a house of cards.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 1, April 14, 2018

It only took about ten minutes into the first sermon for Stanley to dismantle the authority of the Bible and give high praise to the sincerity and intelligence of atheists like Sam Harris, but then he spends the rest of the "sermon" talking about the ministry of Jesus and the early church while quoting from the Bible. But the obvious question should be: why is he using the Bible at all?

Here are some more direct quotes:

“The first-century Christians had a very different kind of foundation for their faith than many of us have. Many of us were raised to believe that the foundation of our belief is the Bible, but they didn’t have a Bible, the Bible wouldn’t come until the early fourth century. What they based their faith on was an event-specifically the resurrection of Jesus, and this should be the reason we choose to follow as well.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 2, April 21, 2018

“When Paul’s eyes were opened he had extraordinary clarity around the incompatibility of the Old and New Testaments.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 2, April 21, 2018

“The Bible teaches that God mostly loves Jews AND the Bible teaches that God loves everybody; they are two incompatible covenants.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 2, April 21, 2018

“I’m telling you, you take Old Testament values and imperatives and you mix them with New (Testament values and imperatives), you end up with a mess, and you end up with a message that unnecessarily drives people away from the Gospel. And once upon a time this wasn’t all that big of a deal, because once upon a time nobody knew that much about the Bible and they couldn’t find out much about the Bible unless they went to a library, but now everybody is one click away from whatever information they need to dismiss their faith, including your children and grandchildren.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 2, April 21, 2018

“(On the public display of the Ten Commandments:) Jews aren’t for this, and it’s their law. You don’t see Jewish groups saying ‘We need the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn!’ Jewish people are like: ‘It’s over, it’s over...’ and the Christians are like: ‘No! It’s not over, we wanna keep it alive!’ And the Jewish people are like ‘I don’t think you’ve read it carefully.’ Cause they’re smarter than us about THEIR scripture.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 2, April 21, 2018

“The gig is up. The truth is out there. We can’t hide anymore. So let me be super honest: We can’t hide behind the Ten Commandments anymore because everybody has discovered that the Ten Commandments aren’t the only commandments; the Ten Commandments are the table of contents for the whole Jewish law.”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 2, April 21, 2018

“Originally in my notes I was gonna put a screen up here that said ‘In other words that means thou shalt not obey the ten commandments,’ but I knew someone would take a picture of that and it would define me for the rest of my life, so I’m not gonna put that up there...”
— Andy Stanley, Aftermath Part 3, April 28, 2018"

*** END OF STEVE'S BLOG EXCERPTS

I am in utter shock in reading this. Though I knew the church was in trouble, I had no idea that this spirit of Amalek/Jezebel had already done this much damage.

We must return to fasting and prayer guys. We are fighting huge principalities here.

Monday, January 1, 2018

THE RISE OF NARCISSISTIC CHRISTIANITY


People are increasingly becoming accustomed to a certain degree of narcissism in their walk with Christ. They reject anyone who brings up anything that they disagree with or otherwise stirs up their own perceived personal worldview which they have actually unwittingly adopted from the secular media and anti-Christian university professors both in Christian and secular universities.

Questioning what someone thinks these days is often viewed as an ad hominem attack on that person. To some, though to a much smaller degree, it’s actually considered a physical attack on their person justifying a physical response. New, cute little phrases like “micro-aggressions” are now routinely used to describe statements made that are at odds with what the hearer believes and thereby challenges what they (and the entire educated world from their perspective) justifiably defend and espouse.

Unfortunately, many who describe themselves as Christian have joined the pack.  Repudiation of spiritual authority and the rejection of any spiritual guidance into their lives by those whom God is expecting to give Him an account for them, as clearly stated by the writer of Hebrews when he says, Obey them that are over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” (Heb. 13:17), has now become the new normal. Most now reject any spiritual guidance if it includes any manner of correction or rebuke. At best, proper spiritual mentoring may include suggestions in their secular mindset, but should never fully or completely embrace the advice the Apostle Paul gave his spiritual son Timothy in 2 Tim. 4:2, when he says,

2 Tim. 4:2 (NIV)
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

People are now often ONLY good with one of the three instructions given by Paul to Timothy here. Namely, that we as Christians (and not necessarily as leaders) should “encourage” one another. Many utterly question and reject any person’s authority to either correct or rebuke anyone else without their express consent. They embrace Paul’s advice to the Corinthians that everything they do should be “done in love” (1 Cor. 16:14), but then reject the statement just before it in verse 13 where Paul instructs the Corinthians that they should also “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, [and] act like men, be strong.”

The bottom line is that this new and insidious religious narcissism, affecting millennials in particular and the Church as a whole, now serves as the backdrop for knowingly rejecting Biblical authority as the only objective standard of faith. Don't be mistaken. This is all about ascension. This is nothing less than dethroning God and taking His place on the throne of our hearts while believing ourselves to be correct in our elevation of self over God.

That said, this is not a new problem.  The great American theologian Jonathan Edwards years ago addressed what he then described as “religious narcissism.” He believed it to be “the essence of hypocrisy.” It remains very much that to this day.