Andy Stanley and Mass Deception

I don't get it. Who is doing that?

 

All of those errors are very bad, as they involve a deniel of the essentials of the faith pretty much!

 

Discipleship is a process.

 

No. If I was, I would be too busy to hang out on here posting.

 

I"m well aware of the Mega Church Model. I Grew Up in a Mega Church and was more than happy when I was able to leave it behind and I could go to a Church that took Christianity and the Gospel seriously and didn't rely on bait and switch to fill the seats.

So I just listened to his Easter Speech which should be the cream of the crop of Gospel presentations. And here were my observations
At 2 different points (apporximently 13 min mark and 32 min mark) he repeats his lie about the Bible not existing until the 4th century, which really undercuts his point about 1 Cor being written in the 50s.
At the 24 min mark he brings up skeptics view on the 4 Gospels being late, and possiblity that Matthew and John have unknown authors.

At the 37 min mark we get his invitation, which I will give him credit for mentioning sin, but he never defined it, never explained why Jesus died, His Righteous life, No talk of Judgement. No mention of Repentance. In other words there was not enough information in his 30 second invitation for someone to know and Trust Jesus as their Savior and Turn from their sins.

As far as the seeker sensitive model goes it doesn't work. We know it doesn't work because the founder of it Bill Hybell and Willow Creek did a survey and found it didn't work.
Willow Creek Repents?

And yet here we are 10 years later with people still doing the same thing.

 

There is a reason why every doctrinal statement starts (including North Point Ironically) with the inerrency of Scripture, because that is the source of all our information that follows. Even the oldest Creed we have found in 1 Cor points to Scripture.

3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 1 Cor 15:3-7

And this is being presented to a gentile church, in a very pegan city, yet Paul just lays out Scripture (or Because the Bible Says So) and expects that to be enough because it is.

He commends the Berean for searching the Scriptures to see if what he is saying matches what the "Bible says"

Andy Stanley whole semantic game wears thin.
Scripture = The Bible
the Word of God = the Bible
The Law and the Prophets = The Bible.

When he says that the Bible did not exist until the 4th century he is making a false claim.
Jesus quote extensively from the OT as do the NT writers.
Above we see Paul referring to Scripture that Points to Christ death and Resurrection.
Peter calls Paul's writings Scripture
And the early church fathers all quote extensively from the NT.

 

You have again picked up the goal posts and moved them 60 yards down the field. If I address this point, are you done, or are you going to jump somewhere else?

 

I think it is semantic to limit the Bible to a unified leather bound book containing all 66 books. (Going with that definition I'm not reading the Bible when it pull it up a passage on my phone since its not a leather bound book.)
Jesus and the Apostles would have had the Septuagint or the OT in Scroll form. And Revelation was written before the close of the 1st century meaning all 27 books of the NT are around in Scroll form by that point.

If you want to get into the recognizing of the canon then yes that was firmly established in the 4th century, but the books that now make up the canon were all around by the end of the 1st century, which is why I take so much issue with him saying the Bible did not exist until the 4th century.

 

Those issues should not ever be "tolerated" with erronous thinking!