Andy Stanley’s disdain for the Holy Scriptures is a well-established fact, and it is nothing new that he has been vocal in his condemnation of the inerrancy and authority of the Word of God. He has gone so far as to declare the Scriptures to be indefensible and expository preaching to be a form of “easy” and “dishonest” shortcut. He has even dismissed the importance of the biblical account of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, revealing his utter disregard for the truth of the Word of God.

It is not surprising that Stanley has chosen to reject the authority of the Scriptures, as he has also called for the severing of Christianity from the Old Testament—yet, the Old Testament clearly reveals the moral character of God through His laws. In a sermon delivered in 2019, he even went so far as to claim that the Ten Commandments have no relevance for Christians today.

It is a fundamental belief of true believers in Jesus Christ that the Scriptures are the authoritative, inerrant, and self-attesting Word of God, and that this truth has been revealed to them by God Himself. Those who reject this truth demonstrate that they have not been transformed by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the mind by the Holy Spirit.

Stanley, a habitual and serial blasphemer of God, has continuously demonstrated his disregard for the Word of God throughout his entire ministry, which appears to be primarily focused on discrediting the Scriptures. He regularly portrays the Scriptures as non-binding, non-authoritative, and irrelevant in modern times.

In his sermon from Sunday, May 14, Stanley continues to trash the Scriptures stating that not all of the Bible is equally inspired or equally important. Of course, with Stanley’s perverse view, he gets to decide which parts of the Bible are “more” inspired than others, as though the Holy Spirit only partially inspires some of the writings but fully inspires others? I don’t know. Whatever the case, his arbitrary decision on what is inspired and what isn’t and his perverse take on the authority of the Scriptures altogether is why his church is baptizing open transsexuals and practicing homosexuals while leading churches, conferences, and curriculums on how to affirm sexual immorality.

Here is the transcript from his sermon:

…And the problem is not the Bible. The problem is the way the Bible is traditionally talked about when people talk about the Bible, and how the Bible is taught. And the tendency- and I understand this, because I was raised, like many of you in church, the tendency is to equalize the importance of everything in the Bible, or to equate the importance of everything in the Bible. So if it’s in the Bible, everything is equally inspired and consequently, it is equally important.

But that is not the case.

And that’s what we’re going to discover today. In fact, that’s what we’re going to discover for the rest of this series. The events, and this is so important, especially if you’re raising kids in church. The events recorded by the Gospels, we’re talking about the life of Jesus, as recorded by Matthew, the life of Jesus as recorded by Mark, the life of Jesus as recorded by Luke, the life of Jesus as recorded by John, did you ever wonder why do we four versions of the same story, we only have one version of the parting of the Red Sea, one version of David and Goliath, one version of Noah, but we get to Jesus, why do we have four versions of the same life?

Because the events recorded in the gospels are not Bible stories. But, the events recorded in the gospels are often times reduced to simply Bible stories, which equates Jesus’ story with all the other stories in the Bible.

He continues:

But Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are not Bible stories about Jesus. The Gospels document Jesus’ explanation of what God is like. And as obvious as that should be, it is not obvious for many of us, and it is not obvious to many in the church. …The problem is the way that pastors use and refer to the Bible, the problem is not the Bible. The problem is the way that the Bible is often positioned and taught.

Because when we equate, when we equate the importance of everything in the Bible, when we say ‘since it’s all inspired, it is all equally important,’ we unintentionally’ and I think it’s always unintentional, we always, we unintentionally negate or minimize the unique purpose of Jesus. Not the purpose of his death, the purpose of his life.

As John would say opening his gospel, that the Logos, the word, God, came and dwelled with us. He camped out with us. He pitched his tent with us. He came to live among us so that we could know. Not Bible stories, we get to know what the Father is like.

But this is some of the mistakes that we make; we equalize, we equate everything. Jesus was like, no, no, and I’ll tell you who didn’t make that mistake….And this is why we should take this seriously. The person who didn’t make this mistake is actually a Pharisee, who was absolutely 100% committed to Torah, who grew up under the Old Covenant and then abandoned the old covenant for the new covenant that Jesus established. He lived under both covenants. The apostle Paul begs first-century Christians: ‘Don’t make the mistake of equating everything in our scriptures with what has just happened among us.’

…But anyway, he claimed to be not just a Pharisee, but a well-trained, educated Pharisee. And he’s like, “Look, if anybody knows Torah, I know Torah. If anybody has a vision of God, as described in the Torah, and through the prophets, it’s me, but I’m telling you, something new has happened. Someone new has come. God has revealed himself as he’s never revealed himself before. If we want to know what God is like, we don’t have to look back that far because he showed up among us. And everything that came before, everything that came before” he’d say, “those were, those were just shadows of the things to come.”

He concludes:

We don’t have an account of (Jesus’) life, we have four. Because the life of Jesus is by far, by far, by far the most important literature in the Bible. It’s all inspired. It’s not all equally important and everybody who lived in the first century who met Jesus understood that.

Not because what came before was inaccurate, it just wasn’t complete. You won’t know, as smart as you are and as insightful as you and as much life experience as you’ve had, you won’t know what the Father is like until you take the time to discover what Jesus is like. And you’ll get the clearest picture of Jesus by following Jesus through the Gospels.