Pastor Andy Stanley is in the headlines once again for a sermon he recently preached at his church. He began a new series with the question, “Do you have to believe in miracles to be a Christian?” His answer? Yes, but only two foundational miracles—“the miracle of the universe” and “the miracle of the resurrection.”
He argues that those two miracles are all you need to believe to be a Christian but that believing them “opens the door to making the other miracles more acceptable.” Clearly, he’s trying to market Christianity to seekers and doubters by lowering the threshold for belief. He’s basically saying “Don’t worry about the Bible. You don’t need to believe it: just believe that God is the ‘uncaused Cause’ who made the universe and that Jesus rose from the dead, and bingo, you’re in! And maybe you’ll come to believe other parts of the Bible later.”
This is a seeker-sensitive, “palatable Christianity” strategy, but will it make robust disciples of Christ who will live radically different from the people around them, think biblically, passionately share Christ with others, endure persecution and hardship joyfully, suffer well, hate their sin and seek to put it to death, and daily recount the Word of God to their children? I think you know the answer! But this is nothing new for Andy Stanley.
Jesus frequently saw his crowds dwindle because he preached hard messages to them. He didn’t present the bare minimum (if those two miracles are indeed even the minimum) and then hope people could accept that and then gradually learn to accept other teachings too.
We don’t observe anyone in Scripture using Stanley’s “bare bones” method for evangelism because it’s not biblical. We’re never told to water down the gospel and Christianity to try to make it an easier pill to swallow. In fact, we’re told that Christianity will be, by its very nature, a hard pill to swallow because it looks weak and foolish to the world! There will be few on the narrow road.
1 Corinthians 1:18-24 KJV – “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
Also consider that Stanley’s message was presented not during an evangelistic event but in a church service, presumably filled with believers. They are being told by their pastor, who is supposed to be their spiritual shepherd who authoritatively preaches and exposits the Word of God to them and disciples them, that it’s okay not to believe the Bible—you can be a Christian and barely believe any of it! What a low view of Scripture he’s imparting to his flock and to the impressionable children and young people sitting in the pews.
When Paul exhorts the young pastor Timothy, he points him to the Word of God, saying it’s God’s Word, not some kind of bare minimum belief you must intellectually assent to, that “makes you wise for salvation”:
2 Timothy 3:14–17 KJV – “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
When we come to Christ, we turn from our sin, recognize we cannot save ourselves, and throw ourselves upon the grace and mercy of the God-man, Jesus, who died in our place, took the punishment we deserve for our sins on his body on the cross, and then rose from the grave. It’s about the old man dying and a new man being born in his place. It’s a transition from death to life—not a transition from believing in atheistic evolution to some form of theistic creation and the resurrection.
There’s no doubt from things he’s said over the years that Andy Stanley has a very low view of Scripture. He seems almost apologetic for much of the Bible! And he certainly doesn’t stand on a literal Genesis—And it’s from that foundation that this kind of weak, wimpy teaching flows.
