Bibliology

By Jordan Standridge. Reposted from The Cripplegate.

We’ve all had incredible experiences.

Whether it is catching a big fish, or winning a big game, or, more seriously, witnessing the birth of your child or thinking back to your wedding day.

Some claim to have had religious experiences where God told them something to do, or where He revealed something to them. I think we can all agree, though, that our experience cannot even come close to match what Peter experienced by being around Jesus for three years.

As he spent time with Jesus, he was constantly amazed.

He saw it all.

Water turned into wine. Blind men seeing. Zacchaeus’ repentance. Dead men living. And hundreds and hundreds of more miracles.

But there was one experience that superseded them all. He got to see something that, in my opinion, is the greatest experience in human history.

He was on a mountain with James and John. Jesus was there, and the Bible tells us that He was transfigured.

Matthew 17:2 says,

And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

All of a sudden, Moses and Elijah show up and Peter witnesses the three of them have a conversation. He immediately wants to build tents and stay there forever. Then God speaks and says,

This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!

5. He posits that the Old Testament has been completely fulfilled.

Stanley is correct that the church has at times incorrectly understood the Old Testament and in some cases has used the Old Testament to subjugate and coerce others. Rather than discussing the hermeneutical mistakes and complexities that led to abuses, Stanley simply posits that the entire Old Testament is now fulfilled and should be detached from the New Testament.

He incorrectly argues that the mere appearance of fulfillment formula in the New Testament refers to complete, exhaustive fulfillment of all Old Testament promises and prophecies. He repeatedly cites the Abrahamic promises as being completely fulfilled, since Abraham was blessed by God and since Christ came through Abraham’s lineage. Stanley writes that Jesus uses the fulfillment formula as His way of saying “God’s conditional, temporary covenant with Israel was coming to an end, the intended-from-the-beginning end” (109). Meanwhile, Stanley ignores the unconditional land promises given to Abram and his descendants (Israel) that have not yet been fulfilled. He ignores all the future unfulfilled promises in the prophetic literature. And he discredits the Song of Solomon as well, since the writer had over 300 wives.

Republished with permission from Baptist Bulletin © Regular Baptist Press. All rights reserved.

Andy Stanley is a master communicator, popular author, and prominent pastor. In his book Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed from the World, Stanley argues that the church with its modern version of faith is ineffective and too easily resisted. He conjectures that people resist the modern church and Christianity because the Old Testament is mixed into it. Consequently, when believers defend the Old Testament’s historicity and accuracy, they alienate what he refers to as “post-Christians.”

Irresistible is filled with clever phrases, including chapter titles such as “Temple Tantrum,” “Splittin’ Up,” “Homebodies,” “The Apoplectic Apostle,” “Trending Horizontal,” “Obsolet-r Than Ever.” Using wit, humor, satire, anecdotal comments, wordplay, and wordsmithing, Stanley presents his belief that the church must become “unhitched” and “unmixed” from the Old Testament. He uses his rhetorical skills to urge believers against integrating Old Testament truth into Christianity, thus dissuading believers from defending the historical reliability and believability of the Old Testament. His arguments, however, exemplify logical errors, simplistic exegesis (which is often eisegesis), errant theology, reductionism, and very serious hermeneutical errors. Consider these eight reasons to reject his thesis.