Sunday message: the sword

Today I'd like to start with a passage I used when typing up the coming Wednesday message:

Mat 5:17  "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 
Mat 5:18  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 
Mat 5:19  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

I have a reason for this- and sadly, again that reason is Andy Stanley.  You may remember me mentioning him some weeks ago in connection with his 'doctrine' of "unhitching ourselves" from the Old Testament.  Now, there are parts of what he said that make some sense- just like there were parts of the Serpent's soliloquy to Eve that made sense.  I am hopeful today of showing you there is a black-and-white line in all this.

From an article in the Christian Post by Michael Grybowski:

In a column published by Relevant Magazine, the North Point Community Church pastor argued that the Ten Commandments are “the old covenant” and no longer apply to believers.

"[I]f we’re going to create a monument to stand as a testament to our faith, shouldn’t it at least be a monument of something that actually applies to us?" he posed.

“Participants in the new covenant (that’s Christians) are not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of their Bibles,” wrote Stanley. “Participants in the new covenant are expected to obey the single command Jesus issued as part of his new covenant: as I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

This new commandment is "a replacement for everything in the existing list. Including the big ten," he maintained. "Just as his new covenant replaced the old covenant, Jesus’ new commandment replaced all the old commandments."

Now, if you want to parse out the things that Jesus said to leave you without responsibility for Scripture, this might sound good.  Did he lie, was he wrong about what he said?  I don't know that he intentionally lied, but I KNOW he made a BIG mistake, that led to all the other mistakes that he made in this statement.  His mistake is the word, "replacement."

Mat 22:34  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 

Mat 22:35  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 

Mat 22:36  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 

Mat 22:37  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 

Mat 22:38  This is the great and first commandment. 

Mat 22:39  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

Mat 22:40  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." 

Jesus was NEVER telling us to throw out the OT.  What He WAS telling us was, the Law and the Prophets boiled down to two things- love for God (the first four of the Ten Commandments) and love for everyone else (the other six).  If you follow what Jesus preached, you ARE required to obey the Ten Commandments because they are the PROOF of doing the two commandments of the New Covenant.  For Stanley to say what he did would be like passing a new law in the secular world:  "You must respect the law at all times.  You don't necessarily have to OBEY it, but as long as you respect it, you're okay."

Stanley has a backwards reasoning in his ministry.  He feels that the OT is connected to all the things that MODERN people dislike about the Bible, and reasons if he teaches from a New Testament-only perspective, people will respond.  And it is a fine distinction...

For his part, Stanley explained that critics needed to understand the context, especially since his remarks were more for an audience that is turned off by biblical arguments.

"I told my kids growing up, if anyone ever asks you 'do you believe Adam and Eve are real people?' here is how you are to answer: do not say 'yes because the Bible says Adam and Eve were real people,'" commented Stanley in an interview with Michael Brown last July.

"You say this: 'I believe Adam and Eve were historical characters because Jesus did. And when somebody predicts their own death and resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever they say.'"

And right there is his folly:  He claims to be "unhitching" from the OT, but cannot do it without showing Jesus was THOROUGHLY hitched to it!  One source tells me, "Jesus quoted the Old Testament 78 times, the Pentateuch alone 26 times".  So if he begins to know the Bible, Andy Stanley knows his whole ministry rests on a fallacy.

But like he says, it makes modern people more "comfortable" with their faith, and thus draws them in.  According to a database by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, only Prosperity poster-child Joel Osteen draws a bigger "congregation" than Andy Stanley; by contrast, his more orthodox father Charles Stanley's church is only a sixth or seventh that size.  And "comfort" is the name of the game, right?  Fit in with society, right?

That is where the mainline Protestant churches are going.  The Episcopal Church in the USA is FORCING congregations to accept LGBT members, even pastors, or be thrown out.  The United Methodists are facing an upcoming conference on the same subject that may well destroy the denomination, at the very least taking the U out of UMC.  And why is this happening?  Because Jesus taught homosexuality is a sin, and society is teaching these churches it isn't.  And the result Jesus predicted long ago...

Mat 10:34  "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

Mat 10:35  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 

Mat 10:36  And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 

Mat 10:37  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 

  TRULY following Jesus doesn't mean going to a "comfort church"... it means being on the right side of the sword.  I think we see where Andy is.  Where are we?