Category 5
Verdict: Andy Stanley is an obvious wolf in wolf’s clothing.
Preface
Part of how this Discernment ministry operates is taking in reader questions about prevalent teachers. Andy Stanley was voted by the members of Evangelical Dark Web to be researched next out of the top requested figures. He may be a low hanging fruit, nonetheless the supporters of Evangelical Dark Web wanted our verdict to exist as a resource on the internet. This will verdict will not be exhaustive, but it will be sufficient. You can make a request here and see our answered verdicts here.
Background
Andy Stanley is pastor of North Point Community Church in the Atlanta, Georgia region. North Point, via the multicampus church model is currently the tied 8th largest church in America.[1] Andy Stanley is the son of prominent pastor, Charles Stanley.
Unhitched From The Bible
Andy Stanley is fervently against the Old Testament and believes in “unhitching” the Old Testament from the New Testament. This was the primary teaching of his book, Unhitched.
Many apologists, like William Lane Craig and Ravi Zacharias, attempt to outsmart the Bible to their own detriment. Andy Stanley looked to join their ranks in a recent sermon. After famously preaching about how the Christianity is unhitched from the Old Testament, Andy Stanley is now arguing that the gospel is unhitched from the Bible. This is the foundational premises of a sermon series articulating the credibility of the four gospels ultimately champion theological liberalism.
On March 7, 2022 Andy Stanley preached a sermon in which he argued that the Bible is not needed for the advancement of the gospel. He states that Christianity does not hinge on whether or not the Bible is true. He explicitly teaches that Christians are not expected to believe in the Bible. He argues that only one of the four gospels in the New Testament needs to be reliable for Christianity to be worth pursuing.
Andy Stanley seems to fetishize the Early Church because they “had no Bible” yet had mass appeal in his mind. As erroneous as this is, given that the Scriptures were circulated in the church prior to compiling an official canon. This was the primary idea explored in Irresistible, Stanley’s book after Unhitched.
Homosexuality
Andy Stanley has most recently been vocal about promoting the idea of homosexual Christians, even claiming that they love Jesus more that Bible believing Christians. In the past, Andy Stanley has paid lip service to the Bible calling homosexuality a sin, however, this is just lip service.
Side A theology is antinomian and promotes homosexuality in the church. Side B theology seeks to distinguish between homosexual desires and homosexual acts, as it relates to sin. For Andy Stanley, the question is whether he is Side A or Side B.
Evangelical Dark Web published a deep dive on Andy Stanley’s teachings on homosexuality and would summarize our findings as follows:
- Andy Stanley does not believe homosexuality is a sin
- Andy Stanley promotes and tolerates homosexuals in ministering capacity in the church
- Andy Stanley has no qualms about unrepentant adulterers serving in the church
- Andy Stanley’s church performs baptism on unrepentant homosexuals.[2]
- Andy Stanley’s low view of Scripture dismisses so-called “clobber verses”
Andy Stanley is firmly on the Side A camp, along with a Matthew Vines type of pastrix. This alone would make him a false teacher, Category 5.
Branch Covidianism
In 2020 Andy Stanley was a proliferator of Branch Covidianism, the false gospel surrounding the works based salvation lockdowns, masks, jabs, and social distancing. He would even go on to attack faithful churches during this time.
Conclusion
Andy Stanley achieved a reputation and perhaps pioneered the stereotype about watering down the message to build a large audience. Eventually, this would lead to him watering down the inerrancy, authority, and even the necessity of Scripture. There is no guiding principle for Andy Stanley. He is a most obvious false teacher.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_megachurches_in_the_United_States
[2] https://youtu.be/gDsMzN8vuPY
3 Responses
“Low-hanging fruit”? How about last generational? Anyone who paid attention knew where Andy’s heart was 20 years ago, and the lid was nailed down when he returned to his dad’s church to help him bring revenue back into that “church” for daddy. Charles Stanley himself was a false leader for DECADES, his marriage woes and infidelities disqualified him from being a “pastor” YEARS before his wife moved out in the early 90’s; but the money train was just too big to allow biblically correct doctrine to make him step down.
In some respects, we could say that Andy never truly had an actual “correct” upbringing, and his father never modeled what a true pastor was to look like; but… none of that is an excuse for where he has gone with his own life, or the false ministry he spearheads.
Even though a medically retired (combat) pastor/chaplain, I took a vow to uphold God’s Word and truth everywhere. To be honest, I have never found any reliable reports about Charles Stanley having marital infidelities. And, I know Charles has openly admitted to causing his marriage to fail, placing service to God over being a husband and father. Where is our forgiveness?
Regarding his son Andy, the truth is abundantly clear, he is a dangerous false teacher who, without shame, discredits the Lord’s COMPLETE Word. He reminds me of Satan saying to Eve, “Did God really say…?” causing her to doubt what God had just said. Unless there is a provable repentance, Andy is way overdue in being marked as a destructive force within the Body of Christ.
The guy is a pastor but doesn’t know about the early church and how the gospel was formed? Okay, if we go like first gen early church, then doesn’t he know that’s really hitched to the old testament?! But like I’ve said before, he’s got that really neat high-tech blackboard thing and its really convincing.