“You need to understand: if there had been no resurrection, there would have been no church. And if there was no church, there was nobody to document the story of the resurrection, because the resurrection never happened,” Stanley continued. “Apart from the resurrection of Jesus, there is no Bible.”
“So if even one of the gospels, or the accounts of Jesus’ life, is true, then you need to lean in,” Stanley concluded.
Stanley went on to explain that this message would be the beginning of a series in the gospel of Luke, arguing that Luke’s account of Jesus’ life was included in the collection of documents that would come to be known as the Bible because it was found to be a reliable account at the time of its writing.
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Despite the overall thrust of Stanley’s argument, many on Twitter took the tweeted quote from his message as an outright denial of the accuracy of the Bible.
“I was already pretty sure Andy Stanley wasn’t a Christian, but yesterday’s tweet sealed the deal,” one person said. Another said, “Determining what rises and falls is completely dependent on the sovereignty of God, not Andy Stanley’s opinion and obvious refusal to submit to the authority of His eternal Word.”
“True believers are grateful for the accuracy of the scriptures for they provide us the glorious identity of Jesus Christ and our identity in Him,” someone else said. Referencing another controversy wherein Stanley came under criticism in 2019 for saying that Christians need to “unhitch” their faith from the Old Testament, the person continued, “Andy, if you keep unhitching scripture you’ll be left with the table of contents and the maps in your Bible.”
Nevertheless, when one person posed the question, “Why do people still take Andy Stanley seriously,” a number of people came to Stanley’s defense.
“I love Andy Stanley. Absolutely love him. And take him seriously,” one said. Another shared, “Because he’s a great teacher and is being used by the Lord. (I have bias as I came to know Jesus in one of his churches & read his books to help me in my own ministry work).”
“He’s been very helpful to me. I listened to him at a time in my life that I was desperate for good direction. And he delivered. My faith is stronger because of him. That’s why,” someone else said.
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While Stanley’s controversial tweet has been deleted, the full message is still available and can be viewed below.
