The earliest Christians did not build their faith around “the Bible” because the Bible, as a bound collection of Old and New Testament documents, didn’t exist for centuries after Jesus’ resurrection.
He puts it plainly:
The Bible did not create Christianity. Christians created the Bible.
So what created Christians?
Stanley says the answer is not a book. It’s an event.
The resurrection.
He argues that the first-century movement was fueled by eyewitness testimony and the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. That was the “front line message” in Acts. And Stanley believes it should be the front line message now, especially in a culture quick to dismiss Scripture before listening to anything else.
“If there is no resurrection,” he reminds pastors, “our faith is useless,” echoing Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 15.
RELATED: Andy Stanley: Some of Us Have Fallen for One of the Temptations Satan Offered Jesus
Why Starting With the Bible Can Lose People in a Post-Christian Culture
Stanley says the post-Christian world doesn’t begin “out there.”
It begins in the church.
People in the pews adopt the pastor’s framework. If they learn that Christianity stands or falls with defending every disputed point of Scripture, they will carry that same burden into their workplaces, neighborhoods, and families.
And when someone takes a shot at Genesis, archaeology, or the flood, the average Christian feels like they must defend everything, or lose the whole faith.
Stanley wants believers to be able to say, in effect:
“You may have questions about that. But my faith doesn’t hinge on that. My faith hinges on the resurrection.”
That shift, he says, gives people firmer ground and less fear.
The China Question: “Why Doesn’t Everyone Go to Church?”
That moment in the factory stuck with Stanley because it exposed a uniquely American reality.
He says the short answer is simple:
Most Americans have been to church and decided not to go back.
The more revealing answer is what many of them say at the end of their deconstruction:
“I don’t believe that anymore.”
