In “Why We Can’t Unhitch from the Old Testament,” Michael Kruger reviews Andy Stanley’s latest book Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World. Stanley’s claims include the following:
- “when it comes to stumbling blocks to faith, the Old Testament is right up there at the top of the list”
- using the Old Testament has led to “prosperity gospel, the crusades, anti-Semitism, legalism, exclusivism, judgmentalism,” and more.
- when people wrestle with trusting Christ, “the Old Testament is usually the culprit”
- the church fathers “ignored [Paul’s] warning against mixing and matching”
- when we look for Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures, God’s Word is being “hijacked” by Christians who are “ignoring original context”
Kruger clearly and biblically addresses these and other claims in his helpful review. He’s happy to celebrate what Stanley gets right, but he’s also not afraid to show where Stanley’s thinking veers off course.
What I most appreciate about Kruger’s review is that he shows us how our thinking about the Bible must derive directly from the Bible. It’s worth checking out to see an example of how to do that well.
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Not being a proponent of Covenant Theology, it’s been interesting to see how these church leaders are reacting to Stanley’s premises. Their first objection has most often been, “You can’t reject the Ten Commandments!” I believe that they are using that as a straw man, rather than more completely addressing other concerns of the author. I certainly don’t agree with Stanley in that the Old Testament should be discarded, but I do hold that believers no longer live under the Old Covenant. Stanley also communicates a concern that young adults are not being adequately prepared by the church to refute the world’s arguments against the faith.
Owen Strachan, I think, does a better job than anyone in reviewing the book. He says, “Here is where Stanley goes wrong, and ends up in a place that is far from orthodoxy. He rightly sees in Scripture that the new covenant is “better” than the old, but he fails to handle this with care. The new covenant is enacted on better promises and is secured by the great high priest, Jesus Christ, whose death clears the guilty by assuaging the just wrath of God (Hebrews 7). But this in no way to say that the new covenant is better in that its ethics, values, and theology are superior to those of the old covenant. If you get this technical matter wrong—and it is not terribly hard to do so—you will fundamentally misunderstand the Scripture itself.”
You can read Strachan’s post here: https://cpt.mbts.edu/2018/10/15/we-have-no-divided-god-a-review-of-irresistible-by-andy-stanley/#more-1656
He also addresses Stanley’s hermeneutics here: https://cpt.mbts.edu/2018/10/01/what-shall-we-say-about-andy-stanleys-hermeneutics-a-response-to-his-relevant-piece/