Is Andy Stanley a False Teacher?
Andy Stanley is particularly dangerous because of his name and his powerful influence in the mainstream church community.
Andy Stanley, the son of the legendary preacher Charles Stanley, is the pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. He is a highly influential church growth leader who teaches pastors how to build megachurches. According to Outreach Magazine, North Point Community is now the largest church in America.
While his father has faithfully taught Scripture as written, Andy spits on Scripture every chance he gets. For years, I’ve listened to his father Charles’ radio and television preaching, as he preached the line-by-line authority of the Bible. Sadly, his son, Andy denies the infallibility of Scripture and claims the foundation of Christianity was never in the Bible. He also maintains the Bible contains historical inaccuracies, even calling it indefensible.
And it gets worse…
A couple of years ago, Andy Stanley taught, “If somebody can predict their own death and then their own resurrection, I’m not all that concerned about how they got into the world.” He went on to say, “Christianity doesn’t hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus.” What? The birth of Christ not important? Had Jesus not been born, prophecy would not have been fulfilled and He would never have died His atoning death on the Cross.
Since 2016, Stanley has minimized the importance of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. He said, “Maybe the thought is they had to come up with some kind of myth about the birth of Jesus to give him street cred later on. Maybe that’s where that came from.” That is denying that Jesus is both fully God and fully man, and for that matter, the Son of God…. which is nothing short of blasphemy.
Andy Stanley teaches that believers should, in his words, “unhitch” themselves from portions of Old Testament Scripture. This is in direct conflict with the so-called statement of faith on his church’s website that reads “We believe the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God and that men were moved by the Spirit of God to write the very words of Scripture. Therefore, we believe the Bible is without error.”
He teaches that “unity is more important than theology.” Looks like Andy has joined the One World Religion crowd. Exactly what religion is that?
Stanley holds a “tolerant” view of homosexuality. He says he has no intention of pushing a Christian agenda on other people. Andy Stanley once dealt with a married couple in his church who divorced when the wife discovered that her husband was in a sexual relationship with another man. Instead of disciplining the man, the church allowed the homosexual couple to move to another “campus” of North Point Church and work together as a “host” team. This brings to mind 2 Timothy 4:3-4… “3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
His book, “Deep and Wide”, is a pandering and unbiblical effort to create “irresistible experiences” and a brand of watered down consumer-centric religion that unchurched people would want to attend. At one place in the book, Stanley makes fun of other churches and pastors who insist on preaching the truth and not following the winds of culture. What about the gospel… worried someone might be offended?
Andy Stanley allows women, including false teacher Beth Moore, to take his pulpit and preach to his congregation. This past week, he embraced a pro-feminist worldview for his church, endorsing Jory Micah, a social media maven who appeals to woke women types who want to pretend they’re Christians when they’re not. Micah is on record saying she doesn’t believe the bible and despises half the things it says. Micah is pro-LGBTQ, pro-abortion, denies the existence of hell, and refers to God as a woman.
Andy Stanley is particularly dangerous because of his name and his powerful influence in the mainstream church community. His false teachings are as bad if not worse than other apostates like Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, and Christine Caine of Hillsong.
Are Andy Stanley’s books and materials being used in your church or home? If so, it is way past time to put them in the dumpster out back where they belong.
Tell me what you think…
Phil, thank you bringing up 2 Timothy... you are right on with that especially 4:1-4!
Thank you for this well timed warning; that 2 Timothy scripture so accurately speaks to many of the dangerous preachers that are seemingly gaining followers in droves. Voices like yours will hopefully at least help people look a little closer at the teachings and errors of some of these people. If your foundation is not the Bible, then your sermon is simply your worldly opinion, and should be viewed as such, and we all know, everyone has their opinions which are certainly prone to error..