Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44), so we can expect his followers to lie to us. But when false teachings (lies) come from Christian leaders it is especially disturbing to me. I have written about this before, but there seems to be a new wave of false teachings wrapped in clerical rhetoric that need to be confronted. I could spend a year and not expose all of them, but there are two in particular I encountered recently to which I feel led to respond; one in this post and the other in my next post.
A popular mega-church pastor, Andrew Stanley, with tens of thousands of followers has stated that Christians should “disengage” or “unhitch” from the Old Testament because the old covenant (including the Ten Commandments) does not apply to modern day, new covenant Christians. I only mention his name because I don’t want to give the impression that all mega-church pastors are guilty of such false teachings. He claims Jesus replaced all of the Old Testament “Jewish law” with one, all-encompassing commandment found in John 13:34, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” Andy Stanley doesn’t mention that in the Sermon on the Mount (which appears to be one of his favorite New Testament passages) Jesus also stated, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No. I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19) He also ignores the fact that Jesus affirmed the Ten Commandments and even took two of them a step farther; equating lustful thoughts with adultery (Matthew 5:27-28) and anger with murder (Matthew 5:21-22). Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “Well then, if we emphasize faith does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.”
All of this isn’t new. In fact, there was a “Christian” sect 1900 years ago that also tried to separate Jesus Christ from the God of the Old Testament scriptures. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel he makes it crystal clear that Jesus Christ and the Creator described in the first chapter of Genesis and throughout Old Testament scriptures are one in the same. They cannot be separated. It is clear to me that to discard the Old Testament would necessarily require twisting or discarding a large portion of the New Testament as well, including some of the teachings of Jesus himself.
I’m not a pastor or theologian. I’m just a person who was spiritually reborn 64 years ago through faith in Jesus Christ. I have been studying scripture, praying, worshipping and walking through life with God’s Holy Spirit ever since then. It is He who has shown me the difference between true teachings based on God’s word and false teachings based on the opinions of people; even ordained popular and respected people.