Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 23:2 (Fall 2019)
Article: A Biblical And Theological Critique Of Stanley’s Irresistible: Reclaiming The New That Jesus Unleashed From The World
Author: David Mappes

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A Biblical And Theological Critique Of Stanley’s Irresistible: Reclaiming The New That Jesus Unleashed From The World

David Mappes

Abstract: This article critically interacts and refutes the thesis of Andy Stanley’s Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed from the World. The article demonstrates the biblical-theological, hermeneutical, and methodological errors in Stanley’s thesis and argument. The article interacts and critiques Stanley’s incorrect thesis that the church in America is impotent due to integrating Old Testament truth into the New Testament Church as he proposes that the church needs to be “unhitched” and “unmixed” from the Old Testament thereby eliminating the need to defend the historical reliability of the Old Testament.

Key Words: Old Testament, apologetics, inerrancy, inspiration, unhitched

*****

Andy Stanley is a master communicator, popular author, and prominent pastor who has achieved a celebrity status. His Atlanta-based North Point Ministries consists of six churches with a network of over 70 churches that serve 118,000

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people weekly, according to the flyleaf of Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed from the World.

In this book, Stanley argues that the church with its modern version of faith is ineffective and too easily resisted. Stanley conjectures that the modern church and Christianity are resistible because the Old Testament is mixed into Christianity and that believers sense the need to defend the Old Testament’s historicity and accuracy, which leads to alienating “post-Christians.”

Irresistible is filled with clever phrases, including chapter titles such as “Temple Tantrum,” “Splittin’ Up,” “Homebodies,” “The Apoplectic Apostle,” “Trending Horizontal,” “Obsolet-r Than Ever.” The book combines previous sermons and podcasts with seminars from recent years. Stanley uses wit, humor, satire, anecdotal comments, wordplay, and wordsmithing. He combines these with a few semitechnical discussions and ties it all together through storytelling and aphorisms to advance his belief that the church must become “unhitched” and “unmixed” from the OT. He uses his rhetorical skills to urge believers against integrating OT truth into Christianity, dissuading believers from defending the historical reliability and believability of the Old Testament.

Unfortunately Irresistible is constructed on flawed missiology, as Stanley confuses contextualization with accommodation and errant methodology while confusing progressive revelation and the fulfillment ...