THE REV. DR. RICHARD LAND, PRINCETON MAGNA CUM LAUDE, D.PHIL. OXFORD, EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN POST, A TRUE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN, LOVINGLY LAYS THE BOOM DOWN ON HERETIC ANDY STANLEY (AND WE PERSONALLY BELIEVE WITH THE BLESSINGS OF THE GREAT PASTOR, DR. CHARLES STANLEY; WE PERSONALLY BELIEVE THIS WITHOUT CONFIRMING IT BECAUSE WE KNOW HOW THIS CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN OPERATES). DR. LAND REBUKES THE BLASPHEMOUS STATEMENTS BY ANDY STANLEY WHEN STANLEY SAID: “A gay person who still wants to attend church after the way they’ve been treated. I’m telling you they have more faith than I do. They have more faith than a lot of you.” Stanley spoke of “the gay men and gay women who’ve come to faith in Christ as adults, who want to participate in our church.” After acknowledging and dismissing with a casual wave of his hand and the equally dismissive statement, “I know I Corinthians 6, and I know Leviticus, and I know Romans 1, so interesting to talk about all that stuff,” Stanley declared, “But just, oh my goodness, a gay man or woman who wants to worship their Heavenly Father, who did not answer the cry of their heart when they were 12 and 13 and 14 and 15. God said, ‘No,’ and they still love God!” Dr. Land responded to Andy Stanley’s blasphemous statements by stating “Frankly, this is an astounding statement from a leading Evangelical pastor. When God did not answer ‘the cry of their heart,’ is he saying that God was wrong in not accepting their sexual orientation, or is he saying that God should have answered their prayer by changing that orientation? EITHER OPTION IS BLASPHEMOUS.”
FURTHER, DR. LAND MADE IT CLEAR TO ANDY STANLEY AND TO ALL PASTORS THAT NO PRACTICING HOMOSEXUALS SHOULD BE ACCEPTED AS MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH. HE WENT ON TO SAY, REFERRING TO A TIME HE PASTORED A SMALL CHURCH IN NEW ORLEANS: “We never turned anyone away who came to worship, gay, drug addicts, Satan worshipers, prostitutes—we had them all—because the ground is level at the foot of the cross and they needed to be where the Gospel was being proclaimed and taught. However, we made it clear that we loved and accepted them because Jesus did, but that neither Jesus nor we accepted those things in their lives that were condemned as sinful by our Savior. So even if they had experienced a conversion experience, until they removed such behaviors, they could not be church members or in positions of leadership.” Dr. Land further said, “I believe that is the way the churches should have dealt with homosexual and lesbian believers then and now. Those people you truly love, you tell the truth. You are not telling them the truth when you lead them to believe that God accepts their behavior.”
A little more than a fortnight ago, I wrote a column for The Christian Post titled “Free Speech and the State of American Culture.”
In that column, I discussed “The American Worldview Inventory,” which is researched and published by George Barna, the director of research with the Cultural Research Center located at Arizona Christian University. Barna and his team compiled exhaustive research in order to analyze the bedrock doctrines of the Christian faith to ascertain the current state of American Protestant Christianity.
Barna and his team’s research results were, and are, devastating. For example, Barna found that among Evangelical pastors, only 61% believed in the concept of absolute truth (some things are always right and some things are always wrong). And the Evangelicals are the conservative, Bible-believing Protestants.
Barna’s research was among pastors, not church members at large. If the pastors, the shepherds of the flock, have succumbed to sub-biblical worldviews, who is going to lead the people and “teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you? (Matt. 8:18-20)
If people are not hearing a sure, certain, and uncompromising word from the pulpit, where will they find truth in this increasingly secular age in which Americans find themselves immersed?
Let us always remember that the Prince of Darkness, the Great Deceiver, is able to transform himself into “an angel of light” (II Cor. 11:14) and that Christians must “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Eph. 6:11)
And the devil is wily, deceitful and strategic. If Satan can deceive and neutralize a pastor, it is the spiritual equivalent of an expert sniper neutralizing or “taking out” the commander of a military unit. This is one of many reasons we should pray for our pastors, indeed all pastors, every day. It is a certainty they are going to get the special attention of Lucifer and his demonic minions.
It is with profound sadness that I bring to your attention a subtle, but profound example of a devastating, anti-biblical teaching coming from one of the leading Evangelical pulpiteers in America today—Andy Stanley.
The Rev. Stanley, the influential pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, and the leader of North Point Ministries, during North Point’s Drive Conference last May, made some rather astounding comments that have now gone viral on social media.
Stanley declared, “A gay person who still wants to attend church after the way they’ve been treated. I’m telling you they have more faith than I do. They have more faith than a lot of you.”
Here is the most troubling part of the message from this shepherd of the flock. The Rev. Stanley spoke of “the gay men and gay women who’ve come to faith in Christ as adults, who want to participate in our church.”
After acknowledging and dismissing with a casual wave of his hand and the equally dismissive statement, “I know I Corinthians 6, and I know Leviticus, and I know Romans 1, so interesting to talk about all that stuff,” Stanley declared, “But just, oh my goodness, a gay man or woman who wants to worship their Heavenly Father, who did not answer the cry of their heart when they were 12 and 13 and 14 and 15. God said, ‘No,’ and they still love God!”
He then declares, “We have something to learn from a group of men and women who love Jesus that much and who want to worship with us.”
Frankly, this is an astounding statement from a leading Evangelical pastor. When God did not answer “the cry of their heart,” is he saying that God was wrong in not accepting their sexual orientation, or is he saying that God should have answered their prayer by changing that orientation? Either option is blasphemous.
Source: Christian Post
To read more, click here: https://www.christianpost.com/voices/andy-stanley-and-his-troubling-message-as-shepherd-of-flock.html
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