Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think that would be my summary of Andy Stanley’s Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World. It is also what I’d tell him about his perspective on the Old Testament.

Back in 2009, I reviewed his book Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication. I said in that post:

I keep waiting for Andy Stanley to write a flop. So far, he’s exceeded my expectations.

Irresistible is definitely not a flop, but it’s… well, read on.

When the book was published in 2018, I remember it created waves, but I was out of the loop about how big the waves were. After reading the book and beginning to read other reviews in preparation for this review, I realized they weren’t waves. They were tsunamis.

The message of Irresistible can be condensed like this:

• Christians are people saved by faith in Jesus and are under a different code of ethics/morality. We are under the “New Covenant” established by Jesus.
• That means that Christians are not bound to the “Old Covenant” which is revealed in the Old Testament. (Think Mosaic Law and 10 Commandments.)
• People who are not Christians don’t understand how to read the Bible. Because of the way it’s organized, one would naturally start reading “from the beginning” and be exposed to the Old Covenant, confusing them and more often than not, leading a person to “give up” reading the Bible before they get to the New Covenant (New Testament).
• A Christian’s moral code is simply… love. Love God and love others. Heavy on the loving others.

What Others Said:

One review by Clarke Morledge pointed out that no less than Southern Baptist theologian, Tom Schreiner; Reformed Seminary of Charlotte, North Carolina president, Michael Kruger; and Baptist theologian, Owen Strachan had written toasty reviews. Former SBC President J.D. Greear had a three-part dialogue with Stanley about the book.

Another writer summarizes Stanley’s book in this way:

• Clever wordplays with no substance
• Shallow exegesis
• Unhitching from more than the Old Testament
• The Bible says, “The Bible says!”

Before Stanley wrote his book, he preached a series in his church (over 35,000 attending weekly) in 2016 called The Bible Told Me So. Links to those messages couldn’t be found. That series became the foundation for the book.

In it, Stanley asserts that Christians should “unhitch” themselves from the Old Testament. He urged pastors, teachers and others to quit saying, “The Bible says…” in response to people’s questions. He claimed that because the Bible was different in its authority (Old Testament vs New Testament) and that most skeptics had issues with Old Testament stories. So why not say, “Luke says” or “the apostle Paul says” or even ‘“Jesus said?”

John Piper had a gracious response to Stanley’s message on the Desiring Godwebsite. He said:

Stanley’s view might rescue a doubting believer, and at the same time establish in churches and families a view of the Bible which undermines the faith of the next five generations. In view of what Jesus and the New Testament writers say about the complete trustworthiness of the Old Testament (“Scripture cannot be broken,” John 10:35), I doubt that generation after generation of teenagers could read that and yet believe at the same time that it does not matter for my faith whether the events of the Old Testament really happened.

And again:

I think Stanley is only half right when he says, “Appealing to post-Christian people on the basis of the authority of Scripture has essentially the same effect as a Muslim imam appealing to you on the basis of the authority of the Quran.” He is right in that this happens. God’s inspired word is sometimes heard with no effect. But not always, and not usually. It is different from the Quran. It is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). It is not preached in vain — especially not when, in the hands of a Spirit-filled preacher, the truth and beauty of its depths and heights are spoken with clarity and conviction for what they really are.

What I think

I have always appreciated what an excellent communicator Andy Stanley is. His church has been an encouragement and inspiration for thousands to follow Jesus for the first time.

When I read a book, I underline. I make notes in the margins. This book has been marked up. I found it to be both inspiringly brilliant and insanely frustrating. Stanley deeply desires to make scripture relevant and Jesus appealing to our culture. He makes some strong points that Christians and leaders should consider and measure.

But here’s the thing… we need to measure Andy’s claims by the authority of the book that he often discounts – the Bible. (He suggests we call it the “Hebrew scriptures” (OT) and the “Christian scriptures” (NT).

I love how he emphasizes the importance of love. I do. When asked what the greatest command in all of scripture was (and the only scripture at that time was the Old Testament), Jesus said:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”1

Stanley jumps immediately to the second command and seems to airbrush over the first. In his chapter A New Command, he urges us to become known by our love for people.

Even as he quotes Jesus’ teaching, Stanley makes the statement:

“His primary concern was not that they believe something. He insisted that they do something.”

Well, that’s entirely wrong, for a number of reasons.

So why do I recommend you read this book?

Yes, I’m recommending you read it. It will make you think. Thinking is something that Christians have forgotten how to do. We’d rather have our celebrity pastors and podcasts serve us what we should think. This book made me go to The Book. It made me search scriptures. It made me question some of my own language, syntax and methodology. I appreciate many of Stanley’s points. I think you will too.

You may be offset by Stanley’s cheekiness. He tries to be cute and funny. Many times he succeeds. I was amused. I like dad jokes. You may not be. He apparently likes using “all skate” as a term for everyone’s invited to participate. I wondered how many readers would even remember what “all skate” was. Interesting, when he claims throughout that we need to help the Bible be relevant.

One of things I found most intriguing was his recommendation for reorganization of the Bible. (p284) He suggested that the Bible begin with the New Testament, followed by the Old Testament. That way, new readers would begin where it’s most important. He also suggested Luke being the first gospel. I am still mulling this over. There is nothing in the Bible that dictates the order by which we should read it. It was codified and affirmed and ordered by the early church and church councils. I see nothing significantly wrong with this type of reconsideration.

I also think it would be extremely helpful for every Bible to contain an instruction guide about biblical interpretation – basic principles to help people understand what they’re getting into and where to find what. Such an introduction should have an inspirational overview of 2-3 paragraphs that invite a reader into the majestic story of God that His book reveals.

While I do recommend the book, I’d also encourage you read it with someone. And be like the Bereans who weren’t quite sure what they thought of Paul’s teachings either. How did they assess him?

“…they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

What scriptures did they use to assess Paul’s New Testament/Gospel claims? The Old Testament.

What now?

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