Unhitching from Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley recently made the statement that Christians should unhitch themselves from the Old Testament. I think the Apostle Paul, Peter, & Jesus Christ Himself would disagree. Not only did Christ validate and affirm Old Testament scripture and even quoted all but 9 Old Testament books, it prophecies the coming Messiah throughout the entire thing. Jesus said to those who denied Him as messiah that the scriptures (the Old Testament), “testifies of me” (John 5:39). It's one of the ways we know we can trust God's Word - that it predicted the future, and it came true, and we have Holy Spirit inspired record of that. To "unhitch" ourselves from the Old Testament would be like unhitching our houses from the structure that holds it up. It's the set up to the universe. It sets up sin, who God is, His heart for mercy, His justice and standard for truth, and man's desperate need for a savior. It's the tee under the ball. It's the machine that brewed the coffee. Misunderstanding it doesn't warrant throwing it out.

Paul says in 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 that, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work", and that the gospel of Jesus Christ all took place "in accordance with the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3)...which, what scriptures would that be? The New Testament wasn't complied or fully written down yet. This is nonsense and what happens when we aren't tethered and submitted to the Word of God. We slowly shift from God's commands and ways of doing things, to personally deciding what goes and what stays based on our human logic, perceptions of what we think works, and our desires. At the end of the day, we don't obey men. We obey God (Acts 5:29).