Another Sunday

Another Sunday, another sermon from Pastor Andy Stanley.

This time, it looks like it’s a new sermon. He’s been recycling his sermons on Daystar, which is ok because a message is a message recycled or not.

But it’s always good to hear a fresh one from the pastor.

The central message today is the foundation of our faith is Jesus, not the 66 books of the bible.

In Pastor Stanley’s words, we follow Jesus not ‘because it is written’ but because ‘something happened.’

This is revolutionary.

To untether Christianity from the entire bible, because it is full of problems especially the Old Testament.

But there’re two problems.

First, the entire argument is predicated on one event, the resurrection.

I’ve written about this before.

Why base your faith on a miracle? (That’s what the resurrection is, the ultimate miracle.)

Miracles are cheap. Especially if the so-called miracle is only based on hearsay and not on verifiable fact.

We all know in these days of endless conspiracy theories and outright lies, that anyone can say or write anything but that doesn’t make it true.

The second problem is, what does the resurrection (assuming it did happen) have anything to do with being a good person and living a good life?

The only thing the ‘resurrection’ does is claim Jesus’ ‘divinity.’

This is the old Thomasian approach to faith.

Show me a miracle (your wounds) and I’ll believe you.

If miracles are all we need to believe, I’ve seen many unbelievable feats of levitation on youtube. I think David Blaine was the first to do it on the street.

I still don’t understand how he does it although some people claim that they use magnets.

Of course, the trick of levitation is often practiced by the holy men of India. They apparently used a hidden stick to prop them up.

No, miracles are cheap and they do not prove that a man is good or worthy of following.

The real miracle of Jesus is how did a carpenter’s son, living in the desert in the first century become so enlightened?

Where did he get his revolutionary ideas of love and compassion from?

Unlike the so-called resurrection, his teachings have a real impact on lives and on making the world a better place.

He doesn’t have to prove he’s divine, nor do we need to elevate him to godhood to believe in his teachings.

His teachings speak for themselves.

A super enlightened teacher who (apparently) died (this is not unique, all revolutionaries have to die because they pose a threat to the status quo) to ‘save’ us from a life of pain and mediocrity.