Please note: This blog entry is not written by a secularist. But rather by a Fundamentalist Baptist Christian. I will fully admit, that I am not the best at the Christian bit, (Anyone who has read my old blog, will tell you this — and yes, I have looked at some of the older entries and went, âUgh!â) and that I left in disgust from a IFB Church. I would go to another Church, but right now; my personal situation dictates otherwise. However, I believe that truth should be written about this news story.
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One simple question must be asked of one who calls themselves a Christian. Do you truly believe that Godâs Word is true or do you believe that it is up for debate?
The story is at CNN; one of a preaching dynasty. One Charles Stanley; who seems to believe that he has some sort of special revelation from God —- concerning his marriage.
I will not quote the entire thing, I have been doing that a bit too much as of late. I encourage you to go read the story. Because it is two stories in one, one of a son watching his Fatherâs marriage fall apart and of another; of Andy Stanleyâs rejection of the traditional Christianity for modernism. The quote that I would like to focus on, is this one from the elder Charles Stanley, concerning divorce and remarriage and the pulpit.
The quote and please note: this may be a bit long, but I want you to get the point:
‘I got that straight from the Lord’
Andy didn’t know his parents’ marriage was in trouble until he was in the 10th grade. Before then, he never saw his father or his mother argue or even disagree. Charles and Anna Stanley seemed to have the perfect relationship.
A year after his father appointed him to pastor a satellite church, he knew his parents’ marriage was disintegrating. They had been to every counselor and doctor imaginable. Eventually, his mother moved out and stopped attending church with his father.
"People got used to it, and they quit asking about it," he says. "It happened so gradually."
Anna Stanley had made her own mark on the church — and on her son.
"No matter what I did, I could come home and tell her," he says. "She never freaked out, never overreacted. She was always a very safe place."
The Rev. Louie Giglio, one of Andy’s best friends growing up, still remembers some of the lessons Andy’s mother taught at summer Bible camp.
"All of Andy’s wisdom doesn’t come from his dad," says Giglio, now senior pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta and a founder of the Passion Movement, a popular outreach effort for young evangelicals. "She was incredibly insightful."
The quiet exit of Anna Stanley from the pews went public in June 1993 when she filed for divorce. Her action caused a sensation in Southern Baptist circles, where divorce is considered a sin by some based on a literal reading of the Bible. Some pastors shunned Charles; others publicly demanded that he step down. The scandal dragged on for years as the couple attempted to reconcile.
In 1995, Anna Stanley explained why she wanted a divorce in a letter to her husband’s church that was excerpted in the local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in an article titled "Torn Asunder."
She said she had experienced "many years of discouraging disappointments and marital conflict. … Charles, in effect, abandoned our marriage. He chose his priorities, and I have not been one of them."
The impending divorce didn’t just threaten Charles’ family; it jeopardized his ministry.
He had always preached unquestioning obedience to the Word of God. And wasn’t Jesus clear about divorce in Gospel passages such as Luke 16:18: "Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."
New Testament passages such as those had prompted First Baptist to institute a policy that prevented divorced men from serving as pastors or deacons. What would the church do when its celebrity pastor — the man who packed the pews and beamed First Baptist’s name across the globe — got a divorce?
Charles treated the calls for him to step down like he treated the punch in the jaw so long ago — he didn’t flinch. He said he would gladly work on his marriage but he wouldn’t resign as pastor.
Gayle White, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution religion writer at the time, dug up a quote from the embattled pastor that explained his rationale and used it in her "Torn Asunder" article:
"You see, into my ministry I brought the survival spirit. You do or die. You do whatever is necessary to win. It doesn’t make any difference what it is."
That survival spirit was second nature for Charles, whose father died when he was 9 months old and who grew up so poor that he learned about Santa Claus the Christmas morning he discovered in his stocking the orange that had been in the refrigerator the night before. He lived in 17 homes by his 8th birthday.
His mother, Rebecca, worked two jobs and was often away from home. But she’d leave her son notes, reminding him of chores, giving him advice or simply to say, "Charles, I love you."
At night, she’d kneel beside her only child and pray, "God bless Charles here for whatever it may be."
Just as his mother protected him, Charles shielded her. She married an abusive alcoholic who told his stepson he would never amount to anything and sometimes tried to attack Rebecca.
Charles would intervene.
"You come after my mom," he’d say, "you come after me."
So it was really no surprise that, decades later, Charles would refuse to back down. He told opponents calling for his resignation that he answered to a higher authority.
"God said you keep doing what I called you to until I tell you to do something else," he says today. "I got that straight from the Lord. … I was simply obeying God."
Besides, what could he do — make someone not divorce him?
"If somebody doesn’t love you and doesn’t want to live with you, you can’t — nowhere in the Scripture does it say that you’re to preach the gospel until someone does this or that," he says.
Charles, though, wasn’t the only one in his family with a strong will. His son had other ideas about divorce.
Now, while I might appreciate what this poor man went through, and I understand that a marriage is a tough thing to keep up and yes, it does require effort on both parties parts. The plain fact is, that this man is simply wrong about what he believes about marriage. Having âyour own ideasâ about marriage and divorce is basically another way of saying that you are going to directly reject the doctrines of the Bible and are going to do it your way. This is in essence rebellion and the Bible is not to kind to rebels.
Some scriptures:
It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32 KJV)
The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. (Matthew 19:3-9 KJV)
And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. (Mark 10:2-12 KJV)
I believe that it is safe to say; that Jesus meant that, when he said it. Furthermore, more specifically, the Bible is quite clear that divorced and remarried people, have zero business being in the pulpit at all.
More Bible:
This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:1-7 KJV)
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1:6-9 KJV)
Charles Stanley quite obviously failed in this area. Another thing that I need to address, is this whole foolish idea that Mr. Charles Stanley somehow or another âheard from Godâ and somehow or another God supposedly told him that he should continue preaching. This also is against the Word of God and proves that Charles Stanley is in deep apostasy.
Quoting the Bible:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. – (2 Peter 1:20-21 KJV)
In other words, Charles Stanley is wrong about the Lord supposedly âspeakingâ to him. Everything that the Lord Jesus has ever had to say about anything or anyone is contained in the 66 books of the Bible. End of discussion. Anyone that says anything other than that is an apostate and is telling a bald-faced lie. David Cloud, who is a Fundamentalist Baptist missionary, of whom I greatly respect; speaking of Peter S. Ruckman, another apostate with in the Fundamentalist Baptist circles, who also takes an extremist stance on the King James Version of the Bible —- says the following:
Divorces do not take place in a vacuum. They take place in an environment filled with anger, carnality, hostility, bitterness, and sin. That is not judgmentalism; it is fact. Some of my godly divorced friends confess this as strongly as I do. In fact, consider how Ruckman himself describes his family life in days gone by: âI have had two wives desert me after fifteen years of marriage … I have been in court custody cases, where seven childrenâs futures were held in the balance; in situations where Gospel articles were being torn out of typewriters, Biblical artwork torn off the easels, women trying to throw themselves out of cars at fifty m.p.h., mailing wedding rings back in the middle of revival services, cutting their wrists, threatening to leave if I did not give my church to their kinfolk; deacons threatening to burn down my house and beat me up; children in split custody between two domiciles two hundred miles apart, and knock-down, drag-out arguments in the home sometimes running as long as three daysâ (The Last Grenade, p. 339). That is what the man admits took place. That is only a small glimpse into the sin and confusion surrounding those years. Friends, you can label me a judge if you want, but a man with that type of family life has no business in the pastorate. Let him preach on the streets. Let him preach in the jails. Let him preach in the nursing homes. Let him preach in other ways, but we must obey the Bible and reserve the pastorate for men who have godly homes.
This also applies to Charles Stanley as well. It is no wonder that Andy Stanley is an apostate that embraces modernism. He learned it from his own Father! Again, I do not write this as a surly judgmental type. I write this, as someone who is saddened to see just how apostate the Southern Baptist Convention Churches have become. It is a rot that started many, many years ago and is continuing to this very day.
Again, I do not write this, as someone who thinks he is better than these people are; I too, have my own failings. However, I believe it is important for people to know that what Charles Stanley is doing is wrong in the sight of God and what his Son is doing, that being the rejection of the doctrine of the Word of God and the softness in his stance towards Gays is also wrong. Apostasy produces more of the same. It is a shame, but it is reality.
