So far on this blog I have managed to stay above the fray. I think there’s a danger in saying “my message is the right message, and yours is wrong”. On many things the Bible is open to some interpretation. Therefore, we must allow people room for their opinions on what it is saying. However, one has to draw the line somewhere, and here is my line. The absolute garbage, nonsense Calvinistic notion of the total depravity of the human soul. This is the poison pill that Allie Beth Stuckey is pushing in her new book discussed here on the Alisa Childers podcast.
Where is Allie Beth Stuckey wrong?
Who you are is not just corrupt and depraved, and has to not just be improved but made new by Christ and made new by the Holy Spirit.
This is pretty standard teaching in Christianity, and she can certainly find Biblical support for it in the New Testament. However, this is completely contradicted by the Old Testament. Not just in one place either, although I will focus on only one here for the sake of brevity and simplicity. I want to show that I can debunk her entire line of reasoning here if I have only read the first four chapters of the Bible. Hence, everything I will use will come from Genesis 1-4. But before I do that, she goes on…
We want to believe exactly what Satan told Eve in the garden, that you actually can have the power of God if you just do this thing. If you just listen to me. God just doesn’t want you to be as powerful. It is the same lie that has been recycled and repackaged by these women who are saying basically if you just do these things then you will have the power to be your own God.
The problems with Allie Beth Stuckey’s message.
First off, she slightly changes the message of the serpent to Eve in the garden. It is a subtle change, but she does it for a very clear theological reason. Again, she’s far from alone here, and I know why people do this. It is because theologically, there is a night and day difference between the Satan of the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, Christians often feel the need to change Tanakh references to Satan to fit the evil free agent presented in the New Testament. Thus, she claims that he lied to Eve and told her she could be her own God. Here’s what he actually said.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:5
She says “it is the same lie”. But was it a lie? We don’t have to go far to get the answer. God weighs in on the topic in verse 22 of the same chapter linked above.
Then Hashem God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:22, with the name of God altered out of respect for the Most High
It was not a lie that Satan told Eve in the garden. Exactly what he told her would happen did happen. And that’s not me disagreeing with her. It’s Hashem. She goes on.
They’re simultaneously selling you books by telling you “You’re all you need”, they’re saying you need me. You also need me. You also need my wisdom. That’s how they make their money. And so it’s a paradox.”
Here she is right about them, but paradoxically overlooks the same truth about her situation. She’s on the show to sell her book about how you only need Jesus. And, of course, her book “You’re Not Enough (and that’s okay)” by Allie Beth Stuckey, available for $18.99 at Christian Book. That’s how she makes her money.
There is nowhere in the Bible where you will find a story of man’s sufficiency. The entire Biblical narrative is about Christ’s sufficiencey, God’s sufficiency, and our utter dependency and need for him. Our utter inadequacy. Our inability to save ourselves.
Nowhere in the Bible can I find a story of the man’s sufficiency? Well, let’s move forward one chapter to Genesis chapter 4. Here, Hashem addresses Cain and he doesn’t tell him that he’s helpless against sin. That’s he’s a completely depraved monster who has no choice but to do evil and rely on God for redemption. It’s not Jesus that will rule over sin for Cain. Who must do it?
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:7
Where Allie Beth Stuckey gets it tragically wrong.
It is comically absurd to say that the entire Biblical narrative is about Jesus’ sufficiency. 2/3’rds of the Bible is Tanakh, and it never even mentions Jesus. Moreover, it entirely rejects the narrative that she is pushing here. Her theology is completely guided by the New Testament teachings of the Apostle Paul. However, if he is right and we are so corrupt that we are completely incapable of keeping the law, then we need to throw the entire Bible out. It is a completely human production that is a narrative of lies, because it’s based on the word of a God who lied to us when he Himself said the following to Moses of blessed memory.
11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Hashem didn’t set a standard that was impossible for us to achieve. If he did, he completely lied to us here. I absolutely reject that notion, as does Hashem. And did you notice what he says here? “It is not in heaven, that you would say ‘Who will ascend to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it’.” Yet that is the exact message that Allie is selling here. You are so depraved that you need Jesus to descend from Heaven to bring the law to you so that you can do it. That is in absolute contradiction to what Hashem himself told us.
I’m no self help guru. If you find help in what Allie Beth Stuckey is saying here, God bless you. I wish you the best. Moreover, if you find help in what these women she is attacking are saying, I say the same to you. We’re all in this game of life trying to make the best of it, and whatever helps you to do that, I’m all for it. However, when a person tries to put God’s stamp of approval on their self help book that contradicts the word of Hashem delivered to us by none other than Moses, the only prophet that Hashem talked to “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend”, I have to call that out.
Moreover, I know that this post will be offensive to some Christians, and I’m truly sorry if I have offended you here. However, you must know that I will always speak the truth on this blog, even when the truth is uncomfortable.
I couldnt agree more Steve…its amazing how many Christian’s just take someone else’s word and never open the book and read for themselves…lol…this is one of the biggest mysteries in the WORLD to me…how could a person possibly beleive in something enough to spend their entire life, teach their kids, every Sunday to church, etc, etc, without even reading the damn book that is the directions? That’s a head scratcher to me??? I had always been told so many things by all different denominations I had visited growing up…so I finally realized how foolish that was and that I needed to read it for myself! Good read man I always immensely enjoy reading your content, you are extremely talented at writing!