The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Tony Campolo Embraces Open Theism

While many of you are no doubt aware of Tony Campolo's reputation as the worst sort of liberal in political and ethical matters, it has recently come to my attention that he has embraced outright heresy, denying the sovereignty and omnipotence of God. No longer can he be referred to as a representative of the evangelical left --- he has stepped decisively outside of the evangelical circle.

Katrina: Not God's Wrath--or His Wi... strikes, he cries with the rest of us.

Can't say I'm too surprised.

Ya, I know; but this really is beyond anything else he's ever said before (at least that I know of). I suppose he also agrees with Rabbi Kushner that we must "forgive God" for all his weaknesses and shortcomings. Perhaps this is a good thing since now he'll lose whatever credibility he still had among more left-leaning evangelicals who always objected that criticism of Campolo was "politically" motivated. It will be interesting to see if Ron Sider and Jim Wallis follow Campolo's lead in this, or if they criticize him.

That's pretty good. I wonder if anybody else has done some updated, politically correct hymn parodies like this one:

Hymn to God the Whatever

Well, what really shocked me when I dashed that off was scanning TC's article to see if he used "he/him" at all in reference to God. Outside of twice in the article title and header (which may even be an editor's extracts), and the Luther quote and several scriptures, he himself invariably says merely "God", not he/him/his, as far as I could see. It seems he almost went out of his way to avoid the masculine pronoun. Is that something new with TC as well?

I don't know. He is a member of the egalitarian Christians for Biblical Equality and supports women in ministry as pastors and elders; but I have not read enough by him (and probably won't in the future) to know if he's one of those who go so far as to question God's Fatherhood and use silly pronouns like "Godself." At any rate, the only real critiques I've read have been by Ronald Nash, and they have addressed Campolo's erroneous and unbiblical political views. But up until now I have regarded him as merely an ignorant lefty idealist, rather than as a malicious deciever. Of course, all that has now decisively changed.

This is not a parody, of course, but I found this song to be a wonderful response to TC's heresy <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/BigThumbUp.gif" alt="" /> :

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downward by thy flood,
And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

What a wonderful text full of vibrant, solid, comforting truth!

I had actually started to write the TC parody on the 1st verse of this hymn before going to A Mighty Fortress. Both of them are such robust confessions of the immutable sovereignty of our Lord, and I have taken much comfort in recalling them during times of trial. Honestly, those who jump off the cliff of Open Theism should not be able to sing these words without furthering their hypocrisy.

I am not a theology student or have quotable knowledge of Bible verses. When I first read this article, I can't say that disagreed with anything. Please don't jump on me, but I don't know what got everyone so exasperated.

So you would agree with Campolo that God is not all-powerful?

I didn't find that in the article he wrote about the Katrina Hurricane.

It's in there.

The quote Marie (SemperReformanda) provided isn't even really necessary. The title, "Not God's Wrath--or His Will," and the subtitle, "The Hebrew Bible doesn't say God is omnipotent," should be more than enough. It comes down to a matter of who's in control. If there is anything that happens over which God has no control, then we have much greater problems to worry about than hurricanes.