TONY CAMPOLO: ADVANCED FENCE-STRADDLING AND DENYING THE EXCLUSIVITY OF THE GOSPEL

By Ken Silva @ http://www.apprising.org/archives/2007/02/tony_campolo_ad.html

Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:8-10)

Not To Answer Directly Is To Deny The Exclusivity Of The Gospel

Don Retson, a reporter for the Edmonton Journal, asks Emergent Evangelical Prophet Tony Campolo a straight forward question in the January 27, 2007 edition:

Q. Do you believe non-Christians can go to heaven?

A. That's a good question to ask because the way we stand is we contend that trusting in Jesus is the way to heaven. However, we do not know who Jesus will bring into the kingdom and who He will not. We are very very careful about pronouncing judgment on anybody. We leave judgment in the hands of God and we are saying Jesus is the way. We preach Jesus, but we have no way of knowing to whom the grace of God is extended. (Online source)

Whew most impressive, just look at Campolo tap dance and whistle with this most deft fence-straddling non-answer–right in line with Billy Graham’s own hedging in later years–which is itself a denial of the exclusivity of the Gospel. First Acts 16:23 tells us that – The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:26, NASB) You see by Biblical definition a “Christian” is a person who has believed in (Greek: pisteuo, “totally committed”) i.e. surrendered their lives to Christ Jesus of Nazareth and is one of his disciples (students).

The Word of God then tells us that – “Salvation is found in no One else, for there is no other Name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) No vagaries there. God the Holy Spirit also tells us in John 1:12 that – But as many as received Him [Christ], to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name (KJV). And if one needs to the power to “become” a son or daughter of God then simple logic will tell you that they were not one before.

Further an eyewitness to the event, the inspired Apostle John, records Jesus Himself telling a very upright and sincere religious leader by the name of Nicodemus that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven one “must be born again/born from above” (see–John 3:3-7) Now I’m not God the Father, I didn’t die an agonizing death by crucifixion as did God the Son and I’m not God the Holy Spirit Who wrote Holy Scripture, but even I find it nauseating that something this basic has to be taught to Tony Campolo a supposed minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Conditions Of The Genuine Gospel Of Jesus Christ

Next in 2 Corinthians 5:17 we are told plainly by God – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Can you see that there are conditions here? Conditions, I might add, which are completely consistent with what I have just been showing you. Let’s look closely. If one has totally committed their lives to Christ Jesus; if He has given them power to become sons and daughters of God, and if this person has been born again/born from above, only then are they now in Christ as “a new creation.”

If not, God the Holy Spirit has most clearly told us in 1 Corinthians 15:50 – Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable (NASB). Therefore the only correct answer to the question posed above by Don Retson to Emergent Evangelical Prophet Tony Campolo is: No. Non-Christians will not go to Heaven. They cannot enter the Kingdom of God because one needs to have been recreated inside by the Spirit of God and thus baptized into Christ in order to do so. For this is where the Gospel begins: All have sinned and deserve spiritual death but Christ died in place of His disciples.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the only Person under Heaven with the Name that has the power and authority to save men and women from their sins. No matter how nice or sincere darlings of spiritually bankrupt new evangelicalism such as Rob Bell or Brian McLaren or Rick Warren may be they cannot change this (see–2 Timothy 4:3-4). Jesus of Nazareth bore our punishment on the Cross and by His Resurrection from the dead Christ proves He is Who He said He is: The eternal LORD God Almighty Himself–literally the Source of all life–come in human flesh. Only those who “believe” in Him (see–John 8:24) will be saved, born again and given the spiritual body necessary to enter into Heaven because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

And finally, the only One Who has lived, died and been Resurrected in that spiritual body which one will receive as a result of being born again when he or she is resurrected–Christ Jesus of Nazareth–clearly says – “Look at my hands and My feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39) Well, so much for reincarnation and so much for the idea that mankind is somehow going to live on a paradise earth. The resurrection body–the spiritual body–which inherits Heaven does not have blood but is rather simply flesh and bones.

Have You Believed The Gospel And Committed Your Life To Jesus?

The Bible tells us about our glorious and majestic, generous and merciful Savior:

He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6)

And speaking of the Prince of Peace the prince of preachers C.H. Spurgeon was right when he said:

This is your comfort that you cannot die. How can you perish if Jesus was put into your place? If your debt was paid of old by Christ, can it ever be demanded of you again? Once paid, it is fully discharged; the receipt we have gladly accepted; and now we can cry with the Apostle, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:33-34, KJV)

See here the mainstay of every believer’s confidence. He knows that Christ died for him because he has put his trust in his blessed mediation. If Jesus died for me, then I cannot be condemned for the sins that He expiated. God cannot punish twice the one offense. He cannot demand two payments for one debt. (At the Master’s Feet, February 1)

The question that you need to ask yourself is: Am I sure I have believed in Christ? While the Gospel is clear that – Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; the other side of this Good News is that – whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36, ESV). And so God has already warned all of us:

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:26-31)

…he who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit says…