The Smokescreen of the Social gospel

One of the great long term masquerades of "evangelical Christianity" has been none other than Tony Campolo. For years now he has somehow managed to persuade a lot of prominent evangelicals of his evangelical-ness by simply labelling himself as an "evangelical" (if only the same principle worked for being a lawyer or a doctor). Admittedly the term evangelical gets a good working over these days but one would assume that it would mean that you would understand the primary reason why Jesus came . . . . ummmmm earth to Dr Campolo, John 3:16 will give you a big clue . . .

Listen to this audio as Todd Friel from "Way of the Master Radio" sheds light on Tony Campolo's dodgy doctrines.



Noone is questioning whether Christians should care for the poor. William Booth (founder of the Salvation Army) springs to mind as someone who tirelessly labored to care for the poor whilst being preoccupied with matters of eternity. Could some person with a basic grasp of Scripture please inform Tony Campolo that the poor person's basic problem is sin that needs forgiveness, and the rich person's basic problem is sin that needs forgiveness, and the poor person who benefits from a feeding program has a basic problem of sin that needs forgiveness. After all, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. Rich and poor will all die one day and unless they repent and trust the Savior they will burn in hell, rich and poor alike. Our primary mission is the ministry of reconciliation, not reconciliation of social inequality.

The great deception of the social gospel of Dr Campolo comes about because he is advocating something that a true Christian should do. The smokescreen is that caring for the poor becomes the Gospel when in reality it is a by product of a regenerate heart rather than the Gospel itself. Christian brother and sister - please watch out for that curve ball.

Perhaps at the root of all this lies a faulty understanding of regeneration. Perhaps the idea of decisional regeneration (being saved by saying a "sinners prayer") has led to the desire to try and labor in the area of motivating the "visible church" to good deeds. Perhaps if they understood that regeneration is a supernatural work of God that changes the human heart and causes us to walk in God's statutes then bleeding heart liberals like Tony Campolo might repent and start preaching the biblical Gospel, you know, the one that is the power of God unto salvation.

Eze 36:25-27 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.