{"id":2220,"date":"2018-06-09T03:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/?p=2220"},"modified":"2018-06-08T08:54:12","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T12:54:12","slug":"liberal-christian-leader-tony-campolo-god-is-not-in-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/christianity\/liberal-christian-leader-tony-campolo-god-is-not-in-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal Christian Leader Tony Campolo: ‘God Is Not in Control’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[MY NOTE<\/em><\/strong> – Campolo is a heretic of the highest order. This article is posted as another example of just how far we are into apostasy today. MS.]<\/div>\n
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A couple of weeks ago,\u00a0I introduced you to the Red Letter Christians<\/a>, a group of liberal believers whom the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0breathlessly profiled recently as the face of Christians who don’t worship Donald Trump. One of the group’s leaders, Tony Campolo,\u00a0recently gave an interview with Premier<\/a>, a Christian website in the UK, in which he stated that he doesn’t believe that God is in control \u2014 yet.<\/p>\n

Campolo barely touches scripture to support his assertion when he says:<\/p>\n

So often we read the scriptures but don’t pay attention to what is really going on.\u00a0In the temptation story, for instance, Satan says to Jesus: “Here are all the kingdoms of the world, they are mine to give you”. Does Jesus say: “Oh no they’re not”? No, he doesn’t!<\/p>\n

Did you know that St Paul, in five different places, announces that God is not in control?<\/p>\n

Of course, he doesn’t cite any of those specific places. He does mention a passage in Ephesians that doesn’t really support his point before he goes off on a tangent about worship music.<\/p>\n

I have problems with a lot of the new worship music. I think it’s wonderful that it’s captured the music that young people can relate to and they get into it with great love and emotion. But compare ‘My God reigns’ with the old hymns which say: “Jesus\u00a0\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0reign” – it’s future tense, not present tense.<\/p>\n

The Hallelujah Chorus never says: “God is in control”. It says: “The kingdoms of this world\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0(when the second coming occurs) become the kingdoms of our God and he\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0reign forever and ever hallelujah”.<\/p>\n

(Of course, we use the future tense when we talk about the future. It doesn’t take a grammar nerd \u2014 or a theologian \u2014 to see that lyrics or statements that address the future won’t necessarily be in the present tense, even if those statements are true in the present.)<\/p>\n

Campolo goes on to try to tie Jesus’ humanity to God not being in control by referring to Jesus as being “vulnerable” and asserting that God didn’t use the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus to force people to believe in Him.<\/p>\n

The whole statement from Campolo is as squishy and nonsensical as much of what stems from liberal Christianity these days. In fact, this very rejection of God’s sovereignty is\u00a0what led Campolo’s son Bart to reject Christianity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Campolo’s statement of, um, faith, inspired a\u00a0response at Premier<\/a>\u00a0from British pastor Graham Nicholls, who specifically addressed the issue of God’s sovereignty in music:<\/p>\n

…of course, there are challenges to our faith in terms of how God exercises his sovereign will in allowing the presence of sin and Satan in the world until Jesus returns.<\/p>\n

But we do not worship a God who is contingent, limited in both strength and knowledge. We sing of one who is transcendent and supremely powerful, and it humbles and encourages our hearts. We sing and shout that nothing stands in his way; no-one and nothing can question the authority and goodness of his actions. Our God does reign!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Bible speaks of the all-powerful nature of a God who is definitely in control.<\/p>\n

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0that will stand (\u00a0Proverbs 19:21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A man’s steps are from the Lord;\u00a0how then can man understand his way? (Proverbs 20:24<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? (Lamentations 3:37<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In the Genesis account of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery, Joseph\u00a0told his brothers that their evil act was actually God’s plan<\/a>\u00a0to save His people from famine when he said, “…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”<\/p>\n

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In fact, Jesus’ humanity \u2014 his vulnerability, if you will \u2014 was a direct fulfillment of God’s perfect plan to redeem those who call on His name. And Jesus’ brother James reminded us that\u00a0we shouldn’t make plans without subjecting ourselves to God’s sovereign will<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Piper speaks of the sovereignty of God in plain terms<\/a>:<\/p>\n

God works\u00a0\u00a0all things<\/em>\u00a0according to his will. Here\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0Ephesians 1:11<\/a>: \u201cIn him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.\u201d Let me say it again. He works all things according to the counsel of his will. I think that means he always controls everything. There\u2019s my answer.<\/p>\n

Jerry Bridges reminds us that our\u00a0trust in God’s sovereignty is a must if we are to believe in Him<\/a>, especially during difficult times:<\/p>\n

The Scriptures teach us that we must believe that God is completely sovereign if we are to\u00a0\u00a0trust Him<\/a>\u00a0in adversity.<\/p>\n

Someone has expressed it this way: \u201cGod in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sovereignty of God is asserted, either expressly or implicitly, on almost every page of the Bible.<\/p>\n

What’s the point of entrusting your life to God if you can’t believe He is totally in control?\u00a0Bart Campolo says<\/a>\u00a0that a lack of trust in God’s sovereignty led him down the slippery slope in which he ceased to believe in the God of the Bible. If that doesn’t shake Tony Campolo out of this odd belief that God isn’t in control, nothing will. And that’s a sad way to live, even as a believer.<\/p>\n

BY\u00a0CHRIS QUEEN<\/a>\u00a0JUNE 5, 2018. The article appeared here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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(Image via Wikipedia) [MY NOTE – Campolo is a heretic of the highest order. This article is posted as another example of just how far we are into apostasy today. MS.] A couple of weeks ago,\u00a0I introduced you to the Red Letter Christians, a group of liberal believers whom the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0breathlessly profiled recently as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1681],"tags":[1356,2086,2085],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","tag-apostasy","tag-gods-sovereignty","tag-tony-campolo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/soaringeagleradio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tony_Campolo_2009.sized-770x415xt.jpg?fit=770%2C415&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2224,"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions\/2224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soaringeagleradio.com\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}