Inside the Mind of a Heretic

How does one become a heretic? Simple, consider your own "wisdom" as greater than God's wisdom. Make it your aim to speak your own mind instead of God's revealed Word.

I was so disgusted to read Tony Campolo's statement about the impotence of God in regard to Hurricane Katrina:

Whenever there is a catastrophe, some religious people inevitably ask, “Why didn’t God do something? Where was God when all those people died?”

Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad answers. One such answer is that somehow all suffering is a part of God’s great plan. In the midst of agonies, someone is likely to quote from the Bible, telling us that if we would just be patient, we eventually would see “all things work together for the good, for those who love God, and are called according to His purposes.” (Romans 8:28)

Perhaps we would do well to listen to the likes of Rabbi Harold Kushner, who contends that God is not really as powerful as we have claimed. Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures does it say that God is omnipotent. Kushner points out that omnipotence is a Greek philosophical concept, but it is not in his Bible.


I'm not sure what Hebrew Bible Kushner is using, but my Hebrew Bible uses the name "Almighty" for God 48 times. My New Testament, which Kushner discounts, uses the word "Almighty" 9 more times. Unless the definition of "almighty" has changed in recent years, it means "to have all might."

To make it even more interesting, the Old Testament (Hebrew) book that the word "Almighty" is used in the most is Job, which is the most relevant book to any event dealing with the suffering of man and the sovereignty of God.

Kushner (and therefore, Campolo) claims that omnipotence is a Greek concept, not a biblical concept. I suggest he go back and read the first two chapters of Genesis before he forever settles on believing in a little god. If God can create everything there is, He's surely big enough to handle it all.

Kushner and his "solution" for the problem for suffering are antithetical to the message of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament. Anyone who takes these two testaments otherwise is not reading them at face value.

Shame on Tony Campolo for trying to make God look good or apologize to unbelievers for the truth. God needs no image makeover. People need to be transformed in order to accept the truth. Shame on him for getting his theology of God from a weak theologian. If he wants to interpret the Bible through the lens of other theologians, he could do much better. He could start with men who take the Bible seriously. There are plenty throughout history that have proven themselves as legitimate mentors (Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards).

It seems that Tony is only a bold, prophetic type when he is making shocking statements to Bible-believing Christians while he poses as one of us. Put him on national TV and he becomes Mr. Appeasement and Mr. Non-Controversial. I'm glad to see the mask is being brought down and we are seeing the true Tony.

May he repent before it's too late. Until then, stop giving that man a pulpit and a microphone, or a pen and a publisher.

HT: Jason Robertson c/o Tim Ellsworth