AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PREACHING OF TONY CAMPOLO BASED ON HIS ADDRESS TO THE RALLY OF THE ASSEMBLY OF
THE BAPTIST UNION OF SCOTLAND
ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24TH 1991

by Paul Mansbacher

I write this assessment with the deepest conviction of the knowledge of the truth which the Lord Jesus Christ has revealed through His Word. This Truth includes God's Gracious love for man and his hatred of sin.

ASSESSMENT OF STYLE
Tony Campolo's style is that of the entertainer. In this role he is very good, although at times he was somewhat offensive. It is questionable whether this is the style that gives Glory to God when used in the expository preaching of His Word, or is appropriate to the seriousness of the gospel message.

ASSESSMENT OF CONTENT
I had not heard Tony Campolo before, but given the high regard in which he is held by many, I eagerly looked forward to the occasion.

Tony opened his talk with the illustration of students who come with questions to their teacher, hoping to trip him up, and expressed his own experience with this and his particular joy in demolishing the pride of Oxford and Cambridge graduates. This was the somewhat dubious lead-in to the confrontation of Jesus with the scribes described in Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, and Luke 10:25-37. Tony quoted the two commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength" and "Love thy neighbour as thyself". He said that Jesus said that this was all that God required of us. However, there was no mention that it was impossible for sinful man to attain this standard. Within a few sentences Tony had distorted the second commandment to preach that in order to love your neighbour you first have to love yourself and that one of the things that Jesus came to do was to deliver us from self-hatred.

We are to love our neighbours as Christ would have loved them if he were in our place, but in order to do this we have to stop treating other people in an "I-it" relationship and establish an "I-thou" relationship. This can only be done by reaching down inside people and making contact with "Christ in them". To back up these claims, Tony quoted the Jewish mystic Martin Buber, a Taoist story, and grossly distorted Scripture, taking it completely out of context. [Compare with Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:2, "not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully".]

The first Scripture was "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12a), and the second was "The eye is the lamp of the body" (Matthew 6:22a, Luke 11:34a). Tony took the first part of the first quotation and said this was an example of an "I-it" relationship, when one looked only on the outside and saw another person "through a glass darkly". This was treating another person as an object, a thing. He then said we had to reach down into the other person through the "window of his soul that is the eye" and make contact with Christ in the heart of the other person. This was seeing "face to face", the "I-thou" relationship.

He then came to give some illustrations of love that were spiritually outrageously disgusting, and I only repeat them to aid in discerning the true nature of the spirit that was speaking through this man.

The first illustration was Tony's confrontation with "the duck woman". She was a smelly, ugly, schizophrenic woman who lived on his university campus. This woman walked around the campus carrying her possessions in a bag and she had acquired her name because she constantly quacked like a duck. The picture was graphic to the point that a spiritually discerning person should have recognised a woman possessed by at least one demon.

One day, Tony was waiting at the traffic lights after finishing lectures, when this woman came alongside him. He turned, and their eyes made contact. He "reached down through her eyes into the depths of her being", making contact with "Christ within" her, while aware that at the same time she was doing the same to him. The effect of this was so dramatic, that the woman stopped quacking and said to him "It's a lovely day. It's a lovely day, isn't...?". Before she finished her sentence the lights changed and somebody shoved her. She fell over, and when she got up she was again quacking like a duck. Tony used this as an illustration of loving your neighbour.

During this part of his address he made a diversion to attack the Baptists Union of Scotland's attitude to the use of women in the ministry and expressed his blatantly feminist views.

The second illustration happened to a Lutheran pastor and concerned a member of his church who was widowed and lived on his own. The man was untidy and unwashed, and he used to disturb people in the church when he would sit next them. Every Sunday he would came in late and choose someone different to sit next to. One day he didn't appear, but phoned the pastor during the week requesting a visit. The pastor went round and offered to pray with him and give him communion. The man refused communion, but requested prayer. Every week the pastor visited this man, each time doing something for him - tiding up, doing the garden and so on.

One day when the pastor appeared, the old man was sitting naked in a chair. This was described as the most ugly sight the pastor had ever seen. The old man then requested communion, which he apparently received. The next day when the pastor appeared, there was no reply to the door. The pastor went in and found the old man lying naked on the floor, having had a stroke. He called an ambulance, and proceeded to wash this filthy man. The man was admitted to hospital, and having given him some water, and kissed him, the pastor went home. The pastor began to realize that he had been seduced by the old man, and truly loved him. Shortly thereafter he received a phone call to say the old man had died. The pastor put his head in his hands and wailed and cried like he had never cried in his life before. Tony himself got all choked up with emotion at this point. This was given as another illustration of perfect love. No mention was made of sin, nor of God's judgement on those who abuse the Lord's Table.

Tony also made mention of his work in Haiti, and in the streets of Philadelphia. He invited members of the audience to come and help in this task.

At one point he also attacked theological students who he said, had a great knowledge of exegesis, but were unable to preach on the true nature of love. It was very obvious from his address that he places no weight on sound exegesis at all.

Tony closed his address by calling for people to surrender their lives to Christ, to Christian service, and many made a commitment. But to which Christ?

At no point was there any mention of the way of salvation, God's condemnation of sin, God's love for the sinner illustrated by Jesus death on the cross in our place, that by His blood we may be redeemed [Cf. "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27), "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God" (Romans 11:22)]. There was no mention of the true nature of sin, only the concept of the "dark side" of human nature. It was implied that one man could enter into the heart of another through the eyes, but Scripture teaches that God says "I am the one who searches the heart" (Proverbs 17:3, Jeremiah 11:20, 17:10, 20:12, Romans 8:27, Revelation 2:23 amongst others). 1 Samuel 16:7b contrasts what God does with what man does, "For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart", and it is God alone! - "for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men" (1 Kings 8:39b). The Christ presented was not the Christ of the Bible, but rather the mystical, New Age "Christ within each one of us". We were presented with an idea of love and methods of putting that in to practice which can find no justification in Scripture.

CONCLUSION
There is absolutely no doubt at all in my heart, that the spirit that was speaking through Tony on this night was not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of antichrist - (the substitute Christ - 'anti' in Greek means "in the place of"). We need to turn to God with fasting and repentance for having invited this spirit in to our midst and condoning his message. We are especially guilty because we have refused to heed God's warnings, amply provided through literature and seminars on the New Age Movement, warning Christians of what is happening.

In Zechariah 7:12-13, we read, "Yea, they made their hearts as an adament stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts." We have angered God very much. But, thanks be to God, we have gracious and merciful heavenly father. We need to repent and seek his forgiveness with fasting and prayer. We need to pray and ensure that Tony Campolo never returns to Scotland, except he come preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to counsel every person who made a commitment to bring them to repent of this commitment and to make a new commitment to the true Jesus Christ of the Scriptures. We need to make a commitment to expose the works of darkness wherever we find them. We need to plead with God, that in His great mercy, God may fulfil the promise in His Word to us that the elect will not be deceived (Matthew 24:24-25) and that we may never be so deceived again.

A PRAYER
O Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us, all members of the Baptist Union of Scotland for inviting Tony Campolo to Scotland to preach to us and our young people. Have mercy on us, miserable sinners. Restore us to fellowship with you. We pray, to the Glory of your Name, that the works of darkness be exposed to your children, that we may not make the same mistake again. We pray that Tony Campolo may never return to this land of Scotland, except he come preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. O Father in Heaven, we pray that you may be merciful to Tony and show him the great deception in which he is involved and lead him in the true way of salvation. We would remember all our brothers and sisters in Christ, and ask that you protect us all from the damage that the enemy can do. O Lord, you have revealed in your Word that false Christs and false prophets would come in the Last Days - "to deceive even the elect - IF THAT WERE POSSIBLE" and we would humbly plead with you, that in your Grace, you will uphold your Word and protect your elect from these mighty deceptions of these Last Days. Forgive us our poor knowledge of Your Word, and help us to find the time and make the effort to get to know you better, that we may be able to discern the false Christs that are presented to us, even though they are clothed in light. Thank you Father for your great love for us. Thank you for all your provision for us. Thank you that we can present this prayer to the Throne of Grace, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.