Tony Compolo has become an Open Theist, even if he doesn’t use the term. Here is part of his reaction to the reaction to Katrina:

But when the Bible tells us about the grace of God, it is giving us the good news that our loving God does not give us what we truly deserve. Certainly, God would not create suffering for innocent people, who were–for the most part–Katrina’s victims.

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. Instead, the Hebrew Bible contends that God is mighty. That means that God is a greater force in the universe than all the other forces combined.

Notice the irrationality of it. God is not omnipotent, but he is mighty and greater than all other forces combined. Then there is nothing that can thwart God’s purposes, since he is mightier than all other forces combined. That is the definition of omnipotence! Also, he said “God does not give us what we truly deserve” and in the next sentence says “God would not create suffering for innocent people.” Hey, if they’re innocent AND they suffered, then God truly did not give them what they deserve! They deserve blessings and peace but they got a hurricane.

God is omnipotent whether the word is used in the Old Testament or not. You cannot really read Job 38-41 and not recognize that God is claiming himself to be omnipotent.

Personally, I contend that the best thing for us to do in the aftermath of Katrina is to remain silent, and not try to explain this tragedy. Instead of asking “Why?” we should be asking, “What does God want us to do now?” The loving God calls all believers in the face of Katrina’s devastation to seek ways to express love in concrete ways towards those who have lost friends and family members; and to those who have lost homes along with most of their earthly belongings.

But this is not at odds with confessing with the Bible that God is omnipotent and brings all these things about! If we tell them that God is not powerful over storms how can we assure them? What hope are they given if God could not stop the next storm that comes along? How are they comforted if they feel that we are at the mercy of blind and uncaring nature instead of under the caring protection of God? Yes he judges. But as I’ve said elsewhere, the point of Katrina is not to judge, but to call all of us to repentance. America is no better than any other nation. This isn’t a chance to rail against cultural acceptance of homosexuality or abortion or smutty television, it is a chance to call individuals to repentance and faith.

Tony Campolo has just stuck his finger in the eye of any evangelical attempting to do that. He has sided with the God-belittelers and denied the God of the Bible which is in Hebrew and Greek. Tony Campolo has embraced heresy and has departed from the faith. I hope that those in the Emergent Church who have warmed to him will now reject him as well.

Tony, repent of your sin and confess your error. Recant this scandalous things that you have said against God. Repent or a storm far worse than Katrina will fall upon you at the end when Christ judges the hearts of all. Repent Tony, repent.

For a stark contrast to how to handle this, take a look at John Piper’s response to the same kind of nonsense.

I just received a CD from Monergism Books with over 655 MB of John Piper lecturing on Calvinism. It will take a while to listen to it all and I can’t wait to get started!!

Monergism is offering the CD for free and only $5 shipping. I ordered DA Carson’s The Cross and Christian Ministry and Michael Williams’ Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption which were on sale and the shipping covers it all. Why did I buy two more books, this term is reading intensive and I have a backlog from last summer that I didn’t get to??!! I must be addicted, but at least I am addicted to books on sale. :)

Bethlehem Baptist Church is proposing a change to their constitution to admit for membership those who have been baptized as infants and believe that their baptism was valid. This does not mean that BBC will begin baptizing infants or change their position on baptism. It does seek to allow the conscience of an individual dictate whether their baptism was valid or not.

BBC will continue to teach and preach believers?-only baptism. If a person who was baptized as an infant and believes that baptism was valid is willing to
submit to that preaching and teaching, they are welcome to be members.

From the announcement:

The central issue at stake is: How should we define the membership of the church? That is, what degree of biblical understanding and agreement should a person have in order to belong to a local church? Or to put it another way: Should the door to membership in the local church be roughly the same size as the door to the universal church? If so, what is the basic set of beliefs that a person should be willing to affirm? or at least not deny?in order to give good evidence that he is born again into the family of God and a follower of
Christ?

I support this change. I’m not a Baptist, though I am baptisitic in my view of the sacraments. What they?re saying is that a person must be baptized to be a member of the church. What they are changing is how they decide what a valid baptism is. They are not changing their definition of it but they are allowing for a persons’ convictions about infant baptism.

This makes sense to me. Good people have disagreed on this issue since the early 1600s (at least). I am well versed in both sides of the argument and recognize valid points for each camp. If I could not convince someone that my position is correct, and they are orthodox on every other point of doctrine, must I tell them that they cannot be a member of my church? I would rather err on the side of charity.

Others (here and here) disagree with Bethlehem on this. To my surprise, paedobaptists have been critical too.

This is my favorite coffee in the world. It is a bit expensive but it is so good. Get it while you can, it is a limited edition thingy. The beans come from “special” coffee berries. There are usually two beans in a berry but in about one out of seven there is only one. These are called “peaberry” and have a unique flavor. It is pretty mellow and has hints of chocolate. I used to get this variety with Gevalia when I used to have subscribe to them.

So what the heck do I think I can add to the discussion about the devastation of New Orleans? Am I going to defend God? Am I going to decry the sinfulness of the city? Am I going to whine about my gas prices? What can I say?

First, to gain some Biblical perspective on this, I would strongly recommend listening to John Piper’s NPR interview “God and Tsunamis” (4mb MP3).

Second, and this along the lines of what you’ll hear in Piper’s interview, I want to confess that America is a sinful nation. We are a nation that elevates sex and impossible standards of physical beauty to the pinnacle of existence. Nationally, we are more interested in “Sex in the City” than we are in God and our neighbor. We don’t hate God we ignore him. We’re indifferent about spiritual things and fill the void with voyeuristic television.

Third, we are not more civilized than anyone else. Humanity shares a fallen nature and we’ve seen this come out within four days of the hurricane through the looting, riots, rapes and gunfire in New Orleans. Chicago is no better than New Orleans, nor is Tulsa or Des Moines. All of America is four days away from chaos at the most. God has instituted civil authority to keep society in order and when he removes that civil authority, we get a glimpse of what we’re all capable of.

That is not to say that every single soul in New Orleans is being rotten. I read a story about a man leaving a Rite-Aid and feeling guilty. He showed the reporter that all he was carrying were essentials; pads for post-operative incontinence. “I’m a Christian. I feel bad going in there,” he said. Obviously, you have to do what you can to survive, but there are others who are going far beyond mere survival.

Forth, God was gracious in this act. In case you haven’t heard (unlikely) New Orleans sits largely below sea level. That is why dikes and levies are necessary to keep the city dry. They are also why the city is currently flooded. When the hurricane was headed toward New Orleans, it was a Category 5, the highest category. Also, it was heading straight for New Orleans. Just before landfall, it downgraded from category 5 to category 4 and it made a slight eastward turn. You’ve no doubt seen how bad the damage is regardless of these mitigating circumstances, imagine how bad it would have been if those two things had not happened. The sea would have been driven even harder before the storm and the flooding would have been far worse pouring over the dikes and levies and filling that “bowl” much higher. Once the storm hit the city the damage from those stronger winds would have been greater then it is.

What has happened to New Orleans is horrible, not doubt. It could have been an order of magnitude worse.

So in the end, this like the tsunami earlier is God’s call for us to wake up.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:1-5 (ESV)

Some mentioned that the tsunami struck mainly Muslim and Hindu nations. What are they saying now about Katrina?

Motley Fool thinks Apple (amongst others) would be a good candidate to buy Six Flags. I think that would be really cool, Apple and Pixar (Steve Jobs runs both companies) could team up and give Disney a real challenge. Can you imagine a Monsters, Inc. door ride and renaming Superman to Mr. Incredible? The water park could be reimaged to look like Finding Nemo and the children’s area could be made to look like Andy’s room from Toy Story. Course Steve is a Vegan so who knows what would happen to the food there, but it can only get better. The biggest improvement is that Apple would can Mr. Six and the end of “We Like to Party” being played every half an hour at the park! Man, if nothing else, that would be the greatest thing.

Seek not to grow in knowledge chiefly for the sake of applause, and to enable you to dispute with others; but seek it for the benefit of your souls, and in order to practice. If applause be your end, you will not be so likely to be led to the knowledge of the truth, but may justly, as often is the case of those who are proud of their knowledge, be led into error to your own perdition. This being your end, if you should obtain much rational knowledge, it would not be likely to be of any benefit to you, but would puff you up with pride: 1 Cor. 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up.”

Seek to God, that he would direct you, and bless you, in this pursuit after knowledge. This is the apostle’s direction, James 1:5: “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not.” God is the fountain of all divine knowledge. Prov. 2:6, “The Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” Labor to be sensible of your own blindness and ignorance, and your need of the help of God, lest you be led into error, instead of true knowledge. 1 Cor. 3:18, “If any man would be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” – Jonathan Edwards, Knowledge of Divine Truth

Last week I had the privilege of meeting Steve McCoy for coffee and a few hours of fellowship. I visit his website Reformissionary often and usually find great stuff and great discussion. What a neat young man! Guys like him strengthen my hope for the future of American Evangelicalism. Steve is a young pastor of a Southern Baptist church not far from where I live. He’s a fairly recent graduate of Southern and his pastor’s heart was evident.

We talked about current ministry and our future goals and plans. I think Steve has a gift of evangelism. He loves being around people and his demeanor is warm and inviting. You just like the guy. It was really cool having coffee with him. I was hoping Joe Thorn would be able to join us but he was busy that evening.