The Gospel According to Camp

Its not a particularly pleasant post, but some things have to be said.

To start with, I enjoy the music of Steve Camp. He had some great hits, “Don’t Tell Them Jesus Loves Them” (Until You’re Ready to Love them too), “The Gospel According to Jesus,” and “Revive Us, Oh Lord”. His music always had a prophetic edge to it. The danger with the prophetic gift, is that you can get driven to a point where pride takes root and you begin to render harsh judgments on fellow believers. I’ve been close at time. I don’t claim perfection on the matter. I’m a recovering self-righteous jerk and have to watch myself constantly and double check my posts to make sure I’m not crossing the line.

Having said, Camp has been crossing the line quite frequently with some of his comments on the Catholic Church. Well, not just on the Catholic Church, he’s pretty well critical of anything going on in the church to make an impact on our nation. On his sprawling website (apparently no one ever suggested that he might want to ARCHIVE his posts on a seperate page rather than having them scroll on for eternity) he says Pope John Paul II woke up in “perdition”:

Romansim has always propagated a gospel of Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism: works+faith, rather than faith alone; merit+grace, rather than grace alone

Romanism? That’s right out of the 1884 Presidential campaign. Of course, Camp does have one ally in this stance.

I see something patently absurd in Camp’s statement. If we are saved by faith alone, then if you have faith in Christ for your salvation, what does it matter if you believe that continuing in works of righteounsess is necessary to reaching heaven. For as scritpure tells us, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,”.

So, we’re to believe that the Pope, having put his faith in Christ and living a life, as best he saw in obedience to Christ shall then perish? To me, the thought seems to miss the point even of faith alone. Because what Camp is telling us is that faith alone wasn’s sufficient to save the Pope because despite his faith in Christ, the Pope didn’t believe in the same doctrine as Camp. If Faith in Christ alone is sufficient to save you then Catholics who have faith in Christ should be saved. The Gospel is simple:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.-Romans 10:9

Its not about passing Steve Camp’s, mine, or the Pope’s theology test, its about coming to faith in Christ as Lord and Savior of your life. That’s where its at. Camp is living in the 17th century, fighting an old argument. Honestly, I think that core of a lot of Reformed Arguments for “All Catholics Go to Hell” is the Catholic persecution of Protestants. Its thus an old grudge.

I would further suggest, extending to all churches that believe in the requirement of living a holy life the certainty of damnation. Start digging up articles on dead ministers from the Assembly of God , Church of God, Church of the Nazerence, and Mennonites, too. Aren’t they all doomed under Camp’s theology? Camp should tell us as he does seem to have the uncanny ability to know the eternal fate of people outside his particular movement.

Well, Camp escalated things with a so-called “parody” of the 12 days of Christmas:

On the twelfth day of Christ Mass my true Pope gave to me
Twelve dead saints you pray to, eleven gay-priests leaping, ten hail Mary’s, nine inquisitions, eight monks flagellating, seven extreme unctions, six monsignors swaying, FIVE GOLD RELICS, four anathemas, three feisty nuns, two indulgences and time off in purgatory

Yeah, that’s low. Particularly given the Vatican’s latest move on this issue. Of course, us Protestants NEVER have sex scandals. See here and here.

This isn’t to say I agree with everything the Catholic Church has to say. I don’t. However, the Bible tells us to “get the beam out of our own eye.” Its sad to see Camp so focused on bitterness and Catholic-bashing. He once really had something. These days, he preaches something different.

“The Gospel According to Camp”

Consider the cost of working with Catholics,
Its the Reformed way you must come,
For to do the will of the Father,
Is to bash the dead pope,
Will you hate them enough
To watch your culture die,
Will your hate them more
Than even your worst enemies,
To give all that you have
To attacking them
This is the Gospel According to Camp

Sad.