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Limits of

Written by Bart Campolo

A few years ago, after being politely asked to depart early from yet another speaking engagement for giving the wrong answer to a question about
the limits of Gods mercy, I decided it wasnt fair to keep sneaking up on
unsuspecting Evangelicals.
trange as it seems to me, I know all too well that to proclaim a God
compassionate enough to seek the rescue of every one of his childrenand powerful enough to pull it offis a dangerous scandal to
such folks. In a very real way, they dont even hope for universal salvation. After all, without the fear of their unsaved loved ones eternal
damnation, how would they motivate one another for outreach and missionary
service?
And yet, almost everywhere I go, I meet peopleespecially young people
who are not motivated at all by such fear. On the contrary, these people are
utterly horrified by the notion of a Heavenly Father who essentially says to his
children, I love you, but if for any reason you fail to accept that fact before your
mortal body expires, I will kill and torture you for all eternity. Especially if that
same Heavenly Father holds in hand all the reasons the children do or dont accept in the first place.
These are the people who ask me the questions that used to lead to my early
departures, and who write me letters and emails like this one:

S
September/October 2006

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Dear Bart,
This might be kind of weird, but I have a question for you.
I lived and worked among the poor with Mission Year in
the inner-city of Atlanta last year. When you came to visit
my team, you told a story about how when you first started
working in rough neighborhoods, you got to know a girl who
was gang-raped as a nine-year-old andafter her Sunday
School teacher told her God must have allowed it for a reasonrejected God forever. Because you believed God was
indeed in control, and because you believed that girls lack
of faith doomed her to eternal damnation, you decided that
God must be a cruel bastard. You sort of said the words
inside my head out loud, words I had wanted to say for a
long time.
Anyway, after putting this off for almost a year, I want to
know how you reconciled that. How did you make it from,
God is a cruel bastard back to I can trust him? I cant
seem to make that leap. Sometimes I begin to really trust
him, but as soon as I think about my past abuse and those
I know and love who are bound for Hell, it just doesnt add
up. I want to know the God you knowwho apparently allows for horrible things in this world to happen, yet remains
pure and holy and trustworthy and faithful and loving.
I dont know if any of this makes sense to you, but as
I was wrestling with it again today I was reminded of you
and hoped you might be of some help.
Sarah
Dear Sarah,
Thank you for writing to me. Over the past few
years, I have become convinced that yours is actually the single most important question in the
world. As Rabbi Harold Kushner observes, Virtually every meaningful conversation Ive had with
people about God has either started with that
question or gotten around to it before long. While
I am sure my answer will not be as eloquent as his,
I will do my best.
First of all, while I certainly believe my most
cherished ideas about God are supported by the
Bible (what Christian says otherwise?), I must admit they did not originate there. On the contrary,
most of these ideas were formed during that difficult time I described to you, when I was suddenly
disillusioned by the suffering and injustice I discovered in the inner-cityI suddenly did not trust the
Bible at all. At that point, for the first time, I realized that peoples lives dont depend on whether or
not they believe in God, but rather on what kind
of God they believe in. I also realized, for better or
worse, that the only evidence I could rely on was
that which I saw for myself.
What I saw then, and still see now, is a world
filled with dazzling goodness and horrific evil, love
and hate, beauty and ugliness, life and death. In
September/October 2006

the face of such clear dualities, it seemed to me then,

and still seems to me now, that there are but a handful
of spiritual possibilities:

------------* There are no spiritual

forces. The material uniWhile I certainly
verse is all. Our lives bear
believe my most
no larger meaning, and
those who hope for more
cherished ideas
hope in vain. In this case,
about God are
considering that nineyear-old rape victim, I
supported by the
despair.
Bible, I must
* There is only one spiritual force at work in the
admit they did not
universe, encompassing
originate there.
both good and evil. This
world is precisely as this
------------force wills it to be, and
everythingincluding the rapes of children
happens according to its plan. In this case, again,
I despair.
* There are two diametrically opposing spiritual forces
at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving
and the other entirely evil. Satan (or whatever one
chooses to call that evil force) is most powerful and
therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering
of that poor little girl is but a foretaste of the complete suffering that is to come for us all. In this case, of
course, I despair.
* T here are two opposing spiritual forces at work in
the universe, one entirely good and loving and the
other entirely evil. God (or whatever one chooses to
call that good and loving force) is most powerful and
therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering
of that poor little girlevils doingwill somehow be
redeemed, and she herself will be healed as part of
the complete redemption and absolute healing that is
to come for all of us. In this caseand in this case
aloneI rejoice and gladly pledge my allegiance to
this good and loving God.
I cannot prove or disprove any of these possibilities,
of course, based on the evidence of my experience.
What I know with certainty, however, is the one that
makes me want to go on living, the one I choose for
my own sake, the one I deem worthy of my allegiance.
I may be wrong in this matter, but I am not in doubt.
If indeed faith is being sure of what we hope for, then
truly I am a man of faith, for I absolutely know what I
hope to be true: that God is completely good, entirely
loving, and perfectly forgiving, that God is doing everything possible to overcome evil (which is evidently
a long and difficult task), and that God will utterly
triumph in the end, despite any and all indications to
the contrary.

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This is my first article of faith. I required no
Bible to determine it, andhonestlyI will either
interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse
that suggests otherwise.
This first article of faith was the starting point of
my journey back to Jesus, and it remains the foundation of my faith. I came to trust the Bible again,
of course, but only because it so clearly bears witness to the God of love I had already chosen to believe in.
I especially follow the teachings of Jesus
because those teachingsand his life, death, and
resurrectionseem to me the best expression of
the ultimate truth of God, which we Christians call
grace. Indeed, these days I trust Jesus even when I
dont understand him, because I have become so
convinced that he knows what hes talking about,
that he is who he says he is, and that he alone fully
grasps that which I can only hope is true.
Unfortunately for me, God may be very different from what I hope, in which case I may be in
big trouble come Judgment Day. Perhaps, as many
believe, the truth is that God created and predestined some people for salvation and others for
damnation, according to Gods will. Perhaps such
caprice only seems unloving to us because we dont
understand. Perhaps, as many believe, all who die
without confessing Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior go to Hell to suffer forever. Most important
of all, perhaps Gods sovereignty is such that although God could indeed prevent little girls from
being raped, God is no less just or merciful when
they are raped, and those children and we who love
them should uncritically give God our thanks and
praise in any case.
My response is simple: I refuse to believe any of
that. For me to do otherwise would be to despair.
Some might say I would be wise to swallow my
misgivings about such stuff, remain orthodox, and
thereby secure my place with God in eternity. But
that is precisely my point: If those things are true,
then God might as well send me to Hell. For better
or worse,
I simply am not interested in any God
but a completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly forgiving One who is powerful enough to utterly
triumph over evil. Such a God may not exist, but I
will die seeking such a God, and I will pledge my
allegiance to no other possibility because, quite
frankly, anything less is not worthy of my worship.
Please, dont get me wrong. I am well aware that
I dont get to decide who God is. What I do get to
decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegience.
I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for
my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship
any God who is not at least as compassionate as
I am. If Mahatma Gandhi and my young friend
September/October 2006

who got gang-raped are going to Hell because they failed

to believe the right stuff, then I suppose I am too, for the
same reason.
John Calvinor Jerry Falwell for that mattermay
well be right after all, but if
------------they are I would rather cling
to my glorious hope than ac- I am well aware
cept their bitter truth just to
that I dont get to
save my own skin.
You can figure out the rest. I decide who God
dont hate God because I dont
is. What I do get
believe God is fully in control
of this world yet. Heck, God to decide, howis not fully in control of me
ever, is to whom
yet, even when I want God to
beso how could I possibly I pledge my albelieve that God is making
legience.
all the bad stuff happen out
there in the streets? I dont ------------hate God because I believe
God is always doing the best God can within the limits of
human freedom, which even God cannot escape.
On that last point, consider for a moment the essential
relationship between human freedom and love, and then
consider the essential identity between love and God. If
God is love and made us for love in Gods image, then
God had no choice but to make us free, to leave us free,
and to win us over to his Kingdom as free agents (which,
evidently, is a long and difficult task). So God did, I believe, and so God will.
I dont hate God because, although I suppose God knows
everything that can be known at any given point in time,
I dont suppose God knows or controls everything that is
going to happen. I also dont hate God because in more
than 20 years on the street, I have seen too much of evil
(and too much of my own, moving-in-the-right-directionbut-still-pretty-doggone-sinful nature). I dont hate God
because it seems to me that this world is a battleground
between good and evil, not a puppet show with just one
person pulling all the strings. I dont hate God because the
God I have chosen to believe in isnt hateable, and because
I refuse to believe in the kind of God that is.
Now here is the good news: I may be entirely wrong, but
even in my darkest hours, my God of love hasnt stopped
speaking to me. On the contrary, I hear Gods voice in
places I never did before, always saying the same things,
one way or another: I am with you. Im sorry about all
the pain. It hurts me, too, especially when my little ones
suffer. I have always loved you, and I always will. Do the
best you can, but dont worry. Everything will be all right
in the end. Trust me.
And I do. And I hope you will, too, sooner than later.
Your friend,
Bart
Of course, to believe in God the way I do is to change all
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the rules of ministryespecially of youth ministry. I
still do my best to convince young people to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and
------------Savior, but not because Im
afraid God will damn them I may not be sure
to Hell if they dont. On the
of what I know
contrary, I want the kids I
love to follow Jesus because anymore, but I am
I genuinely believe following
absolutely certain
Jesus is the best kind of life.
Eternity aside, I want them of what I hope
to be transformed by the
for, and most of
Gospel right here and right
now, for their sakes and for the time I manthe sakes of all the lost and
age to live in that
broken people out there who
need them to start living as direction
Jesus disciples. After all, the
sooner we all start following ------------Jesus by feeding the poor and
freeing the oppressed, the sooner Gods will shall be
done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Most of all, however, I evangelize people because,
having discovered that they are the beloved children
of my beloved God, I dont want them to suffer one
minute longer than they have to without knowing that
most wonderful fact of life.

September/October 2006

And I stay in the inner city, in spite of all the suffering and injustice I see here every day, because
I can. No longer do I blame God for what is beyond
his control or hate God for so much pain his little ones
endure. Even in the midst of such ugliness, I can stay
here because I am full of faith. I may not be sure of
what I know anymore, but I am absolutely certain of
what I hope for, and most of the time I manage to live
in that direction.
I stay here for one more reason, of course: In places
like this, nobody asks you to leave early because you
cant find the limits of Gods grace. z

Bart Campolo is the founder and chaplain

of Mission Year, a national Christian
service program recruiting young adults
to join outreach teams that live and work
in inner-city neighborhoods in partnership with strong local churches. He is a
part of the Urban Youth Ministry Institute,
a Staley Foundation lecturer, a national
representative of Compassion International,
and a recognized leader in Christian social
action. Hes also the author of many books
and articles, including Kingdomworks: True
Stories about God and His People in InnerCity America (Servant Publications).

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