Does the gospel actually free us or does eternity and law finally condemn us

Quip about Bart in his youth and pornography

This entire video is well worth watching as Youth Specialties interviews Tony and Bart Campolo about their book about their dialogue together as father and son over Bart’s de-conversion.

When father and son really start getting into the debate about 2/3rds of the way in there comes the question of eternity. Does imagining there is no eternity liberate us, so says Bart, or does it make this present age meaningless?

It’s very interesting that Bart’s experiential illustration he appeals to is porn. Guilt over the eternal consequences of porn as a Christian he implies pushed him to disbelieving in eternity.

https://youtu.be/p4heKWpUWnU?t=34m22s 

This is fascinating because the assumption is, of course, that this was the unforgivable sin, or at least the unmasterable sin.

It reminds me of the old joke about the Christian college chaplain talking to the newly minted skeptic. The skeptic says “I just don’t believe anymore” and the chaplain says “when did you start having sex with your girlfriend?”

This of course touches on how many debates. Dreher and the Benedict option says SSM is the dividing line. It’s the abdication of traditional Christian sexuality that causes the house to collapse. The progressives increasingly say “we won’t police sexuality”. The charge against Tony Campolo (who rather recently embraced SSM but insufficiently for some https://paulvanderklay.me/2015/06/08/tony-campolo-moves-to-the-affirming-camp/) gets hit with the charge that waffling on this is a gateway drug to full deconversion. https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Bart-Campolo-says-progressive-Christians-turn-into-atheists.-Maybe-he-s-right