False Teacher, Tony Campolo, Hears Dreaded Words: "Depart From Me..."

Tony Campolo has breathed his last. On November 19, 2024, at the age of 89, the man who spent decades bending the gospel to the will of culture passed into eternity—an eternity that his teachings betrayed. On that day, Campolo heard those dreaded words from the Lord, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Yet, the eulogies will flood in from those who called him a trailblazer, a man of social justice, a compassionate voice for the marginalized. But no amount of flowery tributes can erase the reality of what his work truly accomplished, the erosion of biblical truth, the elevation of human desire above God’s law, and the leading of countless souls further away from Christ.

Campolo has now met the Judge whose Word he spent his life reshaping, and there is no clever rhetoric, no reinterpreted Scripture, no appeal to culture that can save him.

Deception was the hallmark of Campolo’s ministry, though it was dressed in the language of love and progress. His "Red Letter Christianity" movement, which sought to elevate the quoted “red-letter” words of Jesus above the rest of Scripture, was a subtle yet devastating assault on the unity of God’s Word. By slicing and dicing the Bible to create his own gospel, Campolo offered a version of Christianity that was easier to digest but utterly devoid of truth.

His teachings invited people to follow a false Jesus who wasn’t Lord over all but simply an advisor whose words could be selectively applied. And in 2015, when Campolo publicly endorsed same-sex marriage, he made it clear where his allegiance lay—not with the unchanging commands of God but with the ever-evolving moral impulses of the culture.

But Campolo’s descent into heresy is not a lone tragedy. He now stands alongside multitudes of others who exchanged the gospel of Christ for the applause of man. Sarah Young, the author of Jesus Calling, claimed divine revelations that added to God’s Word, leading many to trust her fictional “conversations” with Jesus over the Scriptures themselves. Her death in 2021 came after a life spent convincing her readers that God’s voice could be accessed apart from His revealed Word and through new-age spirit channeling—a deadly lie that continues to lead many astray.

Then there is Rachel Held Evans, the progressive voice who championed the LGBTQ movement, abortion, and every other cause that set itself against God’s design. Her life’s work was not to proclaim Christ but to undermine Him, twisting His teachings to fit a pagan script. Her sudden death in 2019 sealed her fate, a fate she had spent her life ensuring through her open rebellion against God’s truth.

And then there is Beni Johnson, the former co-pastor of Bethel Church and a leading voice in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Her false teachings turned the gospel into a sales pitch for physical health and miracles, twisting the promises of Scripture into a transactional relationship with God.