Books I'm Reading

I'm reading Tony Campolo's Letters to a Young Evangelical. Favorite quote so far:

I once heard a story from a young English evangelist. He told me about the day Charlie Peace, a well-known criminal in London, was hanged -- February 25, 1879. The Anglican Church, which had a ceremony for nearly everything, even had a ceremony for hangings. So, when Charlie Peace was marched to the gallows, a priest walked behind him and read these words from a prayer book: 'Those who die without Christ experience Hell, which is the pain of forever dying without the release which death itself can bring."

When these chilling words were read, Charlie Peace stopped in his tracks, turned to the priest, and shouted in his face, "Do you believe that? Do you believe that?"

The priest, taken aback by this sudden verbal assault, stammered for amoment and then said, "Well... I ... suppose I do."

"Well, I don't," said Charlie. "But if I did, I'd get down on my hands and knees and crawl all over Great Britain, even if it were paved with pieces of broken glass, if I could just rescue one person from what you just told me."

I like that quote. It's a necessary corrective to the glibness with which many Christians speak of eternal damnation. Campolo goes on to say:

If we Evangelicals really believe what we say about the eternal damnation of unsaved souls, how can we sleep at night?... But imagine the consequences of giving up our belief that those who die without Christ are eternally lost.

He doesn't answer the question. At least he hasn't yet. I'll be interested to see if he comes back to it later in the book. Seems pretty crucial. No pun intended.