Hamilton’s theology draws scrutiny in Kansas Senate race

Kansas Democratic Senate nominee Adam Hamilton is facing renewed criticism from Christians over his teachings on salvation, biblical authority and sexual ethics. The spotlight comes as Hamilton entered the race for US Sentate in Kansas and old sermons resurfacing that apparently show the Methodist pastor contradicting central tenets of the Christian faith.

While Metro Voice has reported on campaign finance issues, the latest dispute centers on a 2022 sermon in which Hamilton, senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection, said Muslims, Hindus, and others who never profess any faith in Jesus can still enter heaven.

“My hunch is there’s going to be a whole lot of people you’d be surprised are going to be in Heaven because of the grace of God,” Hamilton said.

He predicted people of other faiths would encounter Christ after death and say, “Ah, it was you all along that I was searching for.”

Pastor Kelly Lohrke, founder of The Cure Church Network in Kansas City, Kan. was so taken aback that he published an open letter to the state’s Christians. Hamilton’s semi-universalism weakens the necessity of personal faith in Christ. Lohrke writes that “faith in Jesus Christ alone is necessary for salvation.” Lohrke views the Hamilton controversy as a pastoral-accountability issue,. His argument is that Hamilton’s position carries added weight because Hamilton leads a large Kansas church and presents himself publicly as a Christian minister.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the sermon “heretical” and cited John 14:6, where Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through him.

“Why do Democrats keep nominating ‘preachers’ who reject the central tenets of Christianity?” Cruz wrote on X. “This heretical ‘sermon’ directly contradicts the Bible.”

Hamilton’s campaign told The Christian Post that he was teaching “inclusivism, not universalism.” A spokesman said Hamilton does not believe everyone will be saved or that all religions are equally true. Instead, Hamilton believes God may apply Christ’s atonement to people who sincerely sought God without understanding that they needed to call upon Jesus.

Evangelical critics say that explanation does not answer the biblical objections.

The Lausanne Covenant, an influential statement of global evangelical belief, says salvation requires a personal response of “repentance and faith” in Christ. It rejects the claim that everyone will be saved or that other religions offer salvation through Christ.

Joshua Arnold, a senior writer for the Family Research Council’s Washington Stand, said Hamilton did not finish Paul’s message to the pagan Athenians in Acts 17. Paul acknowledged their religious searching but then declared that God commands “all people everywhere to repent” and has appointed Christ to judge the world.

Hamilton’s teaching about the Bible has brought additional criticism. In another 2022 sermon, he rejected biblical inerrancy and said he could identify “hundreds” of errors in Scripture.

“In Luke’s gospel, Jesus ascends to heaven from the Mount of Olives by Jerusalem,” Hamilton said. “In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus ascends to heaven from Galilee. They can’t both be right. So one of them is wrong.”

But there’s a problem with Hamilton’s scriptural knowledge. Matthew does not actually describe the ascension. Its final chapter records Jesus meeting his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and giving them the Great Commission. Acts says Christ appeared to his followers for 40 days before ascending near Jerusalem, allowing time for both events.

Hamilton has called Jesus “the only inerrant word of God.” He says the Bible is inspired, authoritative and essential to Christian faith but also contains cultural assumptions and inconsistencies introduced by its human authors.

That view differs from the National Association of Evangelicals’ statement that the Bible is “the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” The Lausanne Covenant describes Scripture as truthful and “without error in all that it affirms.”

Many Christians disagree over how inerrancy should be applied to poetry and other literary forms. Hamilton’s assertion that the Bible contains hundreds of mistakes is on the extreme.

His views on the inerrancy of Scripture also shape his support for abortion, same-sex marriage and the ordination of clergy in same-sex relationships. Hamilton has written that biblical prohibitions against homosexuality reflect ancient and misguided cultural understandings.

During a 2015 panel hosted by the LGBTQ-affirming Reformation Project, Hamilton asked how much “latitude” Christians have to challenge Scripture and “where can we say, you know, here I think Paul’s wrong?”

“That has implications for how I read the passages of Scripture that are often applied to same gender relationships,” Hamilton said.

The National Association of Evangelicals defines marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman. The Lausanne Movement’s 2024 Seoul Statement describes same-sex sexual conduct as contrary to God’s design while calling churches to show compassion and provide pastoral care.

Hamilton’s campaign may have opened up a can of worms as previously forgotten or buried sermons come to light. For critics, they show Hamilton has strayed from Christianity, and it could have a negative impact on some Christian voters only now learning about him through his US Senate race.

–Alan Goforth