John Spong was a Bishop all his life !!! He has seen the true light !!! It's a great awakening !!! I am Hindu and I love to listen to John Shelby Spong. What an enlightened being !!!
Wow, just wow. We were so lucky to have Bishop Spong. And I am so glad I can listen to him on RU-vid. I hope for many more to follow in his footsteps. Many may nit realuse how deeply rooted in bible scholarship he is. Its just wonderful to hear someone being honest about the bible, and interpreting it as one would hope in the 21century. And makes it look easy! Why have we not looked at it like this before?!
'Jesus didn't come to make us religious, he didn't come to make us moral and righteous either. Moral and righteous people know a great deal about judgement but almost nothing about love...' Mind. Blown... There's no show like a spong show.
Absolutely an outstanding homily for the age in which we live, a truly refreshing understanding. The Christian faith needs more leader's such as Dr. John Shelby Spong.
ezekial 3:17.....do you know whom the original people of the land of the crest you have....Rember Scotland means Land of Blacks you need to smack your history teacher
thats kennedy family crest....before their was kennedy their was McKennedy Mac Kennedy the etymology of these names the origin is Scotland....thats another cut
No. It's Irish. From O' Cinneide. There are Scottish Kennedys, but the name originated in Ireland and was Anglicized to O' Kennedy and then just Kennedy.
Kevin Lopez Agree 100% No understanding that we have a God not only of mercy and grace but also wrath and punishment against sin. God has no tolerance for sin which Bishop Spong chooses to conveniently ignore. Check out his debate with Dr. James White. In regards to the Amarites and Egyptians, they had sinned without remorse or repentance which he fails to mention. Some of the Egyptians did in fact repent and were spared in the flood. He selectively cherry picks scripture that supports his heretical revisionism especially his view on sodomy being accptable.
Kevin Lopez Carl Sagan had a much better lexicon and understanding of the universe.(And cool turtlenecks) Spong describes the star that the wise men saw as a pendulum God made to wave in the heavens that conflicts with modern science. He overlooked the fact that we have a supernatural God that can do anything.
sonoran rain Firstly, if you want others to read your comments, at least have the courtesy to use paragraphs. I almost always do not read all of it when I see this, such as in this instance. There is a reason we use them when writing. Secondly, no, my username does not "say it all". It says that I am "godless", which means that I lack a belief in a god. It says nothing about any of my personal values or political stances. Thirdly, why the fuck do you care what I watch on RU-vid? I happen to like Bishop Spong.
sauniz1 he is not a Christian he is a liberal who just happens to believe in bible or parts of it same with mormons,Jenovah witnesses,unitarians they are not Christians
+Baji Scipio Dārayav Aurelius “Hemu Rawal Domitian” Julian Venizelos Nalwa who are you to say who is or isn't a christian? Spong knows a hundred times more about his religion than you do. if he says he's christian, he is.
+sauniz1 He is not a Christian. He sounds like a Chistian and yet he tries to demolish Christian Orthodoxy. He denies that Jesus is God and the Creator of the Universe. He reinterprets the virgin birth of Jesus. He makes you believe that the Bible is not a trustworthy book. He denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He denies Hell and the Judgement of God. He promotes his own gospel. He knows a lot about Christianity than you do. That is why he has led you astray far from the real Jesus of the Bible.
Thank goodness for the amazing understanding, and ability of Bishop Spong to reveal that the scriptures are really of human construct, and not some supernatural being in the sky.
Bishop spong was a great person and human being we need more people like him I stumbled upon him accidentally in a video on tik tok and I love the way he explained his beliefs which to me make sense!I have also recently bought a couple of his books and can’t wait to read them!
I admire bishop spung, When he realised the truth he hadn't blown the skeptic trumpet, But instead sought to give understanding to those who wishes to do so. "LOVE YOU BISHOP"!
Now this was truly a man of God! Most so called "apologists" just dance around the "creeds" defending what they say is the only "truth" wanting to keep God in a box that was determined by clerics in the early centuries. When I was in that box and first heard of Bishop Spong, he was just dismissed as a heretic by those in that same echo chamber. Thank God, I've had my own awakening. Thank you Jack Spong!
Jewish prophets overcame tribalism during the axial age. Dr. Spong illustrates this beautifully in his survey of the progression from the exclusivism of Exodus and Joshua to the universalism of Hosea, Jonah, Amos, and Malachai. Contemporary Jews, Christians, and Muslims who still insist that only their faith is authentic have no excuse for their revival of the tribal religious outlook of the pre-axial age. Fundamentalism can only be maintained by ignorance. If you are a fundamentalist, please get help, get educated. As a former fundamentalist I can only thank God the truth set me free at last. ( I mean that metaphorically)
God bless you my beloved. the moment I want through my comment I saw a revelation concerning you, your family and things around you. my dear, I saw God favour, success, joy, breakthrough. behind that I saw more spiritual attacks, from the enemies working on holding such blessings, causing your set back, but you are lefted above any spiritual tower. so the Lord is instructing you to sow a seed of faith into to a motherless babies home.(orphanage) this is going to be a covenant seed between you and God. the Lord ask me to tell you before the end of,3 three days, you should try as much as possible to sow the seed the into godstime motherless babies home (orphanage) located in somewhere in Nigeria to bring spiritual and divine breakthrough in your life and that of your family because there is power in sowing of seed contact the (orphanage) home management or you can also WhatsApp them on this numbers,+2348025125218 if you are through with this let me know, so I will give you guide line on how you should pray God bless you.....
WillyWill76 what are you talking about? I don't believe in a Lord's word. The concept of revelatory word sounds nonsensical to me. I am Canadian and Nigerian
I have watched Bishop Spong's videos for a while now. and on so many of them, people say he is destroying he christian faith.. But let me say if there would have been priests like him when I was small. Than I might not have joined the occult in which I have been a member of for over 32 years. he makes since without the dogma and that is what draws people from that philosophy and is killing the church.. as a candidates commercial would say I am an occultist and I approve of this message. bring more like him into the fold and the numbers of the church will rise i guarantee it..
"bring more like him into the fold and the numbers of the church will rise" I doubt it because Spong teaches you to be brave; whereas, the televangelists teach to ignore reality and to be afraid. People look for security and comfort; thus, they do not grow up. I learned to face the reality of God by face and become one with it. The world causes you suffering, but suffering makes you grow up. The right way is difficult, but the wrong way is easy and wide. (Jeremiah 18)
I myself am a Deist. Whatever the arguements may be between different Christians I still would not trust the gospels completely. None of the gospels were written by Jesus or his disciples. Only half the letters of Paul were written by Paul and he was not original. He also teaches a very different Jesus. The earliest Christians were strictly Jewish. They also believed the end and the final judgement will happen very soon. They also thought in fact that Jesus will return in their generation. Obviously this did not happen and never will. Much of the things in religion has been disproved by honest scientists with wonderful and inquisitive minds. This is why religion changes,adapts and re-adjusts! Otherwise we will be stuck in first century thinking believing in a literal 3 teered 6 thousand year old universe. We know this and original sin is simply not true. Evidence is staggering that we and life on this planet evolved over billions of years.
So fascinating. Nothing has helped me understand the Bible more. Anyone know where I can look for a more expansive account of the views expressed by Spong here? Has he written any essays or books to the same effect? i.e. the notion of the evolution from tribal to universal God
I would really like to make this material available in Spanish. It would be very useful for many people. How can I write Spanish subtitles on this video?
sponge’s ideas have been so helpful to me. atheism makes sense but doesn’t quite fit with what i feel to be true about the universe. this just clicks for me. as a historian ive tracked ideas of god throughout time and what he says is so spot on with all my studies. i think his vision of god is where humanity is headed and in 200 years if we’re still around, he’ll be regarded as a man before his time. :)
contrary to what is said here, the reason the prophet jonah was disobedient at first was because he knew God was going to be merciful towards the people. If you read the book, you will see.
Can I ask what the afterlife consists of in this system? Do you still have memories, relationships, personalities, sexualities, ect.? I'm trying to wrap my head around this concept.
Ye old Prophet of Death-preaching his Gospel of No Hope in that unmistakable slave owner accent right up until the very end. And still, even to this day… the most eloquent, angry and bitter heathen I’ve ever listened to.
He deliberately missed the rest of the verse out where God ordered the people to ''kill the Amaleketes and kill every woman who's known a man by lying with him but to keep all the virgins for themselves as plunder.'' Interesting that, don't ya think? As for God ''changing'' as he said, how do you explain the verse where it says ''God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow;;?
You've missed the point. Bishop Spong views the authors of the different books of the Bible as giving their views on God. As we meditate on that, we can think where did they get it right? Where did they get It wrong? As with all society, we can see how the Hebrew people initially claim God just for themselves. We see genocide that is not of God, but people claim it so. Or most likely, it never happened, but part of a 'foundation myth'. But the important message we can glean, more in some places than others and culminating in the story of Jesus, is the love of God. We can also look at the teaching of Paul, and think... where did he get It right? Where did he get It wrong. God is love, however we may understand'God'. Do listen again if you can. Blessings and Peace.
The Bishop seems to be preaching to a Christian congregation.. He is certainly interesting, but what is the message he tries to leave with the people? He leaves them with confusion, skepticism, questions about faith and more questions...
Yes, some may be confused and have questions but this is what faith is all about: trying to understand better the ways of God. And how do you do that if nobody is going to challenge you, provoking you to find the answers to your questions and help you that way to grow and become stronger?
Human beings need questions, not answers. Answers to what? This is the path, discover the truth through the wondering, which is a thing that people not even do, they just...accept and live surrounded by lies.
He is rather a ignostic panentheist. I recognize that we have spiritual needs (existential questions, meaning, and path in life). We do not need supernatural claims, but a pratical way to travel through the "mind of God" or the universe.
According to Micah 6:6-8: God only really cares about 3 things, justice, mercy and walking humbly before him. The word mercy is translated as kindness according to the new american standard translators. Now the Amalekites didn't let the jews go through their land without a fight. They didn't want to do them any harm at all. But, yet the Amalekites showed no compassion. The ten commandments are all about no harm, like no stealing etc. But their are compassion commandments like if your enemy's ox falls in the pit, help him. Feed and clothe people. The Egyptians showed no compassion, Joseph helped them become rich, and the Egyptians returned the favour by slavery, and it get worse. And then their's walking humbly before him which means giving proper respect. So those three things, whenever anyone has missed them, where they missed it becomes the highlight.
That is part of his ministry. To get people to THINK not be like shepple. Another sage once said to question EVERYTHING. The Bible say to study to show thyself as holy and acceptable It is an interesting experience to study other religions and see what we hold in common and what we believe differently
God bless you my beloved. the moment I want through my comment I saw a revelation concerning you, your family and things around you. my dear, I saw God favour, success, joy, breakthrough. behind that I saw more spiritual attacks, from the enemies working on holding such blessings, causing your set back, but you are lefted above any spiritual tower. so the Lord is instructing you to sow a seed of faith into to a motherless babies home.(orphanage) this is going to be a covenant seed between you and God. the Lord ask me to tell you before the end of,3 three days, you should try as much as possible to sow the seed the into godstime motherless babies home (orphanage) located in somewhere in Nigeria to bring spiritual and divine breakthrough in your life and that of your family because there is power in sowing of seed contact the (orphanage) home management or you can also WhatsApp them on this numbers,+2348025125218 if you are through with this let me know, so I will give you guide line on how you should pray God bless you.
"An ecclesiastical Warren Buffet"?! This is an example of what troubles me about Bishop Spong's Christianity: a complete absence of Christ's social gospel and of its repudiation of the kind of individualism that results in any human being becoming a Warren Buffet, i.e. an obscenely wealthy oligarch. That a Christian can take a man who's amassed immense personal wealth by taking advantage of a system which subsists on the most ruthless exploitation of others as a model rather than as an example of what in the Biblical idiom is called abominable tells us that something of the essence of Christ's message is missing from what Spong propounds. Having watched many of his videos here -- this is not to be found in the books by him that I've read -- I have to conclude that what's missing is related to and is a reflection of Spong's ethnic, religious, and class prejudices, of which he's completely unconscious. Thus, as a modern, liberal, American Christian, mentioning the crusades, for example, he berates "Christians" for having hated Muslims -- he could be an MSNBC media personality in that, such is a Christianity that still takes itself so arrogantly as "the" Christianity that it entirely forgets that what it hated in the crusades were other Christians, the Orthodox, who were indeed being invaded and put to the sword by the Muslims the good Bishop Spong wants us to now feel guilty any Christians tried to stop and defend Christendom from. The prejudices his version of Christianity is rife with don't stop at such failure to acknowledge its literally homicidal, plundering aggression against Eastern Christians, no. What sort of an American Christian takes pride, as Spong does, in having a daughter who took part in the invasion of Iraq, in serving the interests of a handful of corporations and of the American Empire, at the expense of an entire Middle Eastern country and its people? A Christianity that is incapable of realizing the evil at the heart of that project and of speaking out against it -- one that in full self-blindness takes pride in doing such things and extols its children for participating in them -- is one I cannot see Christ identifying with or seeing himself in. Something very important is missing here. I voice this critique as someone who appreciates and supports much of what Spong and his colleagues are doing to bring about a necessary reform of the Christianities we have inherited from the past 2000 years of human history..
Trying really hard to have an open mind and listen but what about the fact the Jews were slaves to Egyptians. What’s wrong with being rescued out of the hands of your tormentors?
"the prophets were not people predicting the future. The prophets were people discerning a new understanding of God". What a sly way to say scripture isn't true. Yuk. I hear hissssssing in his vocabulary.
"Bishops" are ordained in order to pass down and preserve the Teachings from the Apostles and their disciples. To the disgrace of Spong and his proverbial choir, they stand in the midst of creating a "new religion." The Apostolic Fathers in disciplic succession have answers to all the "propositions" made in this video...but when a people arrogantly considers itself more intelligent and educated than those who founded the religion, then there is no way to reason with them. Patribus enim credo quia Scripturae Credo. Why Spong wears the purple of a Church that claims "Apostolic Succession" is beyond reason.
