The Church has been taken over by those who do not follow the faith once for all delivered to the saints. One of its chief proponents has been a member of my clan, John (Jack) Shelby Spong. Well, it’s time to rise up, defend the truth of the Scriptures and uphold the family name.
Noted New Testament scholar and former Anglican Bishop of Durham, UK, N. T. Wright countered Spong’s attacks on the virgin birth.
Roman Catholic scholar, theological professor and Jesuit priest, Gerald O’Collins believes that Jack Spong’s work “does not belong to the world of international scholarship. No genuine scholar will be taken in by this book.”
Ninth President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Mohler, called Jack a heretic, because he is “a man who has denied virtually every major Christian doctrine.”
Methodist President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, Mark Tooley writes, “He is a spiritual gadabout who reaches far beyond his own denomination to try to coax Christians to abandon a Biblical faith and belief in the death and resurrection of Christ.”
Let’s try to avoid ad-hominem attacks, unless a person’s character is part of the problem. Instead, let’s recall the witnesses who wrote or were quoted in the Bible and examine their testimony. Let’s find out from those who were at the scene and see who we believe to be telling the truth.
Recognizing Counterfeits
For a time my wife worked at a bank. Her training about recognizing counterfeit currency focused mostly on knowing thoroughly what made up a genuine note. The more she knew about the legitimate item, the easier it would be for her to recognize any forgery.
So it is with the great variety of heresies and apostate teachings. It’s a waste of time going through the counterfeit Gospels that spew from the mouths of the many modern day prophets of Ba’al. It’s best to learn well what the Bible teaches. Thus, we will be able to recognize heresy of any kind, whether it be that of a wayward Bishop, a deceptive televangelist or a fraudulent cult leader down the street. Let’s allow Scripture to defend itself from fallacies of all kinds.
Some will accuse this as being circular reasoning to have the Scriptures defending the Scriptures. That would be true if the Scriptures were written by only one human witness, but the Bible is the inspired testimony of many dozens of witnesses, who give evidence to their own experiences and the authenticity and authority of each other’s statements. So, rather than fall for the erroneous accusation of circular reasoning, it would be a grave injustice to exclude the many eye witnesses and their testimony.
Scripture
The word Scripture comes from the Greek word ??af? (graphé) which just means “a writing” but in context of the Bible refers to holy Scripture or a section of Holy Scripture, most often the Old Testament and sometimes the New Testament.
God-Breathed
Where did the royal law, loving our neighbor, come from? Is it a modern, liberal idea, or did it come from the Holy Scriptures? We can’t, out of one side of our mouths, condemn Scripture as an irrelevant set of myths, and then pick and choose other parts that we like. In a discussion of rich and poor, James writes about the royal law.
If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. (James 2:8 NASB; Leviticus 19:18)
Is Scripture a menu or a complete package. What did Paul teach, that only certain parts of Scripture are inspired, or all of it? In writing to Timothy about his knowledge of Scripture since childhood, Paul writes of his high view of Scripture.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)
Here we see the concept that God was “breathing upon, or breathing into the soul” of someone the Scripture they were to write. The original Greek word is ?e?p?e?st?? (theopneustos) and literally means God-breathed or inspired by God.
In English, we often translate the Greek as inspired, which means breathed in, when the Greek is closer to expired. Our strange English colloquialisms give us a problem here, because we say expired for concepts like someone died. So, translators are forced to use the word inspired, even though technically, it’s the opposite of the Greek, colloquially, it is the same thing.
More accurate is the translation “God-breathed.” This breathing suggests a gentle process, but how does that work? King David recognized that the words he wrote were not entirely his own, but had a quality far beyond his mere human foibles.
These are the last words of David: “The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse, the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, the hero of Israel’s songs: The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.” (2 Samuel 23:1 NIV)
Here the Hebrew word ????? (neum) is translated as “inspired utterance” and can also mean in that context, a declaration, revelation, of a prophet in an ecstatic state. Upon being released from jail, after defying a ban on preaching Jesus, Peter and John prayed, and the church recognized that God had indeed spoken through David.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David’ (Acts 4:24-25 NIV)
Notice that GOD SPOKE, but through David. The written words of David originated in God’s mind. How does that work? Did God dictate the exact words? Such a dictation theory does not seem likely in most cases. Did David voluntarily yield to the will of God in those moments, yet still have his own personality come through? That seems to be closer to the truth as the following verse indicates. Peter wrote of his own experience witnessing Jesus’ majesty, and confirming how God inspired the Scripture to be written.
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV)
Notice that prophecy NEVER had its origin in human will. That’s a strong statement. It counteracts the lie that the Old Testament was just myth and legend, made up by superstitious people. The word translated here as “carried along” is f??? (pheró) and has the sense of being moved inwardly, or prompted. This prompting is neither dictation, nor turning people into robots, but infers the submissive will, personality and cooperation of the writer. Baalam described how he experienced the process.
The oracle of him who hears the words of God, And knows the knowledge of the Most High, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered. (Numbers 24:15-17 NASB)
If we don't believe the Bible is inspired by God, where do we go? Thankfully, we don't have to believe the world. God is faithful and has left us a faithful record to guide our way forward. More next time...
Wright, N.T. “Who was Jesus?” Great Britain: SPCK. 1992.
O’Collins, Gerald. "Review of Resurrection: Myth or Reality." London Tablet (30 April 1994), reprinted in Wel-Com (Sept. 1994). page 6.
Mohler, Jr. R. A. "Heresy in the Cathedral." The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 2020. (from albertmohler.com March 2020)
Tooley, Mark. "Retiring bishop continues to disparage key doctrines of Christian faith." Presbyterian News and Analysis. layman.org April 4, 2000
Cottrell, Jack. "The Faith Once For All: Bible Doctrine For Today." College Press Publishing Company, Inc. 2002. Kindle Edition.
