From Stand to Reason Blog: God Is a Person, We Are Persons — “Bishop” Shelby Spong, who denies virtually every important doctrine of Christianity while parading around in his collar to peddle his books, had this to say about knowing things about God:
I am not sure that the problem is that people throw around words [about God] so carelessly, but that the only words we humans have to use are human words, bound by time, space and human experience. Whatever God is, God is surely beyond the boundaries of human life. So the more specific we are about God, the less accurate we probably are. Let me repeat my favorite analogy. Horses cannot escape the boundaries of what it means to be a horse, nor can a horse view life from any other lens or perspective save that of a horse. Therefore a horse could never describe what it means to be human. In a similar manner, a human being cannot escape the boundaries or perspective of what it means to be human and therefore can never define or describe what it means to be God.
In addition to the critique noted at the blog, Spong also misses something rather obvious: If God wanted us to be able to know about him, then we would be able to know about him. Who set the boundaries? God himself. Is that really so complicated?
Spong is wrong, again. He and those who voice that objection are just displaying false humility. They sure write and talk a lot about God for people who claim we can’t know enough about him. People who make silly claims like his should be ignored. Why would you pay to read books by someone whose main point is that he doesn’t know what he is talking about?
If anyone at your church or elsewhere recommends Spong to you, do not listen to them. Have them watch this video for starters (Hat tip: JD):
As I’ve said before, I never understood why books sometimes need burning until I read Spong.
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Or, on rare occasion, their authors.
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Very good teaching Neil. I know I give grief to my conservative Christian brothers and sisters from time to time, BUT, the Liberal ones really leave me scratching my head often.
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I heartily agree!
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Spong … is that a type of poisonous fungus? 😉
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Spong is a fraud as William Lane Craig exposed in their head-to-head debate. It’s on youtube. Here’s the link…
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Thanks, I added that to the post!
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Spong was one of the first reasons I knew the Episcopal Church was apostate. How many decades has he been allowed to be a bishop and never defrocked? A church that allows that is not worthy of being called Christian.
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“…a human being cannot escape the boundaries or perspective of what it means to be human and therefore can never define or describe what it means to be God.”
Have there been that many people who have actually tried to define or describe what it means “to be God”? I’ve never heard this argument before.
Spong is clearly not a Christian and I can’t understand why he would bother trying to pass as one.
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