Reflections on the Death of John Shelby Spong (Hank Unplugged Short)

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2021

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, reflects on the teachings and recent death of John Shelby Spong, who for many decades influenced a great number of people within the Episcopal Church. Spong was well known for rejecting essential doctrines of the historic Christian faith, including the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, Virgin Birth, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But consider the words of St. Paul, who asked, “If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you [like Bishop Spong] say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised [as Bishop Spong preached], your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:12–20 NIV).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Hank Kahnagraph, President of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible
0:17.3	Inserman broadcast with another Hank unplug short. This morning I read in our local
0:24.9	newspaper the story of John Shelby Spong, who died September 12 at his home in Richmond, Virginia.
0:37.3	I don't know how many of you know who John Shelby Spong is,
0:43.7	but he was one of the most well-known Episcopalians.
0:48.8	He served as Bishop of Newark,
0:51.4	and he was the spiritual father of more than 40,000 New Jersey Episcopalians.
1:01.2	He's well known for a lot of things. He denied the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the resurrection
1:08.1	of Jesus Christ, denied miracles. But he was roundly lauded. I mean, he was
1:17.6	loved and lauded. But in particular for, quote unquote, holding onto the kernel and sweeping away the husk.
1:31.4	And in his last speech, I watched the whole thing.
1:39.8	In fact, I watched it this morning when I read about his death.
1:44.3	I did not know that he had died a few days ago.
1:48.4	But in his last speech, it was, oh, maybe half hour and then another 40 minutes for questions.
1:58.2	He railed against the creeds of Christianity,
2:04.1	particularly against the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the Trinity.
2:10.9	Because for Spong, Jesus was thoroughly human.
2:19.0	To suppose he was God is, from his perspective, to trivialize Jesus as sort of a Clark Kent figure, you know, suddenly becoming Superman.
2:35.5	He... you know, suddenly becoming Superman. He spoke about never asking God for mercy.
2:42.7	He spoke about the reality of Darwin's Tree of Life,
2:48.3	the idea of everything arising from a single cell to present consciousness.
2:57.8	He didn't, of course, talk at all about how Darwin's tree of life was uprooted by the
	...

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