My attention was drawn last week to an interview with Bishop John Spong on the ABC "Compass" program on Sunday, 8 July. I did not see the program, but I have since downloaded the transcript from the internet and read it with considerable interest.

Bishop Spong was formerly bishop of the Episcopalian (Anglican) Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. He has visited Australia several times before, but has been banned from speaking in Anglican churches in Brisbane and Sydney because of his radical theological views.

In the interview, Bishop Spong described himself as a Christian and "a God intoxicated human being". However, he also sees himself as "a child of the 21st century" and, therefore, sees a necessity to reject many of the traditional teachings of the Christian faith, such as the virgin birth and physical resurrection of Jesus, the supernatural miracles of Jesus and the idea of Jesus' death as a ransom for our sin.

According to the Bishop, who seems to be a very intelligent, articulate and well-read man, our modern understanding of the laws of the physical universe and the evolutionary development of life mean that sucha a literal understanding of the Bible is inconceivable. He says, "I find it difficult to stretch my mind outside the capacities of my world view."

Although he grew up in an evangelical fundamentalist Anglican church, where the Bible was taken literally, Bishop Spong has rejected most of his early foundations, except his faith in God. He now believes that the Gospels are the creation of various Jewish Christian minds over many decades, and cannot be taken as a literal account of Jesus' words and works. Because the Bible was written in the context of a very different life style from what we have today he does not find it a reliable guide for issues that the 21st century people are wrestling with today.

Bishop Spong's goal is to present the Christian message, "to sing the Lord's song", in a way that is acceptable to those who live in the 21st century. While this is a laudable objective, one must seriously ask whether, when the main melody and much of the lyrics have been changed, it is still the Lord's song? Bishop Spong has attracted a lot of interest among those outside the church, which, he says, is the audience he is seeking. His message resonates with those with a 21st century world view, much in the same way that Bishop John Robinson achieved world fame in the early 60's when his book "Honest to God" rejected the idea of a transcendent God "out there". However, if we reinterpret our faith to fit in to the prevailing world view, are we really doing a service to either?

From the very beginning, the Biblical writings challenged the prevailing world view of our time. The Bible's account of creation is extraordinarily different from other accounts in ancient mythology. The call of Abraham and his descendants to the worship of a single God was in sharp contrast to the prevailing polytheism of the time. The strict moral and religious code given to Moses at Mt Sinai set the Israelites apart form all other peoples. As the Bible story unfolds it is a continuing record of God's struggle to keep his people from being caught up in the world belief and practices of the surrounding peoples.

So too, in the New Testament, the ministry of Jesus and the apostles challenged both the Jewish and Gentile world views of the time. This is seen, for example, in Jesus' teaching in the Beatitudes, and in his teaching about his coming death, which was so strongly rejected by Peter. It is this conflict of the Christian gospel with the prevailing world views, that prompts Paul to say: "We preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." (1 Cor. 1:23) The Christian gospel grew in the first century after Christ, not because it accommodated to the world view of the time, but because it met people's need with a radical new power that transformed them, and their world view!

A major fault with Bishop Spong is that he is a self-confessed prisoner of the 21st century world view. He has allowed his thinking to be governed by scientific theories that are themselves in a a process of change. Newton's laws are no longer seen to be the complete definition of the physical universe. Darwinian Evolution is no longer tenable in its original form. The growing fascination with the paranormal, even in some scientific circles, is evidence of the recognition that we still do now have the full picture of the world in which we live.

But, above all, is the fact that the message of Jesus' death as a sacrifice for our sin, his resurrection from the dead, and his gift of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is still transforming lives around the world! The gospel that Bishop Spong rejects is still "the power of God for salvation" for many who know the reality of their bondage to sin. And the Bible is still the one sure guide for Christian faith and morality in a world that is morally bankrupt.