Facing the Canon with Tom Wright

[@danielbarr8348]

Tom is the English grandpa we all wanted.

[@Getmelolly]

Such a blessing! He's the reason why I'm at Seminary ...

[@krisztinabicskey681]

Thank you for sharing, and introducing this wonderful gift of a man to my life! I never heard of him before, but I cannot hear enough of him from now on. May God bless your lives richly.

[@billybagbom]

Please do yourself a great favor and read everything by Wright that you can get your hands on.

[@pro70z28]

I find myself agreeing with Wright on about every point he makes. I would however still recommend reading other sources & weighting them all, with the heaviest weight being reading the Bible itself. And even the Bible, I read various versions and study the differences in translation, to get the most accurate meaning of the original writers. That is, as far as I can comprehend, the Bible is a life long study. I would imagine if asked, Wright would recommend that also. Any teacher worth his salt will tell his students to do their research & look for themselves if what is being taught is true. Anyone who reads the Bible once or even several times and thinks they have a handle on it just has no clue of the scope of the Bible. If you read the Bible, all you will get are stories, if you STUDY the Bible you will see one story beginning with Genesis all the way through to The Revelation. And to those that speak of errors in the Bible.... They never point out specific errors, just that they know them to exist. When in fact they do not. They can pull text from context to feebly try to make a point, but that does not prove a thing. I can say coal is white, I may even be able to trick a few people into believing coal is white, but that does not make it so. God put everything in it's place. Saying he didn't or that he somehow got it wrong is just arrogance.

[@billybagbom]

gary spear If you really want to grapple with a challenging view of Scripture that stands opposed to what you and I would believe, let me suggest "The Human Faces of God" by Thom Stark. I didn't find myself convinced by his overall argument, but I think unless we are willing to seriously interact with critiques like Stark's, we leave ourselves open to accusations of obscurantism. Stark's book raises legitimate questions that need to be answered by theologically conservative scholars, and he takes Wright to task on certain exegetical issues. I just wish Wright would respond to Stark's work, but I wonder whether Wright even knows he exists.

[@mil.gan4mil.gan431]

yes, absolutely. I was born abroad and God make me come to England only to hear him :)

[@CaliforniaForever]

I've listened to a lot of Tom Wright interviews, but this one helps me know the heart of the man like none I've seen. Thank you! Wonderful job.

[@ays5696]

I love Wright's final wisdom: what the Church needs to be doing now in face of all the challenges facing her is more prayer. When he visited churches which had a unique working and presence of Jesus, he would eventually find that there were 2,3,4 persons who had been quietly & favorably praying for the church - often for many years. Yes, N.T. Wright is indeed a gift to the Church of Jesus Christ. Thanks to all those who post his teachings & lectures on KZbin so this little woman in Nevada, USA, can learn from his hand.

[@maureenmuggleton5145]

So well worth listening to Tom Wright !

[@aychkay3534]

What a delight this was!

[@daneumurian5466]

54:30: "So let him cleanse and fill you now; For his hand, you be the glove, 'Cause Everything He Touches Turns to Love."

[@sandracoombs2255]

Wonderful talk. Thank you.

[@seacliff31]

Tthanx you tom for your perseverence and love of the God and His people.

[@sahar9824]

Interview is Full of wisdom ! Brilliant

[@seankennedy4284]

Wonderful interview. Thanks so much!

[@dallasmckinley]

This was a wonderful interaction. Beautiful.

[@Apriluser]

Wonderful!

[@johnstewart7025]

In the darkness, we can hang onto the cross. Very well said.

[@bloui1033]

gotta love that jazzy charlie brown piano at the beginning

[@anap1840]

I'm only at 20 minutes and I feel like he is asking every single question I've been asking and struggling with for the past 10 years.... 😅😯

[@djb5255]

In my humble but accurate opinion. Tastefully spoken.

[@nagaseminarian]

insightful and interesting interview...

[@jayd4ever]

very nice great channel to learn about Christianity from great Christians

[@LogosTheos]

Yup.

[@lbderr3740]

Isn’t that sudden change in meaning of words he refers to what happened with the word baptism when it was transliterated from the Greek for the King James Bible so it no longer was viewed as immersion as it was originally viewed in the Greek?

[@johngregory9504]

Tom..question: what of Jesus when answering the disciples' question, "when will these things be?".in part, Christ's answer is "when the fig tree blossoms again" speaks of Israel the land?

[@kennoble9456]

Pastorally, Wright’s theology is not just intellectually dangerous for God’s sheep, it’s detrimental to their spiritual health and assurance.

[@PaulTaborovskyYT]

Like this!!

[@fastteddyb]

Its not about lifting up the hands - it means raise up HOLY hands. Think of the challenge for us all like this: don't raise unholy hands.

[@MortenBendiksen]

Seems to me the way to interpreting scripture, is to constantly be thinking about context. At least NT, where most of the content is in the form of letters addressing specific situation in specific places by a guy who probably didn't expect those letters to some day actually be considered scripture, much less read by every single Christian. Forgetting who it is addressed to, their customs, their language, etc, leads to all kinds of strange takes. Most people seem to read it as if every sentence in isolation is directly addressed to them personally, in the context of their current life, culture, way of thinking and language. That's quite absurd.

[@thespiritofhegel3487]

So, notice he says you don't need to read the New Testament in Greek .. and you do need to read it in Greek when it gets awkward.

[@daneumurian5466]

Regarding 45:12 ff., I've written "ExodAllO’Us": " This land is ours; it is not mine to hoard, Entrusted to me by the LORD. My name is Abraham; God promised me the land That in me all nations of the earth be blessed...." PM me for the rest.

[@daneumurian5466]

1:05:00: "Wait without hope": When I'm depressed, I wait like a water skier in the smoky air and polluted water, holding onto the tow bar. When the pilot of the tow boat knows I'm ready, he guns the engine, and I'm walking on water.

[@1974jrod]

The way we know scripture is God breathed is via prophecy. He tells the end from the beginning.

[@truethinker221]

2 Tim; 3,16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; If the is (which is in italics KJV) was not there It would simply say ( All Scripture given by inspiration and profitable ect. Some use the verse to say all scripture is inspired by God.As opposed to all God breathed (scripture) is to be used. If we view it as all scripture "is" how could we have determined the canon?

[@hjkelley4744]

"inspired by God" - literal translation - "breathed out by God" or "God-breathed". The ESV Bible reads: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." We understand from this verse that God either told the Bible writers what to say, or use their language, their minds and their experiences to birth His infallable Word. So we can agree that God did, indeed, inspire. Thank God He has given us His Word to fully profit His people by bringing them into the knowledge of the truth.

[@truethinker221]

All God breathed writings{Scripture} are profitable for teaching ,for reproof, for training in righteousness.. The word Scripture already means God Breathed. There were many writings that people claimed were scripture. The true test is whether the words are God breathed. Breath is implicating the Holy Spirit. People mistranslate this verse when they use it to prove every word in the bible is infallible scripture. It is only infallible when the same Holy Spirit that inspired the writing reveals the meaning. 2 Timothy could not be talking about the New Testament because it was not assembled yet. and if 2 Timothy 3;16 was understood to mean all Scripture {anything claiming divine inspiration, they never could have assembled a canonical set of books, or had a criteria to establish authorship.

[@hjkelley4744]

Reminds me of Paul asking for his books and parchments to be brought to him in prison. When asking for his books, this is referring to the papyrus scrolls of OT books. and the parchments could be referring to some letters which Paul had written, or could have been some parchment for writting letters. We know that Paul wrote several epistles from prison (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians & Philemon). So we understand that when Paul said "all" that incorporates even the OT (theopneustos, lit.God-breathed,) Word of God. I love where we read in 1 Cor. 10:11: "Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction..." Therefore, these scriptures (or writings if you will) become good for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness., for as 'God breathes' the meaning/understanding, it brings inspiration for our spiritual enrichment and edification; that we might become conformed into the image of Christ.....May the Holy Spirit continue to inspire all of God's people to walk in love & unity.

[@truethinker221]

HJKelley47 My question or critique is; Since the word Scripture means God breathed, it would be redundant to understand the reading as all scripture is God breathed because that would mean the literal writing would be: All God breathed writings are God breathing writings, Scripture already being understood by the writer as God breathed. The reason this concerns me is people claim this scripture is proof that every word in the Bible is infallible or inerrant, so when someone finds an error they reject the whole thing. When a student of Historical Criticism learns the Gospels, for instance, have apposing accounts and must admit they must take into account various social conditions of the writer it is often a major conflict of faith. Many reject all forms of systematic theology because it is a threat to this preconceive notion of infallibility causing them to remain ignorant, or just stop reading the bible without even realizing why. When they hear a theologian like Dr. Wright they reject everything he (they) say based on this defense mechanism; perpetuating ignorance and destroying the creditable of there witness, especially to the rejected ex-Christians that work diligently to destroy all religion such as Bart Ehrman.

[@kymdickman8910]

@@truethinker221 Oops! I’m not sure about that. To my way of thinking, it is the following: ‘Scripture’ means ‘written texts’. ‘Inspired’ means ‘in breathed’. Now, since breath = spirit, it is taken to mean that the Spirit of God spoke these words out and men of God, moved by the indwelling Spirit of God, heard them intuitively, and wrote them down for our benefit and edification.

[@imageinkdesign]

Re: why does God allow bad things.. has to do with free will. He reminds us that were He not to intervene (ultimately) -NO flesh would be saved. We would actually destroy ourselves...If He were to intervene with free will now, Satan’s accusation that we only serve God when it benefits us, would be raised.

[@pjclutterbuck230473]

I usually like everything that Prof Wright has to say, and most of this video is no exception. However, his words on marriage towards the end of this session seem to fly in the face of Wright's long history of transforming how we read Scripture. If Wright is so insistent on a binary understanding of gender, what does he have to say about eunuchs (asexual, genderqueer, nonbinary people), as both Isaiah 56:3-5 and Jesus in Matthew 19 affirm?

[@bmide1110]

Eunuchs are males. Jesus affirms their faith but he doesn't establish them as a different gender.

[@PeterGarofalo]

there will be no marriage in heaven , Jesus said , we shall be like the angels. Peter, James & John all recognised Moses & Elijah at the transfiguration. But.. the guys on Emmaus road didn't at first recognise Jesus after resurrection , nor did Mary at first. ?

[@annchovey2089]

But Peter James and John recognized Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration of Jesus. The Bible also states that in Heaven we will be known as we are known on earth.

[@DAsiebert]

dispensational premillennialism history @ 45:00

[@annchovey2089]

Glad he brought that to light.

[@billybagbom]

Regarding the resurrection of the body: "Continuity of form, discontinuity of matter." Sounds a bit Thomistic, doesn't it?

[@gregsharpe5272]

He didn’t really answer the question about God doing whatever he wants, prayer notwithstanding. NTW says it’s all about what it is to be a human. The facilitator was getting at the nature of God as omniscient and omnipotent. If God is omniscient and omnipotent…sovereign in every way…why would prayer matter except in so far as we are to cultivate a relationship for which we’re designed? Is it possible that God chooses to limit the extent to which He is sovereign by creating free moral beings who can scuttle God’s will and intentions by choosing what they will? God took a risk by creating us as He did.

[@johnstewart7025]

We have to choose to seek God to be helped by him. Why? I do not know, buy the help is real, as are the various practices to get closer to the power.

[@TheDisqualifiedPreacher]

The question about who you will "see in Heaven" COMPLETELY misses the point!!! IN THE PRESENCE OF YAHWEH THERE IS FULLNESS OF JOY!!!! Psalm 16:11. You will NOT want, miss, desire, look for ANYTHING or ANYONE if you make it into His presence!!!

[@kimyong7031]

NT could be wrong when he said we can recognise one another when we are in heaven. The disciples could not recognise Jesus resurrected body, physical yet could passed through locked doors in the upper room. Therecus no pain, no tears , no marriages. We are no longer in hunan form.

[@kymdickman8910]

Kim, I think the difficulty in recognising Jesus in His resurrected body was that He had been tortured and disfigured by that torture the last time they had seen him. His beard had been plucked out… that by itself changes one’s appearance hugely. Also, they were not expecting to see Him again… He was recognised by His voice, for Mary, and when He broke the bread for sad and confused Cleopas and his companion… their dispirited state of mind when He joined them on the road to Emmaus probably accounts for their downcast eyes. Luke (24:16) simply explained: But their eyes were kept [κρατέω (krateō)*] from recognizing Him. * held in check, restrained So, they did recognise Him… eventually 😆

[@choicemeatrandy6572]

They recognized that it was Him during the miraculous fish catch at the end of John.

[@kymdickman8910]

@@choicemeatrandy6572 Certainly… and that one was a follow-on from His initial appearances inside a locked room. John (21:1) introduces the account with these words: After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and He revealed Himself in this way.

[@annchovey2089]

Peter James and John recognized Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration of Jesus. The Bible says we will be known as we are known on earth. 15:04

[@kennoble9456]

A Perfect example of a learned man becoming a fool, it is often said a little knowledge is dangerous, but a lot of biblical knowledge is even more dangerous a total educated spiritual fool.

[@jessebourneau6426]

Gobsmacked, dang.

[@thespiritofhegel3487]

Freeing slaves is a secular value.

[@mil.gan4mil.gan431]

Thanks as well CBN England because i thought they are money-making machine till i saw this program on it

[@alexandermichael117]

Has he ever preached on the streets of the UK? With his intellect and fine speech,it looks like he just enjoys the seminars,and public praise with all his learning as a theologian,which in my book,proves nothing,has he ever lead any soul to Christ? I would be very surprised if he has,not one one one,anyway,but maybe sitting there,and gassing maybe.

[@joshpeterson1999]

You certainly aren't looking like a good example of Christ with this comment...

[@alexandermichael117]

By their fruits I know them,you too.

[@joshpeterson1999]

@@alexandermichael117 so do you think that Wright's speech (and yours and mine too) are not fruits that can have an influence?

[@alexandermichael117]

It's not words that really matter,but the power.

[@johnwhite4991]

@Alexander Michael: If you watch enough of his KZbin videos and read the comments you will find quite a few people who credit Tom Wright for their coming to faith. One doesn't have to be "on the streets," at a missionary event, or whatever - there are many ways to preach the Gospel and bring people to the knowledge of Christ. Knowledgeable teachers, such as Tom Wright, are a gift of Christ to the Body (Ephesians 4:11) and are badly needed today, as always. His teaching brought me back into the fold after years of dissatisfaction with the American church and its alignment with the far right and the prevalence of dispensationalism within it.

[@flematicoreformandose5046]

The scripture is the vehicle that makes testimony of God and indeed of his will to the mankind. The scripture not is the Word of the Lord becouse the Word is Jesus and is God,but books don't be God.So the scripture is only a tool,a vehicle to gives testimony of God.

[@bmide1110]

Jesus himself calls Scripture the Word of God over and over again. Jesus is the Word of God, and so is Scripture, but in different senses. Jesus is called the Word of God only three times in the Bible. Scripture is called the word of God over 200 times.

[@garysweeten5196]

The new body, IMO, like the resurrected Jesus only more so.

[@richardjohnson-j3b]

they both look like they would not be adverse to giving some private spiritual lessons a la pillavacci to some fit young troubled men specially John who sounds like he is a double for kenneth williams

[@Cousinsjay]

A man of one Book that he really doesn't know who it was written by.

[@ianm8383]

05:00; in contrast to NT Wright, I also have a very sharp and vivid memory from around the age of seven about God - that the 'story' I was being told was ludicrous and couldn't possibly be true. And in the following decades there hasn't been anything, in the slightest, that has given me any cause to reconsider. There has never been a shred of proof, ever, for anything supernatural in this world.

[@PhourQ]

There is much evidence, your problem is that you won't accept it. I suspect if you exclude the supernatural from your worldview, then you can't hope to allow science to "prove" that assumption wrong, since science only measures that in the closed (non-supernatural) system. But your claim that there just is no evidence is wrong, and, frankly, ignorant.

[@ianm8383]

PhourQ . Happy to put my money where my mouth is - and give you all my money, and work for free for you for the rest of my life, if you can prove anything supernatural. You've got lots to go at; gods (any you like!), fairies, angels, ghosts, devils, leprechauns, elves, trolls, mermaids, unicorns, Green Man, vampires, etc, etc, - or any other invention of your imagination you want to run by me. Go on give me a laugh! You've got nothing to loose, it's a free bet. But there is one thing you have already lost - your common sense! How's that for ignorance?

[@PhourQ]

Ian M Thank you for dispelling any doubt of your ignorance with your last post. Your attempt to trivialize the discussion by appealing to unicorns and fairies shows either your abysmal misunderstanding of the issue, or more probably, just a rejection of the truth because you can't handle it emotionally. I would favor the latter because you managed to navigate to this particular video in order to get your "point" across? But to answer your loaded question, do some research on the origin of the universe, the fine tuning of the initial conditions to allow life, and the facts surrounding the resurrection of Christ. You can start there, though I don't think you are fact-seeking, but are acting out your own emotional disappointments in God or of religion.

[@ianm8383]

PhourQ . It's not a trivialisation - there is as much proof for unicorns or fairies as there is for God. But not in your mind; hence my offer to you - which still stands, Mr Supernatural.

[@ianm8383]

Paul Vossus Religobabble.

[@redmotherfive]

Hmmmm. He skipped over the part that says, "I do not allow a woman to teach or have authority over a man; instead she is to be silent."

[@JamesBoer]

redmotherfive He does from 25:00 ish to 30:00 ish. Especially after 29:00.

[@Wyeuca]

redmotherfive Listen again, he covers that in great depth, actually.

[@barbaradixon996]

J. John I honestly pray you hold true to what you’ve believed and what you’ve believed the Bible to say about when we die and wake up with new bodies and meet Jesus on a cloud in the sky. Remember, our God is a jealous God. I don’t believe it’s going to be old home week when we get to heaven. Even though I have no doctorates, I believe we will have recollection of a remembrance. That is I believe as close as we get to our others. I’d love to know what you think. But I honestly do not believe what Tom Wright says about Biblical accounts especially written by the Apostle Paul!

[@Cousinsjay]

It's amazing that tom has put himself in god's shoes and tells us what god meant. He is a great example of someone who has come up with his conclusion and then spends his entire life finding facts that support that position, You would think that if there is a god he would have made it clearer . That's probably why we have over 4500 religions all who claim to know god

[@billspear1920]

Yes, God should have made it clearer, presumably in the Queen’s English.

[@matthewstokes1608]

God makes it perfectly clear (meaning clear enough) to those who choose to be saved... Sorry if you are too thick to know what you've been told (so perfectly) by Him already. You need to wake up and stop being such a slob... It's so blatantly clear to millions of us who don't need to resort to sniping at those who get it. You need faith to make the grade - you need love for Him - meaning CHRIST - selfless love - love for your neighbour and even your enemies... You need to learn to be law abiding, kind and happy to see the beauty of the miracle of nature you've been gifted every day - and know that the best of life is eternal - because this is not yet heaven, quite obviously, as we're not worthy... we are failures - sinners... It's not rocket science - it's already known by most children and artists. You have been told all this for YEARS and still you're too dumb to think of anything but your own vanity... Wake up - for heaven's sake.

[@annchovey2089]

If God made it easy we would balk that it was too simple. As Jesus said “We played the flute and you didn’t dance, we sang a dirge and you didn’t mourn.” No matter who God uses, those looking for excuses will always say it’s too easy or it’s too hard. Excuses are a dime a dozen.

[@thebitplanes8188]

Slave-freeing god? I thought this was a Christian talk show!

[@andrewscollick]

Were not the people of Israel slaves in Egypt before God's great follower Moses led them to freedom from Pharaoh's bondage?

[@rosewhite---]

Wright is a babbler.

[@gnarddawg7606]

More rationalization of suffering and justification for giving up agency. If there is a God I hope he's disappointed in us.

[@sedeslav]

Such a smart man...and excellent english speaker. It is pitty that he waisted his great intelect on rubish like theology.

[@hunts7626]

sedeslav you just enlisted a prayer warrior in me my friend. I will pray that rubbish becomes your treasure as it has become mine. God bless you

[@annebnorman7412]

Amen!

[@kennoble9456]

A Perfect example of a learned man becoming a fool, it is often said a little knowledge is dangerous, but a lot of biblical knowledge is even more dangerous a total educated spiritual fool.