Heresy and Error, Part 1

10^th January 2025

last time, we thought about:

John 8v31-32
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

We saw that there is such a thing as the truth, and the true disciples of Jesus can know the truth.

Nevertheless, heresy and error have existed with the Church since the earliest days of Christianity, and have done great harm. They continue to do so. First, let’s distinguish between these two terms. The New Dictionary of Theology says that "Heresy denotes doctrinal deviation from the fundamental truths taught by Scripture and the orthodox Christian church, and active propagation of the same". It's important to note the word "fundamental" here. There are matters about which Christians can disagree without calling each other heretics. By "error" I mean that which is shown by Scripture to be false but which is not so fundamental as to be heresy.

Perhaps some examples would help. Heresies include Arianism, Modalism and Universalism. Arianism is the false doctrine that the Son was not the eternal Second Person of the Holy Trinity but was created by God the Father. Modalism is the false doctrine that God is not three Persons in one essence, but One Person who appears in three different ways. Universalism is the false teaching that every human will eventually be saved. I choose these three examples in the confident expectation that my readers will immediately know that they are indeed false.

Error includes false teaching about clerical vestments, baptism and church leadership. However, good Christian people disagree about each of these examples of error. Some believe church leaders should wear special clothes that mark them out as leaders. Some even call them "priests". Some Christians do not. Some believe that the wearing of "priestly" garments divided the body of Christ and is therefore harmful. Some good Christian people believe that the Christening of the infant child of believing parents can be considered to be Christian baptism. Some do not, and believe instead that only a believer can receive Christian baptism. Some, as I have already said, believe that church leaders are priests. Others believe in the "priesthood of all believers" and that leaders are priests no more than any other believers. Some Christians believe that women can be church elders, and some believe that they cannot.

I have beliefs about all these issues and many more. Holding any view requires us to believe that other views are errors, since truth is objective. However, I remain in good Christian fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ who take different views about all these areas. I would invite people who take different views from my own about such topics as baptism and church leadership to preach in my church, although I would ask them to choose to speak on topics about which we agree. I do not claim to be in Christian fellowship with heretics. I would never knowingly invite a heretic to speak.

One might think that God has given us sufficient revelation for us to avoid falling into heresy and error:

God has given us the Holy Bible. This is the written word of God. I have written elsewhere about its inerrancy and infallibility. In the pages of the Bible, God has taught us about His nature and about what He requires of us. Paul wrote, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3v16). Jesus said, "truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (Matthew 5v18) That is, as William Hendriksen says in his commentary, "until the universe in its present form disappears" the Law of God remains unchanged. Indeed, all the Bible applies to all societies in all ages. It is perfect for ever.
God has given us Jesus. John said of the incarnation of Jesus Christ "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world" (John 1v9). Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8v12). The writer to the Hebrews says, "In these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son" (Hebrews 1v2).
God has given us the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth." (John 16v13). Paul wrote, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8v16).
God has given us nearly 2,000 years of Christian scholarship.

So God gives us enough revelation for us to know what is true and what is false. The question I really want to address is this: Why do Christians fall into heresy and error? There are several partial answers to this question. I think of them as arrogance, syncretism and humanism.

Arrogance

We disrespect the theologians that lived before us. We think we can ignore the fruits of their labours and work everything out from scratch for ourselves. We can’t. Theologically, to quote a cliché, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

Syncretism

This word has been used in several different ways over the centuries, but I mean by it, "the result of fusing two or more religions or philosophies". Most of us come to faith in Jesus Christ with a set of ideas already in our minds, such as socialism, environmentalism, feminism, Judaism, capitalism, liberalism, libertarianism, rationalism (so called) or empiricism – whether or not we use these labels for our beliefs. We have believed our parents, our schoolteachers and our friends. We have believed whatever the society around us believes. Most of us probably adopted what we considered to be fashionable beliefs. What all This means is: we came to Christ with a prior belief system. Whether or not we would so describe it, this prior belief system is a philosophy or a religion, or a mixture of both.

When we came to Christ, we were called to repentance. The repentance that is an intrinsic part of our salvation is not merely repentance from this sin or that sin, or even from all the sins of which we are aware; it is a general, definitive commitment to see things as God sees them and to do things God’s way. This is - or at least should be - a commitment to believe all of the Bible and put it into practice. It takes at least a lifetime to perfect our lives, but a Christian should joyfully accept the principle that he should accept God’s teaching and live it out. However, some – or perhaps all – Christians hold on to some of their previous ideas, knowingly or unknowingly, for years, perhaps for their whole lives.

Whatever beliefs we had before we knew Christ should be subject to an honest and open-minded study of the Holy Bible. Whatever ideas we had before we were born again, if they do not conform to the Bible, are erroneous at best and heretical at worst. Any attempt to marry our previous, unbiblical ideas, to our new biblical ideas amounts to syncretism.

"What partnership does had righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6v14b-15) "'Therefore come out from them and be separate', says the Lord, 'and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you'" (2 Corinthians 6v17).

Humanism

I mentioned so-called rationalism above. Atheists call themselves rationalists because they think it's irrational to believe in God. Actually, it's very rational indeed to believe in God. There is nothing more rational than to accept that the universe was created and to seek to know and understand the Creator.

By "humanism" I mean philosophy that treats humans, rather than God, as central (another form of arrogance) and adopts so-called rationalism. That is, it believes only what humans can work out for themselves. Of course, no Christian can be entirely humanistic in this sense, because we accept that God is central and that divine revelation exists and is valuable. Nevertheless, we Christians can think in humanistic ways. That is, we sometimes reject some Biblical ideas because we cannot understand them.