Heresy and Error, Part 2

17^th January 2025

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."

There is such a thing as the truth, and true disciples of Jesus can know the truth. God has given us the Bible. He's given us Jesus, the light of the world. He's given us the Holy Spirit and promised that "when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth." (John 16v13). He's given us nearly 2,000 years of Christian scholarship. Yet Christian people still fall into heresy and error. I suggested last time that the main reasons why this happens are arrogance, syncretism and humanism, which I described. I need to say more about this.

Some heresies seem to have been invented deliberately by people who want to set up alternative religions, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. I expect they would deny this. If I'm right, though, it shows that they have no desire for the truth. Their arrogance is astounding. Of course, I say this about these movements' founders, not their followers, who are well-meaning but have been deceived. Most heresies, however, arise within what we would recognise as the genuine church of God. Peter warned the first-century church:

2 Peter 2v1-2
... there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

As Peter warned, many heresies originated in the very early centuries of the church, including the three I described last time. Arius, the founder of the heresy that bears his name, died in 336 AD. Modalism is also known as Sabellianism after its founder Sabellius, who died around 220 AD. Universalism seems also to have its roots in ancient times. It took the church a long time to study Scripture sufficiently to establish that these and others were definitely heresies, but that work has now been done so we no longer have an excuse to believe these falsehoods.

Many of these ancient heresies still exist in the church, although many who propagate them lack the scholarship necessary to realise that they were identified as heresies in the early centuries.

Most heresies are about the nature of God, the nature of Jesus Christ, or the nature of salvation. All of these subjects can only be understood by divine revelation, as they are too profound and mysterious to be understood purely by human reasoning and enquiry. I don't imagine that well-meaning Christian people decide to invent or, more usually, re-invent a heresy. They simply fall prey to arrogance, syncretism and humanism. That is, they ignore ancient scholarship, they mix wordly teaching with Scripture, or they try to understand with their human minds alone things to deep for them.

Perhaps the greatest example of this is with regard to the Holy Trinity. As the Athanasian Creed tells us, "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal." This eternal and wonderful truth can be proved from the Bible but it cannot be fully understood by the human mind. Many people have fallen into heresy by rejecting this doctrine because they can't understand how it can be true. Nevertheless, it is true. Great harm, including bloodshed of and by heretics, resulted in earlier times. Even now, the church is damaged by such false teaching, some people are still seduced by anti-Trinitarian heresies and leave the church.

It is necessary to accept that God is more intelligent than we are, and that we cannot understand everything about Him or His ways. Our role is not to assess whether the Bible is true, but to accept that it is, and to believe and act in accordance with it, whether or not we understand it.

Another truth derived from the Bible is regarding the Person of Jesus Christ. As the Council of Chalcedon affirmed in 451 AD, Christ is "the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man." He is "consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood." Jesus Christ is "to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of the natures being in no wise taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons". Again, we can and do choose to believe this is true, but we cannot fully understand how it can be true. Again, many have fallen into heresy, denying this truth because they can't understand it. Again, much harm has resulted.

Finally, this week, let us consider the doctrine of the Atonement and the death of Jesus Christ. The clear teaching of Scripture is penal substitutionary atonement. That is, Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. He died in our place, accepting the just punishment for our wrongdoing. In this way He made atonement for us. Because the just penalty for our sins has been paid, we are justified in God's sight, through our faith in what Christ has done for us. We are saved by Christ's sacrifice through faith alone. His sacrifice pays for all our sins. Christians are called to works of charity and to regular church attendance, but these activities do not save us. Christ alone saves us through faith alone. Any understanding of the Atonement that denies this is heresy.

Heresies about why Jesus died - and there are several - are hugely damaging. Our faith in the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus on the cross cannot be divorced from our understanding of what it means and how it works. God is gracious, and will accept people whose grasp of the doctrine of the Atonement is flawed, but it is the duty of every Christian leader to teach the truth because it is the truth, because the love of Jesus in making the greatest sacrifice in history deserves to be understood, and because the more clearly and accurately we can explain the Atonement, the easer it is for others to accept it and find salvation.

I am deeply grateful to God for allowing Jesus to sacrifice Himself in this way. Understanding this doctrine inspires me to worship and service in gratitude to my God my Saviour. Any description of the Atonement that does not do justice to the need for Jesus to die, the reason why it was necessary and the just reason why it is sufficient, is an insult to God and a grave disservice to the Gospel.

Heresy is the result of misunderstanding or disregarding the teaching of Scripture. It causes division in the church, it obscures the Gospel of Christ, it confuses believers, and it reduces our worship and obedience to God.

Study the Bible. Study theology, as much as you can. Give due regard to the great Bible teachers of earlier times. If you teach, be careful to teach the truth. Above all, pray.