Heresy vs Doctrinal differences || Christological heresies session series || Koinonia Youth Bible Study || May 14 Tuesday

 

Have you heard any of these?

1.       Jesus was a created being
2.       Jesus is brother of Lucifer
3.       Jesus is lesser than God
4.       Jesus did not come in flesh
5.       Jesus was only a man
6.       Jesus was only Divine

What’s Heresy?

1.     It can be understood as Doctrinal aberration, which if true, the Gospel becomes False.
2.     It is an attack on the Godhead and Gospel
3.     It comes up generally against Cardinal Doctrines of Christian faith.
4.     It makes Salvation Impossible

All heresy is error but not all error is necessarily heresy!

1.     We must be very cautious regarding allocating anything as a Heresy.
2.     There are two other terms such as Error and Difference in Opinions apart from Heresy
3.     Heresy is associated with Salvation
4.     When Error and Difference in Opinion get into their extreme level, they can also turn to heresy

Some common examples of errors and difference in opinions could be

1.     Woman pastors: Complementarian vs Egalitarian
2.     Spiritual gifts: Charismatic vs Cessationists
3.     Speaking in Tongues: Prayer language vs Preaching language/ Earthly language vs Angelic language
4.     Creation and Age of universe: Young Earth vs Old Earth vs Theistic Evolution
5.     Free will vs Predestination: Calvinism vs Arminian vs Molinism vs Provisionism
6.     Genesis 6 identification of sons of God: Sethite lineage, Angelic beings, Powerful dictating rulers
7.     Tribulation, millennium kingdom, rapture
8.     Hell: Eternal torment vs Annihilation
9.     Baptism: Infant vs believers

Etc.

Some considerations

1.     There is respect in Christianity for each other in regard to errors and difference in opinions but there is no tolerance for heresy
2.     It is true that salvation is entirely God’s Grace work through faith in Jesus. Meanwhile, the Gospel that makes salvation possible and come into play in a non-believer’s life must not be compromised. (2 Tim. 1:14) Heresy leads to false worship, it is idolatry. Our ideas, faith and beliefs surely have consequences.
3.     Error is simply something that is not in accordance with Scripture. It does not necessarily entail falsification of the Christian gospel. It means that this or that pronouncement is wrong, without regard to the seriousness of the mistake. All heresy is error, but not all error is heresy.
4.     Heresy is associated with destruction of the Gospel.

E.g. Docetism in 1 John 4:1-6, Legalism in Galatians 2:21, Angel worship in Col. 2:18

 

Source: https://www.crossway.org/articles/true-false-or-heresy/

 

Certain doctrinal differences have potential to be heresy too

If any doctrinal issues are elevated to such a level that, when the proponents defend them seriously as if they are very essential for Christian life, identification and life style, they have potential to grow as heresies.

Some examples around us:

1.     Making compulsion of Speaking in Tongues to all believers otherwise questioning the living of Holy Spirit in their life.[1]
2.     Stating that a Christian must believe in a Young Earth if they really take the scripture literally[2]^, [3]
3.     Keeping healing of extreme focus instead the Gospel, etc.

 

“Heresy is a Doctrinal aberration so serious that it separates a person from salvation. E.g. Denying Jesus’ deity. While, doctrinal differences that aren’t heresies in Christendom could be opinions on doctrine of sacraments, second coming of Christ, etc. Heresies are below the cut-off line while Doctrinal differences are above cut-off line.”

[William Craig || Heresy? Or just doctrinally different || https://youtu.be/w8ryXcZshRM?si=JmnPDPLASa-KHssI ]

 

Need reformation!

Instead asking “What does the Bible say?”, we should ask instead “What, why and how does the Bible say?”

I agree with the author’s comment with regard to present day Cambrian explosion of theological confusion such as creation vs evolution, Calvinism vs other views, etc.:

 

The last stage of interpretation, however, is that of moving from the world of the New Testament into our modern world. Here we will have to be cautious. Some of the discussions and arguments Christians have had over the centuries were not issues in the first century. The New Testament authors will have nothing to say about such concerns. They may refuse to answer our questions. In other cases we may have to discover the principle that informs the author’s reasoning and apply it to our modern situation. But in most of the cases the real danger is in jumping too quickly into the modern situation. If we have not taken the time to grasp fully what the author of Scripture was trying to say, we will distort his message when we move into our modern period. But if we fully grasp it, we will be able to see where it applies, although it may apply in a different place than we thought at first.

Hard Sayings of the Bible || Walter C. Kaiser Jr., F. F. Bruce, et al.

 

The book gives three probable reasons for the texts seeming harder to the reader

First, we don’t understand them and needs addition of background information for clarification. In other instances, even scholars are not sure of author’s intended meaning. Hence, we can only make the best assumptions. In this case, theological dogmatism is boycotted. Perhaps, most of the questions emerging from the book of Genesis might fall into this category such as Creation days, sons of God marrying daughters of men, existence of Nephilim, Noahic flood, etc.

Second, Doctrinal difficulties is at peak. In this category, the teaching of one particular book appears to knock out the teaching of the other books on the particular subject. Sometimes, we may have misunderstood the author and when we fully grasp the theme, the conflict disappears. Other times, real conflict exists between author’s intended meaning and our own doctrinal understanding. The real issue is whether the Scripture be allowed to correct our doctrine, or is our doctrine the grid through which we will insist on understanding Scripture? Either Scripture or our doctrinal understanding is the Word of God. When they conflict, we find out which one we have actually accepted as our final authority. Perhaps, certain debates such as Predestination vs Free will, grace vs law, justification by faith alone or work, etc. might fit this category.

 

Third, we really don’t adore what the text says and it becomes hard to adore it! They are hard to obey, and we would rather they meant something else than they do. James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15 may be in this category for some people.

 

Further studying resources:

1.      Theological Topics-Old Testament and New Testament Articles || https://apologeticsimpact.blogspot.com/2022/01/recommended-book-review-theological.html

2.      NT academic course on Trinitas Institute on Heresy, Errors and Difference in Opinions from https://studythechurch.com  

 

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[1] Sam Shahu | Set Apart Podcasts | 02, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZjXv3PrzQ.

[2] Why ALL Christians Should Believe in a YOUNG Earth, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdDovNqWN4A.

[3] Thomas Purifoy Jr, “6 Reasons Christians Should Embrace Young Earth Creation,” Is Genesis History? (blog), May 8, 2018, https://isgenesishistory.com/6-reasons-christians-embrace-young-earth-creation/.