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Most Christians seem to believe that heresy is something that happens outside the church and while this may be true as far as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are concerned, it is far from the truth. (Remember also that the founders of both these cults started out in traditional church settings). Peter says, "They will secretly introduce destructive heresies..." obviously speaking of the introduction of heresies INTO the church.
So how have heresies in their various forms crept into the church? The answer is very simple. Contemporary churches have so deviated from the pattern established in the New Testament that they have literally paved the way for the preachers of false doctrines.
In the early church neither the sermon nor 'the preacher' was the center of the assembly. The meeting were never dominated by one man but led by Christ through the Holy Spirit who was free to move through the gathering as He saw fit in ‘an orderly fashion’. Questions and discussions were a healthy part of the meeting (I Cor. 14:27-40) and if a person received an insight while another was speaking the person would stop and listen to the recipient of the insight. The phrase ‘one another’ is used some sixty times in the NT.
(See Section The Pattern Of The New Testament Church)
Present-day churches have long forgotten this pattern. How many churches do you know that trust the leadership of the Spirit to direct and shape their services. Actually if the truth be told, The Holy Spirit could be taken out of the average church and 95% of the program would not be affected in any way. Perhaps the need to always have a human moderator speaks ill of each individual’s spiritual life. Why are we that unfamiliar with the Spirit’s working in our own lives and why do we, like the Israel of old, clamor for a king to rule over us and for a discernible go-between to tell us what God has said. (Exodus 20:19; 1 Sam. 8:19).
"In this regard, the institutional church is essentially a nursery for overgrown spiritual babes. Because it has habituated God's people into being passive receivers, it has stunted their spiritual development and kept them in spiritual infancy”. Ray C. Stedman.
This has made it very easy for heresies to creep in. In today's Biblically illiterate Christian world, many Christians think that doctrine is not important. Weak sermons devoid of biblical truth are preached and much emotionalism is passed off as a work of the Holy Spirit. As a result, many Churchgoers do not recognize heresy when it is introduced. The ancient Israelites were often led into error because they were not sufficiently grounded in the knowledge of God (Hosea 4:1, 6) and many Christians today are equally being led into error because they are not testing what they hear by the standard of God's Word. Peter foretells how "Many will follow their shameful ways..." Sadly, this is happening today. Christians seem to think that just because many of these leaders have large ministries, with a large following, then they must be of God. However, is the size of a leader’s following the correct way to determine if a ministry is of God or not? There are some who would seem to think so. However, by using the same reasoning one would have to arrive at the conclusion that Mormonism is also of God, with its millions of members.
Unlike the early Bereans, whom the Apostle Paul called "noble" for testing his words against Scripture (Acts 17:11), many Christians tend to gullibly believe anything that is said. It seems that these days, any teacher can come along with a charismatic personality, claim to have had a vision from God or a prophecy etc., and they are simply believed and with none of their words being tested against what scripture says. The heresies that they introduce are subtle distortions of biblical Christianity. "They will secretly introduce destructive heresies..."
"Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in on attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than truth itself." Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.2
Heresies have the ability to damn because they have the ability to confuse the gospel sufficiently to make it powerless. For this reason heresy became one of the most serious of offenses to many ancient Christians. The word "heresy" comes from the Greek ‘hairesis’ which means "choosing," or "faction." At first, the term heresy did not carry the negative meaning it does now. But, as the early church grew in its scope and influence throughout the Mediterranean area, various teachers proposed controversial ideas about Christ, God, salvation, and other biblical themes. It became necessary for the church to determine what laws and was not true according to the Bible. For example, Arius of Alexandar (320 AD) taught that Jesus was a creation. Other errors arose. The Docetists taught that Jesus wasn't human. The Modalists denied the Trinity. The Gnostics denied the incarnation of Christ. Out of necessity, the church was forced to deal with these heresies by proclaiming orthodoxy. And in so doing, condemnation upon these heresies and the heretics became a reality.
Theologically, the Bible teaches condemnation upon false doctrines and false teachers.
Gal. 1:8- 9 says, "But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed" (NASB).
See also 1 Cor. 16:22; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; 1 Tim. 1: 18-20; Titus 3:10.
This is emphasized in the Bible because Christians are saved by faith in the work of Jesus on the cross. Faith in itself is not enough. Faith is not a substance you can put in a jar. It is belief in something and is only as good as who it is placed in. If you put your faith in a false God, you are lost because a false god cannot save anyone. Instant Christianity tends to make faith the terminal (end) and so smother the desire for spiritual advance. Which is why God says in
Exodus 20:3, "You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Faith is not what saves, but faith in the true God is what saves.
Essentials versus nonessentials
Nonessentials: Are the subjects that do not affect a person’s salvation and could possible include pre or post-trib rapture, worship on Saturday or Sunday, musical instruments in the church, the charismatic gifts, worship styles, dress codes, etc. Unfortunately, the disagreements that arise around these subjects result in denominational fragmentation.
Essentials of the faith would include who God is, who Jesus is, salvation by grace, and Jesus' resurrection. The Bible tells us that these doctrines concerning God, Christ, salvation, and resurrection are essential to the faith. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that Christians know their faith and know how to defend it against the doctrines that compromise the essentials.
InPlainSite.org Footnote. This article is only part of the original which I once used to send to a friend. Since then I have been unable to locate the original and hence do not know who the author is. I request anyone who may know the source to please e-mail me with the information so I can use the original article in it’s entirety and credit the author at the same time, assuming this is okay with him/her. E-mail
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Index To Section 10B 
