Historical Heresies Alive And Well In The Church Today - A Multi-Part Message

"There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9 ESV)

Week One - Introduction

When I chose to become a follower of Jesus, I had a voracious appetite for knowledge about Him, as well as a deep desire to grow in intimacy with Him. I would read everything about Jesus I could get my hands on, no matter who, or what, the source was, and I would listen to anyone who spoke His name. Unknowingly, that led me into digesting a toxic stew of Occult and cultic beliefs, mixed with traditional and orthodox church teaching, along with some serious heresy thrown in for a little seasoning.

As I grew older in the faith, I surrounded myself with those who longed for the same intimate relationship that I desired with Jesus. The pastor of the church I was attending was a great preacher, but he was not a teacher, and his sermons were often mixed with personal conjecture and various scattered verses combined to help him prove his point of view about what he thought the Bible passages meant in order to fulfill his personal agenda.

After graduating from high school, I entered into intense formal Bible study and training. I began to learn that much of what I had read and been taught about God in the past, was biblically way off base. That really, really upset me, to say the least. I felt I had been betrayed, abused, deceived, and intentionally misled by my spiritual elders.

The one significant thing I took from of all my years of theological training was how to study the Bible and spot spiritual deception. As a result of my experiences, I desired to become a "watchman on the wall" and made a spiritual commitment to God that I would delve into historical church teaching and diligently study the subjects of the Bible backward and forward, making every attempt to never teach it based upon a self-centered confirmation-biased agenda, or by twisting the Scriptures into a pretzel as a means to an end.

Heresy is a doctrine or teaching that changes the nature of the faith so fundamentally that it no longer can be trusted to be saving faith. Every heretical teaching in Christianity throughout history was a result of people listening to the voices in their heads and not rightly dividing God's Word. Words can only mean what the original author intended them to mean in their grammatical and historical context. 'Up' can't mean 'down,' 'cat' can't mean 'dog,' 'yes' can't mean 'no,' 'right' can't mean 'wrong,' 1 + 1 can only equal 2, etc., no matter how much 'fresh' revelation a person thinks they received. A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

I remember reading that one of the primary sources of error in Theology is the desire to say something new. The Bible says that the pure and undistorted Gospel "was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3 ESV), and warns about "a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all" (Galatians 1:6-7 NIV).

There are five primary teachings labeled heretical throughout church history that still exist in the church today in one form or another. They are Legalism, Antinomianism, Pelagianism, Gnosticism - which includes an offshoot known as Kenoticism - and Modalism.

In this series, we will take a detailed look at these beliefs (and their variations) that are alive and well in the church today and address why they are considered heresy.

LEGALISM and ANTINOMIANISM

Legalism is often referred to as Judaizing in the Bible, which can also be called salvation by works or works righteousness. The Bible tells us that people have a natural tendency to add works to the Gospel of justification by faith in the finished, once-for-all work of Christ. Legalism is all about what a person must do to obtain salvation and then working endlessly to keep it, which is impossible to do. That can result in the rejection of morality altogether and ultimately to unbelief. The Bible says that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and not of any self-effort (Ephesians 2:8). Those who seek to be justified by keeping the Law alone and working their way to Heaven will ultimately fall from grace (Galatians 5:4). Continuous good works that result from genuine conversion proves that the Holy Spirit lives within them, and their faith is truly alive and not dead (James 2:26; 2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5).

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1-2 ESV)

"And why not do evil that good may come? - as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just." (Romans 3:8 ESV)

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6 ESV)