edikaiosen
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09:24:08 pm on September 5, 2008 | # |
Here’s the thing. There are a lot of people out there who will disagree with me on what I am about talk about and those people are not wrong in totality but merely wrong in part and that is the very thing that is dangerous. It’s the partialy right… but tragically wrong that is so common in theology these days. It’s exactly the tool that satan used with his first temptation in the Garden and the temptation of Jesus in the desert. It’s both a twisted and redacted version of God’s word that Satan uses to suit the sinful desire of the heart which he hopes will ultimately benefit his plan for this world of which he is given power for this time. Satan simply likes to give us what our sinful heart desires to achieve his end. And we often fall for it hand and foot.
But at the risk of debasing my point I will agree that I often fall for the tricks of the King of Lies. However, I feel that I have my eyes open in this circumstance and am able to see clearly the tactics of the evil one and his ultimate goal. I will also declare that I have been describe as a stubborn person and have at times participated in arguements that were for arguments sake and were not beneficial to the kingdom. I also assume the supremacy and inerrancy of scripture and the fact that scripture interprets scripture and that it is our only hope for knowing truth. I am also decidedly calvinist and have been known to say in the response to the question, “Are you Calvinist?”, “No, I’m Christian”. Hopefully this gives you some sense of my background for interpreting my opinions below.
Now, to point that is at hand: Should we speak harshly against those who are going against orthodox Christianity or should we instruct gently or not at all those who are heretics because to speak harshly may defame the Christian reputation or worse yet God Himself and perhaps lead astray those who are seekers.
A couple things are at play here and I will try to cover them systematically and in a brief yet comprehensive fashion.
Satan has a decided goal in mind: Chaos, destruction, and death. He seeks to destroy and impede the gospel at all costs. However, we must understand that the devil is not a God but a god. He is not omniscent or omnipresent. Is a created thing and therefore under God. He is an arch angel with 1/3 of the angels as his army, and he’s God’s most glorious creation and it was his glory which lead to his pride and eventually his fall. He is powerful but not all powerful and we have a sword that is more poweful than the king of lies, namely, God’s Word. And unless we use His word against his lies we will fall before the evil one because of the pride we showed in attempting to reason with the devil. Therefore we must approach everything with the Word of God in order to discover how to respond to any question. (I understand that this statement does not sit will with some people(I know because I experience this temptation also) because our heart wants to say and our mind reason that we can discover truth outside of scripture, however this is a huge discussion of its own that I do not have time to go into.) We are, however, able to know his tactics and therefore take defensive and offensive action against them. Go here for more discussion of this topic.
So knowing Satan’s goal and some of his tactics and who he is, how does this affect this discussion? The questions that I propose next are I feel appropriate. Does satan want to distract, discourage, destroy, create chaos about Christianity and Christ by tempting proclaimed Christians into verbal arguments with other proclaimed Christians regarding the truths of scripture and doctrine so as to put one against and one therefore defame Christ and Christianity by a show of disunity? Or Does satan want to distract, discourage, destory, and create chaos by tempting christians into passivity as to allow false doctrines to flourish and pluralism to take hold? For these, I believe, are the questions at hand.
If we hold that satan employs the first tactic then it is understood that he would never promote truth in it’s purest form but would always promote heresy or twisted and redacted scripture, for he loves to masquerade as an angel of light so as to promote a different gospel. So if that stands, it would be heresy against orthodoxy, because satans goal, lest we forget, would be for heresy to win out over orthodoxy so as to lead as many astray as possible with Satan only being on the side of heresy. But if Gods Word is more powerful than satans lies and is the only correct response to twisted scripture why would Satan ever choose a fight with orthodoxy for he would always lose. His best bet would be to convince those who are Christian that their fight with heresy is pointless and fruitless and would only lead to divide in the church or cause defamation and hence scare away seeking people consequently allowing the evil one an unchallenged environment to promote heresy. So I think it is fair to say that Satan would never start a battle with orthodoxy based off of the logic above and would only employ a tactic of seeking to convice orthodox christians into passivity.
However, now we’re left with how to approach the unorthdox proclaimed Christian who teaches heresy. Do we gently or harshly confront? My answer, NO MERCY!
Galatians 1:9, 5:8-12, 1 Timothy 4:15-16, 6:3-5, and the book of Jude.
How should we treat the searching Christian who doesn’t know yet but is desiring to know the truth but maybe confused about what to believe? Gently.
Romans 14:1, 1 Timothy 4:15-16, Jude 1:22
How do we know when to be gentle and when to be harsh? If the heretic we are speaking of or to has decided what they believe, are unteachable and claim to be Christians we should treat them harshly as both to seperate their belief from ours making sure to point out that they are not Christian but also hope that the Spirit would awaken them to their folly through the Jackhammer action of our words. However, they must not be given the opportunity to call themselves Chrisitan when their message is decidedly different from that of the gosple. On the other hand, if the person is questioning but has not decided what to believe we should instruct them gently and pray for their understanding.
The next question that is neccessarirly begged is, “What is orthodoxy?” Those who proclaim their false doctrines believe what they are preaching is orthodoxy and what we’re preaching is heresy. So we must have a way to know who is right. To which I reply. Is their message Jesus centered? Is it in any way more focused on some aspect more than Jesus? Does it minimize the work of Jesus in any way? To answer these questions we must know the scriptures well and the false doctrine in question well. In short it takes work through study and prayer and we should never go at it alone.
Lastly, what do we do with all those verses regarding divide in the church? What do they mean? What are they speaking to? In Short they are speaking to the people in the church who are argueing over secondary issues or basically things that detract from Jesus. (for is to possible to be an orthodox christians but fall into the temptation of putting secondary doctrines above Jesus) We shoud as a church (believers not seekers) seek to be united in our approach to the primary issues and let the secondary issues fall to the side and not let them defame the church or ultimately God and consequently divide us.
I hope this is helpful to all who fear speaking out against heresy, but most of all that it inspires all to educate themselves on the primary issues of the Bible and of God so as to form a solid biblically based orthdoxy.
SOLA DEO GLORIA!
K.B.
