Stop calling things you don’t like ‘heresy’!

Heresy is a really strong word. It’s like telling someone they have cancer – something that is deforming their very soul and cutting them off from the source of life.

If a lay person (not a doctor) told me that I had cancer, I’d want to know who they are to claim that kind of authority and what special insight they had that I (and my doctors!) had missed.

The word heresy really doesn’t mean what a lot of people use it for. Heresy is a plague – a disease that drains someone of the gospel in their lives and permanently crippling their relationship with God.

Historically, ‘a heresy’ was something specifically debated, understood and then listed by the early ecumenical councils. It was required to be something that questioned a fundamental tenet of a key creed. The word, in its earliest form, quite literally means ‘sect’ – something that had branched off from the established faith into something that was no longer that faith. Heresy, therefore, is a departure from the gospel – a fundamentally incompatible belief with saving knowledge of Jesus.

It is not something that you don’t like or don’t agree with.

If it doesn’t essentially or centrally challenge who Jesus is and what He did, then it might be wrong, unhelpful, or even potentially unorthodox, but that doesn’t necessarily make it ‘heresy’.

Some things may be immensely immature or unhelpful – they might even be false teaching – but that doesn’t make them ‘heresy.’ There is a huge difference between a broken arm and cancer. Let’s look at some examples.

Arianism – or the idea that Jesus was ultimately a creature rather than creator – is heresy.

Doceitism – the idea that Jesus ‘pretended’ to suffer on the cross – is heresy.

Modalism – the idea that each of the three persons of the trinity are characters (or puppets) rather than distinct persons – is heresy.

Reincarnationism – the belief that people can be reincarnated as figures such as Jesus, or Mary – is heresy.

Manichaeism – the idea that good and evil are equally powerful – is heresy.

Cults – such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Mormonism – are heresy.

But…

Egalitarianism – the belief that men and women are equal in all respects and should be both welcomed into leadership; and Complementarianism – the belief that men and women are different yet complimentary, but only men should lead churches – are not heresy.

Pro Life / Pro Choice – differing views on abortion (as devastating as they can be) – are not heresy.

Sexual ethics – who should sleep with who and when – is not heresy.

Getting Tattooed – or piercings, or drinking too much caffeine, or smoking, or drinking – is not heresy.

Watching Game or Thrones or reading Harry Potter – again, could be unhelpful but – not heresy.

Wearing socks and sandals – is heresy!

In no way is this a call to soften our approach to false teaching, but it is a call to be more respectful of your brothers and sisters before you decide they are not actually saved due to a disagreement.

False teaching is damaging and should be debated and challenged – heresy is a death sentence. Let’s make the distinction.