What is heresy and why does it matter?
Heresy is a funny word that you might immediately associate with events like witch trials or people pointing fingers in condemnation of those they disagree with. These ideas tend to represent extreme reactions to heresy, we shouldn’t burn people at the stake! However, it is important that we can identify and reject heretical teachings.
Heresy is false teaching. Christianity is built upon a set of non-negotionable statements of faith. Some of these include:
there is only one God
God created the world
Jesus is God
the Holy Spirit is God
people are not gods
Jesus lived a real life on earth
Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead
the whole Bible hold God’s authority as scripture
there are no additional texts with that authority
people need salvation from sin and can only have that through believing the gospel, repenting and following Jesus
only Christianity is true
You can probably think of more, but these are the things that define a Christian. There are secondary issues in Christianity that are up for more debate as the Bible allows space for different interpretations (such as end times, women in leadership etc), but the core elements of Christianity cannot be debated.
Heresy is teaching that rejects or twists one of these core statements.
An example of a very old heresy is Marcionism. Back in the 2nd century a guy called Marcion was going around teaching that Christians could throw out the Old Testament as authoritative scripture and just use the New Testament as their Bible. He taught that the God described in the Old Testament was a different god to Jesus and Jesus should not be seen as fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament. This is a heresy because it rejects two important statements of faith, the authority of the whole Bible as scripture and that there is only one God.
So why does it matter that we reject heresy when it is taught? Simply put: heresy cannot save. Heretical teachings are void of the power of the gospel and therefore have the potential to lead people away from Jesus. As Christians we believe that the Truth of the story of the whole Bible and the climax of Jesus’ defeat of sin in his death and resurrection is the only way that people can be restored to God and receive new life. The Truth matters.
‘So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” - John 8:31-32
Jesus has entrusted Christians with the important mission of carrying his gospel to the ends of the earth. We have to protect that message or all our work will be in vain. Heresy cannot lead to eternal life. Only the Truth can do that.
‘Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ - John 14:5-6
