What is a heresy?

[Checkpoint]

Imagine this arrived on your desk one day.

"... it is what it is ... a well-known heresy ... those who have bought into it have bought into a heresy."

How do you think you would have responded?

I immediately asked myself an obvious question, "Just what is a heresy, anyway?"

And set about finding out. You may have too. If so, tell us about it.

For discussion and debate:

Who or what determines what is or is not a heresy?

Who is, or has been, labelled a heretic?

How has a heretic been treated in the Bible, and since it was completed?

By whom was this done to the heretic, or to heretics?

[Miles]

Just to get it out of the way.

her·e·sy
/ˈherəsē/

noun: heresy; plural noun: heresies

belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine.
"Huss was burned for heresy"

opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.
source: Oxford Languages

.

[tam]

[Replying to Miles in post #2]

It's an interesting definition, isn't it (peace to you and Checkpoint, both!) One has to wonder who (or what) that definition serves? Because it certainly doesn't serve the Truth (or the truth that Christ taught). He was often profoundly at odds with what was generally accepted, including what was accepted and taught by the religious leaders, and their traditions and doctrines. How many times did He correct them, saying, "You have heard it said, but I tell you now..."

Truth is not determined by 'religious doctrine' (orthodox or not). Truth is also not determined by what is 'generally accepted'. None of that is what Christ taught. He is the One who teaches and leads His sheep into all truth.


Peace again to you (both),
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to Checkpoint in post #1]

Here are two explanations of the Greek NT word for heresy and heretic.

From Strong's Concordance:


hairesis: choice, opinion
Original Word: αἵρεσις, εως, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: hairesis
Phonetic Spelling: (hah'-ee-res-is)
Definition: choice, opinion
Usage: a self-chosen opinion, a religious or philosophical sect, discord or contention.


From HELPS Word-studies:

139 haíresis (a feminine noun derived from 138 /hairéomai, "personally select, choose") – properly, a personal (decisive) choice.

139 /haíresis ("a strong, distinctive opinion") is used in the NT of individual "parties (sects)" that operated within Judaism. The term stresses the personal aspect of choice – and hence how being a Sadducee (Ac 5:17) was sharply distinguished from being a Pharisee (Ac 15:5; 26:5).

[As a feminine noun, 139 (haíresis) highlights the subjective (individual) nature of a specific (divisive) opinion.]

[IAMinyou]

Imagine this arrived on your desk one day.

"... it is what it is ... a well-known heresy ... those who have bought into it have bought into a heresy."

How do you think you would have responded?

I immediately asked myself an obvious question, "Just what is a heresy, anyway?"

And set about finding out. You may have too. If so, tell us about it.

For discussion and debate:

Who or what determines what is or is not a heresy?

Who is, or has been, labelled a heretic?

How has a heretic been treated in the Bible, and since it was completed?

By whom was this done to the heretic, or to heretics?

Heretics are liars and heresies are lies. Liars and liars are created MEN ( male and female ) experiencing life in this world of Satan and the Beast.

[Overcomer]

With regard to Christianity, a heresy is anything that deviates from the key doctrines of orthodox Christianity. The key doctrines are as follows:

1. God exists as a Trinity -- God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit

2. Jesus came to earth as God Incarnate meaning that he was fully God AND fully man at the same time.

3. Jesus died on the cross to atone for the sins of humanity, but was raised on the third day and ascended to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father.

4. Salvation cannot be earned, but is a gift given to those who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour.

5. Jesus will return some day to deal with evil once and for all and will create new heavens and a new earth.

People within the Christian church may disagree on secondary doctrines (eg. baptism by sprinkling vs. full immersion) and that is acceptable because those doctrines have nothing to do with the person of Christ and have no bearing on one's salvation. Most heresies get Jesus wrong and if they get Jesus wrong, then they get everything wrong, including salvation.

As to a list of heretics, here are some of the key ones:

1. Arianism denies the full divinity of Jesus Christ.

2. Eutychianism teaches that Christ's humanity was entirely absorbed by his divinity, giving him one nature, thereby denying that he was fully God and fully man on earth.

3. Nestorianism insists that Christ had two distinct separate natures with a dividing wall between them.

4. Gnosticism thought the material was evil and the spiritual good. Therefore, its adherents couldn't accept Jesus being God Incarnate. He was, to them, merely a spiritual being who looked human.

The deity of Christ is important because, unless he was divine, he could not provide a sinless sacrifice on our behalf and could not connect us with God the Father. At the same time, his humanity is important because he could not take our place if he were not one of us. He HAD to be both man and God as revealed in Scripture.

It should be noted that heretics are not merely rebels who set out to destroy the status quo. Most of them honestly believed (as modern heretics still do) that they are correct in their thinking. And, in a way, they are a blessing. For example, when Arius started to tout the belief that Jesus was not divine, that prompted the church to put Christianity's core doctrines into writing, specifically that of the Trinity, in the form of short, simple, easily-memorized creeds that could be used to teach people who Christ was, what he did on the cross and why he did it. And that was a good thing.

As for a Biblical example, one of the most noteworthy is that of the Judaizers. Paul wrote about them in Galatians. These were Jews who taught that Gentiles had to become good Jews to be good followers of Christ. That meant they had to be circumcised and follow Jewish customs. In other words, they believed one had to earn salvation by doing these things and, therefore, denied that salvation was a gift (as it states in Eph. 2:8: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God).

Here is more on Judaizers:

https://www.gotquestions.org/Judaizers.html

As for the fate of heretics, I know that they are usually booted out of the church. Most (such as Arius) died of natural causes. It was only later that we saw some people burned at the stake during battles between Protestants and the Roman Catholic church (such as Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Jan Hus, for example). But note that, in the Bible, heretics were not killed. They were witnessed to. That is the Biblical way of dealing with heresy. Sadly, some church leaders chose to follow their own methods of dealing with them rather than that of God after the Protestant Reformation.

See here for article on ancient heresies that are still around today:

https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritu ... hurch.html

[PinSeeker]

[Replying to Overcomer in post #6]

The only thing I would say to your post, Overcomer, is that heretics should not be automatically "booted from the church." No one should deprive anyone of hearing the Gospel just because they believe things contrary to Scripture. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10). Our place is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Our job is merely to proclaim (which is no mere thing). God will do the correcting by the work of His Spirit, if it is His will to do so. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know.

Now, if the person subsequently refuses to quit trying to teach or spread said heresy, then that's a problem. It then becomes a matter of protecting those in the church, the flock. Excommunication and breaking fellowship may become necessary in that case.

Grace and peace to all.

[Miles]

[Replying to Miles in post #2]

It's an interesting definition, isn't it (peace to you and Checkpoint, both!) One has to wonder who (or what) that definition serves?

How about all those who wish to denote a belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine, or any opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted?

Because it certainly doesn't serve the Truth (or the truth that Christ taught).

If it was heretical it does.

He was often profoundly at odds with what was generally accepted, including what was accepted and taught by the religious leaders, and their traditions and doctrines. How many times did He correct them, saying, "You have heard it said, but I tell you now..."

Then Jesus seems to have been a heretic.


.

[tam]

Peace to you,

[Replying to Miles in post #2]

It's an interesting definition, isn't it (peace to you and Checkpoint, both!) One has to wonder who (or what) that definition serves?

How about all those who wish to denote a belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine, or any opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted?

Well, sure, lol

The definition serves religious institutions, protecting their authority and power in this world.

Because it certainly doesn't serve the Truth (or the truth that Christ taught).

If it was heretical it does.

I don't understand what you mean here, sorry.

He was often profoundly at odds with what was generally accepted, including what was accepted and taught by the religious leaders, and their traditions and doctrines. How many times did He correct them, saying, "You have heard it said, but I tell you now..."

Then Jesus seems to have been a heretic.


.

And that is my point. The term and definition does not serve the Truth (Christ).





Peace again to you, and to you all,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy

[bjs1]

Miles provided an accurate definition of the term in post 2.

For a practical application, heresy is when a person claims to be a part of an established religion but teaches something contrary to that religion. For instance if a person described himself as a Christian and said that there is not one God, then that person would be committing heresy.

I am unaware of any specific person being called heretic in the Bible. The closest I know of in Revelations 2:20, which talks about a “that woman Jezebel.” However, the context makes it unlikely that Jezebel was the person’s real name, and it may not have been a single individual at all. The only action prescribed towards “Jezebel” is that Christians should not accept her teachings.