How to Spot a Heretic When You See One
Angels and impressions must never replace the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
Yes, I know that heresy is not a popular topic these days. It is associated with people splitting hairs over doctrine, maybe believers who are not tolerant of others who interpret minor things differently. And in church history, people were burnt at the stake, or excommunicated if they didn’t agree with the church! But we now know that God is love and full of grace and these doctrinal matters are not as important anymore.
Are you sure? The Bible does speak about sound doctrine and false beliefs.
The early church had stormy waters in the second century. And some bought into a false belief system and built their lives around it. It was called Gnosticism, named after the Greek word “to know”. It held that there was special knowledge that some people get that saves them from the things of the earth.
This system of thought was prominent in Judaism and Christianity in the first century. It was so strong that the early church fathers, like Irenaeus, had to write and teach to combat their effects on the young believers. Most of what we believe about Jesus and creation was agreed on during this time. It was important to expose the heresy. But heresies keep coming back again throughout history.
Gnosticism was enticing to spiritually minded people, but directly undermined true faith. For example, while God said that all he made was good, the Gnostics said that it was primarily only things of the spirit that were good. They felt that things of the earth and especially of the body were corrupt.
The goal became to escape the things of the body and live in the realm of the spirit. If God says that all creation was made good and especially that humans were “very good” then we should not seek to escape from our bodies. Gnostics taught that the body was a tomb to be freed from. Yet Jesus chose to take on a body and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. After the resurrection when he did leave his body, he then came back and returned to the earth. The earth is the Lord’s, and he cares about it.
The gospel message is that the entire creation of our physical world will be transformed. Humans will not be saved OUT of material creation but along WITH material creation. Today a secular worldview has revived the ancient Gnostic disdain for the body. Yet Christianity honors the body as male or female. Gender is not connected to psychological feelings. And the physical body is part of the authentic self. Unfortunately, with the new Gnosticism, many are left feeling estranged from their bodies and confused.
Our Charismatic bias against doctrine makes us lean toward a subjective view of the earth and creation. Did you ever hear people say “This world is not my home! I’m just passing through.” Not true. God put us on the earth and told us creation is good, that we were created in His image, that our bodies are good, and work is good. And God’s saving purpose is not to rescue people out of creation, but to renew all of creation itself, rescuing it, and its human inhabitants, from evil.
Irenaeus pointed to Duet. 33:27 where it says, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms”. He taught that the arms of God are “The Word and the Spirit”. We need both. With only WORD we end up with a haughty, intellectual doctrine and no life. And we end up with humanly derived doctrines. But with an emphasis exclusively on the subjective impressions that neglect scripture, we will end up with Gnosticism.
I have seen our movement give the idea that certain people receive special knowledge (prophets). Yet, the Bible says, “You can all Prophesy.” The greatest guard against deception today I believe will be for Christians to hold tightly to the Word AND the Spirit. Angels and impressions must never replace the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. And we need to honor creation and our bodies not devalue them. I think if you begin to watch, you will spot Gnosticism a lot closer to home than you thought.
