Heresy Teachings

Heresy Teaching

HERESY - Any teaching rejected by the Christian community as contrary to Scripture and hence to orthodox doctrine.

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 58.

Sparkle Creed (Heretical)

“I believe in the non-binary God, whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow Spirit, who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity. I believe in the church of everyday saints, as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud, and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder. I believe in the calling to each of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love. I believe, glorious God. Help my unbelief. Amen.”

Break down:

“I believe in the non-binary God,

We’re told that God is non-binary, but is this accurate? Well, it’s true that God isn’t male or female. God isn’t the kind of being where gender categories apply, including the gender category of non-binary. It would be like referring to my coffee cup as non-binary because it’s neither male nor female. It’s a category mistake.

whose pronouns are plural.

The creed says God’s pronouns are plural. This is just false. I believe God is three persons in one eternal being. The creed ignores the fact that God has chosen to reveal himself using singular, masculine, he/him pronouns. Why won’t they use God’s preferred pronouns?

I believe in Jesus Christ, their child who wore a fabulous tunic

This leads to the fabulous tunic. When people reflect on the work of Jesus, they probably don’t immediately think “fabulous tunic.” That’s because there’s no reference to Jesus’ fabulous tunic in Scripture. So, why is it in here? Well, your guess is as good as mine.

and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of God.

What about Jesus having two dads? This seems to be a reference to Joseph and God the Father. First, the “two dads” language is terribly misleading. Second, it seems to conflict with their claim that God is non-binary. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a father is a male parent—a he/him, not a they/them. This creed will say anything as long as it serves progressive propaganda.

I believe in the rainbow Spirit,

Of course, they had to get a rainbow in here somewhere. So, why not just use it as an adjective for the Spirit? Rather than stick with “Holy Spirit,” they chose “rainbow Spirit,” which segues nicely into what they really want to talk about, which is diversity.

who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity. I believe in the church of everyday saints, as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud, and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder. I believe in the calling to each of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love. I believe, glorious God. Help my unbelief. Amen.”

Of course, more could be said. The point is, this creed wasn’t written to clarify truth and glorify God. Instead, it was written to distort the truth and glorify self.

A creed is meant to be a confession of faith. It’s supposed to provide a summary of significant content about our beliefs.

NICENE CREED

I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven.

And He became flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He was also crucified for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And on the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And of His kingdom there will be no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, and who spoke through the prophets, and one holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the world to come. Amen.

Using the Nicene Creed to detect heretical teaching:

I believe in one God the Father Almighty (Part of the creed that is against heresy teachings below)

POLYTHIESM - the belief that there are two or more personal gods that have distinct spheres of influence in the universe.

Norman L. Geisler, Norman L. Geisler, and William D. Watkins, Worlds Apart: A Handbook on World Views, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989), 217.

DUALISM - Other dualists may posit the existence of two opposing realities of good and evil (God & Devil equals).

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 41.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

Isaiah 45:5

“I am the Lord, I have no peer, there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, even though you do not recognize me.”

1 Corinthians 8:4

“With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.”

Mark 12:29

“Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

And I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven.

Arianism - The central characteristic of Arian thought was that because God is one, Jesus could not have also been truly God.

Arius and his followers proposed that Jesus was the highest created being of God. So although Christ was fully human, he was not fully God.

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 15.

Isaiah 43:10–11

“You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe in me, and understand that I am he. No god was formed before me, and none will outlive me. I, I am the Lord, and there is no deliverer besides me.”

Isaiah 44:6

“This is what the Lord, Israel’s king, says, their Protector, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “I am the first and I am the last, there is no God but me.”

Titus 2:13

“as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Modalism - Also called Sabellianism, the trinitarian heresy that does not view Father, Son and Spirit as three particular “persons in relation” but merely as three modes or manifestations of the one divine person of God.

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 79.

Explaining the Trinity as a water, vapor, and ice is an example of modalism!

Matthew 3:16–17

“After Jesus was baptized, just as he was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my one dear Son; in Him I take great delight.”

John 1:1–2

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning.”

John 14:16–17

“Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.”

John 17:24

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

2 Corinthians 13:14

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Hebrews 9:14

“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.”

Trinity (distinct persons) - Co equal and co eternal

Subordinationism - A second- and third-century heresy that held that because the Son and the Spirit proceed from the Father, they are not equal to the Father and are thus not fully divine.

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 110.

This is a subset of Arianism (Subordinationism).

Tritheism. A distorted belief in three different Gods—Father, Son and Spirit—rather than one God who is unified and yet diversely three persons (Trinity).

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 116.

Colossians 2:9

“For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form,”

- Three persons of the Trinity share a divine will.

- Frictionless unity of the Trinity.

Maker of heaven and earth

Gnosticism -

The word gnosticism comes from the Greek term gnosis, meaning “knowledge.”

Gnostics believed that devotees had gained a special kind of spiritual enlightenment, through which they had attained a secret or higher level of knowledge not accessible to the uninitiated.

Gnostics also tended to emphasize the spiritual realm over the material, often claiming that the material realm is evil and hence to be escaped.

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 56.

Gnostics - Believe in two powers:

Supreme Being (Heaven/Spiritual) - Pure, Good

Demiurge (ancient images looked like a serpent with a crown on it’s head) - a lesser divinity that governs the material universe. - Material impure, bad

Trapped the divine spark of the supreme being in human beings and the way you were set free was through a secret knowledge that gnostics possess.

Teachings they gave to help you ascend.

Escape this flesh so you can be reunited with the Supreme Being.

Genesis 1:31

“God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.”

1 Timothy 4:4

“For every creation of God is good, and no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”

John 1:14

“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.”

1 John 4:2–3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that refuses to confess Jesus, that spirit is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.”

2 John 7

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist!”

But it's never that God made the material world bad. It was corrupted by the sin of mankind and the power of the enemy.

And He became flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He was also crucified for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate

Docetism - In the early church, the teaching that Jesus was fully God but only appeared to be human (taken from the Greek dokeō, “to seem or appear”).

“Docetism comes from a Greek word that basically means to seem or to appear,”

Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 40.

1 John 4:2–3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that refuses to confess Jesus, that spirit is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.”

John 1:14

“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.”

Hebrews 2:14

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil),”

“If He didn't assume our humanity, He cannot save our humanity.”

“St. Gregory of Nazianzus said, what he did not assume, he could not heal.”

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life

Pneumatomachian - (spirit fighters/also known as Macedonianism) - Did not believe in the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:10–11 (NET 2nd ed.)

God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Romans 8:27 (NET 2nd ed.)

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.

1 Corinthians 12:11 (NET 2nd ed.)

It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.

Acts 16:6–7 (NET 2nd ed.)

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this,

Isaiah 63:10 NET 2nd ed.

But they rebelled and offended his Holy Spirit, so he turned into an enemy and fought against them.

MODERN HERESY’S

Mormons -

“Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I'm going to prove it to you by the Bible and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race and why he interferes with the affairs of man. God himself was once as we are now.” - Joseph Smith

“We would all agree the full humanity of Jesus. But the problem is, is Joseph Smith doesn't just affirm that Jesus was a man, but rather that Jesus was only a man and not fully God when he was incarnate.”

Arianism - The central characteristic of Arian thought was that because God is one, Jesus could not have also been truly God.

“Mormonism is rebranded masonry. It's the same kind of doctrines that you find in the Masonic Lodge, and it's always about you becoming God. It's not about you giving your life over to God and letting him be the Lord of your life. It's about you yourself becoming a God unto yourself.”

From The Remnant Radio's Podcast: How to Spot a Christian, Nov 21, 2024

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-remnant-radios-podcast/id1392545186?i=1000677808253

This material may be protected by copyright.

ONENESS PENTECOSTALISM

“It's fascinating to me how similar the Arian and Modalist controversy in the first couple centuries mirror and pattern the way that the Oneness Pentecostals emerged amongst the early Classical Pentecostals and how they rejected it under the same grounds.”

From The Remnant Radio's Podcast: How to Spot a Christian, Nov 21, 2024

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-remnant-radios-podcast/id1392545186?i=1000677808253

This material may be protected by copyright.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM

““Council of Trent, January 13th, 1547. Canon 9 says, If anyone says that a sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that is not necessary for him to be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema. So here, I am damned for destruction, because I believe that God's grace alone is sufficient.”

From The Remnant Radio's Podcast: How to Spot a Christian, Nov 21, 2024

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-remnant-radios-podcast/id1392545186?i=1000677808253

This material may be protected by copyright.