Know the Heretics

INTRO/LECTURE 1

INTRO

Definitions:

Orthodoxy - Right Teaching

Mainstream Christianity

Teaching that best follows the Bible

It best accounts for the paradoxes and difficult passages

Best communicates the story of forgiveness we find in the gospels.

Heresy - Choice

A choice to deviate from traditional teachings in favor of one’s own insights.

Heretic is someone who has compromised an essential doctrine usually by oversimplification.

Lost sight if who good truly is and what He has done for us in Christ.

Heresy does not come from asking questions about essential doctrines but by providing answers that deviate from orthodoxy.

“If we remain ignorant of the eras of triumph in our history we run the risk of ‘chronological snobbery’ - the arrogant assumption that the values and beliefs of our own time have surpassed all that comes before.”

LECTURE 1 - JUDAIZERS

The oldest heresy in the church.

Known from the New Testament

Those coming to Christ had to be circumcised and follow the customs of Jewish law.

They are forcing Gentile believers to follow the Jewish customs (including circumcision).

Paul’s criticism of Peter for eating with Gentiles.

First church council