Heresies 1

Heresies

Big Idea of the Series: This four-week series deals with common heretical beliefs held by those in society—and many in the church. Through examining some of these beliefs through a biblical lens and seeing the struggles Christians have had throughout the centuries, we can see the truth of God’s Word and how to gain a better appreciation of the importance of correct doctrine.

Week 1 Text: ; Topic: Doctrine, Belief, Heresy

Big Idea of the Message: The church should always examine its beliefs, in order to oppose heresy and reflect a biblical worldview. Application Point: We will reflect on our beliefs and ethics to see if they line up with a biblical view.

intro

Have you ever had to tell someone to slow down or stop?Maybe it was a serious situation or maybe something more comical. For example, let’s say that you are part of a church choir. You are singing, and everyone is in harmony, but there might be one person who sings out of key (like really bad). Hopefully, the choir director stops and helps everyone get back into the key of the melody. Church teaching and practice can be like a choir trying to find a rhythm and musical key. At certain times, someone creates a sour note that the church must correct to help bring the melody together. Those sour notes in church doctrine are called heresy.Christians affirm certain truths that are important to the Christian faith. Deal breakers….

now these deal breakers or These truths aren’t just minor things, such as styles of worship music or whether the church should have pastors or elders.  These are core truths that help define Christian belief and practice from that which is non-Christian.  Some examples of these important truths are  there only being one God in three persons (the Trinity),  that Jesus was both fully God and fully man,  that all people have sinned and are in need of Christ’s salvation, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God,  and that there will be a resurrection at the return of Christ. These are pillars that hold up the Christian faith (see the Apostles’ Creed and the National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith). 16Fundamental truths of AG

1. Doctrine     

The apostle Paul emphasizes correct doctrine (teaching,belief) when he writes to the pastor Titus, 

“You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine” ().

He also tells Timothy to avoid false doctrine ().

 When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. 4 Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.

5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. 6 But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. 7 They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don’t know what they are talking about, even though they speak so confidently.

The church has always struggled with false doctrine and false teachers. Paul is advising both Titus and Timothy to combat false teachers that were influencing the churches. One group that was a constant issue for the early church consisted of various Jewish movements that stressed “endless genealogies” () and adherence to the law of Moses for salvation (). The books of Timothy and Titus gave a context of “Jewish teachers, who were caught up in the mythological treatment of OT genealogies” and the confusion that these teachers (and their false doctrines) brought to church members (Ralph Earle, “1 & 2 Timothy,” inEphesians through Philemon,Expositor’s Bible Commentary 2, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990], 350). When something is a false doctrine, the church has used the termheresyto separate it from correct doctrine.What’s funny about church history is that many doctrines had to be written down and discussed because someone started to identify themselves as Christian and teach something contrary. Historian Bruce Shelly said, “Heretics, in fact, served the church in an unintended way. Their pioneering attempts to state the truth forced the church to shape ‘good theology’—a rounded, systematic statement of biblical revelation” (Bruce L. Shelly,Church History in Plain Language, [Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995], 47). In other words, faithful doctrine was often written down because a person in the church taught some new idea, and the leaders in the church said, “That doesn’t sound quite right. Let’s think this out more fully.”

The church has always struggled with false doctrine and false teachers. Paul is advising both Titus and Timothy to combat false teachers that were influencing the churches.

One group that was a constant issue for the early church consisted of various Jewish movements that stressed “endless genealogies” ()

and adherence to the law of Moses for salvation ().

The books of Timothy and Titus gave a context of “Jewish teachers, who were caught up in the mythological treatment of OT genealogies” and the confusion that these teachers (and their false doctrines) brought to church members

When something is a false doctrine, the church has used the term heresy to separate it from correct doctrine.

What’s funny about church history is that many doctrines had to be written down and discussed because someone started to identify themselves as Christian and teach something contrary.

Historian Bruce Shelly said, “Heretics, in fact, served the church in an unintended way. Their pioneering attempts to state the truth forced the church to shape ‘good theology’

In other words, faithful doctrine was often written down because a person in the church taught some new idea, and the leaders in the church said, “That doesn’t sound quite right. Let’s think this out more fully.”

Question:

Do you give your car a tune-up every year? You check the oil, fluids, tires, and make sure that everything is working properly.

If you don’t regularly tune up your car, eventually you will have to face the reality of seeing what is really going on with your vehicle.

It might come from a “check engine” light or a breakdown by the side of the road.

The discussion of heresy might seem trivial or irrelevant to your life in the real world.

You might affirm the doctrinal statement at church, but maybe you think or practice differently in everyday life.

Heresies aren’t different religions but mutations of the Christian faith. They happen in the church.

This discussion of heresy and doctrine is an important tune-up to help us know if we need to adjust our beliefs and practices to reflect the Jesus of the Bible.

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We Should Call Out the Teacher By NameWe simply must identify those who are teaching error. Paul certainly had no problem doing this and he instructed those who followed him to do the very same thing. In these passages written to Timothy in Paul’s “pastoral” letter, Paul does not hesitate to name names. He publicly identifies false teachers and ungodly men so others can be warned:

-10Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica

:15You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

Fy-ja-les & her-mog-o-nes

-20This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

1 Timothy 1:18-20This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

We are called to (1) Identify false ideas, and (2) Publicly expose those who are either living by or teaching others these ideas.

We Should Describe the TeachingWe also need to be very articulate about what is false in the teaching of these false teachers. We need to take the time to describe the error. Paul also did this, even as he named the false teachers by name:

Text: ; ;

-18But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and thus they upset the faith of some.

fil-le-tus

We are called to (1) Know the truth well enough to see the lie coming, and (2) Describe the lie to others so that they can be warned

Text: ; ;

Topic: Jesus, Divinity, Humanity, Arianism

Big Idea of the Message: The church has struggled to understand how Christ is both God and man, but it is a biblical truth that is important for salvation. Application Point: We will affirm that Jesus is fully God and human, and the only one to atone for our sins.

Application Point: We will affirm that Jesus is fully God and human, and the only one to atone for our sins.

Talking Points:

How do you describe Jesus?

Is he fully God or fully man?

Is he our example in life?

People talk about Jesus. People like Jesus.

How many people might never go to church but could give you some reference to the Golden Rule ().

Some people even think they are Jesus

But it is really important that Christians get Jesus right.

Roughly 78 percent of evangelicals believe that“ Jesus was the first and greatest being created by the God the Father”

A major issue with this belief is that you can’t have Jesus being fully God and at the same time a created being.

Even Christians can succumb to beliefs that aren’t biblical.

The early church struggled with how to describe Jesus.

Jesus was a human being but also divine. Jesus was our example but also different.

An early heresy the church struggled with was called Arianism.

Arianism believed that Jesus was the greatest and first creation by God the Father.

Arius didn’t believe Jesus was God, but that “he was a lesser being or half-God, not the eternal and changeless creator”

In May 325AD the council if Nicaea declared Arius a heretic .

Another early heresy called Adoptionism believed that Jesus was a human being who was indwelt by the Holy Spirit at his baptism and from there was given the ability to perform miracles and minister to others.

Adoptionism and other heresies like Arianism believe that Jesus was ultimately a created being who was given powers but that he was not equal to God.

While this belief might seem tempting, the early church strived to curtail such thinking because it didn’t reflect the Christ revealed in Scripture.

We might not fully understand how Jesus can be both God and human at the same time, but we certainly don’t want to minimize one over the other for our ease.

Arianism was rejected at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The Nicene Creed was developed to help emphasize the divinity of Jesus. The council stated that Christ was both fully God and fully man; this reality is referred to in theological terms as the hypostatic union.

There is even a christian hip hop artist that has a song called hypostatic union matters to us today:

Scripture testifies of Christ being both God and human at the same time.

John opens his Gospel by stating, “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus] and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” ().

He later states that the “Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (v. 14).

In , Jesus declared that he and the Father are one in being.

Paul later writes that in Jesus

“all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” ().

Jesus could not fully atone for sin if he were just a human being.

He was fully both God and man.

What are some modern examples of these heresies? Current Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was the firstborn of God but not God himself (Arianism).

Certain preachers have knowingly or unknowingly referenced Jesus as a man (Adoptionism), empowered by the Holy Spirit like you and me.

Both beliefs lessen the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Everyone likes Jesus. The famous song by the Doobie Brothers,“Jesus Is Just Alright,” declares that Jesus is cool.

New Age people like Jesus; other religions like Jesus. But the most important thing is how they describe Jesus. Was he a good teacher? Kinda “godish”?

As Christians, we must ask ourselves if we are correctly describing Jesus for who he is and what he did.

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