29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Acts 20:29-30 (NASB)
Several years ago when I was doing almost daily battle with Rob Bell’s apologists I was asked by one of them what Bell had done that has so upset me that I would post some articles about him on this blog. His stance was that even though he disagreed with much of what Rob Bell taught, he read him and listened to him anyway because he liked to “be stretched.”…
Should we open up our hearts to hear the teachings of people whose stance on Christian essentials is marked by shades of grey? That begs another question. Is genuine Christianity made up of essential truths that are knowable? The more I study God’s Word the more I am convinced that there are no grey areas. God’s truth is always true and that part of it that we must know in order to know and serve Him is clearly taught in scripture and is knowable through reason.
What is a heretic? Professing Christians who are heretics are those who deny the very beliefs that set Christians apart from all other people. They deny those truths without which the Christian’s faith is impossible, such as the veracity of the Trinity, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, His eternal existence, His resurrection, His atoning death on the cross, original sin, and Salvation is ONLY by Grace through faith, which is a gift from God. Heretics and their teachings have traditionally been withstood by the Church. That was the purpose of the gathering of most councils and the writing of creeds. These were used by God to define orthodoxy.