Why Does the Label ‘Heresy’ So Disturb Modern Christians?

There are, it’s clear, heretics.  There are, it is patently easy to see, heresies.  So why are so many modern Christians troubled and seem to be thrown into a panic when they hear the word used?

It’s as if they wished to say ‘Oh dear friend, don’t you know that these days every doctrinal aberration is acceptable?  Don’t you realize that if you hurl that bolt at the wrong-believers that you will drive them from the fold and they may never return?’  to which I reply ‘as heretics they are already, by their own choice, driven from the fold and no, their doctrinal aberrations (on central issues) are not in fact acceptable.

Furthermore, it’s as if those who fear the word have never read the New Testament!  But there it is, within its pages!

By Paul, of the troublemaking heretics of Corinth- δεῖ γὰρ καὶ αἱρέσεις ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι, ἵνα ⸀καὶ οἱ δόκιμοι φανεροὶ γένωνται ἐν ὑμῖν. (1Co 11:19 SBL).

1 Cor 11:19 in Sinaiticus

1 Cor 11:19 in Vaticanus

By Paul again, in a list of persons damned! – εἰδωλολατρία, φαρμακεία, ἔχθραι, ⸂ἔρις, ζῆλος⸃, θυμοί, ἐριθεῖαι, διχοστασίαι, αἱρέσεις, (Gal 5:20 SBL).

And in 2 Peter with the same sentiment- Ἐγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆται ἐν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονται ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, οἵτινες παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι, ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν· (2Pe 2:1 SBL).

So why are our contemporaries so fearful of calling a spade, a spade. Or a heretic a heretic? Because they would rather be liked than honest; they would rather be admired as ‘broad minded’ than denominated ‘strict’ or – in the eyes of some ‘Calvinistic’ or ‘Reformed’. They would prefer to close their eyes to what the New Testament condemns in the strongest possible terms than have someone think them ‘intolerant’ (the sin even worse than the sin against the Holy Spirit for this lot).

But heresy exists and aberration from the core of faith earns whoever swerves that label, whether they like it or not and whether the cowardly like it or not either.

Now, mind you, there are Adiaphora which are not worth arguing over. But there are also things which deserve to be treated with honor and respect and honesty. From defending these none of us dare shrink. As Zwingli notes in connection to the heresy of ‘soul-sleep’ – such things are ‘obviously erroneous teachings’ [and demand refutation]. Even now some things just demand refutation. Like heresy.

Christian Theologians and biblical scholars unwilling to call heresy by it’s proper name really should leave the field and take up insurance sales.  They’re just no use to the truth.

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