Orthodoxy & Heresy

I see the sovereign hand of Almighty God throughout history. Yes, I believe God allowed the heresy(ies) to arise, so Christians would be compelled to articulate doctrine that was already well-known and accepted.

I see the same kind of sovereignty today, especially in the area of the inspiration/authority of scripture. The fact that so many "learned" men attacked the authority of scripture compelled believers to research the original languages; not only in scripture, but also in ancient inscriptions and other sources.

The result is an exciting "re-discovery", if you will, of a more in-depth understanding of many passages of scripture, and a reconcilation of passages that presented difficulties for those who held to plenary inspiration.

peace to youraying:

 

Really? I see nothing but extremely complicated explanations and a reliance on human wisdom to explain the multitide of contradictions and differences of interpretations that arise from a verbal, plenary view of the inspiration of scripture. That view also creates a difficulty when attempting to reconcile the variant texts among existing early manuscripts.

"Heresy" is the result of human error that crept into the church going almost as far back as the church itself. The compulsion to arrive at doctrines of consensus by either majority opinion or insistence on a pure translation of scripture has produced even further division, along with the inability to separate elements of the culture of the period and society of the time the Bible was written from its principles and teaching produces further argument and disagreement over things that, IMHO, God doesn't care about. Then you have all sorts of human conclusions that get themselves worked into "doctrine." The idea that the King James Version is the "preserved Word of God in English," or the lengthy, but completely Biblically unsupported Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy are the results of that kind of thinking. Perhaps there is a group who can line their doctrine up with each other, but in the bitter, hostile arguments that result, their testimony for Christ and witness to his redeeming power are lost. The end result of that is salvation by works and fear of not being doctrinally pure that produces a legalistic religion instead of freedom in Christ.

 

Guys,

I believe your answer is 1 Corinthians 11:19 (KJV) "For there must be also heresies [sects] among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you."

God has allowed (permissive will) there to be divisions in the church for the purpose of manifesting approved doctrine. How so? By biblical study, prayer, and revelation to believers -- Berean-style!

skypair

 

Scripture is our doctrine

Men have always wanted to put God's word in man's understanding.

The only problem is that thier doctrine is usually missing some of God's word and is not the complete truth.

The whole truth of God is found in the scripture God has given to us.

We cannot place God in a box of man made doctrine as the pharisees and sagisees did.

If God said something He means it, we might not understand it, but we are not called to understand, but to believe.

Men will come against us and force their doctrine us, but those who stand firm to the end shall be saved

 

the cookie monster ate that post . . .

Oh well, I think orthodoxy came first. Next came heresy . . . trouble and then return to orthodoxy . . .

 

That's how I read the Bible as well.

And for further reference (and with apologies in advance to Jeff Foxworthy, even though I'm the real small-farmer redneck and he is the store-bought version), "If you disagree with me, 'You might be a heretic!'." :laugh: :laugh: :smilewinkgrin:

Ed

 

Good answer. Truth comes first, then heresy. God gave a command, afterwards, the devil contradicted it.

 

Noted several fairly good answers in this thread. :type: 'Course, "I may be a heretic (heretick - KJV) ..." , for I basically agree with much of the "Chicago Statements".:laugh: :laugh:

Ed

 

I agree that church history commonly displays this trend of unarticulated orthodoxy leading to heresy leading to articulated orthodoxy.