Unity and Heresy

We all are bound to confront unexpected challenges that will strike us with the fear of the unknown. We have to remember that faith is effective when there is unity. Any attempt to follow Jesus’ example of ministry will be ineffective unless we also follow His example of love. As we interact with others, take the time to truly get to know them, and let God’s love flow through us into their lives. Be alert to ways Satan is trying to discourage us and tempt us to turn away from God. Be assured that God will give you faith sufficient for whatever you need you’ll face. Let love inspire us to reach beyond our own inadequate abilities and resources and into the realm of God’s help. Be willing to try whatever God wants us to try, trusting that He’ll help us along the way. Remember that nothing is impossible with God. We can experience a miracle as God’s love flows through us.


From my position, as a Reformed follower which includes many of Martin Luther's writings, as well as John Calvin, John Knox and many others. "Reformed" defines the doctrinal beliefs holds that the purest expressions of scriptural doctrine are found in the creeds.
Nicene Creed
The Apostles'Creed
The Scots Confession
The Heidelberg Catechism
The Second Helvetic Confession
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Catechisms
The Theological Declaration of Barmen
The Confession of 1967, and "A Brief Statement of Faith"

Others I like to refer to are:
The Athanasian Creed
Augsburg Confession
Apology of the Augsburg Confession
Luther's Large Catechism
Luther's Catechism for Children
Articles of Smalkald
Form of Concord
The Baptist Confession of 1689 (original version with Scripture proofs)
The Baptist Confession (Spurgeon's edition)
The New Hampshire Baptist Confession
Spurgeon's Catechism
Baptist Faith and Message

Keep in mind, man-written creeds and similar documents are devices to keep heretics out rather than draw people in. The current division between the haves and have not in this area is a major hinderance to evangelism. I believe that each of us, as an individual, have a responsibility before God, to determine what is true about God and also what is false. What is true about God impacts every aspect of our lives. What is true about God -- not what each of us believe is true, but what is actually true -- determines what happens to us after we die. What, exactly, are we basing our relationship with God and our eternal future? Is it based on our denominational tradition? Jesus said that many people, when they reach the judgment seat of Christ, will find out too late that they were mistaken about their relationship with Jesus and with God the Father. Many people, Jesus said, will find they were mistaken in thinking that they were serving God while on this earth.

What is the result? I do have some concerns with some who are "professed Christians" in this world. What does it mean to become like Jesus Christ? That is the REAL question. There are so many who will proclaim to be a Christian but only few are really Christians. There are millions of professing Christians who "think" they have been justified, who think their sins are forgiven and that they are on their way to heaven, who show no evidence of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.

Is it important to you to find out? When a Christian who is saved by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, this Christian is living in a new Creature with holy conscience rather than sinful conscience. If we didn't feel the conviction and didn't have the motivation to change from "within", then we should be concerned whether we are truly saved or not. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." The condition of the heart determines how receptive a person is to the gospel. The Holy Spirit is the key. Faith comes as a result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit-He quickens our hearts to believe. Apart from the new birth, there can be no true faith. Without the Holy Spirit, our faith and our works are NOTHING.

John Calvin and Martin Luther were persecuted for discovering the truth of "justification by faith." Once this truth was established, Luther persecuted the Anabaptists because they felt the need to bring further Biblical reforms into the church. Looking back on that historically, we see that most, if not all, of those punishments were due religion trying to hold onto its doctrine.

Not a priest nor any other pastor would know if a person's salvation is true. Just as the Roman Catholic treated Martin Luther with ex-communicate. We must openly discuss with all who will listen, treating all Christians as fellow Christians.

Today, heretics often use force to persecute Christians simply because force works and often silences the oppositions. That is why heretics and tyrants use it. Webster defines "heresy" as, "an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards." In 1 Timothy 4:1 we are told: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." We are told yet again in Heb. 13:9, "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace...". Christians are looking for any denominations or non-denominational churches who teaches the way people WANT to hear so they could give their time to pursuits more to their thinking (some would call this 'conviction'). The question become, is the source of the 'conviction' from the Holy Spirit or Flesh?

My thoughts about today's churches and Christianity are this: "Why does heresy prosper in many churches in this world today?" Scripture pretty much explains that that people are more clever and cunning than believers: “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8). Heretics introduce false ideas in most deceiving ways as the following verses said: “But this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage” (Galatians 2:4) and “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation...” (Jude 4). They appear to be sheep, but are not; and the ideas they teach, at least at first, appear to be true, but are not. By their smooth words, they deceive many into thinking that they are Christian brothers and the ideas they advance are Biblical.

Are you, no matter what kind of belief you have, willing to change your mind and believe the truth, if it can be proved that you are mistaken? Is there anything more valuable to you than to be accepted by God? Or are you unwilling even to consider the possibility of your being wrong? The Bible warns, "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thessalonians 2:10b NIV)

We strongly encourage you to "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? -- unless indeed you are disqualified." (2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV)

"It is a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian Church have had a decided tendency to 'dishonor God and to flatter man.'" Charles Spurgeon.

"I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men."
Martin Luther 1483-1546, German Leader of the Protestant Reformation

"A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy."
John Milton 1608-1674, British Poet

This may sound like heresy in some quarters, but I have come to this conclusion that there are far too many among us who have thought that they accepted Christ, but nothing has come of it within their own lives and desires and habits! This kind of philosophy in soul winning--the idea that it is "the easiest thing in the world to accept Jesus"--permits the man or woman to accept Christ by an impulse of the mind or of the emotions. It allows us to gulp twice and sense an emotional feeling that has come over us, and then say, "I have accepted Christ." These are spiritual matters about which we must be legitimately honest and in which we must seek the discernment of the Holy Spirit. These are things about which we cannot afford to be wrong; to be wrong is still to be lost and far from God. Let us never forget that the Word of God stresses the importance of conviction and concern and repentance when it comes to conversion, spiritual regeneration, being born from above by the Spirit of God! - A. W. Tozer

I see things and I hear of things that Chistian people are doing, and as I watch them operate within the profession of Chrisitanity, I do raise the question of whether they have been truly converted. - A.W. Tozer, I Call it Heresy

As Christ is the end of the Law and the Gospel and has within himself all the treasures of wisdom and understanding, so also is he the mark at which all heretics aim and direct their arrows. -John Calvin