Heretical discipleship and the light that chases away the lies

There are a number of reasons why we live in a tricky time to discern heresy in the church of Christ.

• The issues at stake are often not directly the truths of the ancient creeds – the doctrines of God and Christ – or directly the gospel truth of salvation through Christ alone dying on behalf of sinners – the issues that were so highly contested in the fourth and sixteenth centuries. The modern heresies are much more often issues of discipleship – Christian life – which is of course connected in extremely important ways to the doctrines of God, Christ and atonement but the crunch points and hot discussion points are often not directly treating those historic doctrinal issues so they can often appear to be 'secondary' or areas of legitimate disagreement.
• The issues are sometimes at the level church culture, mood, tone, emphasis and trajectory rather than outright and consistent false teaching. It is not necessarily the case that you can point to particular sentences and paragraphs that are heretical it is more that the overall feel is 'off.' There is more talk of 'us' than Jesus, there is more talk of brokenness than sinfulness, there is more talk of sight than faith, there is more talk of power than weakness. Not only the preaching but also the conversations, the attitudes, the décor, the budget allocations, the packaging, all convey a subtle theology of glory rather than a theology of the Cross.
• The key issues are often clouded by vague or hijacked language. Melvin Tinker and others have pointed out that one of the big things that Luther had against Erasmus and against many within the Papal Church was that they darkened counsel with intentionally vague language which could be understood in a variety of ways. While Luther aimed at razor clarity, nailing his colours to the mast with unmistakable forthright language, Erasmus dealt in mystery and ambivalence. In the fog of confusion good words are then hijacked and given new unbiblical meanings – liberal, inclusive, love, marriage, gospel, mission.

The answer, as always, must be that we go back to the Scriptures.

• Here we find not only the doctrines of God, Christ and atonement but also the hugely important structure and specifics of discipleship – how then shall we live. We find Christ calling us not to love ourselves but deny ourselves. We find a huge emphasis on obedience to everything Christ commanded. As we read the letters to the early churches we find that again and again their issues were those of wrong discipleship – either licence (2 Peter, Jude) or legalism (Galatians, Hebrews). These were hugely important issues that threatened people’s eternity.
• Here in the Scriptures we find not only truth but also emphasis. A lot of the modern heresies are about a wrong expectation of the normal Christian life and a wrong vision of reality. Reading the Bible not only corrects our doctrine but also helps us get things in their proper proportion. It helps us see the shape of the Christian life. It helps us to have a more properly God-centred, Christ-centred view of all things. And it helps us develop an instinct and spiritual nose for where the emphasis of a church’s teaching and practice smells ‘off.’
• Here also in the Scriptures hijacked words can recover their proper meaning. If instead of assuming we know what ‘the gospel’ or ‘love’ or ‘authority’ or ‘leadership’ or ‘discipleship’ is (even ‘Jesus’ himself) if we go to the Word of God and ask the biblical authors what they mean by these words, then we will often be shocked and stirred. The closer we stick to the Bible the clearer and sharper our language will be – light and dark, truth and lies, life and death – the further we stray from the Bible the more we’ll get lost in the foggy wastelands of human vagueness.

And here’s a section from Richard Sibbes to show that heretical lukewarm discipleship is not actually a new problem and to point us towards the gospel antidote:

"But in these days men take up a delicate profession of religion. Men will be religious, but they will suffer nothing, not a taunt or a scoff. They will part with nothing; be at no loss; suffer no cross; be at no pains with religion further than may stand with all earthly content[ment] of this world… A man… will not [even] part with things that are grossly ill… wicked and ungodly lusts that fight against the soul; …will not endure so much as a [correction]…This extreme tenderness in the matters of God and salvation is the cause why many eternally perish.

"Therefore labour first to have a clear understanding of the things of God, and of the excellency of them; for light will cause heat. Why… in John Baptist’s time… were men then so violent to cleave unto Christ? [Matthew 11:12]. Because from that time the gospel was more clearly manifested. And heavenly truths, the more they are discovered and laid open (there is such an excellency in them) the more they work upon the heart and affections… so to have our hearts warmed with love to Christ.

"What carried the blessed saints and martyrs of God in all times through the pikes of all discouragements? The Spirit of God, by the spirit of love, from a spirit of faith, and heavenly conviction of the excellency and truth of the things. They saw such a light, which wrought upon their affections, and carried them [full speed] against the stream (contrary to the stream of the times wherein they lived), that the worse the times were, the better they were."

(Richard Sibbes, The Love of Christ, Eighth Sermon)