Larry Dixon is a graduate of Emmaus Bible College and Professor of Church History and Theology at Columbia International University Seminary and School of Missions. He is the author of numerous publications and a frequent speaker at various assemblies and Bible conferences. Larry has taught at Emmaus as an adjunct faculty member.
“Help! One of My Friends and Some of His Friends Seem to Be, How Shall I Say It?, Uh, Heretics!”
I have carefully examined what the word heretic means, and I cannot make it mean more than this: a heretic is a man with whom you disagree (Sebastian Castellio, 1515-1563).He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took him in.
(Albert Camus)
Introduction
In our last article we looked at a biblical approach in dealing with heretics. We noticed some factors contributing to the rise of heresy (a turning away from biblical authority, a wandering away from the truth, and perhaps even an openness to demonic influence).
We also saw the six aspects of the character of heretics as described in the Scriptures, concluding with a biblical prescription to minimize heretics. We noticed that the Word of God is not naive, but immensely practical and straightforward in informing us how to deal with those who teach aberrant doctrine.
As promised, in this final installment we will look at several “sons of the church” who have either abandoned the faith or are close to doing so.
A Reluctance
To be honest, I must admit that naming names and pointing out friends or former friends who have fallen (or jumped) into heretical teaching gives me no pleasure. But they do not attempt to be anonymous. They have produced books, videos, and talks innumerable to advance their version of “biblical” Christianity on the rest of us.
If it is true that a public sin deserves a public rebuke, then how should we respond to those who have wandered from the faith, who have adopted a twisted form of Christianity, and who are using every available means to influence others in their false teaching? As Steve Brown says in his classic book No More Mr. Nice Guy, “God don’t make no wimps!” Let’s not be wimps when it comes to challenging these false teachers.
What About Matthew 18?
Some might ask me, “Have you followed the instructions laid out in Matthew 18 for dealing with a brother who sins?” [2] Granted, there are sins of the intellect, and false teaching fits into that category. I have approached a couple of these men on a personal level and have received little or no response.
A Heresy Hunt?
A few might respond to this article and ask, “Isn’t there enough for us to do in the church without wasting our time heresy-hunting? With all the social ills of our society, why fritter away our lives turning our guns on each other?”
First of all, we are commanded in Scripture to “guard the good deposit [doctrine] that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Tim. 1:14). Second, we are clearly warned that false teachers will come and will “not spare the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20:29). Third, I have observed first-hand the dangerous effects of false teaching and its evangelistic fervor to draft disciples away from the truth.
I am amazed at how easily we are victimized by the Evil One to “turn our guns on each other” in matters that don’t matter and fail to correct one another in areas that are critical to the Christian faith! Historically we have often chosen poorly (to borrow a great line from an early Indiana Jones movie). May I say it? Especially in the Brethren assemblies we have engaged in hurtful, unnecessary, and Holy Spirit-grieving arguments about theological minutiae and have missed the weightier matters of truth. [3] We have often failed to give freedom for differences in distinctives and have treated all theological opinions as first-level doctrines. This means that anyone who disagrees with me on any issue has to be a heretic!
We do not have to engage in a “hunt” to find these false teachers. They are publishing book after book accusing orthodox believers of substituting toxic versions of the gospel for the “real Jesus story.” Many Christian publishing companies do not seem to care that the books they market the most are doing great damage to the faith of many. [4]
I want to accomplish three goals in the remainder of this article. First, I want to list and briefly comment on a general group of false teachers and their books. I call this group the “fringe heretics.” Second, I want to discuss three prominent writers and speakers who have taken off the gloves and are repeatedly punching evangelicals in the theological face. These men I refer to as “friendly heretics.” Last, I want to suggest several steps we might take in responding to these heretics over whom we grieve.
Fringe Heretics
By “fringe” I mean those speakers and writers who do not profess to be part of the evangelical movement, but who nonetheless have as their mission the dismantling and overthrow of biblical orthodoxy.
Marcus Borg
Marcus Borg of the Jesus Seminar think tank has written books with titles like Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power—And How They Can Be Restored; The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith; Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith; Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally; and The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a More Authentic Contemporary Faith.
I am not suggesting that nothing can be learned from Borg. But he is not a conservative believer, and his sympathies are decidedly not with evangelicalism. For example, he stated the following in a talk at the University of South Carolina several years ago:
The notion that God’s only son came to this planet to offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that God could not forgive us without that having happened, and that we are saved by believing this story is simply incredible. Taken metaphorically, this story can be very powerful. But taken literally, it is a profound obstacle to accepting the Christian message.
(That’s my Jesus and his gospel he’s disparaging.) [5]John Shelby Spong
Another “fringe heretic” is John Shelby Spong, for many years an Episcopal bishop in New Jersey. Spong has written such books as: Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile; Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture; A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born; Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Virgin Birth and the Treatment of Women by a Male-Dominated Church; and Resurrection: Myth or Reality?
Spong has never been a friend of evangelicalism (as one can see from the titles of his books). He has not hesitated to make such outrageous statements as the following: [6]
- All religion seems to need to prove that it’s the only truth. And that’s where it turns demonic. Because that’s when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.
- I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God.
- I could not believe that anyone who has read this book [the Bible] would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. Have these people simply not read the text? Are they hopelessly misinformed? Is there a different Bible? Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and naivete?
- A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one’s anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically. [7]
- At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. It has nothing to do with time periods, whether three days, forty days, or fifty days. It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension. [8]If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus’ resurrection, also is not believable. [9]
- They amuse themselves by playing an irrelevant ecclesiastical game called Let’s Pretend. Let’s pretend that we possess the objective truth of God in our inerrant Scriptures or in our infallible pronouncements or in our unbroken apostolic traditions. [10]
He suggests that God might not be separate from us, but rather deep within us, and implies that Jesus was not virgin-born but rather the product of rape and was likely married. Jesus was not divine, but was a fallible teacher who was crucified. His body was not buried in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, but was thrown in a common criminals’ grave. There was no bodily resurrection, but his body rotted along with the other corpses. [11]
Other Fringe Heretics
Other “fringe heretics” who could be mentioned include Charles Templeton (his Farewell to God is a sad explanation of his departure from the God of his friend Billy Graham), [12] Thomas Talbott (his The Inescapable Love of God presents his case for universalism), Philip Gulley (his If Grace Is True does the same as Talbott’s book), and Bishop Carlton Pearson (his The Gospel of Inclusion also advocates universalism).
Friendly Heretics
Bart Ehrman
Here we are considering three individuals who either profess to be evangelicals or who admit they have abandoned evangelicalism. In that latter category, one thinks of Bart Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina. Ehrman spent three years at Moody Bible Institute, two years at Wheaton College, and received his M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees at Princeton Seminary.
A sample of Ehrman’s books include: Forged: Writing in the Name of God: Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are; Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know about Them); God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer; and Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. One can see that Ehrman’s sympathies are certainly not with a high view of Scripture. He is presently working on two books: Forgery and Counterforgery in the Early Christian Tradition, and How Jesus Became God: From Jewish Preacher to the Lord of All.
Ehrman has said things like:
- There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.
- Different authors [in the Bible] have different points of view. You can’t just say, “I believe in the Bible.”
- Given the circumstance that [God] didn’t preserve the words, the conclusion seemed inescapable to me that he hadn’t gone to the trouble of inspiring them.
One of the most amazing and perplexing features of mainstream Christianity is that seminarians who learn the historical-critical method in their Bible classes appear to forget all about it when it comes time for them to be pastors. They are taught critical approaches to Scripture, they learn about the discrepancies and contradictions, they discover all sorts of historical errors and mistakes, they come to realize that it is difficult to know whether Moses existed or what Jesus actually said and did, they find that there are other books that were at one time considered canonical but that ultimately did not become part of Scripture (for example, other Gospels and Apocalypses), they come to recognize that a good number of the books of the Bible are pseudonymous (for example, written in the name of an apostle by someone else), that in fact we don’t have the original copies of any of the biblical books but only copies made centuries later, all of which have been altered. They learn all of this, and yet when they enter church ministry they appear to put it back on the shelf. For reasons I will explore in the conclusion, pastors are, as a rule, reluctant to teach what they learned about the Bible in seminary.One can easily see that Ehrman is no friend of biblical orthodoxy. His arguments have been responded to by men such as Daniel Wallace, [13] William Lane Craig, [14] and others. [15] Timothy Paul Jones has written Misquoting Truth: A Guide to the Fallacies of Bart Ehrman’s “Misquoting Jesus.”
Brian Mclaren
The second “friendly heretic” we wish to consider is a friend of four decades ago, Brian McLaren. I have reviewed five of McLaren’s earlier works in The Emmaus Journal. [16] Some of the conclusions, which must be reached if one believes McLaren, are:
- The distinction between liberal and conservative theology is archaic; those theological wars are over.
- The inspiration of the Bible is not inerrant, but inherent.
- The penal substitutionary view of the atoning work of Christ is false and teaches cosmic child abuse by God.
- The traditional notion of hell must be jettisoned, for it presents God violently forcing people to believe.
- The evangelical understanding of the gospel is wrong-headed and focuses far too much on individual salvation.
- The narrative question: What is the overarching story line of the Bible?
- The authority question: How should the Bible be understood?
- The God question: Is God violent?
- The Jesus question: Who is Jesus and why is he important?
- The gospel question: What is the gospel?
- The church question: What do we do about the church?
- The sex question: Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?
- The future question: Can we find a better way of viewing the future?
- The pluralism question: How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions?
- The what-do-we-do-now question: How can we translate our quest into action?
Whether answering or responding…, what McLaren does through these ten questions is to completely rewrite the Christian faith. His “gentle lobs” rip the very heart out of the faith.… He denies the Fall, he denies original sin, he denies human depravity, he denies hell. And that is just in the first few pages. Needless to say, all of this leads him to a radically unbiblical view of the cross and the purpose and work of Jesus.… What does the Bible accomplish then? What does it teach us about God? “Scripture faithfully reveals the evolution of our ancestors’ best attempts to communicate their successive best understandings of God. As human capacity grows to conceive of a higher and wiser view of God, each new vision is faithfully preserved in Scripture like fossils in layers of sediment.… [H]is book is nearly indistinguishable from many of the de-conversion narratives that are all the rage today. Compare it with Bart Ehrman’s God’s Problem and you’ll see many of the same arguments and the same misgivings; you’ll find, though, that Ehrman is at least more honest. He at least has the integrity to walk away from faith altogether rather than reinventing God in his own image.… Here McLaren turns up the light and we see what his faith, what his Christianity, really is.… This new kind of Christianity is simply paganism behind a thick coating of false humility and biblical language. It is an expression of rebellion against God far more than it is a pursuit of new intimacy with the Creator. [17]Rob Bell
The last “friendly heretic” I wish to look at has received a lot of press this year. Rob Bell, mega-church pastor in Michigan, rocked the evangelical world [18]with his book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. I have written much in challenging Bell’s neo-universalism [19] and will not repeat all that material here. [20]
I believe Bell’s understanding of the gospel is a hijacking of the Jesus story and is toxic. He flirts with—and seems to outright advocate—a neo-universalism in which God will have all the time he needs (after a person dies) to convince them to embrace Jesus. If Bell is right, missions is ridiculous, martyrdom is a mockery, and there is no reason to get serious about evangelism. If he is wrong, he is offering an unbiblical hope to many.
I have sent a copy of my review to Bell and to the spiritual leaders in his church. He does not appear to be open to challenge or correction.
Bell’s book is thoroughly post-modern. That is, it raises many questions without answering them, and the answers given often lack logical consistency. The issues Bell raises must be dealt with by believers, for we will be wrestling with these questions for years to come.
Conclusion—How Do I Help My Friends?
First of all, let’s not be surprised when some of our friends are overtaken by or jump into unbiblical positions on key issues. Paul warned the Ephesian elders that “savage wolves” would arise from their own number, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29)!
Second, we must follow the biblical injunction to warn, warn again, and then shun those who teach heterodoxy. In Titus 3:9-11 we read, “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”
Third, we must train our fellow believers to be discerning. We need to discuss such books as listed in this article carefully, showing why they are in error. This should not be done in a new believers’ class, but needs to be done for mature Christians whose friends are impacted by such books.
Fourth, we need to ask, “Are we doing all we can to proclaim the whole counsel of God in our churches?” Do our spiritual leaders ask what doctrines need special emphasis in the upcoming year? Are there opportunities to discuss questions like:
- What is the gospel?
- What about those who have never heard?
- What does the Bible really teach about hell?, etc.
He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took him in,
sounds great, but heretics compromise the gospel, convince people they are in no imminent danger of eternal judgment by God, and must be prevented from leading God’s people astray. Do we have the courage to deal with heretics today?
Notes
- This is the fourth and final article in a series on heresies in the church.
- I have discussed Matthew 18 at length in my book When Temptation Strikes: Gaining Victory Over Sin (CLC Publications, 2008), Chapter 8, “What’s the Church Got to Do with It?”
- An example would be Darby’s insistence on his view of the non-atoning sufferings of Christ, once stating that if other Brethren did not see it his way, he could well do without them!
- Occasionally one hears of a Christian publishing company that refuses to publish such books. But the secular ownership of some of the largest “Christian” publishing houses makes such decisions quite difficult.
- Borg is a favorite source of some of the “friendly heretics” I discuss below.
- Occasionally, Spong has said something worthwhile. For example, I find it hard to disagree with his statement: “You can’t have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.”
- Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism (New York: HarperSanFrancisco 1991), 5.
- Resurrection: Myth or Reality? (New York: HarperSanFrancisco 1994), 12.
- Resurrection: Myth or Reality? 238.
- Resurrection: Myth or Reality? 100.
- http://creation.com/whats-wrong-with-bishop-spong# 2.
- Lee Strobel interviewed Templeton before the latter’s death: See The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 8-23.
- See Wallace’s “The Gospel according to Bart” which is found at http://bible.org/article/gospel-according-bart .
- William Lane Craig debated Ehrman on the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. See http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/p96.htm . Dr. Norman Geisler has a four-part video series refuting Ehrman (posted on YouTube).
- See http://www.tektonics.org/ezine/ijindex.html
- The Emmaus Journal , 14:2 (Winter, 2005): 217-271.
- http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/a-new-kind-of-christianity.
- One cannot watch the promo video for Love Wins and not be greatly disturbed. See that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODUvw2McL8g A fine parody of Bell’s video is found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8n1OST4gk
- See my review of Love Wins in a recent edition of The Emmaus Journal, “Love Wins—or Jesus Rescues? A Review Article of Rob Bell’s Book,” EmJ 19 (2010): 95-109. I have also produced a sixty-page response to Bell’s book entitled Farewell, Rob Bell: A Biblical Response to Love Wins (CreateSpace, 2011).
- Others have responded to Bell. Kevin DeYoung’s review (found at http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/03/14/rob-bell-love-wins-review/ ) is entitled “God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of ‘Love Wins.’” Mike Wittmer has also written a book-length treatment entitled Christ Alone: An Evangelical Response to Rob Bell’s “Love Wins.”
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