Opus 2023-110: The Need for Heretics

One man’s orthodoxy is another man’s heresy.  It depends who is writing the book and in many cases it is like history; the book is written by the victors.  The genius of America has been that we don’t burn heretics at the stake.  We just make them go start their own churches.  Because we don’t have an official church we don’t get too worked up over the differences.

Maybe we should.  I remember watching an advertisement for the Roman Catholic church.  In it a man was talking about how in his heart he knew Jesus loved him and he was going to heaven but he did not feel comfortable shacking up with all the babes, getting drunk and living a basic dissipate life style.  He sensed something was wrong and he found the answer in the Catholic church.  The problem was he believed in five point Calvinism even if he didn’t know what it was.  It made a difference in how he lived and ultimately would make a difference in his eternal destiny.

There are different types of heretics

Ignorant Heretics are fairly common.  This would be the guy I described above.  The ignorant heretics do not know any better.  It could be they were deceived by their teachers.  Often when you are new to the faith, or any organization, you listen to people who know more than you do and you function that way.  This is excusable for a time but eventually it is on you.  After a time you become...

The Lazy Heretic.  It always amazes me how many people don’t even know the basics of what their church believes.  Like politics, global warming, Covid and a plethora of other topics many people live in ignorance because they are just too lazy to look for truth.  I think that many of them actually know better in their hearts but would rather not know.  They are to lazy to look and think because it might actually require a response.

Deliberate Heretics are fairly common today.  The churches are full of people who know what the Bible says and means and yet in spite of that they chose to ignore what is perfectly clear.  One example that is growing more common all the time is to deny the physical resurrection of Jesus.  You don’t even need to do much reading to see the Bible teaches it.  These heretics come up with all kinds of explanations but they all boil down to the belief that they are more intelligent than the writers of the Bible.  They tend to put themselves into position as gods.  They are channeling their inner Eve in the Garden.

The you have the Heretic in Name Only.  This is a person who...
    Thinks for himself
    Studies for himself
    Comes to his own conclusions
    The traditions of the elders are only for background

This person is often labeled a heretic because he embraces the truth and won’t go along with the nonsense.  

I think all of this could apply to other areas besides religious belief.  It applies just as well to politics, economics, psychology, history, medicine, the list goes on, or as they say in literary circle:  etc.

We need more Heretics in Name Only.

homo unius libri