Heresy

Heresy is holding and opinion or doctrine which is contrary to the truth. In Christianity, God is truth, and heresy is holding an opinion contrary to God's word. To even recognized heresy in one's doctrine, it is necessary to believe in God to the extent that Holy Scripture is in fact the inspired word of God.

2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"

The writers of Holy Scripture were not writing opinion nor commentary; they were putting on paper what God revealed to them. Inspiration is sacred revelation; God revealing truth to mankind.

John 17:17  ^"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

Scripture is the word of God, and whatever Scripture says is divine truth. In order to be orthodox in doctrine throughout the ages, theologians have accepted that whatever God says is truth. and whatever is in Scripture is God's word. The term that is used for divine truth in scripture is canon.

Canon is the list of books accepted as Holy Scripture. In the early days of the Church, the list of books which became canon were analyzed from the viewpoint of originality, writer, period, language, continuity, doctrine, the nature of God, the nature of man, and a few other factors. It wasn't one person who examined the context, but a plurality of godly men. Hence, we have 66 books of the Holy Bible: 39 Old Testament, and the remainder New Testament.

As a side note, in the early church, Scripture was what we call today the Old Testament. When Jesus spoke, it was the very words of God, and hence the New Testament gospels and letters became canon for they were contiguous with Old Testament Scripture.

Therefore, to be orthodox in belief, one must accept Holy Scripture as the word of God, truth, and canonical doctrine. Orthodox, in this context, is being in agreement with established doctrine. Those who come up with new doctrine are tangential Christians: They are heretical.  There is only one true doctrine:

Ephesians 4:4 "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5  One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

In other words, there is one Church of Christ, not the denomination, but the universal Church. That Church consists of those whose beliefs are congruent with Holy Scripture, and to even be orthodox, it is imperative that Holy Scripture be accepted as God's word and that it is divine truth. Christians can't pick and choose, especially to give precedence to science over God. Science is full of theories; Scripture is full of fact because truth is factual!

Let's take for instance:

 Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

God said that he created everything; science says it all just happened. Hence, those who believe in Creation believe in something, but those who think it just happened, believe in randomness; and in effect, their god is Chance: the unknown god which the philosophers worshiped. (Acts 17).

If you believe evolution over God's word, and claim to be a Christian, you are a heretic, and are not of God. In effect, you have a god of Chance besides the One True God, and are in opposition the First Commandment. Because you are having it your way, instead of God's way, optimally, you are your own god wearing an ephod belonging to Chance. What I mean by that is you are a priest of the flesh, and not of God's priesthood because you are heretical.

God also said: Thou shalt not kill. Because you value your own beliefs over God's, you ignore what God says, and favor abortion. Those who even propagate the notion of pro-choice are accomplices to murder. As such, those pro-choice Christians (sic) are heretics. The list goes on!

Many modern progressive churches teach that scripture is not inspired by God. By their own admission, they are heretical. Those churches who believe what God said about Scripture are literalists, and Scripture is the inerrant word of God for them. That's orthodoxy. Those who believe that Scripture cannot be taken literally, and that it has doctrinal errors, are heretical.

From my own knowledge base - Episcopalians, Quakers, Presbyterians, Methodists, United Church of Christ, Catholics, Congregationalists, and some Lutherans branches are not literalists. The worst of the worst are the Unitarian-Universalists. As a general rule, if your church is one of those named, then they teach some degree of heresy. Of course, there are many congregants and even preachers in those mainstream denominations who disagree with the position of their denomination, but the presbyters of those churches are still heretical.

Included in the list are Catholics because they place emphasis on Maryanism and papal infallibility; neither of which are orthodox. That is ironic because originally the Catholic Church rooted out heresy, and were defenders of the faith.

For the most part, all those churches listed above have elements of truth, but ignore God's word in selective places; mainly that Holy Scripture is even holy! Since there is only one true Church, then these denominations may fall outside the realm of the universal Church, and should be avoided.

Personally, I have no favoritism. Essentially, my faith is in God's word, and all denominations understand certain doctrine differently. I attend a General Baptist Church only because they are the most orthodox in doctrine, albeit their doctrine has some misunderstanding (from my viewpoint) as well. I wouldn't even desire to go to the Church of Herrin because some of my own doctrine may be in error. Therefore, I am open to correction as long as Scripture is used for the correction (see 2 Timothy 3:16 above).

I have attended many of the mainstream churches, and some of them are mostly sound in doctrine, except for one thing: Scripture to them is not God's word, and as such it is not profound truth. With that laxity in adherence to Scripture, they have went wrong many places; mostly that the gospel of grace has been replaced by a theme of social justice. In other words, doing good is an alternate form of salvation. That implies that people have the ability to save themselves by doing good. God disagrees vehemently with that doctrine!

The intent here is not to offend, but have the reader evaluate whether they prefer truth or preference. If I'm going to spend my time worshipping, I choose to worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24). To worship him otherwise is blasphemy and is heresy.