Heresy! Why Christians must confront false teaching

Jesus warned his disciples that false doctrine and false teachers would arise within the Church. He spoke of thieves, robbers, strangers, hired hands and wolves (see John 10) and of himself as a good shepherd, protecting the flock. So it ought to come as no surprise when the Church becomes something of a battleground, and all kinds of heresies spring up. This has happened throughout history.

In Titus 3, Paul refers to a divisive person as hairetikos, the Greek from which we get our word ‘heretic’. In Titus, it does not necessarily mean someone who preaches a false doctrine, but “one who creates or fosters factions” (Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary, Zondervan) perhaps through false teaching, speculation or immoral lifestyles.

The Henrician Canons of 1535 referred to heresy as “fireballs by which the Church is inflamed and continues to burn miserably”. These 16th-century reformers said the devil “daily piles up even more firewood in the shape of false opinions”. These would be thrown by Satan into the Church, to cause as much trouble as possible and lead people astray.

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