Smoky Mountain Reflections
January 2014
Happy
New Year. As we begin this New Year I would like to use my reflection articles in
the coming months to examine five historic heresies. Legalism, Gnosticism,
Arianism, Pelagianism, and Socinianism are five errors or departures from
biblical truth that just refuse to die. All modern departures from biblical
truth (either directly or indirectly) fall into one of these five categories. I
chose two commonly parroted phrases to begin the series: "All paths
lead to god" and "There is nothing new under the sun."
The first phrase is a clear heresy and the second is a sound biblical truth
found in the ninth verse of Ecclesiastes chapter one. Heresies are like viruses
that infect sound doctrine and grow within the church, attacking biblical truth
and sound practices. So before we discuss the five historic types, we must
first define ‘heresy’.
Heresy: A doctrine or practice contrary
to clear biblical truth. This is of course, a confessional Lutheran definition
of this word. Some will argue that "clear biblical truth" is a topic
for debate and I will refer that debate to my Reflection in November of 2013
when I discussed the topic of Hermeneutics, or biblical interpretation. So what
biblical truth does the statement "All paths lead to god" depart
from? The biblical principal of exclusivity. This is a clear principal taught
throughout scripture. It is the first commandment, and Christ himself claimed
this exclusivity in John 14 verse 6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me." The issue of
exclusivity is offensive in our postmodern society. Interestingly, those who condemn this
principal as too exclusive....exclude those who hold this view, while claiming
to be inclusive of all....except of course those who are too exclusive. If that
seems a bit circular, illogical, and ridiculous to you...welcome to the
club.
Now
that we know what a heresy is, let's look at the five historic heresies and
their many permutations, or various methods of expression. We will then see
that when the devil seeks to decieve God's people he just repackages his same
old lies. "There is nothing new under the sun." We examine and
understand heresy so that we can clearly understand the many ways Satan tries
to lead us away from God so that we can in essence protect ourselves from these
false doctrines and practices, just like a vaccine protects us from a
virus. The first and oldest of the
heresies is Legalism, which made its first appearance in the
Garden of Eden when Eve added to God's instruction by saying they should not
touch the fruit. God said they shall not eat of it, but He did not prohibit
touching. I find it interesting that
this first form of legalism could be seen as laying the ground work for the
first real sinful act of disobedience.
When we create our own rules it leads to confusion which leads to sin.
The early Christian church dealt with this heresy in the form of the Judaizers. Again, the problem with this
form of heresy is that it makes rules where God does not and in so doing drives
a wedge between God and man. It could be said that this is what all heresies do,
but each one does it in a different way.
With legalism, you end up with rules that are works you must do in order
to be saved or have access to salvation.
In the case of the Judaizers, they required circumcision, in essence
saying that you had to first become Jewish in order to become a Christian. This
shifts the work of salvation away from Jesus and puts it on our shoulders. We
see St. Paul and the other Apostles working hard to root out this heresy in the
early Church in the book of Acts and in many of Paul's epistles, especially
Galatians. They came together specifically to deal with this question in Acts
15. We know from Romans 4: 5 & 6
that we are justified objectively by works outside of ourselves in the person
and work of Christ. "5. And to the one who
does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is
counted as righteousness, 6. just as
David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness
apart from works…" All of chapter four is a good read on how we
are made righteous and justified before God.
We see legalism sadly alive and well within
Trinitarian Christianity today in many forms. They are man-made rules that are
not biblical. For example, the idea that some form of penance is required for forgiveness,
or that some form of decision on my part is required for a heart troubled by its
own sinful nature to be given the gift of faith, turning Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper into works of obedience, or requiring speaking in tongues as evidence of
faith. Whenever we require a rule or activity that is not based on a clear
biblical doctrine, as I pointed out earlier with the doctrine of exclusivity,
we fall into the same legalistic trap Eve did when she put words in God’s mouth
about touching the fruit. Blessings, see you next month when Gnosticism and
Arianism will be our topics of discussion.
In Christ,
Pastor Portier
