Heresy? ‘Heretic’? Really?

I have long believed that significant care must be taken when using the word ‘heresy’.

It is causally thrown around with, it appears to me, little reflection on the implications of its assignation. If I say someone is teaching heresy, then I am calling that person a heretic. And heresy is a damnable sin (see 2 Peter 2:1; cf. 1 Timothy 4:1-5).

In recent days, I have read on Facebook of the heresy of ‘continuationism’ – the possibility of the ongoing existence of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit – with regard to John Piper’s embrace of it, and that John Piper was, by extension, a heretic. This view, of course, would damn all Pentecostals and charismatics!

In a very different vein, I heard about the Filioque heresy on an Eastern Orthodox podcast. The Filioque (Latin for ‘and the Son’) refers to an addition to the third article of the Nicene Creed where it is confessed by churches in the West that the Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father and the Son’. According to the speaker on this podcast, all of those who see the Filioque as a Biblically-correct concept are being labelled heretics.

Now, it is possible that those making these assertions believe, as was once told me in my living room, that a person can teach heresy but not be a heretic. The topic on that occasion was the theology of Andrew Fuller, the remarkable Baptist theologian of the long 18th century.

My guest that night told me in no uncertain terms that Fullerism was a heresy (something that this person had affirmed in print). I asked: ‘Does this mean that you believe Fuller to be in hell?’ My question was based on Biblical passages like the two cited above, which, in essence, make it clear that the embrace of heresy puts one outside of the pale of the church.

To my surprise, I was told: ‘Oh no, Fuller is saved alright’. Well, this is a non sequitur. If a person teaches heresy and is conscious of what they are teaching and stand by it through thick and thin, then they are not a Christian.

Of course, at the root of all of this is a failure to distinguish between primary and secondary and even tertiary issues. Disagreement on secondary issues lies behind a good number of the various denominational bodies that we find in the world, while that on tertiary issues demands we live together and learn how to agree to disagree. But in both of these cases, we are not dealing with heresy.

Those who hold views that differ from us on secondary and tertiary matters are not heretics. Heresy has to do with primary issues such as the deity of Christ and the Trinity (John 8:24b; Matt.28:16-20), the Incarnation (see 2 John) and the resurrection of the body (1 Cor.15; 2 Tim. 2:16-18), and justification by faith alone (Gal. 1-2).

I suppose that I am not surprised by the present unwise use of the term ‘heresy’ since we live in a fractious age. But, O that those who are so quick to use this term might live up to their implied maturity and learn how to judge wisely!