Category Archives: Heresy

Gender identity and the new gnosticism

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David Shepherd writes (on Ian Paul’s blog):

Gnostic dualism contrasted the ethereal other-worldly goodness of spirit and light with the transient worthlessness of flesh and matter. Consequently, Gnostics held that anything which perpetuated our God-given physical embodiment (including marriage and procreation) was to be rejected as evil, or, at best, inconsequential by comparison with spiritual pursuits.

Fast forward to the 17th Century and Descartes’ mind-body dualism (‘I think, therefore I am’) gave precedence to the mind over the body, conceiving the former to be essential and indicative of the true person, whereas the latter is relatively inconsequential to who we really are.…

Mary a source for John’s Gospel?

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John 19:25 Now standing beside Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 19:26 So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, look, here is your son!” 19:27 He then said to his disciple, “Look, here is your mother!” From that very time the disciple took her into his own home.

Garrett Ham discusses the idea that this short passage implies that Mary was an important source for the Fourth Gospel.…

1 Corinthians 15:28 – ‘The Son himself will be subjected to [God]’

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1 Corinthians 15:28 ‘When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.’

Donald MacLeod refers to the ‘formidable difficulty’ contained in these words.

‘They seem,’ he writes, ‘to teach blatant subordinationism: the Son himself will be subject to the Father.  Does this not place him very clearly on the side of creation rather than on the side of the Creator?’…

Kevin Giles: Trinitarian orthodoxy according to the Nicene Creed

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Here are extracts from a paper given by Kevin Giles at the plenary forum on the Trinity at the Evangelical Theological Society annual conference, 15th November, 2016 at San Antonia. The other speakers were Dr Bruce Ware, Dr Millard Erickson and Dr Wayne Grudem; Dr Sam Storms presided.

Giles’ main focus was on the Nicene Creed.  In fact, although he mentioned the Bible (or Scripture) over fifty times, and insisted on its primacy, he made relatively little actual appeal to the biblical text itself.…

Trinity: unity AND diversity

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Trinitarian orthodoxy teaches that the members of the Godhead are equal in nature but distinct in their roles.

In the recent debate about the doctrine of the eternal subordination of the Son, critics are in danger of over-emphasising the first of these, whereas advocates are at risk of placing too much stress on the latter.

This is not, of course, the only area in theology where a tension has to be maintained between two (or more) truths that human reason cannot fully reconcile. …

Subordinationism: what is it?

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Eternal subordination of the Son ought to be (but is not always) distinguished from the heresy of subordinationism.

Subordinationism has been defined as,

‘A doctrine that assigns an inferiority of being, status, or role to the Son or Holy Spirit within the Trinity.’ (R. C. and C. C. Kroeger, “Subordinationism,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 1st and 2nd editions)

This, however, is a little too broad, because (setting aside the word ‘inferiority’) it implies that any kind of subordination is to be regarded as heresy.…

Seven types of false teacher

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Chameleon-like, false teachers are able to adapt their colours to reflect the prevailing attitudes of their own day.

What particular types can be found in our churches today?

  1. The heretic.  This is the person who blatantly contradicts one or more essential truths of the gospel.  See 2 Pet 2:1.
  2. The charlatan.  This is the person who exploits the gospel for personal gain.  See Acts 9:9-24; 1 Tim 6:3-5.
  3. The false prophet.  This is the person who claims to have a fresh and authoritative revelation from God. 
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False teachers

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With the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ in mind, Costi Hinn draws the following points from the New Testament:

1. False teachers are disguised as good guys

2 Cor. 11:13–15 ‘For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions.’…

The ‘cosmic Christ’ and the ‘historical Jesus’

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Over the years, a number of attempts have been made to put some kind of wedge between ‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus’.  Some, for example, have distinguished between ‘the Jesus of history’ and ‘the Christ of faith’.  Philip Pullman, in similar vein, would have us imagine ‘Jesus’ as a ‘good man’ and ‘Christ’ as a ‘scoundrel’.

A couple of months ago, I read Richard Rohr’s book The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016).

I had been prompted to read it by a friend, who had felt reassured by Rohr’s challenge to evangelicalism’s ‘exclusivism’ and thought that this book offered a new and better way.…

Seven marks of false teachers

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Summarising this post by Tim Challies:-

  1. False teachers are man pleasers.  They deal, not in what their hearers need to hear, but in what they want to hear.  See Gal 1:10; 1 Thess 2:4.
  2. False teachers oppose God’s most faithful servants.  So it was that false teachers dealt so brutally with our Lord himself.
  3. False teachers teach their own ideas, rather than God’s word.  See Jer 14:14; 23:25; 29:9.
  4. False teachers neglect what is of greatest importance in order to focus on what is less important. 
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