Tertullian Revisited: Chapter 5 - Every Generation in the Church needs to be aware of Heresy

Chapter 5 - Every Generation in the Church needs to be aware of Heresy.

Apart from confronting heresy, the Church also needs to use it as a means of fortifying the faith. The Gospel message has to be purely preached in every generation, otherwise the values of the past, which belong to Christ, will degenerate and faith will diminish. Popular slogans such as “getting back to the basics” or “what would Jesus do?” have lost their appeal because they have been used too often and treated glibly by Christians. What the Church requires is a long term plan for each generation to be nurtured and grown in the faith from birth to death. Biblical ignorance feeds heresy; Christian education destroys it.

Heresy seeks out the young and the lost. It looks for immaturity of faith and disappointment in the Church. It preys upon dissension and division, uncertainty and unholiness. It is cultic and tantalizing, hypnotic and intriguing. Souls are lost to heresy in people that seek flattery, importance and esteem, instead of humility, service, and devotion to God.

The degrees of heresy manifest themselves in arrogance, petulance, belligerence, and indifference. Instead of supporting the life, work, and mission of the Church, heretics have their own agenda to which all else must submit. They thrive on the silent and impassive nature of the sheepish majority. Where churches seek to keep the peace amongst the faithful, heresies abound because courtesy builds a hedge around confrontation. Where churches seek to make peace with God, heresy is confronted and exposed.

The real damage that heresies make in the Church is the amount of divisions that can occur in any one group. Fragmentation of the faithful community and severing traditional ways are given a high priority by heretics. They don’t want to be chained to the past, because this would make them mere servants of God. They want to emerge as a dominant force amongst the faithful, instead of merging with past generations. In short, they seek to glorify themselves and be exalted above all past generations. They see their movement as essential to the Church of tomorrow, forgetting that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Past leaders of the Christ’s Church have tackled heresy by pointing out its failures to submit to the will of God and be subservient to Jesus. The tragedy of today’s Church is that it wants to be all inclusive at the expense of being faithful to God’s Kingdom. The Gospel values of the past are jettisoned, whilst the ever-present culture is engaged. Instead of being wed to Christ, the Church wants to be wooed by the world. Heresy, therefore, is a departure from all that has been revered in the past. It seeks to be falsely revered for its own sake, instead of being willing to be scorned for Christ’s sake.

Battleground

Audio version here

John 17:23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (NIV)

There’s a lot of selfish-minded and self-destructive people in the Christian church today, especially in the United States. Christians are expressing their loathing of one another and causing upsets in congregations across all denominations. Usually, these divisions are created through different interpretations of scripture, dogma, and traditional ways. They involve worship wars, clergy wars, and lifestyle wars. Instead of being places where Christ’s peace can be experienced, churches are becoming battlegrounds for discontent, division, and schism. Perhaps, at the end of this century, the establishment that we call church today will be so fragmented that its message will be feeble and futile in an increasingly secular world.

Jesus doesn’t mince His words or pull any punches. The purpose of a united church is to consolidate the faithful and present an effective message to the world. We seem to have forgotten, in the midst of our skirmishes and schisms, that the church was established to go out into a divided, barbaric, and pagan world, presenting a message of peace, hope, and love.

But because we have become sinfully selfish, rebellious and intolerant, the world no longer listens to the message we are preaching and presenting because we are not practicing it. If we honestly want to become more effective and evangelize the world once again, we’ve got to get honest with ourselves and ask these questions: what are we doing that disturbs the unity and peace of the church? What can we do to promote Christ’s peace in a loving, faithful, genuine, and effective manner?

As always, if we want to change the world, it begins at home. And so, if we want to change the church, it begins in our souls.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, Your Church is beset with battles and scarred with schisms. Pride and prejudice have contaminated our souls and belittled Your work in the world. Forgive us for being headstrong and foolish, vain and conceited. Help us to get back on to the path that You have proclaimed for two thousand years – the path of peace and not self-promotion – the road to unity and not division. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

Quo Vadis?

Where, O where is our denomination going, Lord?