"Heresy"/"Airesis" (#5)

7. The heresies of 2 Peter 2.1ff. are more severe than ordinary divisions because they involve divergent teachings insidiously introduced by false teachers. 8. 2 Peter 2.1-3: But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their indecent behavior, and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed, they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 9. 2 Peter 2.1-3: 1 Ἐγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆται ἐν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονται ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, οἵτινες παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι, ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν.2 καὶ πολλοὶ ἐξακολουθήσουσιν αὐτῶν ταῖς ἀσελγείαις, δι' οὓς ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας βλασφημηθήσεται·3 καὶ ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ πλαστοῖς λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονται· οἷς τὸ κρίμα ἔκπαλαι οὐκ ἀργεῖ, καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζει. 10. Thus, the idea of incompatibility of opinion or doctrinal aberrations is added to that faction. The term “heresy” is well on its way to the technical sense acquired in Christian history. 11. In Titus 3, verses 9 through 11, the heretic, the person who is factious, engaging in controversies and dissensions, is to be admonished twice and, if stubbornly shunned and the community shunned by the community as perverted, sinful, and self-condemned. 12. Titus 3.9-11: But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the Law, for they are useless and worthless. 10 Reject a [a]divisive person after a first and second warning, 11 knowing that such a person has deviated from what is right and is sinning, being self-condemned. 13. Titus 3.9-11: 9 μωρὰς δὲ ζητήσεις καὶ γενεαλογίας καὶ ἔρεις καὶ μάχας νομικὰς περιΐστασο, εἰσὶν γὰρ ἀνωφελεῖς καὶ μάταιοι.10 αἱρετικὸν ἄνθρωπον μετὰ μίαν καὶ δευτέραν νουθεσίαν παραιτοῦ,11 εἰδὼς ὅτι ἐξέστραπται ὁ τοιοῦτος καὶ ἁμαρτάνει, ὢν αὐτοκατάκριτος. 14. We briefly looked at “airesis” or “heresy” in the NT with its narrow and wider meanings. The Christian writers of the first two centuries, such as Justin Martyr in the Dialogues, used the term "heresies" for the philosophical schools of the Jewish church parties. However, they knew that parties had no place in the church, particularly when they were not just schismatic but held divergent opinions under private and unauthorized leadership. Ignatius (Ephesus Epistle 6.2) and Justin's Dialogue (51.2) also clarified this. 15. Consequently, the word "heresy" finally changes meaning, becoming technical in church history. Although the original sense may still be glimpsed, heresy arises when a party develops around a particular leader who is self-willed and possibly self-appointed, whose divergent opinion poses a common teaching of the church. The offense of heresy has three aspects: (1) It represents an individualistic choice; (2) It diverges from primary teaching; and (3) It repudiates the very being of the church. 16. Several Christian heresies have arisen over centuries of Christian history. This is not surprising, given the divergent opinions held on almost all the church's teachings. However, heresies have only arisen where these opinions have been actively promoted. To list all of these would be a tedious task. Accounts of early heresies can be found in the Panarion by Epiphanius of the 4th century and Book Two of The Fount of Divine Wisdom by John Damascus of the 8th century. While we will attempt to identify the major heresies, having a good list from the 19th and 21st centuries is notable and especially important. 17. As a good reminder, the old Princetonians did stellar work repelling the hubristic German critics, whose toxic views wafted across the Atlantic and infected all mainline denominations. We are witnesses to the results of those theologies. 18. MODERNISM OR LIBERALISM. This is the great 19th- to 20th-century heresy, poisoning the entire Protestant mainline. It is the Protestant heresy of the modern age, full of many individual heresies. Thankfully, there has been and is a wide academic pushback. We need a detailed list of such.