There are a lot of blogs out there. Google someone’s name and you can find all sorts of information about them. More specifically, type a prominent Pastor of a mega-church’s name into Google and see what happens. I just did this and found out that Rick Warren is leading people to false faith and that Mark Driscoll’s new book on marriage isn’t a book at all, but a “sex-manual.” I could sit on Google all night and find out interesting things about these men or I could address a real problem I see in evangelicalism.
I would say that this problem involves jumping to conclusions too quickly and being very quick not only to judge, but to even call people heretics. Don’t get me wrong there are definitely times when we need to judge and there are definitely people out there who are heretics or hold to heretical beliefs, but I don’t believe we should be so quick on our calls.
To dial this in a bit we should maybe throw out some definitions. For this post I think it would be best to define three key terms: Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Error. (I will define these terms as I was taught in college)
1. Orthodoxy: Straight teaching. A belief or orientation agreeing with the conventional standards of strong Biblical doctrine.
2. Heresy: False teaching which threatens the very substance of Christianity.
- Material Heresy: Teaching of immature, untrained or ill-informed Christians that is Biblically unsound but not deliberately or consciously so.
- Formal Heresy: The persistent and stubborn denial of a fundamental doctrine in spite of instruction in the truth.
3. Error: False teaching that does not threaten the very substance of Christianity.
So there we have it, we know that if it is Orthodox, it’s good. If it threatens the substance of Christianity (key doctrine of God, human nature, Christ’s person and work, the Holy Spirit, salvation, etc.) it’s not good. Error is obviously not good either, but can and hopefully will be corrected.
To deal with all of these we can do a couple things. First, look to Scripture. The Bible alone is the written Word of God and is without error. This is where we hold to one of the “5 Solas” – “sola scriptura” (Scripture alone) as our guide.
Second, we look to the historical creeds of the Christian faith. A creed can be defined as a summary of a central Biblical teaching that is held by the worldwide church. The most common would be the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.
Another test or set of tests would be the “Seven Doctrinal Tests for Truth” that I learned in my college class “Modern Cults.” I believe these to be extremely helpful:
a. The God Test (Theological Test) – What do they say about God?
b. The Christ Test (Christological Test) – What do they say about Christ? (“Who do men say that I am?”)
c. The Bible Test – What are their views on the Bible?
d. The Salvation Test (Soteriological Test) – What is their view on salvation?
e. The Man Test (Anthropological Test) – What is their view on man?
f. The Last Things Test (Eschatological Test) – What are their views on the last things?
g. The Church Test (Ecclesiastical Test) – Do they consider themselves a continuation of the historic Christian church?
So there are many ways to discern whether someone is Orthodox or not and we should be careful to employ these tests before we hop on the ol’ “jump to conclusions mat.” I say this because I think it happens more often than not. Again, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely false teachers out there and there are definitely wolves in the fold, but we need to be sure before we make those calls and when it comes to a brother who is in material heresy or error we should come alongside in love and not tear them apart, otherwise we can end up like these kinds of people:
Extras:
- Good series on Heretics you should know: http://theresurgence.com/series/know-your-heretics
- Joe Thorn’s thoughts on Elephant Room 2: http://www.joethorn.net/2012/01/30/truth-debate-unity-and-the-elephant-room/
- Mark Driscoll’s reflections on Elephant Room 2: http://pastormark.tv/2012/01/31/10-reflections-on-the-elephant-room
kevindalehardy.com 
Dear Kevin, I could not help but wonder what the Orthodox think of the definition of orthodoxy you provide. Where you describe it as “straight teaching; a belief or orientation agreeing with the conventional standards of strong Biblical doctrine,” the Greek, Russian and Syrian Orthodox (to name only a few) would be somewhere else entirely. To the Orthodox orthodoxy is the ‘orthos’ ‘doxa;’ or the correct way, not in relation to mere convention but to the creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople, and acceptance of the authority of the Patriarchs and the fathers of the Church. According to this schema the Bible belongs to the Tradition of the Church, as the Church inherited the Hebrew scriptures and was the author of the New Testament. Thus the Bible too is Tradition and must be taught by the authority of the Church fathers. Moreover, in the ecclesiology of the Holy Apostolic and Orthodox Church you (an Evangelical) and I (an Anglican) are both ‘heretics’ as we have parted from the most ancient expression of the Christian faith on earth. Ultimately it comes down to the question of who has the right to label anything ‘orthodox,’ and further; by what authority is this done.
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