Glossary
Heresies
A denial of an essential Christian doctrine, persisted in after correction.
These pages describe teachings, not the faith of any person who holds them.
What heresy is
In the New Testament the word behind heresy first meant a faction or party. It came to mean teaching that divides the church by departing from the faith itself. The church has used it carefully for denials of doctrines without which the gospel cannot stand, such as the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Christ, his bodily resurrection, and salvation by grace through Christ. Heresy is more than error or confusion. It is the persistent holding of such a denial after a person has been shown the truth and corrected.
Not every mistake is heresy. A new believer can be confused about the Trinity without being a heretic, and Christians who disagree about baptism or the millennium are not heretics to one another. The word is serious and should be used sparingly.
On this site, a page marked "outside historic orthodoxy" describes a teaching that denies what the historic creeds confess or the gospel itself. It is a judgement about the teaching, not a verdict on any person's heart or salvation. The site describes what a church teaches, and leaves judgement of persons to the church's proper courts and to God.
What Scripture says
Anyone who preaches a gospel contrary to the one received is to be accursed.
Warn a divisive person once and then twice, and after that have nothing to do with him.
False teachers will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.
Contend for the faith, because ungodly people have crept in and deny Jesus Christ.
Whoever goes beyond the teaching of Christ does not have God, and is not to be welcomed as a teacher.
When a church profile links here
We read what a church publishes about its beliefs and map it to positions on each topic. Where a position on an essential doctrine is one of the teachings below, the orthodoxy gate marks it as failing or as a concern, and the profile links to the teaching's page, which explains it from Scripture and says what is wrong with it, what truth it undermines, and how it can harm a church. Every finding cites the church's own words. How this works.
Heresies (12)
Teachings that deny what the historic creeds confess or the gospel itself. Where a church is found teaching one, its orthodoxy gate shows it.
AdoptionismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that Jesus was an ordinary man whom God adopted as his Son, usually at his baptism or resurrection, rather than the eternal Son who became man.
ArianismOutside historic orthodoxy
The ancient teaching that the Son of God is the first and greatest created being, not eternal and not fully God.
Christological heresiesOutside historic orthodoxy
Teachings about Christ that deny his full deity, his full humanity, or the union of the two in one person.
DocetismOutside historic orthodoxy
The ancient teaching that Christ only seemed to have a human body and only appeared to suffer and die.
Full preterismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that all biblical prophecy, including Christ's second coming and the resurrection of the dead, was fulfilled in AD 70, so there is no future bodily return or resurrection.
Justification by faith and worksOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that a person is made right with God by faith together with his own good works, obedience, or participation in sacraments.
ModalismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that God is one person who appears in three modes or roles, as Father, Son, and Spirit, rather than three distinct persons.
Non-TrinitarianismOutside historic orthodoxy
Any teaching that denies the one God exists eternally as three persons, usually by denying that the Son or the Spirit is fully God.
PelagianismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that Adam's sin harmed only himself, and that people are born able to obey God and earn salvation without inward grace.
Universal reconciliationOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that every person, and in some versions even the devil, will eventually be reconciled to God through Christ, so that hell is temporary.
UniversalismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that all people will be saved, whatever they believe, so that faith in Christ is not necessary for salvation.
Word of FaithOutside historic orthodoxy
A movement teaching that faith is a force and words have creative power, so believers can speak health and wealth into being; some of its teachers also deny creedal truths about God and Christ.
Serious errors (15)
Teachings that are not a denial of the gospel itself but depart from Scripture in ways that do real harm. Where a church is found teaching one, its profile shows it too.
Affirming theologySerious error
The teaching that the church should bless same-sex marriages and same-sex sexual relationships as faithful before God.
AnnihilationismSerious error
The teaching that the unsaved will not suffer forever but will cease to exist, either at death or after a period of punishment.
AntinomianismSerious error
The teaching that God's moral law has no binding claim on the lives of believers.
Baptismal regenerationSerious error
The teaching that the act of baptism itself conveys the new birth, so that those rightly baptized are by that act regenerated and cleansed from sin.
Denial of a historical AdamSerious error
The teaching that Adam and Eve were not real individuals, but a symbol, a myth, or a picture of humanity in general.
Eternal security without perseveranceSerious error
The teaching that anyone who has once believed is saved forever, even if they later stop believing or live with no evidence of new life.
Free grace theologySerious error
The teaching that saving faith is simply believing Jesus' promise of eternal life, without any necessary turning from sin or submission to him as Lord.
Gender transition affirmationSerious error
The teaching that a person's inner sense of gender, rather than their bodily sex, defines who they are, so that the church should affirm social or medical transition.
LegalismSerious error
Treating obedience to God's law, or to human rules, as the ground of a person's acceptance with God.
Moral influence theorySerious error
The teaching that Christ's death saves only by showing God's love and moving us to repent, not by bearing the penalty for our sins.
Open theismSerious error
The teaching that God does not know the future free choices of people, because those choices do not yet exist to be known, so the future is partly open even to God.
Prosperity gospelSerious error
The teaching that God promises financial wealth and physical health to believers who have enough faith, often unlocked by giving money to a ministry.
Semi-PelagianismSerious error
The teaching that sinners can take the first step toward God by their own power, after which God's grace helps them the rest of the way.
TransubstantiationSerious error
The Roman Catholic teaching that at the priest's consecration the whole substance of the bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ, leaving only their appearance.
Less grave teachings are flagged as concerns (9). A profile notes them too. See all theological terms.