Heresy

What it means

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.

In Scripture

• Galatians 1:8-9

  Galatians 1:8-9

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  Anyone who preaches a gospel contrary to the one received is to be accursed.

• Titus 3:10-11

  Titus 3:10-11

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  Warn a divisive person once and then twice, and after that have nothing to do with him.

• 2 Peter 2:1

  2 Peter 2:1

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  False teachers will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.

• Jude 1:3-4

  Jude 1:3-4

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  Contend for the faith, because ungodly people have crept in and deny Jesus Christ.

• 2 John 1:9-10

  2 John 1:9-10

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  Whoever goes beyond the teaching of Christ does not have God, and is not to be welcomed as a teacher.