28/08/2024
IT DOESN’T MATTER IF A HERETIC “PREACHES” THE GOSPEL, HE IS STILL A HERETIC UNTIL HE REPENTS OF HIS HERESY.
Several years ago, John Piper took heat for platforming Rick Warren who by all indications is, at best, heterodox, and at worst, a heretic.
Also several years ago, The Elephant Room, a conference moderated by Mark Driscoll (who at the time still embraced Calvinism, he now vehemently opposes it) also took heat for bringing on T.D. Jakes, who is, in addition to being Word of Faith (a heretical movement), is also a modalist.
It has always baffled me that those who embrace Calvinism and Reformed Theology, always seem to “feel an obligation” to show that they are open minded and ready to give kudos to those with questionable theological positions when they get one or two doctrinal positions right.
I have always wondered if they think this is what “intellectual honesty” means.
Yes, they insist that they still disagree on their other views, but they have to agree that these heretics get one or two things right.
However, this is much more than baffling; it is concerning and I dare say, troubling.
First and foremost, this is not a biblical practice, the Apostles, in their refutations of error, never commended the false teachers for what they got right. One would think it is obvious that the point of Polemics is not to show how open minded the polemicist is, but how dangerous the doctrine being peddled by the heretics is.
Reading Peter or Jude as they took on the false teachers, you will be forgiven if you thought that these false teachers didn’t ever say any single thing that was correct or that aligned with the truth; and the reason for thinking this way will not be unconnected to the fact that neither Peter nor Jude thought it was worth pointing out.
You see, the problem with the Heretic is not what he sometimes gets right (it is very irrelevant) but what he gets wrong and the danger that what he gets wrong poses to the church. A defender of the Christian faith doesn’t go about his vocation hoping to be perceived as “open minded,” rather, his task is to defend the faith (once and for all delivered to the saints).
These men (the heretics) crept in “unnoticed,” and they were unnoticed because they presented certain doctrinal truths so as to be given a pass into the midst of the church.
Another problem is that human beings are notoriously addicted to outsourcing discernment, and one “work around” many have devised when it comes to the hard work of doing the due diligence is trusting the judgment of their favorite theologian. The issue with this is that while the theologian is able to wade through the heretics toxic doctrinal brew and sift out what’s right, the “follower” inadvertently takes the attempt by his favorite theologian to be open minded (as he points out what the heretic gets right) as a wholesale unqualified endorsement of the heretic.
It would after all be logical to think, “If he is right on XYZ, why can’t he be right on other things even though he is wrong on ABC.” Many unwitting sheep have been thrust into the embrace of wolves by “shepherds” wanting to look open minded.
Jesus warns, that “grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes” nor ”good fruit plucked from bad trees” (See Matt. 7:15-20). So, when such an unnatural phenomenon occurs, know that an enemy has done this; when something right is said by some who has not repented of the horrible damnable things he said, know that you are in the presence of a Wolf in Sheep Clothing and you will do well to keep pointing to his heresies instead of commending what you think he has said right.
Remember that nobody bakes bread with only yeast. It is still a little leaven that leavens the whole lump.
I said all that to say this, “Until Abel Damina repents of his heresies, he is still a heretic even if he “gets the gospel right.”
