The Dangers of Heretic Hunting

There are some Christians who take it upon themselves to be “heretic hunters.” These are not people who point out differences between Christianity and other religions, or even Christian-like sects that have never been considered a part of historic Christianity. This is looking within the church for those who are heretics.

To be fair, we do see Paul in the New Testament calling out certain people who have fallen into error. In some cases, he even names names. I think it is clear that there is a place to call out error.

However, there are some people who seem to always have their radar going, looking for a theological error that they can label as heresy. It makes me exhausted just watching them look for the next heretic.

There have been some recent online discussions about the definition of heresy. People have pointed out that some of those who are getting labelled heretics actually hold to historic faith as demonstrated in the Apostle’s and the Nicene Creed.

The pushback is that perhaps those creeds are not enough. The early church did not address everything we are interested in today, especially sexuality. Is there a need for a stricter definition?

When we look at the first five hundred years of the church, we do see Christians who are very interested in heresy. But what we also see is a focus almost completely on the nature of Christ, with some discussions on the Holy Spirit. The question was often about the relationship of the Son (and Spirit) with the Father.

What does that tell us? Is it because the Church Fathers were not farsighted enough or were their debates exactly where they needed to be?

What about sexuality? There are Christians who believe you can be gay and Christian. There are Christians who believe such Christians are heretics. Some would say you cannot be a Christian and gay, and you cannot be a Christian and affirm gay people. However, the creeds do not help us here.

It is not as if the early Christians were not interested in sex. They talked about it and had some pretty strong views. Some Christians affirmed sex between a husband and wife. Some other Christians allowed sex between a husband and wife as long as they did not enjoy it and it was done solely for procreation. And then there were Christians who strongly believed that all sex was wrong, all Christians should be celibate, and that even husbands and wives should refrain from sex.

There were differences of interpretation and yet they were not considered heresies.

When we look at heresy hunting, the closest we see in the Bible to what is going on today is the conflict between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity, or at least between some representatives from each group.

Some (not all) Jewish Christians believed Gentiles who wanted to become Christians were required to observe the Law with the sign of circumcision. To them it was completely obvious.

There were other Christians, led especially by Paul, that taught that faith in Christ was enough to be a Christian. This led to tension and debates and even a church council. We can see in Acts and Paul’s letters how much of a division this was.

Those Jewish Christians had a sincere belief that the Law was required for all Christians. Did this make them heretics? No. Did it make the Gentile Christians who were not circumcised heretics? Again, no.

You might look at the beliefs of a certain Christian or a certain group and it maybe completely obvious that they are wrong. And perhaps they are wrong.

Here is the point that many heresy hunters often miss. You can be wrong about a point of theology and not be a heretic. In fact, if anyone who is wrong on a point of theology is a heretic, then we are all heretics! I really doubt that anyone today is 100% correct in all their theology.

I am not saying that we should be silent on what we believe or that our convictions are wrong. What I am saying is that we should not be putting our effort into who is in and who is out. Labelling someone a heretic does not help anything and only serves to make the accuse feel good about themselves.

Are you a heretic hunter? That may come from a sincere passion for the truth. But there is a way to uphold the truth in a way that does not toss around the heretic label. Share the truth in a winsome way and let people figure things out for themselves.