Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Warnings Against Heresy Given Us in the New Testament. Sundry Passages Adduced. These Imply the Possibility of Falling into Heresy. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter IV.—Warnings
Against Heresy Given Us in the New Testament. Sundry Passages Adduced.
These Imply the Possibility of Falling into Heresy.
But let us rather be mindful of the sayings of the Lord,
and of the letters of the apostles; for they have both told us beforehand
that there shall be heresies, and have given us, in anticipation,
warnings to avoid them; and inasmuch as we are not alarmed because they
exist, so we ought not to wonder that they are capable of doing that,
on account of which they must be shunned. The Lord teaches us that many
“ravening wolves shall come in sheep’s
clothing.”1883 Now, what are these
sheep’s clothing’s, but the external surface of the
Christian profession? Who are the ravening wolves but those deceitful
senses and spirits which are lurking within to waste the flock of
Christ? Who are the false prophets but deceptive predictors of the
future? Who are the false apostles but the preachers of a spurious
gospel?1884 Who also are the
Antichrists, both now and evermore, but the men who rebel against
Christ?1885
1885 Hoc scil.
“tempore.” | Heresies, at the
present time, will no less rend the church by their perversion of
doctrine, than will Antichrist persecute her at that day by the cruelty
of his attacks,1886
1886 Oehler’s
“persecutionem” ought of course to be
“persecutionum.” | except that
persecution make seven martyrs, (but) heresy only apostates. And
therefore “heresies must needs be in order that they which are
approved might be made manifest,”1887
both those who remained stedfast under persecution, and those who did
not wander out of their way1888 into heresy. For
the apostle does not mean1889 that those
persons should be deemed approved who exchange their creed for
heresy; although they contrariously interpret his words to their own
side, when he says in another passage, “Prove all things; hold
fast that which is good;”1890
1890 1 Thess. v. 21. [But Truth is to be demonstrated
as a theorem, not treated as a problem of which we must
seek the solution.] | as if, after
proving all things amiss, one might not through error make a determined
choice of some evil thing.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|