There was an article that was posted over at ChristianPost.com entitled We Are Leaning Toward Heresy. In the article, Jon & Jo Veinot (I don’t know anything about the writers, so I don’t know their theological background), made the case for why we, as the church, are closer to heresy than we think. They start out by saying:

Few realize how subtly doctrinal drift occurs. It often isn’t a jump from sound teaching and belief in the essentials of the faith to all out denial but is a slight lean from one to the other. It comes with a slight change in wording or application fo a new definition which makes an aberrant view sound acceptable… This is how false teaching enters into the church. Yes, there are the obvious heresies all over the place. But that’s exactly what they are: obvious. But, I would argue, the more dangerous heresies are the ones that are blended together with truth. A slight variance here, and slight adjustment there, and all of a sudden you have a brand new theological stance that goes against Scripture and historical Christianity.

This is not a new problem but has been with us since the beginning of the church, and truth be told, we see it throughout the Old Testament as well.

Much of the New Testament was written to correct false teaching and lay down clear definitions of belief, including Early Church Creeds such as 1 Corinthians 15:3-7. The Church Councils formulated Creeds to clarify the essentials of the faith which were being subtly corrupted by false teachers…​

When we look at the much of Church History, including throughout the New Testament Church, we see subtle changes to truth. Compounded over time and unchecked, and you get full on heresies that resulted in the Catholic Church!

Jude 4 explains: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Now, the question is: How did they creep in unnoticed if they were preaching heresies? Because they were subtle and not obvious. By blending truth and error, false teachers are able to gain a following before their followers even have an idea that they are believing in false doctrine.

The article explains:

Many churches today opt for “user friendly” sermons, and do not teach the essentials of the faith on a regular basis. As a result, most who attend such a church are prey for cults and false teachers who use similar terms with different definitions to pull the unwary away from the faith.

Without biblical preaching, the congregation is unprepared to defend itself against false teaching. An uneducated congregation is nothing more than an audience willing to believe anything that is preached from the pulpit.

False teaching is widespread. It’s even blended in with the best of churches. We need to be on guard, comparing everything with Scripture. No longer can we trust what our favorite pastor or author claims (could we ever?). We must take what they say, study God’s Word, comparing everything with Scripture, and then forming our theology and belief system based on the Bible, not on any man’s teaching.

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