Christian Heresy In Christian Hunters

The problem with heresy hunting is Hersey Hunting.

And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.

It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.

— Philippians 1:12-19 NLT

Preachers with bad intentions, wolves in sheep’s clothing, hersey-spouting pulpit abusers. Oh yes, we are talking about Heresy today folks! We are focusing on heresy hunters because where there are preachers preaching heresy there are hunters hunting heresy. We are talking about Hersey Hunting today folks.

Believe it or not, Heresy Hunting is worse than the preachers preaching heresy. Heretical Preachers and Hersey Hunters remind me more of Dracula and Van Helsing than Christians edifying each other.

For those who don’t know, Van Helsing and Dracula is a dynamic dichotomy. Dracula represents evil infecting the world one bite at a time. Van Helsing is purifying the world one brutal gruesome murder at a time. they mirror each other in dramatic and veiled efforts to achieve their goals. They both believe they are doing the right thing, crusading their standards of good. They battle back and forth gaining micro amounts of ground on each other making their battle more immortal than the beings themselves. Every battle ends with Van Helsing gaining the upper hand, Dracula running away and the community or village is devastated in the process.

Hersey Hunting is the exact something. It always ends with the hunters gaining a little ground and the community being devastated in the end. Whole churches have been torn apart by Hunters and in the end, they became the infected hunters were trying to prevent.

Think about it, you know you have heard about a thousand headlines about Mike Todd, Steven Furtick, Joel Osteen, T. D. Jakes, and more claiming they preach radical heresy. And in some cases, they are true. These are only a few of the newer generations. This has been going on for a long time.

What does Paul say to do with these scoundrels?

NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

If you have that Hunter bug, you are probably feeling your blood pressure going up.

Why do nothing?

Even when they are doing it for personal gain they are still making Jesus more famous.

My wife and I have had this saying in our home to keep our minds on track. “Bad preachers are better than no preachers.” Someone preaching Christ Jesus as the only savior can get everything else wrong and still do more for the kingdom than the person trying to shut up preachers who aren’t getting it 100% right.

Mind you I am not talking about cult teachers like The Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) or Jahovah’s witnesses (who claim only 144,000 will see Jahovah).

There’s a problem with the passage from Saint Paul that I added to the top of this article. the problem is that no one wants to believe this or abide by it.

Yes, that means we are the problem. No, I’m not going to act like I’m above the topic at hand. I have dabbled in those juicy headlines and read the irresistible reports of alleged nefarious dark doings of pastors. Heck, I know some of those pastors through a friend or two.

We are all in this together. What are we all in on exactly?

NO ONE HAS PERFECT THEOLOGY

The word Theology is made up of two words (A compound word, for those fresh out of grade school). The first part, The, means god, while the second part, Ology, means a branch of study. Combining them, you could think of it as theology is the study, discussion, conversations, and thoughts on God.

The most perfect understanding of God to ever reside in a human resided in Jesus. Being that Jesus is God, that makes sense. No other human has a perfect theology because we aren’t perfect and God is too big for us to understand. We have limited understanding. We’re growing and learning every day. As a result, no one can perfectly explain all things about God. It’s impossible. Our tendency to hunt down bad theology is a tendency to say, “I establish the standard.” It’s the same way our great-grandparents tried to be like God in the Garden of Eden. What I am talking about is the ancient tendency to act like God. (Heresy Hunters are going to be angry about this one. Here’s a comment button for you.)

A HOUSE DIVIDED

Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?”

But when the Pharisees heard about the miracle, they said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.”

Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive. And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.

— Matthew 12:22-28 NLT

The culture of Heresy Hunting has formed a house divided among Christians. Baptists search for fault in Charismatics. One group embodies a different theology and becomes the newest target for knuckle wrapping. If one dollar is spent incorrectly then we deem the church and its pastor hellions and demons paving the way to hell.

Highway to Hell was a massively controversial headline for Perry Noble and Nw Spring Church one easter.

Let’s ask a simple question: Has a single article calling out a Heretical Pastor EVER stopped them from preaching?

No… No, it never has.

There’s a simple litmus test for pastors with flawed theology and pastors preaching heresy. Do they profess that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light? Do they preach that only through Jesus can sinners like us be forgiven? If yes, they preach the true gospel of Jesus then it’s not heresy, leave them alone unless they are your personal pastor.

If you want a checklist of heretical preacher behavior, you can find it in 2 Peter 2. Below is a list of common observations of true false teachers and prophets.

• Deny Jesus as God

• Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality

• They will set a slanderous example of Christianity

• They will make up clever lies to get hold of your money

“But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed”

— 2 Peter 2:3 NLT

Notice the only theological error in these heretical preachers is the denial of Jesus as God? So what does that mean? It means we are to observe the fruit and example of these preachers over their theology.

Why?

If we do not have perfect theology then we shouldn’t be excessively judgemental of other’s theology because who are we to judge? Spec meet log.

How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?

— Matthew 7:4 NLT

GOD’S WORK

2 Peter 2:3 has very specific verbiage I want to briefly address. The responsibility is of God to exact revenge on those false teachers and prophets.

Let me ask you a question. If you have kids this will make a lot of sense and if you don’t then imagine with me. Let’s say your oldest kid watches their younger sibling hit you. Let’s also say they go to discipline that younger sibling for hitting you. Do you have a problem with them taking on your role?

An article in Psychology Today says the following:

Parentification is when a child is forced to take on the role of an adult. Many children get pushed into the role of caretaker for their younger siblings or become the referee in their parent’s arguments. When caregivers aren’t able to fully show up for themselves, children get put into developmentally inappropriate situations.

— Whitney Goodman LMFT, 14 Signs You Were Parentified as a Child

The responsibility of discipline belongs on the shoulders of the parent, not the child. If so, why are we, as God's children, trying to discipline for our father?

Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

“I will take revenge;
    I will pay them back,”
    says the Lord.

— Romans 12:17-19 NLT

It’s not your job to call out random pastors you don’t know for what you think is wrong with their teaching.

WHAT DO I DO?

Are we to sit and do nothing? Absolutely not. The Bible is very clear that we are to actively expose and rebuke false teaching. Sounds like I’m contradicting myself, right?

There is one difference between doing God’s job of exacting revenge and biblically exposing evil.

Proximity

Matthew 7:4 mentions a spec you see in someone else’s eye and the log in your own. Here’s the thing, you can’t see a spec from far away. When you have people in your church who are professing heresy, you should approach them about it.

Matthew 18:15-17 says we are to go to them in three phases:

1. In private

2. With someone else

3. In front of the church

Relational proximity is the determining factor. We need to be comfortable both calling each other out on our theology and being wrong about calling people out in theology. We also need to make sure we are aware of what deserves to be called out. This is to be expressed in your local church that you attend. If you attend a megachurch, then reach out to the pastor closest to you relationally. If nothing changes, leave.

This might seem cold but the reality is that more than being cool, accepted, or right we need to keep each out accountable to the gospel with grace and love. I leave you with this: the grass is always greenest where you water it.