Is the word heresy in scripture? Acts 24: 14 says "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:"
I Corinthians 11: 19 says "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you."
Paul is saying that in order that those who are approved, that is, have come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2: 4, II Timothy 3: 7), to be elevated, by contrast,there must be others who follow heresies. Manifest is from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Number 5313, hupsoma, "from 5312, to elevate, exalt, lift up."
Then Galatians 5: 16-21 tells us that "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulful the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
Heresies is in this list.
Finally, II Peter 2: 1 says "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."
In all four texts which include the word heresy or heresies it is from the Greek word hairesis, Strong's number 139, which is said to be from 138, "to take for oneself, to prefer, to choose."
On http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=heresy it says "heresy: "an opinion of private men different from that of the catholick and orthodox church" [Johnson], c.1200, from Old French heresie (12c.), from Latin h�resis, "school of thought, philosophical sect," used by Christian writers for "unorthodox sect or doctrine," from Greek hairesis "a taking or choosing, a choice," from haireisthai "take, seize," middle voice of hairein "to choose,"
Paul and Peter did not mean by hairesis doctrines different from "that of the catholick and orthodox church." But the definition of the Greek word hairesis as making a choice is true. Those who follow false doctrines, or heresies, have made a choice to do so. They have, though, been deceived into following false doctrines by the false prophets of II Peter 2: 1-3 and Matthew 24: 11.
What would be an example of a false doctrine or heresy?
John Darby said that the "Church has sought to settle itself here, but it has no place on the earth... [Though] making a most constructive parenthesis, it forms no part of the regular order of God's earthly plans, but is merely an interruption of them to give a fuller character and meaning to them..."
John. N. Darby, 'The Character of Office in The Present Dispensation'
Collected Writings., Eccl. I, Vol. I, p. 94.
"Them" are all physical Israel. The church, for Darby exists to "give
fuller character and meaning to all physical Israel." Darby thought that the purpose of the
Christian church, the ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation
of Israel reborn in Christ as a spiritual house (I Peter 2:5-9), the Israel of God, made into The Body of Christ like the Catholic capital C Church, was to honor all physical
Israel.
Charles C. Ryrie (born 1925) says:
"basic promise of Dispensationalism is two purposes of God expressed
in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction
throughout eternity." Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today,1966, pp.44-45.
In his book, Dispensationalism (1966), Charles Ryrie says "The
essence of Dispensationalism, then, is the distinction between Israel
and the church." (page 3, "Dispensationalism")
"The nature of the church is a crucial point of difference between
classic, or normative, dispensationalism and other doctrinal systems.
Indeed, ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church, is the touchstone
of dispensationalism (and also of pretribulationalism)."
(page 123, Charles Ryrie Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press,
[1966], 1995)
J. Dwight Pentecost is another dispensationalist theologian who in
his book Things To Come ( 1965) says "The church
and Israel are two distinct groups with whom God has a divine plan.
The church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. This mystery
program must be completed before God can resume His program with
Israel and bring it to completion. These considerations all arise from
a literal method of interpretation."
(page 193, J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, Zondervan, 1965).
In John 10: 16 Christ says "...and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." There are also some texts in which Paul says there is one Body of Christ, or one saved group, one group of the elect (see: Romans 12: 5, I Corinthians 10: 17, I Corinthians 12: 12, Galatians 3: 28,especially, and Ephesians 2: 15, as well as Ephesians 4: 4. To believe that God now has two peoples, as dispensationalism teaches, physical Israel and the church, is to reject a basic and clear part of the Gospel, making the doctrine that God now has two saved peoples, two groups of the elect, and two chosen peoples, or really in dispensationalism two groups but one chosen people is to teach another Jesus and another Gospel (II Corinthians 11: 4, Galatians 1: 6-9).
Romans 12: 5 says "So we, being many.are one body in Christ, ane every one members one of another."
Galatians 3: 28 says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." I Corinthians 12: 12-13 says "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."
In Romans 11: 17-20 those of physical Israel who rejected Christ are broken off, but the remnant which did accept Christ, seen in Romans 11: 5, are the beginnings of the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5 and the chosen generation of I Peter 2; 9. All of physical Israel which rejected Christ were broken off and physical Israel as a house which rejects Christ remains broken off, though individuals who claim to be part of that house can accept Christ and can be born again in him, and in doing so they become part of that one saved group, that one group of the elect. This is a fundamental part of the Gospel.
To deny this part of the Gospel and to teach that all physical Israel, which rejects Christ, is still one of two of God's groups of people, and that they remain the chosen people, is heresy.
To believe in a doctrine that is clearly contradicted by scripture, and then to claim to be in Christ can be evidence that the person professing this is not really in Christ. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14: 6
To reject a part of the truth of Christ, when he himself is absolute Truth, is to reject the real Christ.
There are other words used in scripture to describe the falling away from sound doctrine.
Apostasia, translated as falling away (II Thessalonians 2: 3) is one important word. Apostasia can be translated as apostasy. Planes , translated as strong delusion (working of error) (II Thessalonians 2: 11) is another word, simply meaning that doctrines which are different from those in scripture are in error. Muthos, translated as fables (I Timothy 1: 4, II Timothy 4: 4, Titus 1: 14, II Peter 1: 16) is still another word for falling away from sound doctrine. II Timothy 4: 3-4 says "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Traditions of men (Mark 7: 8, especially Matthew 15: 6) can also be used to describe what John Darby, C.I. Scofield and others taught. "He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do." Mark 7: 8
"Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15: 6-9
The teachings of John Darby, C.I. Scofield, Lewis S. Chafer and many others that God now has two peoples, all physical Israel and the church is a tradition of men since the teaching has been around since the early and middle 19th century.
