| There Must Be Heresies |
| I
Corinthians 11:19 |
by David A. DePra |
|
| For
there must be heresies among you, that they which are |
| approved
may be made manifest among you. |
| |
|
Have you ever wondered why God allows heresy to exist |
| among His people?
Today it seems as if there is more |
| heresy than ever
in the churches. Some of these heresies are |
| doing spiritual
harm to those who embrace them. Yet God lets |
| them exist. He
doesn't seem all that concerned about |
| exposing them. |
|
For instance, take the teachers who tell you that it is always |
| God's will to
heal you. In fact, they say, send them money and |
| you will be
healed. That action of giving, you are told, will |
| release your
faith and insure you a harvest of good health. They |
| also promise you
salvation for your family, prosperity, and |
| all other kinds
of blessings if you give them money. This |
| teaching is
nothing new. The Roman church used to sell |
| indulgences in
the middle ages. This is the same teaching. Only |
| the trappings are
altered and modernized. |
|
It used to puzzle me as to why God didn't simply come down |
| and strike one of
these teachers with some kind of strange |
| illness which
they could not "positively confess" away. Not that |
| I wished evil on
them, mind you, but it's just so easy to get |
| tired of hearing
all of the false teaching. You tend to want a |
| quick fix. But
no. God doesn't seem to want to do that. You |
| rarely hear of
such things happening. |
|
Why? Why does God allow heresy and false teaching to |
| abound? The above
scripture tells us why. It is so that we |
| might be given
the opportunity to choose. Only by being faced |
| with false
teaching and error are we motivated to seek out |
| the Truth. Only
if the Truth is attacked will be have the chance |
| to stand by faith
against error, and thereby become all the more |
| strengthened in
the Truth. |
|
The nature of faith is that it must be tested. Otherwise it |
| remains passive
and only intellectual. But if something happens |
| to call into
question what I believe, then I can no longer remain |
| passive about it.
I must rise up and inquire of God. I must |
| allow Him to do a
work in me which will show what is genuine |
| and what is
error. And the wonderful end-result is that I will |
| then possess the
Truth by experience, rather than just in the |
| form of doctrine. |
|
The scripture above says that heresies MUST exist so that |
| THEY which are
genuine may be shown to be so. Note that. |
| It doesn't say
that the purpose for heresy is to ultimately show |
| which TEACHINGS
are genuine. No, although that is included |
| in the overall
purpose. Rather, the purpose is to show whether |
| WE, as
individuals, are genuine. In other words, God allows |
| us to be exposed
to error, so that through it, He might do a work |
| in US. |
|
Deception has many causes. But in the final analysis, the |
| reason we are
deceived by anything is that it appeals to us in |
| some way. It
either appeals to us in a positive way -- that is -- |
| offers us
something. Or, it appeals to us in a negative way -- it |
| somehow threatens
us if we won't embrace it. But when all is |
| said and done,
deception cannot force itself on us. We must |
| have a
vulnerability for it. We must give it a home. And often |
| we do, in total
ignorance of what we are doing. |