| 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. |
| God wants to set us free from all of our ignorance. He wants |
| to expose all of those areas in us which could possibly provide |
| a home for heresy. So what does He do? Shield us from all |
| error? Make sure we are never tempted? See to it that nothing |
| we ever hear could lead us astray? No. He allows heresy to |
| come into our lives and tempt us. He allows it to come in and |
| play upon our weaknesses. Only then will those weaknessess |
| be exposed. And only then will we address them in Christ and |
| allow God to set us free by the Truth. |
| Suppose we are beset with a chronic illness. Wouldn't it be |
| tempting to believe that all we need to do it positively confess it |
| away? Or simply give money to God to buy His healing? Sure, |
| it certainly would be more tempting to believe that teaching. Fear |
| would motivate us to believe it. If there is one thing we all seek, it |
| is a way out of a trial. Often deception error provides one, but |
| completely out of the will of God. |
| But wait. If I have a chronic illness, and am confronted with a |
| false teaching promising me healing, it is also a great opportunity. |
| Through the experience I can not only find out God's specific |
| will regarding my health, but I can allow Him to use the whole |
| thing to set me free from any predisposition I have towards heresy |
| in that area. |
| When I am confronted with any teaching which I am not sure of, |
| or am confronted with anything which challenges what I currently |
| believe, Jesus says, "If any man wills to do His will he shall know |
| of the doctrine, whether it be of God...(see John 7:17) In effect, we |
| are to take all things to God and surrender ourselves to Him. We |
| are to be willing, in our hearts, to allow Him to adjust us to the |
| Truth, regarding of cost. If we have this willingness, Jesus says |
| we will come to know the Truth. |
| Of course, anything which comes our way must also agree |
| completely with the Word of God. That's a given. But the trouble |
| is, if our hearts are not right, we will read into the Bible what our |
| heart dictates. Therefore, even when we are seeking out the Truth |
| with the Bible in hand, we must do it with an unconditionally |
| surrendered heart to God. We must allow Him to deal with any |
| spiritual problems in US, and then we can more clearly see |
| what the Bible actually says. |
| Heresy is often God's tool for waking us up to the Truth. Isn't |
| it amazing how God uses even false teaching in a redemptive |
| manner? He makes the wrath of man to praise him. Through the |
| very heresies of the enemy God molds a tool whereby He |
| is able to make manifest in us the character of Jesus Christ. |
| There MUST be heresies among God's people. Not because |
| heresy is good, or God desires it. But heresy IS, because man |
| will not yield to God -- and God will not force us to yield. So |
| God takes the rebellion and falsehood which the human heart |
| is able to produce and says to us, "Seek Me regarding these |
| errors. And as you do, I'll deal with anything in YOU which |
| might tend to give place to the errors. The end-result will be a |
| heart which is a fit home for the Truth of God in Jesus Christ." |