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Heretic: a dissenter from established church dogma.
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
In every generation, men have been called heretics because they have taught doctrines that were contrary to the recognized religion of their day. Some people even called Jesus a false teacher. In fact, after he had healed the man who was possessed with a devil, the Pharisees said:
"This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils.". Mat 12:24
The religious hierarchy rejected Jesus and accused him of working for the devil ... but Jesus was neither evil nor deceived. It was the religious authorities who were corrupt.
Perverted men will slander those who stand for what is right and true, just as they slandered Jesus. Here is a warning for every disciple of Christ:
"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" Mat 10:25
During the reign of Nero, Christians were martyred because they were not recognized as a religio licita (legitimate religion). "Nazarenes" were considered heretics by nearly everyone. The Romans called them a "foreign superstition" because they had renounced their pagan gods, and the Jews persecuted them for their faith in Jesus.
Even today, followers of Jesus are called "heretics" for demanding obedience to the Ten Commandments and opposing the "faith-alone" message that is generally accepted by modern Christianity.
We need to ask ourselves, "Who is the real heretic of Christianity?" The real heretic would be the one who opposes the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. In Paul's letter to Titus, he defines the heretic:
"A man that is an HERETIC after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted and SINNETH, being condemned of himself." Titus 3:11
According to Paul, the heretic was the person who refused to stop sinning!
Donna Kupp
"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, WHICH KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, AND HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST." Rev 12:17 (KJV)
Heretic: a dissenter from established church dogma.
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
In every generation, men have been called heretics because they have taught doctrines that were contrary to the recognized religion of their day.
In my day, the year 2008, the "Christianity" of the day is a faith were the president can declare war because the "God of the Prince of Peace" told him to, churches are always segregated, women are kept "in their place" and the past is denied and the words of man are put above the words of Christ.
Quote:
"Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are savage wolves.You will know them by their fruit. Grapes aren't gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles, are they?In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit.
Matthew, 7:15-17
Now, look at the history of the mainline Christian church, and what do we have? Crusades, oppresion of women, slavery, the massacres of the natives, Manifest Destiny, witch hunts, etc etc etc...
What kind of fruit does that look like?
I think that Christ would have been allot more comfortable hanging around with us heretics than he would hanging around with the new Pharisees any day...heck, Christ himself was a heretic! Look at what the religious authorities of his day had done to him!
"Heretic" is from a Greek word meaning "one who choose", and sense I choose to follow Christ and, therefore, go against most mainline Christians, I am indeed a heretic.
Even today, followers of Jesus are called "heretics" for demanding obedience to the Ten Commandments and opposing the "faith-alone" message that is generally accepted by modern Christianity.
Many who embrace the faith alone message are called heretics also. God bless.
I believe the heritic is the person of faith who does not practice what their Teacher did, but yet claim to follow them and their teachings. If you look at any faith, you see in it's infacy the pure message. It is usally based upon the Love of Man, and of God.
But mankind has really big egos. They desire power, wealth, and security here in the flesh. Usually it comes at the expense of others, but there is no remorse there. Why? Their ego dictates to their concience that the acceptable religion, no matter which, is the one where the ego can still maintain power and control, while giving the illusion of being faithful and following their teacher. The message is usally reinterpreted, watered down, or altogether reworded to conform to their haughtyness.
At some point, we all are heritics, as we all have egos. Christ said to pick up the cross, and follow Him. He said take the beam out of our own eye, before pointing out our brothers speck. He said that following His Way, mankind would hate you. Why? Why did they hate the first centuries of Christians? What was the message that was so threatening to the Roman Empire? And why did they adopt a corrupted version of the same message, using it to kill in the name of God? These are questions we must ask ourselves.
What is a heritic? Following a blind leader into a ditch. That would sum it up for me.
What is the difference between a fundamentalist and a legalist?
GLAG YOU ASKED!!!!! because this is a huge misconception among Christians who really don't understand legalism- It was the liberal press, Christians and non Christians that have given fundmentalism a bad name. Legalism is a term used by Evangelical Christians to describe a doctrinal position emphasizing a system of rules and regulations, in achieving both salvation and spiritual growth. Since fundamentalist do not believe in work righteousness-that there is absolutely nothing you can do to earn your salvation, then we do not believe in legalism BUT that is not to say, there are not any fundamentalist churches who do not believe in legalism. To be fair fundamentalism could fall into legalism just like there are evangelical liberal churches who do not believe Jesus is the only way, therefore we always have to be on guard. We need to be gracious to one another and tolerant of disagreement over disputable matters, we cannot and must not accept heresy. Fundamentalism is built around the 5 tenets of Christian faith.
1) The insistence that the Bible is to be taken as literally true.
2) The virgin birth and deity of Christ
3) The doctrine of substitutionary atonement through God’s grace and human faith
4) The bodily resurrection of Jesus
5) The authenticity of the miracles of Christ as found in Scripture and His pre-millennial second coming.
Last edited by Fundamentalist; 12-28-2008 at 08:49 AM..
GLAG YOU ASKED!!!!! because this is a huge misconception among Christians who really don't understand legalism- It was the liberals press, Christians and non Christians that have given fundmentalism a bad name. Legalism is a term used by Evangelical Christians to describe a doctrinal position emphasizing a system of rules and regulations, in achieving both salvation and spiritual growth. Since fundamentalist do not believe in work righteousness-that there is absolutely nothing you can do to earn your salvation, then we do not believe in legalism BUT that is not to say, there are not any fundamentalist churches who do not believe in legalism. To be fair fundamentalism could fall into legalism just like there are evangelical liberal churches who do not believe Jesus is the only way, therefore we always have to be on guard. We need to be gracious to one another and tolerant of disagreement over disputable matters, we cannot and must not accept heresy. Fundamentalism is built around the 5 tenets of Christian faith.
1) The insistence that the Bible is to be taken as literally true.
2) The virgin birth and deity of Christ
3) The doctrine of substitutionary atonement through God’s grace and human faith
4) The bodily resurrection of Jesus
5) The authenticity of the miracles of Christ as found in Scripture and His pre-millennial second coming.
Thanks for the answer, Fundamentalist. There does seem to be a fine line between the two.
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God bless.
