Coming to the Aid of
those who teach Heresy
The silence of many tells a frightening story that says that
if we cannot and will not speak up on even the basic issue of what to do to be
saved, the church is ripe for a mass apostasy.
If “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 4) means to keep silent
because one must never engage “much dispute”(Acts 15), then we are not even the
same church as the church that Stephen stood and died for engaging in debate
with the Synagogue of the Freedmen and others (Acts 6-7). If we cannot engage “much dispute” as the
apostles and elders did in Acts 15, we have received a different set of morals
and principles than they received and we stand to be taken over by “every wind
of doctrine” that blows in (Eph.4:11-16).
If you do not have the courage of conviction to oppose and
challenge brethren bringing in a wind of doctrine contrary to the New Testament
our Lord died for, then please let me encourage you not to stand in the way or
discourage those who are trying to take a clear stand for the truth. If you suspect that someone who challenges
another is being unkind and has not prayed fervently and tried to appeal to
those brethren behind the scenes, at
least ask them before you make that rash judgment. We need to make sure we are
not aiming our displeasure in the wrong direction. If you think, without even investigating,
that brethren have “‘handled this all wrong”, and you have not demonstrated how
it SHOULD be handled by actually getting involved with the teacher of error to
try, in whatever way you imagine he should be confronted, to move him/her to
correct their error, then don’t discourage those who are trying, in their best
judgment, to do what you should have
already handled yourself. This spirit of aiming your displeasure, not at the
teachers of error, but at the defenders of truth, really plays well into Satan’s
hands. There is nothing he would like better than for brethren to either say
nothing or to come to the aid of those who teach heresy. We really need to think about this. – Terry
W. Benton
