For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 1 Corinthians 11:19
Two young men – I will call them Joe and Dane – came into fellowship at about the same time in a certain Assembly. Joe appeared to be very sharp, and very interested in learning about the Assembly and about living a victorious Christian life. Dane was quiet, and had some struggles leaving behind some aspects of his previous life of sin. But he developed close friendships with some older Christians, and eventually settled into regular attendance at meetings and frequent participation in Assembly activities. As time went by, Dane continued to mature in the things of God, and developed an excellent gift in preaching, even joining with an older preacher in Gospel series. He is currently serving the Lord in full-time Gospel service. Joe, on the other hand, decided it would be good to learn about some of the cults that were in the area. His curiosity led him to become involved with some people who held blasphemous doctrines. He is now a regular worker among one of those cults, denying many of the truths of Scripture concerning the Lord Jesus. Even worse, he was able to convince a young couple who had been in Assembly fellowship to go with him. Heresies among the Lord’s people do happen, perhaps more often than we would like to think.
Why are there heresies that come in among us? The Word of God is plain and easy to understand, and there is no excuse for any to make a mistake. But the devil who has been so successful in deluding so many sinners all around us, is also a master at confusing and misdirecting the saints. In his evil role as the one who seeks to rob God of His glory, the devil hates to see Christians enjoying fellowship with our Lord and with each other. So he sows discord, and he sows doubt. And he has plenty of help among those groups who are opposed to God and to His Word. The various cults and false religions love to prey on unsuspecting and unlearned Christians, leading them away from the truth and into their errors. For example, the Mormons present themselves as good-living and family oriented. But their false doctrines fail even the simplest of research and the ordinary application of science. The Russellites proclaim themselves to be strict observers to the Bible’s teaching. But it is a Bible that they have written themselves, earning themselves deep judgment for perverting the Word of God. Moslems claim to worship the same God we do, but an examination of their Allah shows a repressive and cruel god who promotes violence and repression, definitely not the God of our Bible. All of these heresies are around us, and our best policy is to steer clear of them, lest we open ourselves to their evil doctrines.
The Word of God will never direct us away from the truth. We can trust it. We can also trust the godly and experienced men and women who populate our Assemblies, who will be glad to answer questions and to discuss the truths of the Word of God. -Jim MacIntosh