But there were false teachers among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 Peter 2:1
One of the most remarkable stories regarding religious denominations in the United States in recent years has been the split among Episcopalians over the organization’s endorsement of an openly homosexual bishop. To their credit, large numbers of Episcopalians, including many entire congregations, have broken away from the denomination in objection. Those dear folks have enough respect for the Word of God that they will not tolerate such a heinous sin among their leaders. However, one need go only to the head of the entire Church of England, the archbishop of Canterbury, to find that such defiance of the Word of God is rampant among denominations that once stood for a measure of the truth. Many of these organizations are no longer anything but social fluff with a smattering of religious language, denying almost every doctrine of truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. How long will it be before some of this error creeps in among God’s Assemblies?
It can’t happen, you say? Today’s text says it can! We know it did in the early days of Christianity. It took only a few years for the first love to wane in Ephesus, and only a few centuries for the gross error of Rome to ensnare and entangle the bulk of professing Christendom into religious superstition and idolatry. The history of Roman Catholicism during the medieval period is full of horror stories. But all of that evil began with a few bits of error sneaking in and eventually opening the floodgates for total depravity. How do we prevent error from gaining a toehold among our Assemblies?
There are many safeguards in place, of course, the greatest of which is the autonomy of each local Assembly. If error should creep into one Assembly, it is not automatically imposed on any other Assembly. As each Assembly, under the guidance of its oversight, stands firm on the principles of the Word of God, truth is protected. But other groups, some of which profess to hold many of the same truths as ourselves, have embraced such error as clericy and open reception, and are falling headlong into the evils of denominationalism. We need to hold onto truth and guard it.
We need to stand up and resist the devil’s efforts to make us like the rest of the world. Or else we will fall into damnable heresies. How pitifully sad that would be! -Jim MacIntosh