What is Heresy? #podcast

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Well, Tommy, we I wanted to talk to you for a little bit about heresy, about false teaching in the church. Yes. About what makes something heresy in your mind.

[00:00:09]>> Yeah. Meaning what why is it heresy? And then then I want to talk to you a little bit about historic heresies. Define heresy for me. What what what are we talking about when we're talking about heresy? The way that I would describe, maybe a simple definition for a heretic, is someone who's not just wrong, but someone who is wrong about something so central that their teaching breaks the faith. Okay. They break the faith at the level of who God is, who Christ is, what salvation is, how the gospel works. What does it mean to be a Christian?

[00:00:41]>> What does it mean to be a Christian?

[00:00:42]>> Yeah. In your definition, there are lots of things that would be included. For for example, your definition there, what does it mean to be a Christian or um that that would raise questions about like the LGBTQ stuff because essentially you're saying >> No, no, this person who is openly sinning against God in a high-handed way is not a believer. And for you to say that that they are a believer is actually raising basic questions about what does it mean to be a Christian or what does it look like to be saved?

[00:01:15]>> Yes. And that that is central to the faith, right? If we end up starting If we say that somebody's a Christian when they're actually not, you're you're breaking the faith. Yeah.

[00:01:25]At that point. Or if you're saying oh, Jesus is the highest created being instead of God himself.

[00:01:32]>> that's a heresy. Yeah, so these are his Those are the historic heresies. And so there have been several >> Before we get into them >> Okay.

[00:01:39]We don't want to say that those historic heresies are the only heresies that have existed true or that do exist. We want to say that the two what happens is that people mess around with the doctrines of Jesus about of the word and they they mess around with it and they uh push the the boundary like a cow would push the boundary where the electrical fence is, right? Totally. And then there needs to be a corrective. And it's at that corrective where we make determinations as a church, oh, that's a heretical position or that's just a disagreement position or whatever.

[00:02:18]>> Yeah. But there is a flash point at that. So when I say that actually heresy has helped the church >> Yeah. I'm saying that it's helped the church clarify what it means >> Yeah.

[00:02:30]For example, the the word Trinity's not in the Bible.

[00:02:34]But we've come to understand what the Bible's saying about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and we call that Trinity >> Yeah. uh through false teaching around it.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah.