Heresy

From Neoredemptive

Rejection of orthodox Christian doctrine, or acceptance of patently unchristian doctrine, by one who still claims to be a Christian.

Contrast with apostasy, which ceases to claim to be Christian, or heterodoxy, which embraces unconventional ideas which fall short of heresy.

Heresy often arises as a product of holding too tightly to some element of the zeitgeist and trying to conform the theological framework to it. This elevation of human knowledge above revelation as a basis for our comprehension of God and His work generally results in us remaking a god after our own image instead of allowing Him to remake us after his.

Examples

See Category:Heresies.

Common heretical beliefs include:

• Jesus was a man and not God
• Jesus was God but not a man
• Jesus' resurrection was not physical
• Humans are innately good, or at least born morally neutral.
• The material world is innately evil
• God and the Devil are rival beings, essentially of the same nature (dualism)
• Philosophy or Science have disproven scripture and force us to radically reinterpret it.

Shelby Spong is a popular present-day heretic; he unashamedly rejects every point of the orthodox creeds while still calling his strange brand of naturalistic humanism "Christianity" (see, e.g., his magnum opus, "Why Christianity Must Change or Die").