What is the definition of heresy?

The word αἱρεσις is from 'to choose.' The same Greek word is translated 'sect' and is applied to the sects among the Jews, as the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 26:5. It was employed by the Jews respecting Christianity. Acts 24:5, 14; Acts 28:22. Heresies and sects were developed early in the church, they were the result of the working of the will of man in some form. The root of the Greek word being 'to choose' shows that a heresy is something peculiar. The doctrine held and enforced may be true in itself but may be exaggerated or put out of its connection. The common result is, a party or sect is formed. 1 Cor. 11:19; Gal. 5:20; 2 Peter 2:1. One who adheres to a heresy is a heretic, and after the first and second admonition is to be rejected. Titus 3:10. God having given in His word all things needed for the church, there is no room for man's choice or man's will: he must be a humble receiver: cf. 1 Cor. 4:7.

Defectiveness of doctrine does not make it to be heresy, nor is all error heresy. What constitutes heresy is, it is the fruit of "human mind and will having been at work in connection with doctrine." The word heresy means "a choice" (from "to choose"). If the evil is present in an upright mind, get the thing once clearly before his mind and he will be set free. If a second time the mind turns back to it, there is reason to fear that there is want of ingenuousness, his having turned away from it before (after the admonitions) condemns him, if he turns back to it. For he had admitted that the root out of which his doctrine flowed was a bad one. His will had been at work. Its reappearing looks as if he had changed his doctrine without giving up the root of it. "Reject, or pass by such;" that is, do not sanction with your authority, which is from Paul, any such as teachers.

A. "Heresy" is used by the apostle for a party of self-will, a faction which severs itself from the assembly. Such is the usage in 1 Corinthians 11:18-19: "I hear that there are schisms among you (i.e., divisions within), and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies (i.e. external division or sects) that the approved may become manifest among you." (See also Galatians 5:20 and 2 Peter 2:1). The precise meaning here comes out incontestably. But doctrine (the later ecclesiastical sense of "heresy") does not of necessity lead its advocate to form a party without; but schismatic feeling directly tends to this. A split within ere long issues in a split without; whereas heterodoxy seeks shelter within in order to leaven the lump if possible. So in Titus 3 the apostle directs Titus to have done with a man stamped as heretical after a first and second admonition. He had gone outside and was forming a sect. It was no question therefore of putting him without; for he had gone out himself, and refused admonition, perhaps repeatedly. You cannot put away one who has already gone away, though it may be announced for the profit of all. The word translated "reject" is not to excommunicate, but altogether general, and capable of application to persons inside (as in 1 Timothy 5:11) no less than to the outside maker of a school or sect; also to fables and foolish questions whatever they might be (1 Timothy 4:7, 2 Timothy 2:23). From its primitive meaning of deprecating and making excuse, the word acquires the force of refusing, rejecting, or avoiding. In no case is it applied to putting out, which is the function of the assembly and expressed by a totally different word. Among the Jews "heresy" was used indifferently for the parties of Sadducees, Pharisees, and Nazarenes.

Titus 3:10, 11 gives us the form of discipline that is to be exercised toward one that is a heretic. "An heretical man after a first and second admonition have done with, knowing that such a one is perverted, and sins, being self-condemned" (New Trans.).

The word for heretic in the Greek means "a choice, course of action or thought, opinionated." One who chooses his own course of thought and is self-opinionated is a heretic. In self-will he presses his own opinions and showy teachings and forms a sect or party of those who support his views. This brings in the serious danger of division in the Assembly. A heretic may be sound on fundamental doctrine and yet form a party around himself by his self-chosen opinions and peculiar views.

Heresy in church history is something contrary to the orthodox faith, but the real meaning of the word "heresy" is self-will. Wherever it works its direct tendency is to produce a sect or schism in the Assembly.

Such an one is to be admonished once and twice. He is thus reminded of the seriousness of his sin and warned of the grave consequences. If the double warning of his heretical and party-producing behavior is not heeded, he is to be shunned and "done with." By repeated refusal to yield to admonitions he manifests his real state. He is perverted, turned away from the right, and sins. A spiritual pride is manifested and he is self-condemned. His unfitness for fellowship is apparent and he is to be refused as a sect-maker.

There are these kinds of spirits. First, they have an alienated mind within, and are self-seeking; and because this is blamed by all that have the good of the saints at heart, and the glory of the Lord before them, they resent it strongly, and, instead of breaking down and judging themselves, they become worse, and then it is not a division "within," but "without," that they make. The former is called a schism, the latter a heresy. For I particularly press it on every one here who may not have observed it — that "heresy" in scripture does not mean bad doctrine at all. There may be bad doctrine, of course, along with it; but this is rather heterodoxy — strange doctrine. There are proper terms for all forms of evil: falsehood, deceit, blasphemy and the like. But heresy means the self-will that does not care for the fellowship of the assembly in the least, and is so bent on its own object that it goes outside. This is what is called heresy. Now that is what the apostle means in 1 Cor. 11. He says, "There are divisions (or, schisms) among you. For there must be also heresies (or, sects) among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you" (vers. 18, 19).

But there is no "must be" in reference to heterodoxy. People might remain, and like to remain, with their heterodoxy, but heresy does not mean bad doctrine, although this might go along with it. It means that people might get too hot in their zeal, and, being reproved for their party spirit, they refuse to stand it any longer, and they get away. They break loose from fellowship and form some new thing which has not the sanction of the word of God. That is what, in scripture, is called heresy. The doctrine might be sound enough in a general way. There might be no blasphemies, nor heterodoxy, strictly speaking, but there is the heart entirely wrong and seeking its own things instead of the things of Jesus Christ.

It is the character of heresy always to conceal itself, to cover the plain statement of the doctrine which forms its basis, or to misdirect the attention, so that the evil really introduced by the heresy may not be apparent. Heresy is not merely error; it is the power of error in seducing men's minds from the plain truth of the Spirit of God, so as to rest in, and be guided by, something besides the gospel.

Doctrinal evil is any teaching which touches the Person of Christ, anything which denies His full deity, His real, full, and sinless humanity, His perfect sacrificial work as being complete atonement and the only ground of salvation, His bodily resurrection, or coming glory. If any one teaches or holds that which denies these truths as to Christ's Person or work, or the truths of justification by faith and grace alone, or the necessity of regeneration, or the eternal punishment of the unsaved, and persists in such teachings, that one is guilty of doctrinal evil and has no place in the Assembly of God. His place is "without" and not "within." Any teaching that subverts the fundamentals of the Christian faith is evil doctrine and leaven that must be purged out of the Assembly. Behind all such teachings are seducing spirits and demons.

However, here we must exercise caution. We must not go to the extreme and call every erroneous teaching evil doctrine, or mark every interpretation or application of Scripture which differs from our view, as wicked teaching. Where no fundamental truth is in question, love and forbearance one with another is to be exercised and Philippians 3:15, 16 acted upon. "If in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing."

As early as the second century and even late in the first, Christians saw the need for separating right (true) Christian belief from various kinds of subtle heresies that began to creep in. Webster defines heresy as "an opinion held in opposition to the commonly received doctrine and tending to promote division or dissension." Christianity has always had its foes, but no enemy has been more dangerous than the heretics within who have held opinions in opposition to the commonly received truths on which Christianity was founded. These common truths are contained in the New Testament, the books and epistles that came to be recognized as God's inspired - and final - words on what Christianity really is. [.]

Yet Paul refused to allow Christianity to be called a sect because God had spoken in it, and all men were to hear. It was no opinion but revealed truth, and this is the key to the condemnation of heresy in the apostolic writings. There is to be no opinion, no mere human choice among Christians. The one truth claims the allegiance of all. The Word of God has been given to us, and the one Holy Spirit is given to bring us all to one mind about it. All departure from this is to be utterly condemned.

Heresies are spoken of in only three passages in the Epistles. In 2 Peter 2:1, the “damnable heresies” of the King James translation has hidden the true meaning. The phrase is literally “heresies of destruction” — heresies that destroy men. These are doctrines brought in by false teachers — doctrines that even deny the Lord who bought them. Here, the teaching obviously is fundamental error, but this does not prove that all heresy is fundamental error. The term is a much wider one than this.

Again, Titus is taught how to deal with an heretical man. First he must admonish him; then after a second admonition, if that failed, he was to reject or have done with him — paraitou, the same word as is used in 1 Timothy when enjoining him to turn from profane and old wives' fables (1 Tim. 4:7), and to decline the younger widows (v. 11); for an heretical man does not of necessity mean one who denies the faith, but it is literally one who chooses his creed. Thus Paul, speaking of the Pharisees, to which party he had once belonged, called it the most straitest sect — hairesis (lit. heresy) — of our religion. (Acts 26:5.) The sect of the Pharisees was regarded as orthodox in their creed; but Paul uses of them that word which has been engrafted into our tongue, and with which most Englishmen are familiar, heresy. An heretical man, then, need not be one who denies any article of the Christian faith. He is an heretic who allows his mind or will to work in connection with doctrine, thereby producing or countenancing a sect; as we see from 1 Cor. 11:19, where the apostle, writing of sects, uses the word hairesis. Such a man was to be avoided, if admonition failed to have its due effect upon him. Patience in dealing with him there was to be; but if a second admonition failed to lead him to reject his error, he was to be avoided; for such an one "is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself." (Titus 3:11.)