The Art of Heresy Hunting in the 20th Century | TBD # 360 | April 4, 2000 Note: grammar and syntax is not great, but adequate for web consumption after some minor revisions I am going to attempt to put together my own article discussing my feelings and knowledge of heresy hunting. This is not an attempt to put together a scholarly dissertation, nor is it expected to be a take it or leave it approach. Simply put, I am going to share my concerns regarding the fault-finding practices of many of our critical brethren. I will be using two books as my primary guide to follow for research. Lest anyone should accuse me of violating copyright protection, I will be paraphrasing most of anything that I take from them. Most of the information used is based off of what I have learned through multiple sources as well as what the holy spirit has been teaching me throughout the past 10 years: especially these past 6 months. Otherwise, I will put them in quotations where necessary. The two books, authored by Christian journalist James R. Spencer, are named Heresy Hunters: Character Assassination in the Church and Bleeding Hearts and Propaganda: The fall of reason in the Church. I am not here to sell his books, but I would highly recommend them to anyone whom wants a very well reasoned, documented, and insightful look into the activities of the heresy hunting groups out there. Also, I just ordered a book which was published several years ago and which tells the real story behind E.W. Kenyon and his faith in G-d, as he is considered by many to be the ultimate father of the alleged cultic beliefs of the word-faith community, and is said to have been into metaphysics and the occult. I will keep you informed of what I find. Before we get started, let us look at a few definitions. (excerpted from Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Home and Office edition copyright 1998) 1) Heresy: A) adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma B) an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma C) dissent from dominant theory, opinion, or practice. 2) Hunt: A) to pursue for food or in sport; also, to take part in a hunt B) to try to find; also seek C) to drive or chase especially by harrying D) to traverse in search of prey Okay, we now have official definitions of these terms. How do we apply them to today's lesson on heresy hunters though? Let us review a few possibilities. 1) We could say that a heresy hunter is anyone which seeks out doctrines, theories, or practices of the church that have deviated from the established historic/orthodox creeds in an attempt to identify the safe boundaries within the christian church today. Under this definition, most of us would wear this label proudly because we would be attempting to protect the faith from perversion which would leave many away from Christ. Problems arise, howeer, when people fail to properly and biblically discern between what is safe and acceptable from those whose beliefs are so radical and different from church dogma that they are not saved. In other words, they fail to differentiate between true christians which are in error but saved and fake christians which deliberately pervert the faith in an attempt to create their own following. 2) For the purpose of this article, I will draw from this definition of mine. Heresy hunters are individuals, groups, organizations, or any other authority whom claims to be G-d's representative concerning sound doctrine or doctrinal purity here on earth. In many cases, these groups use hyper-deceptive scare tactics designed to make their followers believe that they alone are faithful, whereas all others have bowed (or are in the process of bowing) their knees to false idols, christs, gospels, etc. They are very quick to criticize, mutilate, chastise, or rebuke any and every christian group out there which deviates from their beliefs. In a very real sense, the heresy hunters hunt people by putting on a front that tells the world that they are simply contending for the faith and following the footsteps of the apostle Paul when they name their victims. Differences between True Apologetics from Heresy Hunting The apologetics ministry plays a critical role within the body of Christ. These defenders of the faith go out among colleges, universities, and other public forums debating with the enemies of the faith concerning the accuracy, reliability, inerrorancy, etc. concerning our faith in Christ Jesus. Many apologists specialize in a specific area of expertise (such as bible prophecy, bible history, church history, etc.) while others are more generalized to cover as much of the Christian spectrum as possible. I can't tell you how many times I have been blessed and encouraged through many of these ministries. In a world were people are inherently skeptical towards everything and with many false religious ideas gaining more credibility and support, it is nice to know that the body of Christ has ministries devoted to defending the faith. Sound Doctrine is essential to the Health of the Church. Indeed, we need true apologists which will help our teachers, pastors, prophets, apostles, etc. keep within true orthodoxy. True christianity is based solely upon what the bible says, and many times Christians disagree over what exactly G-d was saying in a certain passage of scripture. This is where true apologists must recognize between errors that lead an individual outside the grace of G-d or not: i.e. does one have to believe in a certain doctrine to be saved, or can one be saved even if he believes and teaches that Adam was able to fly and go to the moon despite the fact it is not a biblical statement or doctrine. In a nutshell, they must be able to determine whether an additional belief, or a lack of belief according to the orthodox creed, invalidates the person's salvation. Clearly, believing that Adam flew while on earth and visited the moon is not heretical, since it can not be proven wrong nor is it presumably being taught as a required belief for salvation by the minister. Thus, the true apologist would tell the teacher that the scriptures do not support his teaching, which departs from traditional beliefs and could lead others into deception if loose interpretations continue, but such teachings do not in and of themselves disqualify you from partaking in fellowship and communion with the body of Christ. On the other hand, teaching that Christ was simply an exalted man, glorified angel, or anything other than the one and only son of the most high G-d would be heretical and thereby disqualify you from fellowship and communion with the body of Christ. Therefore, it is essential that the true apologist be able to recognize these differences among the body of Christ without compromising what the word of G-d says, but many heresy hunters masquerade themselves as apologists by defending the faith in various areas of legitimate apologetics. What heresy hunters fail to realize is that the true work of the apologist is primarily to protect the church from outside influences while correcting problems that arise from within the church. The easiest way to differentiate between a true apologist and a heresy hunter is to watch how they treat fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Apologists generally debate the doctrines while holding a tremendous degree of respect towards brethren which hold differing doctrinal viewpoints. Heresy hunters usually aren't so much interested in debating the doctrines as they are in debating the people which hold those doctrinal positions. A true apologist will generally debate and discuss doctrinal viewpoints in love whereas heresy hunters show very little love or respect towards the minister, ministries, denomination, etc. that they are destroying. While much more could be said about the differences between true apologists and heresy hunters, my main concern is that heresy hunters do not only an incredible dis-service to the body of Christ through thier constant mutilation tactics but they also severely weaken the confidence that the body may have concerning the reliability, accuracy, honesty, and integrity of the apologetic community. If they should be left uncheck, then heresy hunters could reduce the role of apologetics to the point of being completely rejected and distrusted. This in turn would leave the doors wide open for deception of every form to creep into the church and our journeys of faith. The Art of Heresy Hunting Heresy hunting has existed throughout church history, and seems to be a problem that simply will not disappear. Most people have at least some knowledge of church history but many don't realize that what we are seeing today is not much different than what our ancestors went through. So many horrific and ungodly actions have been taken throughout the history of the church, in the name of doctrinal purity and sound doctrine, that it should be extremely easy to pick out the pattern of it happening today. The problem is that we (like our forefathers) think that we have arrived at perfect doctrine and that any deviation from the status quo would constitute nothing less than a complete sell out to the devil. Somehow, we continue to fall for the same lie that the church has fallen for throughout the centuries. I mean, we read or hear about how it wasn't until about the second or third century before the church finally agreed on an apostolic creed. Several centuries later, another creed was needed to clarify the church's stance on a few other doctrines. Throughout the following decade or so, the Roman Catholic Church represented almost all of Christianity in its doctrinal teachings, yet not everyone agreed to or abided by their creeds. Eventually, Martin Luther began the great reformation process and was declared a heretic by the established religious authority of his day, but he certainly wasn't alone as being declared heretical by the RCC, as many people prior to and after him were burned at the stake for insisting that the people should be able to read the word of G-d in their own language. The history of our mainline denominations within the protestant camp have come about due to the restorational moves of G-d that the religious establishments of their day rejected. Every past restorational movement was criticized and judged heretical by the religious establishment: Catholics persecuted the Lutherans, Lutherans judged the Baptists, Baptists ridiculed the holiness people, they criticized the charismatics, and today many charismatics judge the Word-Faith and Toronto Blessing communities as being heretical. When will the body of Christ finally learn that we are all on the journey of faith together, as we have not arrived yet and will not until all of Ephesians chapter 4 and John chapter 17 and other similar scriptures are fulfilled. Heresy hunting has occurred throughout all of church history but why is today so different than past generations. Let us examine it. First of all, we live in a truly unique generation. In no other time in history has mankind achieved such great accomplishments. Look around you, the fact that most of the people on this list are on opposite sides of the world communicating with one another concerning this move of G-d is just one of thousands of examples. Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finnly, and all the other great men of G-d that you can think of in yesteryears that were so unjustifiably rejected by the religious establishment of their day didn't live in a world like we have today. It took weeks, to months, to years even for word to get around the general geographic area, that they were ministering in, concerning their heretical teachings. This is not so today, as we now live in an extremely fast-paced world that seemingly has less and less time to spend on seeking out the whole story. How many people on this list would actually say that they check out every story that comes out of the media to see if it happened the way they claim? Very few of us, right? The truth is, we find it much easier for the media to give us little 30 second sound bites of information concerning the topic only to then move on to another one. Our society has, for better or for worse, lost any sense of an attention span. This is why it is so important for the media to pick out really juicy headlines that will grab and keep our attention in order to really sell their products. This is especially true of tabloid media. They put out these shocking headlines for the expressed purpose of luring you into buying their product, never mind the fact that almost all of the information inside it is made-up or fake. Our society has been dramatically altered in how we deal with situations. It should come as no surprise that the heresy hunters of yester-years have grown up in today's technological world mastering, perfecting, and dreaming up new ways of fulfilling their devious agendas. Today, thousands of christians exchange doctrines with one another as if they were collectable baseball cards or something, as it is not hard to find people debating doctrinal stances and viewpoints throughout the internet, many of which host their own websites for the sole purpose of trying to win people over to their way of thinking. Just a few decades ago, how many of us could have done extensive research on such topics as calvinism, arminanism, systematic theology, third wave theology, pentecostal and charismatic movements, the beginnings and progression of various alleged heresies of word-faith and dominion theology groups, as well as pre-mid-post tribulational views, end-time revival-apostasy, preterism-futurism, so on and so forth. Most of us would never have known where to even start looking, little lone how to seek out both sides of the story, or even how to make our own decisions. But today, it is all different. Get on the internet and search around, you'll see so many different ways of interpreting scriptures and developing sound doctrine that you'll wonder if there even is a such thing as doctrinal purity. Many people make the faulty assumption that there has to be one group out there that is more doctrinally pure than the others; therefore, they are the ones to listen to in regards to all the other false teachings and doctrines within the church. This then usually leads to the dependency of looking to that one group to see if they approve of another ministry or group that you can follow along with. Many cult groups follow this technique and the scary thing is that many of the heresy hunter groups take great pride in being that authority which tells others what they should believe or not believe. Sure, they encourage you to check things out for yourself and to not take their word for it, but they know that most of their audience hangs on their every word and and are thus predisposed to agree with their views even if they took the time to properly evaluate them. They furthermore seldomly volunteer accurate representations of the other side's beliefs. Simply put, they throw up lines such as: I don't want to be guilty of leading others into error by giving web addresses, articles, and other such things which disprove or disagree with my charges of heresy towards their beliefs. Such statements could have not represented the pharisees of Jesus’ day any better. After all, the tactics of heresy hunters vary, from one group to another and one extreme to another, but will almost always focus around the concept of exposing the wolves in sheep's clothing, false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, etc. They have a tendency to demonize every minister in the christian church that doesn't significantly line up with their legalistic doctrinal viewpoints. Ministers are usually portrayed as being nothing short of the antichrist himself while followers usually find themselves seen much the same way at worse or deceived christians at best. Once heresy hunters have established their versions of doctrinal purity, they go out literally hunting people which violate their creed or hold doctrines which they have deemed heretical. Once they have found a suspected target, they will go through countless hours of completely orthodox teachings held by the target in hopes of finding just one statement in which they can hang him with. The more statements they can find the better, never mind the fact that they almost always take the quotes out of context with the rest of the message. Many times, these groups won't work completely independent. Instead, they will work closely together with other heresy hunters out there which are also doing great in-depth research in exposing the alleged heresies of the target in question. Nothing is left unturn, undone, or untouched by them. They think nothing of the scriptural implications for what they are doing, as they simply want to prove their heretical charges and have the minister kicked out of ministry all together. Every sermon, book, and teaching is rigorously examined in hope of finding sufficient evidence that the target is indeed a true heretic. They don't stop there neither, as they will also investigate the target's personal life to the extremes that the critics of president Clinton did. Every single detail of bad laundry that the heresy hunters can fork up on these targets are then lined up and presented in such a scholarly way that most of the church simply accepts at face value what is said about the ministers. I myself was guilty of denouncing any credibility or admiration of various ministers back in the early 90's due to the scandalous accusations made against them (some was true, much was not). I guess what I am trying to drive home is the understanding that heresy hunters are not interested at all concerning the implications of how other believers, or the lives of ministries which they have targeted, are going to be after publishing their work. Once they have dropped the bomb within the church, they rejoice at the idea of how much controversy they have created. Indeed, they seem like the man-of-the-hour almost to the existent of being a great hero of the faith. All of a sudden, they have a following: a small army of christians that are as critical, judgmental, and bigoted as they are, to follow them around and hang on every word they say. These elite groups don't see themselves as being accountable to the body of Christ (indeed, many are proud to say that they are a para-church ministry or organization, usually implying that they don't exist at a local-church level). These lone-ranger ministries see themselves as being above the local-church level and right up there close to where the pope sees himself in relation to the Roman Catholic Church. That is, they seem to think that they are only accountable to G-d, whereas everyone else is to be accountable to them. Of course, the idea that they themselves are following another gospel, or false Jesus, is about as foreign to them as the idea that they themselves might possibly be deceived. Remember, these groups think of themselves as having arrived at the level of doctrinal purity like no others before them. After the charges of heresy have been released, heresy hunters eagerly await to see what the target's reaction is going to be. Remember, this is more like a hunt to them than a mercy mission from Christ of restoration, as they yearn for more information which could be used against their targeted suspect. This is why many of the word-faith teachers today have quotes from them saying really ugly and unnecessary things regarding heresy hunter ministries, as these quotes are still spread around today to prove that the word-of-faith community does not believe in sound doctrine nor will they discuss doctrinal issues with people who disagree with them. Of course, most critical brothers and sisters don't have a clue what it is like to be told that their complete faith in Christ Jesus is nothing more than a satanic deception leading them to hell, nor do they know what it is like to have 20-30 years worth of ministry to be so systematically sabotaged to the extremes that the word-faith community has had to endure. Not only that, they don't have any idea what it is like to preach something for 20-30 years or so only to have someone walk in and completely misrepresent their teachings and spread vicious rumors concerning their ministry and faith. That is, they lie about what is actually being taught by using un-representative interpretations of the actual teachings themselves. I could continue on, but I won't. Simply put, the heresy hunters really watch their targets closely after they have been officially labeled heretics. Once heresy hunters have additional quotes and responses of their targets, they then interpret and present to their small army of critical followers the information the way that best suites their agenda. Okay, now to how this is relevant to the here and now of this debate. Well, it is important that all true bereans out there know that almost all of the data they will receive by those against the word-of-faith community, vineyard groups, and toronto-type churches will in one form or another be greatly influenced by the activities of heresy hunters. You'll notice that heresy hunters have put many years of research and investigations together for the expressed purpose of having the ministers ex-communicated from the church. Don't believe me, look at their websites. You show me where they have truly shown an effort to reconcile with those they accuse of heresy. Once they have targeted and proven an individual as an heretic, they disregard any possibility of them being accepted back into the fellowship. Look at what they say about these ministries and how freely they accuse well known and highly respected ministers of following a false gospel and another Jesus. Where is the compassion and love in these groups? Why is it that Benny Hinn can't seem to go anywhere without someone publishing something bad about his visit there? Why is it that Kenneth Copeland can give orthodox sermons concerning our faith only to be lashed out at by these groups? Why are sovereign outpourings of G-d's spirit viewed so negatively? Why are thousands upon thousands of true christians rejected by these small groups of critical people? More than that, why don't we do anything about it? We simply look at other groups being attacked and say: well, bless G-d, it is not my church, favorite minister, or denomination that is being attacked, just let things be as they are - The body of Christ must respond or else we will pay the consequences of not having defended our brethren when they needed it most. Just because your group of christians isn't being attacked yet, that certainly doesn't mean they aren't next in line. Indeed, I am quite amazed at some of the people being attacked even today. We expect the word-of-faith, vineyard, latter-rain, dominion theology, promise keepers, and revival/renewal churches to come under fire due to the inherent controversial nature related to these movements. Who nevertheless would expect Max Lucado, Charles Stanley, Billy Graham, and other prominent conservative and highly respected christians well known for their dedication to Christ to be targeted by these groups? Some heresy hunter groups even prey on their other critical heresy hunting groups. Did you know that Hank Hanagraaf and the CRI has been severely attacked by other heresy hunters? Check it out for yourself, don't take my word for it, although I would caution everyone to stay away from these sites unless you have a good understanding of your own personal relationship to Jesus. Simply put, these websites will have you leaving in complete confusion, frustrated, and scared to trust anyone in the church today if you are not careful, as I should know, since even I am still recovering my faith after it was so severely assaulted this past summer-fall. Of course, my desire to reconcile both sides, rather than picking one side and rejecting the other, only made things worse. I mean, listening to and understanding both sides of a controversy is really difficult, especially when both sides make their points so well. The body of Christ desperately needs some defenders of the brethren right now, not for the purpose of excusing past-mistakes, but of providing an atmosphere conducive for correction in these matters, as those websites are not what the body of Christ needs. But before checking them out, I would recommend that you read the following scriptures first. This way, you’ll know what the bible says concerning these groups of people, not just my subjective and biased views of them :-) http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/ Absolutely unbelievable... http://www.belfastberean.co.uk/tcceindex.htm Definitely anti-Toronto/Pensacola and word-of-faith.... Of interesting note, you'll find a response by Kenneth Copeland ministries and various others, on their web sites, which completely contradict how the belfastberean people interpret them to mean. That really suprised me because few heresy hunters allow their targets to defend themselves. Then again, they did provide some information that confirmed the so called little-gods and Jesus-went-to-hell doctrines. Regardless, all bereans should be interested in hearing what KCM said. Also of interest, they have John Kilpatrick's false prophecy on audio file there. I found the audio section to be somewhat edifying since it allowed me to hear for myself what they said and to put it into the context that I know it was given in: unwise, immature, and in error - maybe - but not conclusive evidence of heresy, especially since most of these extreme teachings have been repented of and are now more biblically sound. :-) Consider the following scriptures prayerfully and ask yourself if it is truly biblically sound and true to the nature of G-d to have his children to be dividing against one another. 1) Exodus 23: 1 "You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be and unrighteous witness" 2) Deut. 19:16-17 "If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and judges who serve the Lord in those days" 3) Luke 11:45-54 You can read the scriptures yourselves, as it is quite a lengthy rebuke. It is important to note that the lawyers would try to use the legalistic interpretations of the law to accuse people with. Indeed, many would wait around people hoping to catch them in something they might say in order to accuse them. 4) Acts 5:17-18 "Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him, and they were filled up with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison." 5) Acts 6:11-15 "Then they secretly induced men to say,  we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and G-d. And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and law. For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us." Notice that they changed the actual meanings behind Stephen's words to make him sound heretical. I can tell you, this tactic is very rampant in the church today. Also, notice Stephen's reply in Acts: 7 verse 51 "you stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your father did, so do you." 6) Notice how the devil is referred to in Revelation 12:10 of being the accuser-of-the-brethren. Now Contrast the previous scriptures with Psalm 133, John chapter 17, and Ephesians chapter 4. Which more accurately reflects biblical Christianity? The critics of the faith or those that defend the brethren? I'll let you decide for yourself, but I know what the Holy Spirit has confirmed in my heart. :-) Even so, the more you study and learn about the tactics, actions, and malicious words that come forth from the heresy hunters, the more you really have to wonder about whether they are truly of the flock or not. I try and avoid at all costs the idea of judging a person's salvation, seeing that it's not my role. I do nevertheless concur with Jim Spencer that heresy hunters lack an important quality, the fear of G-d, as they take the mantle of ministry lightly. Psalm 75:6-7 "For exaltation come neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another" Heresy hunters don't seem to have any fear at all concerning the idea of attacking those whom G-d has sovereignly raised up into areas of ministry. For such hyper-deception scared people, it seems a bit odd that heresy hunters may in fact turn out to be the true heretics. Indeed, some groups have already taken cultish tendencies and are leading people astray. Please be careful. Don't believe everything you see that comes from second and third-hand reports. Don't blindly believe anyone. Seek the truth on both sides. Don't be afraid to admit wrong doings, abuses, and excesses that have occurred in the past, yet don't reject these restorational moves of G-d based soley on them either. In everything, there is the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. It is for true bereans to seek the real truth. Anyhow, I hope this article has been of some encouragement to the body of Christ. More than that, I hope it will awaken the body of Christ to the very real dangers of heresy hunters. I'll leave you with a few websites that go more into the nature of heresy hunting, and perhaps I can later address some specific accusations, allegations, quotes, and controversies concerning many of the people wrongfully burned at the stake by these ministries. http://www.godward.org/new-millennium/March98/heresy_hunters.htm http://tbm.org/faithmove.htm Your Brother in Christ Jesus,