Even as early as AD 270 people saw a need for spiritual renewal. With the legalization of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire it became increasingly difficult to know the true believers from those who were simply Christians of convenience; a problem that seems to be persistent throughout history. St. Anthony responded by leaving the society of religious ease and lived alone in the mountains. He lived a simple life, prepared little food and had little company other than God and the reported demons that would tempt him. Being a hermit did not mean that he abandoned the world however, for he ended his seclusion during the reign of the pagan emperor Maximian to minister to the persecuted Christians forced to work in mines and again to combat the heresy of Arianism.

Even though Anthony’s motivation was for piety many followed his example for the exotic prestige that came with acts “devotion”. They would go without nourishment, would refrain from sleep or would otherwise physically perform acts of “self-denial”. St. Benedict did not desire theatrics but the committed life of community and service. He reformed the church with his Rule for monasteries and provided an expression of following Christ with a whole of a person’s life. The fact that there where monasteries showed the dissatisfaction of the Christian expression of the time and just like Luther, a turning point in Benedicts life was seeing the immorality and vanity of Rome itself. Monasticism flourished in Europe because of his writings.

Medieval Europe saw the rise of monasteries as “prayer factories” and the Church of Rome was intertwined in the power, influence and politics of the continent. St Francis was the son of a rich merchant, as well as a soldier, however when coming across a beggar on the street that he could not bring himself to ride past, he eventually turned his back on all the wealth that would be his. He devoted himself to helping the poor, living the life that he saw in Christ and shunning the attraction to power from the world. Many followed him, but he did not form a cloistered society. He instead established friars, who unlike monks primarily worked and lived in the world to minister to it. Francis could have bought his way into an ecclesiastical position, even buying a bishop’s chair was not unheard of. While he did not speak against the church, by not entering the Roman ranks his life spoke to his view of how close they resembled Christ. The Catholic clergy did not show Jesus as it should, so he did so himself.

The list could go on and on of the Carmelites, the Celtic monasteries in the British isles and countless saints. The point is that there were reformations before the reformation and that excesses of a stagnant church are only combated by those who are willing to mold themselves into Christ. I am not advocating everything that monasticism is, however, there are many lessons that we can learn from it. With monasticisms constant ideal of shunning the world and imitating your life to Christ, it is no wonder that the Protestant Reformation was started by an Augustinian Monk.

Heresy is the opposite of orthodoxy. Meaning that it is doctrine that promotes a false view of the truth; this is not the same as, however, as a difference of opinion because it deals with fundamental necessities of the Christian religion. An apostate is one who had been accepted into the Christian community, participated with God’s people and has rejected the faith. In other words:

Heretic = A person that must be expelled from the Christian community because of turning his back on sound doctrine.

Apostate = A person that has left the Christian community because of turning his back on the faith.

Both involve those who are not, or should not be, part of the church’s community. (I do not say part of the church for we know that the gates of hell will not prevail against her, and that those who truly are the church are kept by his hand.) As we can see the charge of heresy or apostasy is a very serious one, and we should not throw it around lightly. I will be the first to stand up against those who are truly heretics, and to label them as such, so that they will not lead others astray; however, I never want to call my Christian brother or sister one as that would necessitate their breaking of fellowship from the people of God. It is important to remember that in the ancient world there was at most one church per city, so excommunication is not only leaving a church but is being cut off from the entire Christian community. So what doctrines are important enough that, if defected from, we are to excommunicate people? First, let’s look at the scriptural passages.

We know that there are those who “pervert the gospel of Christ” and scripture tells us that these people should be anathema to us (accursed or exiled). (Galatians 1:6-9). The gospel of Christ can be seen in 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 and Romans 10:9-10, some of the main tenants of these verses are that Jesus Christ physically lived as a man, physically died, and physically rose again. Each of these doctrines, if denied, can be properly called heresy. We know that our salvation is by faith in Christ alone, and that God from the beginning has declared that he is One God. Therefore, the five main tenants from scripture that must be held to for the Christian faith are as follows:

1. Adherence to the Gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-9, Jude 1:3-4, 1 Corinthians 15:1-7, Romans 10:9-10)
2. The Deity and Humanity of Christ (1 John 4:1-3, 1 Timothy 2:5-6)
3. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:14-20)
4. One God in Three Persons (Isaiah 43:10-11;44:6, Genesis 1:26, Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:18, 1st Corinthians 13:14, 2nd Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4-7, 1st Peter 1:2, Jude 20-21)
5. Salvation by Faith (Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:8-9)

Scripture itself says that these doctrines are important enough for excommunication; I would say that without these doctrines, a given set of beliefs is not Christian. One need not understand these fully to be a Christian, but in order for a doctrine to be called a Christian doctrine it must adhere to these tenets. There is a Christian, and there is then an orthodox Christian. To me Orthodoxy means that it is compliant with the ecumenical creeds of the church. These creeds were universal declarations of the church in order to combat heresy. Some have rejected creeds as being man made, however they are statements of the entire church and thus must be taken seriously, while they may speak of things beyond the above five they are all related to the five and without the doctrines contained in the creeds those tenets would be distorted.

Those universal creeds are the Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, The Definition of Chalcedon, and the Athenasian Creed. (Each link is provided to the text of the creed and I have tried to find those with scripture references for their biblical support, though it is not at all exhaustive.) I was recently in a situation at church in which one Christian had previously called another brother a heretic and then called him a carnal apostate. The brother he was talking to then declared that he had made a foolish statement and that if he called him such things again that he would go before the elders (and rightly so) The problem is not that the first brother honestly thought the other was a heretic, but that he did not understand the severity of his accusation. Words mean little today and so we must be careful in their usage. We cannot flippantly throw around such terms, and we must always seek reconciliation and unity, even with those who are actual heretics if we can bring them back into proper faith. Hopefully this post will prevent some from miss identifying fellow Christians, and also help us to understand the severity of heresy and apostasy.

"300" © Warner Bros Pictures

Here is a nice little quote that you all may find interesting…

“When the Spartans marched into battle they advanced with cheerful songs, willing to fight; but when the Persians entered the conflict, you could hear, as the regiments came on, the crack of whips by which the officers drove the cowards to the fray. You need not wonder that a few Spartans were more than a match for thousands of Persians, that in fact they were like lions in the midst of sheep. So let it be with the church; never should she be forced to reluctant action, but full of irrepressible life, she should long for conflict against everything which is contrary to God. Were we enthusiastic soldiers of the cross we should be like lions in the midst of herds of enemies, and through God’s help nothing would be able to stand against us.” – Charles Spurgeon

“if you find yourself at home in a downtown music venue as you do within the margins of a City, if you are fluent in the indie music scene, resist eating at big box establishments, exegete the arts to find Life, then we might want to talk. ”

Hmm, indie music… not eating at Mickey D’s… hip venues…. yep that sounds exactly how I would describe what is needed for ministry. If you didn’t catch the sarcasm in the previous statement then let me just tell you that this sort of garbage has more to do with pushing the “Christianity is cool” idea than anything else. You can love indie music, and be a frickin’ vegan, those are fine for life choices, but that has nothing to do with being a pastor. How about instead of looking for someone who is just going to be trendy, we look for someone who is going to steep himself into the word and is going to guide our children into the truth like he should. Someone who realizes that parents are not antithetical to youth ministry and that you are not going to do anything by being a big kid that never grew up so he can fit in. It gets better…

“[our Church] is well aware of the countless excuses lurking around present-day teenagers, and our leadership team is committed to providing the solution – excitement.”

Excitement? Really, that’s your solution… excitement? If I sound dumbfounded it’s because I am, however I really shouldn’t be as this is honestly what most church’s philosophy of youth ministry is, they just don’t encapsulate it so blatantly. Our solution isn’t Christ, Biblical teachings, doctrine, or Christian community, just something exciting; which is a battle the church will always loose. Let’s see, the world has sex, drugs, sex, alcohol, sex, parties, and did I mention sex. What excitement can we offer? Bible study and late night Volley Ball, ooo color me excited! We are so scared that our kids will go be bad that we will do anything to stop them from doing so, and unfortunately our strategy is to just distract them from sin long enough before they can get married. None of this changes lives. The way of Christ can be earthy and messy, but it is the only way. Sure we can have large crowds by having Xbox parties, and while I am not against fun, it isn’t going to change lives if that is all we have.

These examples arn’t even the worst ones I have seen. We need to realize that these people are on the verge of being adults, heck in another time or culture they would be adults. But in our youth obsessed culture we expect people to be kids until after they finished college, if then. We need to instill into them what Christianity really is and none of it is about excitement, being cool or even being happy, it’s about sacrifice to Christ, and if we don’t sacrifice, then we are not Christians. (Matthew 10:37-39) There are kids out there that are hungry for that message, they have been getting milk their whole life and now they need something more. It won’t bring large crowds, it never has, but biblical truth is what people of all ages need. In the end, if a youth ministry isn’t about discipleship, then it isn’t a ministry at all.

1. We have given up passion for “mission statements.”

2. We have traded in our calling for the discipleship of all people for “specialized ministry experience.”

3. We have given up the biblical qualifications of a bishop and traded it in for a Master’s degree.

4. We deride postmodernism as an invention of Satan and act as if Modernism was invented by Jesus.

5. We have no concept of promoting the varieties of gifts that we are given “for the common good.” (1 Cor 12:7) and instead only care about placing people into vacancies of our formulaic, uninspired “ministries”

6. We have Pastors and Elders that are disassociated from their own community of believers.

7. We desire candidates with 10 years of ministry experience, and an M.Div. and then want to pay him $20,000 a year.

8. We pass up those that want to serve because they do not have “full time staff” experience even though they have served in the church all their life.

10. We expect youth pastors to be cool, hip and relevant, but not so much that lives are actually changed apart from what the modernist elders want.

11. We say if you are young then you have to be a youth pastor, even though God has given different gifts to various people.

12. Those who wish to be youth pastors we then look down upon as immature and not as sophisticated as a “real pastor” even though that may be his gifting. I suppose we expect the least experienced person to teach our children.

13. The fact that we have any “entry level position” in a church.

14. The fact that we “hire” people as “employees” to service us instead of true pastors who are called of God to minister to the people of God.