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Monday, May 26, 2014

The Danger of Popular Theology: The Slippery Road to Heresy

There was a man named Arius who proposed a theological idea that seemed to catch on pretty well.  So well in fact that is became the theology of the Emperor and many in the Universities.  The theology simply stated that Jesus was a created being and was not equal or coequal with God.  It took away the original divinity of Christ, making Him less that God.  We scoff at this idea in Modern Evangelicalism, but we were all pretty close to being Arians today, if not for a few men who stood up and said "no".  Men like Athanasius of Alexander stood in opposition.

Even with men fighting Arianism, it was denounced as heresy, then made a come back and had to be denounced again.  It seems that when men in powerful positions hold to a theology, it becomes harder to get rid of.  Today, we have the wide proliferation of communication, and theological ideas come and go, they are here and there and everywhere.  If you have an idea, chances are you can find a "scholar" or "expert" who agrees with you and has written something to give you some traction.  No matter what your particular pet issue is, there will be someone to agrees with you.  This isn't a new thing, the proliferation of ideas, biblical and non biblical have been around as long as the Scriptures.  As long as the Church has existed it's fought against heresy.  The question is, today who is fighting heresy?

In our day, it seems that everyone and no one are taking up the fight.  Everyone has their position, defending against everyone else.  There seems little to no consensus to what constitutes Orthodoxy.  It seems that everyone claims to be orthodox, based on popularity or history or shear numbers.  In the end, are any of us holding to real orthodoxy?  This was much of my motivation to begin this journey called Woven Theology.  In the end, it may be exactly the same as a dozen theological views, but I didn't want to find the opinion of scholars or experts, it's getting hard to find who to trust.  I will review their work, read opinions and hear out the opposition.  I will use every resource to my disposal, based firmly on scripture as I read and study and pray.

I'm not saying that I'm infallible, but I want to do my best to learn as much from as many as I can and arrive at truth.  I want to speak what is true about God and I am most concerned with knowing Him more.  I don't want to begin to slip into heresy because it makes sense to a logical human mind, because it's popular, because it's been around for a long time, or because important people believe it.  I want a theology that is true to scripture and God's revelation of Himself.  I hope that you'll join me in resisting heresy where ever it appears and hold fast to the truth.

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