Paul's Passing Thoughts

“The more, the merrier. Information is the enemy of those leading God’s people astray.”

As the spiritual hirelings of our day are beginning to feel the heat from discernment ministries/blogs, more and more disparaging articles are being written about “heresy hunters.”

First, hirelings hate the internet. I can tell you this: without the internet, even if what I have uncovered about New Calvinism was possible, it would have been ten years of research rather than five.

Secondly, the internet also puts cults and cult-like movements at a huge disadvantage in their endeavor to control followers. When I first suspected something was wrong at my church, and the leaders were not forthcoming, I started googling phrases which led to additional information I could ask them about. When my questions caused alarm among the leadership, I knew I was on to something. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough information on the net that I could obtain quickly enough to save my family. It goes without saying that PPT is out to solve that problem.

Thirdly, “heresy hunters” (HH) are beginning to network together and share information. The motives, agendas, and concerns are a huge melting pot, but much of the information overlaps. Discernment blogs of other concerns gave me information that made my good case in The Truth About New Calvinism an ironclad case. The more, the merrier. Information is the enemy of those leading God’s people astray.

And the progress/results are over the top. New Calvinism is now identified as a particular movement started at a particular time and processing a particular core/unifying doctrine. You cannot destroy an enemy that cannot be identified. New Calvinism has been greatly crippled in regard to slipping into churches unawares, and that crippling continues to escalate via blog networks and increased information. The movement is being identified according to its history, doctrine, character, and mode of operation.

Some HH ministries focus on various and sundry error. This appeals to the “collecting” instincts God created in us. Some like to collect and document stamps, some like to collect and document butterflies. We also have birdwatchers, and thank goodness, those who like to learn about and document biblical error. Amen. If you are going to have a hobby, that’s a good one. By the way, learning by antithesis is a great way to learn. Christ himself used it: “You have heard it said, but I tell you….” Often, studying error shows the cause and effect results to be avoided. Again, the Bible employs this technique:

1 Corinthians 10:6

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

1 Corinthians 10:11

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Then there are those who focus on warning others through information to prevent bondage and spiritual abuse. This is hard to argue with, and I wonder about those who assign disparaging nomenclature to those who educate Christians in regard to movements that propagate spanking their wives and locking them up in basements. Those who wax eloquent about so-called “heresy hunters” need to educate themselves in regard to the whole spectrum. Anti-spiritual abuse ministries offer biblical counseling as well.

Lastly on this internet subject, huge movements like New Calvinism can, and often do control education (seminaries), and dissimulation of information (Christian book publishers) among evangelical Christians. The internet gets around that. It’s truly a beautiful thing. A project that I am working on, “Berean Laity Publishers” will put publishing, support, and promotion into the hands and ability of the laity.

So, regardless of motives not always being pure among HH, the jury is in and the verdict is a good one. But PPT is not HH. And I also might mention that anti-spiritual abuse ministries are not HH either, not yet anyway, but that may change soon.  Discernment ministries can be split up into three categories according to their focus: 1) error 2) prevention and healing 3) Sect.  Number one is symptom focused and is important, but the lesser value of the three. Number two has strong biblical application in regard to counseling which is a biblical imperative for pastors and the laity alike. So, the answer to your question is “yes,” discernment ministries have biblical precedent in many ways, whether counseling, contending, warning, or looking out for one’s brother, and at the very least, teaching by antithesis. Number three is what PPT is; it is sect focused, and PPT only focuses on New Calvinism as a biblical sect.

What is a biblical “sect”? And why should New Calvinism be classified as such?

The Biblical Meaning of Heresy

Discernment ministries serve as a teaching tool by antithesis (finding error often leads to discovering more truth in the antithesis). And here, we have an excellent example for I would have never known the true meaning of the word “heresy” if not for this ministry. Like most folks, I assumed the word just referred to erroneous teachings by “heretics.” Such is not the case. The word refers to a group of people, or a movement that causes division and controversies by teaching error.

First, the foundation of what sects do is based on the biblical concept that truth unifies and error divides. A call for unity by the apostles is also a call to be of the “same” mind and judgment:

1 Corinthians 1:10

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

1 Corinthians 9:8

Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?

Philippians 2:2

complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Secondly, the cause of division:

Romans 16:17

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

1 Corinthians 1:10

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

Jude 1:17

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:13

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

14    That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Truth unites, and error divides; therefore, a heretic is described in Titus 3:10:

“As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,

The actual word for “division” as translated in the ESV is the English word “heretic[k]” (KJV). It is translated that way because of the following note that is found in some English/Greek dictionaries: “From the same as G140; a schismatic. (“heretic” is the Greek word itself).”

Therefore, in the Bible, those who teach error and are divisive are synonymous.

Division With a Purpose

In the same way that heresy, heretics, and division cannot be separated, the idea that these are always sectarian is also the biblical maxim. In fact, Young’s Literal Translation uses the word “sectarian” in place of “divisive” or “heretic” in Titus 3:10. 1Corithians 11:19 states the following:

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

The word in Titus 3:10 is “heretic,” and likewise, the English form of the word in 1Corinthians 11:19 is “heresies.” But most English translations use the word “faction.” The ESV is one example among many. It means “party,” “group,” or “sect.”  In other words, these English words translated from the Greek are all used interchangeably in the biblical text, especially with “heresy” or “heretic.”  This idea that sects, division, and doctrinal error go hand in hand is plainly stated in the Bible:

Acts 20:30

and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

Acts 24:5

For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

In fact, Christianity was seen as a sect because of the divisions caused by sanctification:

Acts 24:14

But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, (refer back to 1Corinthians 11:19 as well).

Note that the word used in the ESV for “sect” is “heresy,” which is the same word used in Titus 3:10 to describe a heretic. Hence the following reference by others that I found helpful in regards to Titus 3:10:

Some say that in Titus 3:10 ‘a factious [sectarian] man’ should be translated ‘a man who teaches heresy’ and that this expression does not refer to a divisive person. But in Greek this expression denotes a person who holds an opinion or a different doctrine that tends toward division. Thus, the English versions translate this as (1) a factious man—American Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Marshall’s Interlinear Greek-English New Testament; (2) a man who is factious—Revised Standard Version, Amplified Bible; (3) a heretical sectarian and cause of divisions—Amplified Bible; (4) a heretical person causing divisions—Wuest; (5) a sectarian—W. J. Conybeare; (6) a man who causes divisions—R. F. Weymouth; (7) a factious person—James Moffatt; (8) a sectarian man—Concordant Literal New Testament, Berry’s Interlinear Greek-English New Testament; (9) a factious person—Berkeley Version; (10) a heretical man, i.e., one given to ‘lift up’ opinions, sound or unsound, and an unstable, unsettled individual who wishes to form sects—Young’s Translation; (11) causing division by a party spirit, factious—Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words; (12) a divisive person—New International Version.

To say that division over doctrine exemplifies New Calvinism would be the understatement of the century! Throughout the Bible, sectarians are also described as COVERT—another adjective describing New Calvinism that is an understatement on steroids. In fact, they themselves boast that they are divisive because they preach a “scandalous” gospel. Well, that’s exactly what the apostle Paul said sectarians do:

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

The word for “obstacles” in this verse is, “scandalon” or “scandal.” So for all practical purposes, New Calvinists admit that they preach a divisive gospel. New Calvinism came forth from its Australian Forum womb drawing away disciples and causing divisions on personal levels and corporate levels to a degree that may be unprecedented in church history.

The Cure

New Calvinism is a super-sect that must be exposed and stopped, and only one cure will work: biblical separation. The apostles described sectarianism as a disease that would quickly spread and wreak havoc on God’s people (“gangrene”). They said that a little leaven will leaven the whole lump. Men who gather to “discuss” the symptoms of sectarianism with its proponents show that they do not understand what the Bible teaches about sectarianism. While they feast with these men and discuss “issues,” the gangrene does not wait.

paul