WE ARE AT WAR WITH HERETICS

By Akin Ojumu

When it comes to heresies in the Church, nothing much has changed since John, the last of the Apostles, passed away around AD 100 in Ephesus (modern-day Turkey). As it was back then, so it is today. I would even venture to say that the situation has gotten progressively worse in our time.

To say that the spread of heretical beliefs is much worse now than in the First Century, is an understatement. At least in the early Church, the early Christians recognize the Apostles and were well acquainted with their doctrines. Back then, the heretics and false teachers constituted a tiny minority of malevolent individuals who were confined to the fringes of the Church.

Sadly, what we are witnessing today is the reverse. Unlike in the early Church, where heresies were easily identified and detected as falsehood perpetrated by a handful of malcontent charlatans, the same cannot be said in our time. Heretical teachings have become mainstreamed and have virtually supplanted the Apostle’s doctrine. What used to belong to the outer perimeter of the Church have found their way into the heart of the Body of Christ.

To demonstrate how dire the situation has become, the vast majority of the Church is no longer able to discern truth from error even if it slaps them in the face. Contemporary Christians now readily accepts as true doctrine the very same aberrant teachings the First Century Christians rejected as heresies back in the early Church.

It’s no surprise then that Gnosticism is in resurgence in the 21st Century Church. Charlatans who boast about their encounters, brag about special powers, and gloat about insight into deep mysteries are worshiped by modern-day Christians. These religious frauds are regarded as heavily “anointed” men and women of God who must be celebrated and revered.

Fundamental to Gnosticism is the hierarchy in spiritual illumination and knowledge. Gnostics teach that certain select Christians have risen, or emanated, to the highest spiritual level of operations where spectacular phenomena and fantastic spiritual experiences occur on a daily basis. Such spiritually elite individuals are superior to other Christians in all matters of the faith. These super-Christians operate in higher spiritual dimensions than the rest of the hoi polloi. 

Now, that should sound familiar to most of you reading this. A modern-day version of the 1st Century Gnosticism is what you hear people like Joshua Selman, Arome Osayi, Michael Orokpo, and the other modern-day false apostles teach. These apostles of realms and portals are neo-Gnostics disseminating the poison of neo-Gnosticism. They are enemies of God going about the business of their master, Satan.

The knowledge of the Gnostics is false knowledge. It’s the sort of knowledge that caused some members of the Colossian Church to err from the faith, i.e. derail or miss the mark. Gnosticism’s knowledge was subtle and yet contradictory. Not only does Gnosticism contradict the truth, but even within the various Gnostic beliefs there are also many contradictions.

Paul’s letters to Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians, Colossians, and Timothy were, to a large extent, written to denounce gnostic teachings. And there’s another word used as a synonym for Gnosticism in the Bible. It’s the word “philosophy,” which Paul used in his letter to the Colossians.

 

Colossians 2:8

“See to it that no one takes you captive by PHILOSOPHY and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Not only do we have Gnostics in the contemporary Church, but there are also those who subscribe to the teachings of Marcion of Sinope. It was this Marcion who posited a radical dualism between two gods: the Creator God (or Demiurge) of the Jewish Scriptures who was a vain and angry deity responsible for creating an imperfect material world. In contrast, the Father of Jesus Christ was an entirely different, loving, and merciful deity.

Because Marcion saw the Creator God of the Old Testament as flawed, he entirely rejected the Hebrew Bible and Jewish law. He developed his own canon of Scripture by stripping away all Jewish references from early Christian writings. Marcion and his teachings, i.e., Marcionism, provoked fierce opposition from early Church leaders like Tertullian, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Polycarp. The latter aptly called Marcion the “firstborn of Satan.”

Modern-day advocates of Marcionism are seen as teachers possessing deep spiritual knowledge. The preacher who tells his followers that God does not kill or destroy is hailed as a teacher of the true gospel.

Not a few Church denominations are ruled by descendants of Prophetesses Maximilla and Priscilla of Montanism in our day. There’s scarcely any religious group today where you won’t find the heretical teaching of Montanus being propagated. Many of these folks insist that the Holy Spirit speaks through them in ecstatic utterances. These modern-day followers of Montanism are known for speaking in tongues, prattling, and chanting nonsense. Their lying leaders claim to hear directly from God, which, by implication, whatever they say is as authoritative as anything in Scripture. Like their progenitors, so-called prophets today claim to prophesy in trance-like or ecstatic states.

The same can be said of Arianism. Some of the most influential and revered religious leaders today are disciples of Arius. In characteristic narcissistic fashion, these emissaries of Arianism often claim equality with God. Full of hubris and wreaking of arrogance, they believe they are gods, having the same power and authority as the Almighty God. We’ve even heard a general overseer tell the cock and bull story of God coming to his living room to drink his last cup of tea.

Then there are the offspring of Pelagius, which is the vast majority of Christians today. These are people who think their salvation is dependent on their cooperation with God or that God needs human assistance in the act of redemption. Forgetting that before God saved us, we were all dead in our trespasses and sins. And there’s no world in which a dead person can raise themselves from the dead.

As I bring this commentary to a close, the words of the late Pastor John MacArthur come to mind.

There have always been, and always will be, false teachers, lying prophets, religious deceivers and corrupt preachers who claim to represent God but actually represent Satan. They claim to bring the way of heaven and actually paved the way to hell. These are liars who claim to speak divine truth but in reality, speak satanic lies and doctrines of demons. Scripture warns us about these people. 

Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He told his first lie in the Garden of Eden which led to the fall of the human race. He continues to perpetrate lies through demons and his agents; hypocritical liars, as they are called by Paul in 1 Timothy Chapter 4. They propagate all that is false. And all that’s not true is false, and all that’s not of God is of Satan. There is no middle ground. All that’s true is true and all that is not true is false. There is no middle ground. If a preacher espouses anything that’s not true, it’s a satanic lie. It’s intended to deceive and to damn the souls of its victims. 

All heretics are the enemies of Christ. All false teachers are the enemies of truth. All purveyors of false religion are enemies of the Gospel. All distorters of Scripture are enemies of souls. There can be no toleration of perpetrators of false doctrine. For the sake of your soul, you must mark and avoid the purveyors of erroneous doctrines.

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.”