# Near-heresy beliefs

Defining heresies by standards established by groups or society is a bad idea for Christians:

- [The fashions of Christianity move around](history-church.md), and what is heresy today may not be in 1,000 years.
- Cult deprogrammers often define "coercion" with vague enough terms that it can apply to *any* religion whatsoever that exerts [influence](power-influence.md), including Christianity, and their efforts are often a source of [persecution](hardship-persecution-church.md).
- Most people claiming to be a Christian [when Jesus returns](theology-end.md) likely won't believe in Him ([Matthew 7:22](https://biblehub.com/matthew/7-22.htm)).

To Christians, a heresy is a belief that deviates from a dominant Christian [theory](values.md), opinion, or practice.

- Jesus is the supreme authority for *everything* ([John 17](https://biblehub.com/john/17.htm), [Matthew 28:18](https://biblehub.com/matthew/28-18.htm)).
- Heresies may or may not bar someone from going to heaven, but they *might* impede a Christian's development.
  - For many of them, we often won't know their full impact until Judgment Day ([Matthew 25:31-46](https://biblehub.com/matthew/25.htm), [Revelation 20:11-15](https://biblehub.com/revelation/20.htm)).
  - Jesus and the New Testament in general warns about heretics ([Matthew 7:15-23](https://biblehub.com/matthew/7.htm), [1 John 2:19](https://biblehub.com/1_john/2-19.htm)).
- In order of significance, heresies strip or add a secondary authority to:
  1. God the Father and Holy Spirit
  2. Jesus, as God and as man
  3. Scripture and the value of the Bible
  4. Humanity's [immoral state](morality.md), especially regarding [sin](theology-sins.md)
  5. The [Church's](church.md) position to [lead believers](spiritual-discipleship.md)
  6. [Spiritual rituals](spiritual-exercises.md) and [how they should be done](mgmt-church.md)

Within reason, someone can still believe heresies and have a [relationship with Jesus](people-identity.md).

- Their salvation is certainly crippled, but can still exist as long as they [understand](understanding.md) and believe [the basics of the Gospel](https://theologos.site/gospel/).
- Cults, however, can easily arise in the absence of the solid theological foundation of good Christian doctrine.
- Sometimes heresies are completely unintentional, and generations of mindless ritual can often create [institutional misunderstanding](mgmt-badsystems.md).
- As long as the [leadership](mgmt-church.md) of that group still defers their authority to Christ and what is true, that group is never at risk of becoming a cult.

Isolationism - Following Jesus requires severing ties completely with the rest of the world ([James 4:4](https://biblehub.com/james/4-4.htm)):

- To be precise, *desiring* friendship with the world is to be an enemy to God ([1 John 2:15](https://biblehub.com/1_john/2-15.htm)).
  - Jesus came to save sinners, and associated frequently with them as part of His ministry ([Matthew 9:10-13](https://biblehub.com/matthew/9.htm)).
- Following Jesus means a cycle of associating with other believers, then going out into the rest of the world ([John 17:13-15](https://biblehub.com/john/17.htm)).
- One variation of isolationism is to believe there are *no* ties between a person's professional or [cultural](people-culture.md) life and their Christian life.
  - However, if you choose to identify as a Christian, your lifestyle *will* change, and it *will* reflect on a [holier lifestyle](theology-sins.md).
  - Saying something is "just business" is never used to justify a morally *good* action, so most of it is motivated toward [gaining some form of power](power-types.md).

Christian Hedonism - God receives the most glory through us when we are most satisfied with Him ([Romans 15:13](https://biblehub.com/romans/15-13.htm)):

- We *will* find joy in Christ when we serve Him.
  - In fact, God designed all wisdom for the purpose of *long-term* [satisfaction in life](success-1_why.md) ([Proverbs 4:5-9](https://biblehub.com/proverbs/4.htm)).
- However, if that joy ever steps across *any* of God's commands, it's still a [sin](theology-sins.md), and He is *not* satisfied with it.

Cultural Christianity - Christians are responsible to instill a holy culture in the world around them ([Deuteronomy 28:1-14](https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/28.htm)):

- We *are* responsible to build a culture that reflects Christ-like living [wherever we are](https://theologos.site/devotion-chaos/).
  - At the same time, people in this life *will* reject doing lawful and good things ([Romans 2:1-9](https://biblehub.com/romans/2.htm)).
- We'll never achieve any true spiritual culture until [Jesus establishes it directly and in-person](https://theologos.site/millennium/).
  - In this life, we're destined to battle hardship, which includes [not being able to fully trust those around us](hardship-persecution-church.md).
- A variation of this is Christian nationalism, which indicates a person's Christian background should reflect on their [political views](politics-conservativeliberal.md).
  - While our political views can be shaped by our spirituality, [sound economic theory](money-economics.md) and [governance principles](lawsaxioms-legal.md) will *not* have relevance once [Jesus returns](theology-end.md).
  - To live for the Kingdom of Heaven, we must learn to love others sacrificially, which has very little to do with [how we choose to vote](politics-systems.md), any attempt at a [political revolution](people-conflicts-war-why.md), or our [political activism](people-culture-cults.md).

Apostolic Succession - The 12 apostles have future apostles to run the Church in an unbroken lineage.

- The idea comes from some verses such as Paul's instruction to pass on the teachings to the next generation ([2 Timothy 2:2](https://biblehub.com/2_timothy/2-2.htm)).
  - Another idea that feeds into it is that Peter was the first Pope of the Church ([Matthew 16:18](https://biblehub.com/matthew/16-18.htm)).
- Every Catholic believes this in some way about their bishops and the Pope, while Protestants reject it at least partly.
  - Their assertion is that [the abstraction will stay the same, while its implementation moves around](https://gainedin.site/abstractions/).
  - In one sense, if they're correct, there really is no conflict in authority, since they're subordinate to Scripture's abstractions.
- There really is no issue until one of them teaches false doctrine.
  - At that point, the authority of Scripture should take prevalence.
  - However, many Church leaders in history have abused their position by twisting Scripture without context to their political goals.
- One ecumenical truth is that the leadership should publicly hand off their role.
  - Everyone gets older, and will eventually die, and the younger leaders need to take on that role.

Second Work Theology - Salvation can be enhanced through the baptism of the Holy Spirit ([Acts 2:38](https://biblehub.com/acts/2-38.htm)):

- Jesus died for our sins as a first work, but then God gave a second work in [Acts 2](https://biblehub.com/acts/2.htm) as the baptism of the Holy Spirit baptism that gives [spiritual gifts](spiritual-gifts.md) (most notably speaking in tongues).
  - Most of their experience can be traced to autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), which is a low-grade euphoria mixed with a tingling sensation.
  - Scripture doesn't emphasize the idea of "repent, then receive the Spirit's baptism" as much as "[repent, and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior](https://theologos.site/gospel/)".
- Second-work believers (typically associated with Pentecostalism) typically advance beliefs in extra-biblical revelation and dismiss portions of the Bible that clarify spiritual gifts (e.g., [1 Corinthians 12-14](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/12.htm)).
  - Paul addressed the Corinthian Church as if they had universally accepted the Holy Spirit's baptism ([1 Corinthians 12:1](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/12-1.htm)) but called them spiritually immature in the same letter ([1 Corinthians 3:2](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/3-2.htm)).
- Aspiring for extra holiness or righteousness is a waste of time ([Colossians 2:20-22](https://biblehub.com/colossians/2.htm)).
  - Instead, work to improve the quality of your [works](spiritual-exercises.md) ([1 Corinthians 3:10-15](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/3.htm)).

Church services with drug use:

- Typically, they'll use hallucinogenics and psychedelics to "enhance" their spirituality.
- The experience of consuming drugs is in direct defiance of the holy lifestyle appropriate for a Christian ([1 Peter 1:13-16](https://biblehub.com/1_peter/1.htm)).
  - Members tend to have *severe* spiritual experiences, but typically [not with God](spiritual-warfare.md).
- Recreational drugs also often have the unfortunate side effect of becoming [addictive](addiction.md).

Philosophical vagueness about aspects of Christianity:

- [The Gospel](https://theologos.site/gospel/) is a simple concept, designed to be absurdly simple to understand.
  - God Himself has many mysteries, but He's also *very* accessible ([James 1:5](https://biblehub.com/james/1-5.htm)).
- Smart people are often foolish with their intellect and tend to clutter up doctrinal matters that would otherwise be easily [understood](understanding.md) ([Romans 1:22](https://biblehub.com/romans/1-22.htm)).
  - *Highly* intelligent people have a tendency to heavily parse [language](language.md) to the point that it's difficult to precisely follow them, and readers or listeners can often get lost.
  - God literally *[designed](creations.md)* [universals](humanity-universals.md) in nature for us to [presume](mind-trust.md), but some smart people have major [trust issues](understanding-certainty.md).
- Some people will define words like "God" and "eternal" in strange ways that create tremendous [uncertainty](unknown.md).
  - Most [post-modern philosophy](philosophy.md), including pseudo-Christian works like Kierkegaard, fall into this domain.

Jesus doesn't *technically* need to eternally exist, but must be God:

- Christians *must* believe [Jesus is completely equal with God](theology-god.md), but also that He's completely [human](theology-godandman-humanity.md).
  - This paradox is called the "hypostatic union": 100% God and 100% man.
- However, that equality doesn't necessarily mean that the Father and Son were necessarily eternally existing in the form they exist in right now ([Colossians 1:15-20](https://biblehub.com/colossians/1.htm)).
- If God were to split Himself at the beginning of creation (e.g., for the purpose of a relationship with created beings) there is no heresy as long as Jesus is still the ultimate authority with a completely equal and shared essence with God.

Dispensationalism - there are different "ages" where God interacted (and will interact) with people differently, and when Jesus came He completely divorced the meaning of "Israel" and Hebrew.

- Before Christ, the hope *was* in the [coming Messiah](theology-salvation-prophecies.md).
- The Holy Spirit is the [down payment](people-contracts.md) for [the coming Age](https://theologos.site/millennium/) ([2 Corinthians 1:21-22](https://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/1.htm)).
- Not all Israel is "Israel" (Romans 9:6-8).
- The natural implication, therefore, is that modern-day Israelis are no longer part of God's plans.
- However, dispensation theology was also created before [geographical Israel coming back into existence in the Middle East](history-israel.md).
  - Revelation declares a war on Israel, and it'll almost certainly be those geographical locations indicated.
  - God clearly hasn't given up on the Jews ([Romans 11:11-15](https://biblehub.com/romans/11.htm)).
- Many people use dispensationalism to justify antisemitism, which is fully inconsistent with Christianity because it's a severely unloving behavior toward a people group, which happens to be the race Jesus was born into as well.

Losing one's salvation:

- Some Christians believe someone can lose their salvation, and needs to regain it again by praying once more to receive Christ or being re-baptized.
- However, some Bible verses imply that former followers of God have lost their salvation ([Deuteronomy 13:6-11](https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/13.htm), [Hebrews 6:4-8](https://biblehub.com/hebrews/6.htm), [2 Peter 2:20-22](https://biblehub.com/2_peter/2.htm)).
  - These people have somehow followed Jesus but now have absolutely no redemption available to them.
- Once Saved, Always Saved - Any person who decides to follow Jesus will prevail to the end.
  - The people stated in the above passages, however, *do* have significant experience with God working.
- Most Christian culture tends to set the goals for salvation wrongly by implying it happens at the [conversion to Christ](https://theologos.site/gospel/).
  - Protestants are the worst at it, since they tend to treat a conversion to Christ as the only sufficiently necessary task.
  - Catholics, however, have a similar attitude about being confirmed and baptized, with the extra-biblical theology of Purgatory and indulgences often mixed in.
  - They're not considering that starting the spiritual journey isn't *nearly* as important as finishing it ([2 Timothy 4:7-8](https://biblehub.com/2_timothy/4.htm)).
- Salvation doesn't technically happen until the moment God judges all of us ([Revelation 20:11-15](https://biblehub.com/revelation/20.htm)).
  - Before that point, we're carrying a [discipleship](spiritual-discipleship.md) and [journey](spiritual-exercises.md) until that fulfillment ([Romans 8:22-25](https://biblehub.com/romans/8.htm)).
  - In this situation, the passages plainly indicate the person who has abandoned that journey entirely in light of all the information they possessed, and their decision is themselves possessing full knowledge at that moment.

Rapture Theology - Jesus will come back twice, once for Christians and once again for the rest of the world (more on the subject [on this essay](theology-end.md)).