Thank God for Heretics — Deep In The Tank

I’ll be the first to admit that it can be difficult to find things to be thankful for sometimes. In the middle of difficult or confusing periods of life, being told to count one’s blessings can be met with the question, “What blessings?” Other times, things to be thankful for can come from unexpected places. With that said, let’s cut to the chase: given that some readers may already know my feelings on heresy and heretics, one may wonder why I thank God for heretics. A brief anecdote will explain why that’s the case, and I’ll even throw in a brief thought about thankfulness and patience.

Oh the Things We Debate

Thanks both to where I went to college and the company I keep, I end up connected to lots of ministers on social media, and there are few times where I’m made more aware of that than when I check Facebook. Every time I log on, i find new invites to like a page and see posts from blogs, not unlike this one, as well as posts from various minsters about videos they’ve put up. Honestly, most of the content becomes a blur unless I specifically know the person. However, I distinctly recall seeing a post one minister made that caught my eye. This particular minister made a video discussing whether or not it was acceptable to sing during the Lord’s Supper. In and of itself, that question has never really interested me; quite frankly, I feel no great need to sing during the Lord’s Supper, nor do I feel the need to harshly rebuke anyone who does. The comments are on this minister’s post made it plain to me, however, that mine was not the only opinion on the matter. Long, protracted arguments, references to Greek, accusations of liberalism and legalism, and all the hallmarks of a good donnybrook were on display for any interested onlooker to see.

Now, I want to go ahead and make a few things plain: I don’t at all intend to come across like I’m mocking the guy who made the aforementioned post, or anyone who argued about it. I do think the argument is quite silly, but otherwise perfectly good and intelligent people can chase silly rabbits, so I don’t wish to pass judgment here. In fact, I’m confident that everything said came from a good and genuine place. However, as I was reading the argument unfold, one thought kept coming back to the forefront of my mind.

“This is the kind of thing people argue about when they don’t have an actual problem to solve.”

George Isn’t Taking Retirement Too Well

There’s a humorous twist on an old tale, first brought to my attention by Douglas Murray. Perhaps you’ve heard of Saint George the Dragon Slayer. If not, you can pretty immediately figure out the gist: a brave hero kills the dragon and saves the princess. While the George of history was a martyr who very likely slew no dragons, his legend is foundational both to many tales of gallantry and an all too real problem. Imagine for a moment that the legend of George is true and that he wasn’t martyred. Assume he was able to retire to a quiet villa, venerated by the people around him for his brave deeds. Think about the toll that would bear on a man: after all, where do you go after killing a dragon? How do you build on that? What could you possibly do to kill time after that? One can very easily imagine his being quite bored, and people who get bored during retirement either find something to do with all their newfound free time or they go back to work. The problem becomes obvious quickly: if the dragon’s dead, what kind of work does a dragon slayer do? Menial labor is simply beneath him! Instead, restlessness gives way to something else entirely, that being either the desperate need find and kill more dragons, real, exaggerated, or outright imagined.

Sometimes, I fear that this is what happens in Christian circles. We’ve had centuries of fighting battles of all sorts and finally got to a place where we more or less had things figured out. We figured out where we stood on who Jesus is, the nature of the Trinity, questions about justification, and all sorts of other vitally important. Setting aside for a moment the need to always go back to the sources and make sure we’re on the right track, we have a temptation in Christendom that a newer religion may not possess, that being the temptation to look or dragons to kill, even if we have to invent them in the process.

Heretics and Heresy

I want to make clear what I mean by a heretic. A heretic isn’t just someone I disagree with or someone who I think is wrong on some issue or another. Borrowing from Alister McGrath, a heretic is a person who holds a view that is so directly antithetical to a central tenet of the Christian faith that by adopting that view, they have fundamentally altered their faith in such a way that it no longer can rightly be called Christian. Heresy isn’t just wrong or indicative of a differing view. Heresy is toxic to the Christian faith, coursing through its system and destroying it from the inside. As the title of this essay suggests and the above heading outright states, I thank God for heretics, despite my intense disagreement with them and that might be puzzling. Why would I be grateful for heretics and heresy? A few reasons come to mind that I’ll list and briefly expound on:

Heresy requires us to focus on the core components of the faith. Petty arguments fall by the wayside when heresy begins to take hold.
Heresy requires us not just to figure out what we stand against but what we stand for. Even more, heresy requires us to clearly and beautifully define and explain the truth of the Christian faith.
Heresy provides an opportunity for the best and brightest to create a lasting and fruitful impact for generations to come.

Patience and Gratitude

Perhaps most importantly, heresy creates an opportunity to cultivate patience and gratitude. Dealing with heresy graciously and effectively requires time and effort, the kind of which makes us more patient by sheer necessity if nothing else. Heresy also reveals wise and faithful believers from all walks of life, people we should always seek to emulate and be grateful for. As such, while I find heresy repugnant, I can’t help but be grateful for it. I can only imagine how dull church history would be were it not for the likes of Arius, Marcion, and their ilk. Heresy is, of course, a grave matter and yet, despite the gravity the term brings, I do believe the church is better for its struggles against heresy, and for that, along so many other factors, I can honestly say that I thank God for heretics.