Who is a Heretic?
Scripture contains the following admonition and the following warning:
“A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject” Titus 3:10.
“There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.” 2 Peter 2:1.
So what is heresy and who is a heretic?
Heresy comes from the Greek: hairesis, n. “a taking or choosing,” & hairein, v. “to choose.”
So a heretic is someone who chooses.1 But how can we not choose? Isn’t theological and ecclesiological choice unavoidable? How can we not be heretics/choosers?
Scripture and the Problem of The Invisible Church
The problem is this – Scripture might be infallible,2 but we are not:3
If even St. Peter thought it was hard to interpret St. Paul, can Scripture really be a matter for private interpretation? “There are some things in them [St. Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” 2 Peter 3:16.
Are we to believe that St. Peter was against personal interpretation of Scriptural prophecy, but fine with personal interpretation of the rest of Scripture? “No prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21.
Are there are certain doctrines we must believe or acts we must do in order to follow Christ? If so, then what are they and how do we know we have followed the right teachers? “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” 2 Timothy 4:3.4
This is the Problem of Authority.
If even Satan can use Scripture,5 we need the authority of Christ behind our interpretation of Scripture, because only that which has been given authority by Christ, the ultimate, original, and true source of Authority, is infallible.6
Like the Ethiopian Eunuch, we need a guide we can trust when it comes to matters of faith and morals. See Acts 8:26-39. As Chesterton said, “I don't need a church to tell me I'm wrong where I already know I'm wrong; I need a Church to tell me I'm wrong where I think I'm right.” We need a Church to teach us, not an invisible church or a church of our choosing. For we cannot teach ourselves and neither can an invisible church.
And this is exactly what we find in Scripture, which calls “the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15.7
The Authoritative Church of The Bible
In Scripture, Christ founds a Church, and vests it with His authority, giving it “the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,” along with a divine guarantee that the “Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18; 19.
Christ appoints leaders over this Church, giving them authority to “teach[] them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you.” Matthew 28:20. And of those Christ places in authority He tells us “he who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects Him who sent me.” Luke 10:16.
So, how do we avoid being heretics?
By submitting to Christ’s Church and its teachings, rather than choosing our own church and our own doctrines. The solution to Heresy then, to choosing, is Tradition.
Tradition comes from the Latin: traditio, n. a passing on or transfer & tradere, v. to hand over, deliver, or entrust. “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” 2 Thessalonians 2:15. We must adhere to that which has been passed on, “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3.
True Tradition “is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”8 And how do we know the fire of true tradition was preserved? Because of Christ’s promises – He promised us that “[w]hen the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” John 16:13.
The One True Church
To whom then shall we go?9 In all of this, it should be kept in mind the distinction between material and formal heresy. Many of our fathers in the faith,10 through no fault of their own, might have held incorrect views (material heresy), but did not have the requisite knowledge and intent required for the formal heresy referred to in Titus 3.
But if you’re actively choosing your church and your doctrines instead of receiving what was handed on, from Christ not the 16th century (or worse, the 20th), you’re a heretic – you’re choosing, hairesis, rather than receiving what was passed on, traditio.
God did not leave us alone “for lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20. He does not call us to figure things out on our own, reconstructing a theology from the Bible ourselves, or choosing between various competing teachings and teachers.
Rather, he has set before us a clear teaching, and a clear Church. One Christ promised he would never let fall, his Body11 that is visible and we can touch,12 just as we could during his earthly life. A Church that would be divinely protected and guided by the Holy Spirit, despite the sinful shortcomings of its leaders,13 down through the ages. One14 Church, led by the successors to the Apostles, whom Christ commanded to go out and “teach all nations” Matthew 28:19.
And everyone knows what Church that is.
The Catholic Church.
This article originally debuted at the Christ is King: How to Defeat Trashworld Conference on April 5th, 2025 in Temple, Texas.
Steve Deace’s talk on April 4th, 2025, at the Christ is King: How to Defeat Trashworld Conference supported this view, where he defined heretics as those who hold to their mere opinions, rather than the truth.
It is.
Interestingly, Stephen Wolfe made this distinction, between an “infallible source” and “fallible application,” in his debate with David Reece on April 5th, 2025, at the Christ is King: How to Defeat Trashworld Conference. Reece responded that inferences through right reason (recto ratio) from Scripture were infallible. This though, as Wolfe pointed out, begs the question – what is right reason and what are the correct premises?
This verse follows almost immediately after David Reece’s supposed proof-text for Sola Scriptura - “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. No Christian denies Scripture is authoritative. The question though is is it the only authority. That’s not what the verses say. And that’s obviously not what St. Paul believes either, considering he tells Timothy right before, “You, however, have followed my teaching.” 2 Timothy 3:10. St. Paul’s teaching was authoritative, whether it was his interpretation of Scripture or his teaching that he received directly from Christ or the Apostles. In this letter, St. Paul is training a successor to himself, St. Timothy, who he has ordained - “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6. As a successor to the Apostles, St. Timothy is being given a heavy responsibility, and St. Paul writes, “I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” 2 Timothy 1:12-14. The Holy Spirit assists the leaders of the Church, the successors to St. Paul and St. Timothy, to safeguard the Deposit of Faith, which includes the Scriptures, but is not limited to them devoid of authoritative interpretation.
In Matthew 4 and Luke 4, Jesus is tempted by Satan, who quotes Psalm 91:11-12, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Christ responds with “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Deuteronomy 6:16.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28:18
Notice this “proof-text” too is from Paul to Timothy. As an intellectual exercise, consider 1 Timothy 3:15 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in complete isolation from the rest of Scripture and Tradition - which seems the better proof text? Does Scripture support Sola Scriptura? Or does Scripture point to the Church? Which does Christ our Savior point us to?
Gustav Mahler
“When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?”” “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”” John 6:60-61; 66-68.
“How do you honor your fathers when they dishonored all the fathers that came before?” I believe this was Eric Conn () in his talk on April 4th, 2025, at the Christ is King: How to Defeat Trashworld Conference. It could have been Auron MacIntyre () or Joel Webbon though. I think it’s an excellent question, and I think the answer is you honor your father(s) for the truth(s) they did pass on to you and exercise charity in the areas where they fell short, but ultimately our true loyalty and honor is due to God the Father for “we must obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29.
“The Church, which is His Body.” Ephesians 1:22-23.
Would Christ’s Body, the Church, be invisible when he emphasized its physicality to his disciples after his Resurrection? E.g. John 20:27; Luke 24:39-43.
See e.g. Galatians 2:11 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” Notice Peter is here called Cephas, from the Aramaic Kepha, meaning rock/stone. Simon was renamed Peter(Greek)/Cephas after his confession of faith, after which Christ states “on this rock I will build my Church.” Matthew 16:18. Compare Genesis 17, where God establishes his covenant and renames Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.
Joel Webbon, in an understandable if misguided (at least in the author’s opinion) attempt at charity and ecumenism between various Reformed and Protestant traditions/churches, stated that “Division is a luxury,” and favorably described a variety of churches and Protestant denominations all on the same street, disagreeing in harmony. But, contrary to Mr. Webbon’s remark, division is not a sign that we are winning, but that we are losing. It is a sign of rebellion against Christ and His Church, a sign that souls are being led astray and/or that we no longer think truth important. Christ prayed that we might be one, and St. Paul clearly depicts the Church as “one body.” John 17; Ephesians 4:4. Something has gone deeply wrong if we are now praising division as a good, when Scripture clearly depicts it as an evil. April 5th, 2025, at the Christ is King: How to Defeat Trashworld Conference.
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