1 Timothy 4:1-3
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
Paul and other early Christians had to deal with growing heresies. At the root of heresy is coming up with our own ideas. Within the academic world, people are driven (and sometimes required) to come up with new and novel ideas and ways of doing things. There is the danger and temptation that these new ideas distort and stray too far from the truth of the gospel. I have been thinking a lot about this in multiple areas.
First, within local churches, there is a tendency to allow the cultural and political forces to determine how we act. We are drawn to new things, fads, and ways of doing things. The Emergent church has been once such new way of doing things that has posed many challenges to traditional orthodoxy.
Second, within theological education, there has been a tendency to find new ways of expressing old truths in an effort to be relevant to our culture and younger generations. Some of this is ok, but some of it has distorted orthodoxy, including process theology and open theism.
Third, in cultural dialogue with different religions, there has been a tendency to water down the gospel to make it palatable to unbelievers. The highest value in our culture has become political correctness or “dialogue.” We here a lot about dialogue with others. In fact, there is a conference on this theme at NNU. Dialogue is good but not compromise in essentials. Paul and other early Christians dialogues with unbelievers every day but also called them to repent and accept the orthodox and accepted doctrines that they preached. In any effort to dialogue with others, we must not lose the fact that the truth calls everyone to account.
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