Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

An Abundance of Truth Does Not Neutralize Heresy

I posted this principle on my Facebook page and had some very angry responses. What ensued was the reason why I stopped debating long ago. People no longer listen to reason—they love doctrine more than truth. And in spite of admissions to the contrary, they are inextricably bonded with people that they are enamored with. Thus, instead of absorbing facts and coming to the logical conclusion, they explode with ad hominem.

In case someone does not know, along with my writing, teaching, and preaching ministry, I have for a long period been engaged in exposing the unfruitful works of darkness as it pertains to heresies and heretics. The process of determining a heresy, and whether or not it is deadly enough to expose, is exactly the same for each situation. Thorough research and applying God’s word is painstakingly and diligently effectuated. I reiterate, each heresy and heretic is dealt with in the exact same manner without bias or favor.

A downside is that I never know when someone, even a friend or associate, is going to be offended by a heresy or heretic that I write about, or concerning my position that disagrees with their belief(s).  But it is occurring more and more frequently.

Someone may ask, “But why can’t you just ignore what other people believe and focus on promoting your own beliefs?”

Ok, but one of my beliefs is that I should expose the unfruitful works of darkness, which draws contention from people that believe in heresy. The fact is that if someone espouses a heresy and I am asked for my opinion, my response is nearly always considered contentious. I believe that truth has just as much (actually, more) right to be heard as error.  But people under deception and confidently speaking a heresy do not believe that. It becomes clear that it is not the truthspeaker that is the cause of contention, it is the heretics reaction to truth itself.

Additionally, every deadly heresy is an attack on the truth. Not to defend truth against attacks is cowardly. The cowardly will have an equal place in the Lake of Fire as unbelievers, murderers, and sexually immoral individuals.

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” – Revelation 21:8

Some people wiggle out from confronting famous heretics by insisting that the errant ones preach and teach “the pure gospel.” Not if they are genuine heretics.

The fact is that a deadly heresy cannot be separated from the amount of truth in the heretic’s doctrinal system. The reason is because heresy contaminates the whole system. If one preaches the true Gospel and also believes and supports a deadly lie, the entire package is heresy. Truth should not be separated from the package and then used to deem the deadly heresy as benign.

For example, a Roman Catholic that espouses the “true” Gospel is still promoting Roman Catholicism. Likewise, a Calvinist that preaches/teaches the “true” Gospel is heresy. It is a mistake to separate the true Gospel from the Calvinist’s doctrinal system and marginalize the danger. In fact, the more truth that a heretic elucidates, the greater the danger of people being snared by his or her deadly heresy.

For example, Jimmy Swaggart claimed that God imparted exclusively to him a new revelation not previously known to the Church or the Apostle Paul. His supposed revelation is a heresy that contaminates the truth that he preaches/teaches. However, people point to the truth Swaggart delivers and exonerate him of heresy.

What if a bit of botulinum too small to see with the naked eye was dropped into a clean and sterilized bucket of purified spring water. Just two billionths of a gram is enough to kill an adult. A teaspoon of botulinum can kill a billion adults. Two kilograms can kill the entire population of Earth. Would anyone marginalize the danger of the botulinum by extolling the much greater amount of pure water?

Marginalizing the deadliness of heresy by focusing on the truth that it has effectively contaminated is courting fatal deception. It is the same paradigm the serpent used to deceive Eve in the garden of Eden. The serpent pointed out what Eve stood to gain by believing its message. She was lied to and distracted from what she stood to lose.

Today, men and women stand on stages and in front of cameras and cajole people by telling them what they stand to gain. It’s all about the here and now—satisfying their “wanter” while milking their “giver.” Meanwhile, there are so few people left to defend truth that is seems all that’s left for Satan to do is clean the battlefield of the few straggling survivors. Here I stand—but God is with me.

This is not the time to be enamored with people, not that there ever was a time when that was permissible. It is very dangerous to accept a message on the basis of popularity or because it makes you feel good. Christ did not say to us, “Go ye therefore and believe what you wish to believe.” The heretics presenting such messages were not sent by God. Nothing in their fruit proves that they were. Until they respond to Christ’s call to “Come, follow Me,” they will not be sent to the lost or found sheep. They cannot even hear His call. Listening to them is listening the message of the wolves and regarding them as great sheep.

9 Comments

  1. Jimmy Linville

    Good read Cedric

  2. Cheryl

    Could not agree more! People worship the Messenger and regard his words as pure Truth simply because it came our of his mouth!They are Blind Sheep who will willingly fall off the cliff these Heretics Will
    eventually lead them to!
    Excellent Article!

  3. ken

    Yes. I saw what happened when you posted this on Facebook. The Swaggartites came out with anger and almost hate when you posted there. Messing with peoples’ favorite gurus will for sure bring out the worst in folks. We do not even have to attach a person’s name to a heresy to draw wrath upon ourselves. I have had hateful responses from post tribulationists, pretribbers, preterists, and especially Calvinists of all stripes. I have not talked to many RCC people about their false church because that would most probably not work out good. The one that will get a whole lot of people riled is the pet peeve dogma of OSAS, unconditional eternal security. The one I tread most lightly on is a holiness dogma that is pretty well established in many Charismatic denominations that a saved person is just one unrepented-of sin away from perdition. I do not think the Bible teaches that. That is my opinion and I am not going to argue that particular dogma, but I do not hold to complete sanctification during our earthly lives. “8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” [1Jo 1:8-10 KJV].. We should stay on a path of progressively overcoming our besetting sins and desire holiness in our lives. The cleaner and more empty vessel allows God to fill us and use us more. I do believe that. I know that was a rabbit trail from the topic a bit, but it came to mind when I wrote about OSAS. I have never seen a denomination or sect that has all of the Bible perfect. The verse in Hebrews 12 about no one seeing the Lord without holiness can be translated like this. “Pursue peace with all men, also sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.” We should all be pursuing sanctification, absolutely NOT capitulating to licentiousness, as the antinomian teachers teach. But I still realize I am left with some besetting sin that I have to constantly work on, confess my weakness to, and ask for God’s grace and forgiveness on a regular basis.

  4. Charolette Little

    Good and timely article. I always appreciate your forthrightness , never watering down the word of God or trying to tickle the ears of the hearers. Many today are not receptive to the unadulterated truth, and therein lies the problem. Keep up the good fight brother !

  5. Linda

    Right on Cedric!

    That is the example, a lot of water will not dilute the poison enough, it will still kill you, but you will only detect it less with the more water and thus drink all the more of it.

    But oh, how they generously hand out free passes to the wolves, but berate the sheep for pointing out the truth. They have no tolerance for truth, but only for heresy. I hear the excuse a lot from leaders who know the Emergent church is wrong but go to the conference anyway because they think they can “eat the meat and spit out the bones.” It is more like “eat the meat and spit out the poison.” Good luck with that one.

    And I know the feeling well. Let me guess. Once you expose Calvinism, the hornets nest breaks loose?! Oh, but Spurgeon this, and Spurgeon that, and Calvin and MacArthur and bla, bla, bla…! They are lovers of men and of idols and not of the truth of God.

    I have seen it so many times. You run into a born again Christian, or so they claim, because who really knows if they had a real conversion. Then out come all the bones of contention:

    Gasp!
    You are a Continuationist?
    You are not a Calvinist?
    You don’t believe in ‘eternal security’?
    You don’t believe in the pre trib rapture?
    You think repentance is part of salvation?
    And obedience to God and living in holiness and abstaining from ________,
    and in confessing your faith no matter the threat, in evangelism and all of that?
    But… but…. but… doesn’t that make you a ‘legalist’?
    You think the church at large is in apostasy, and we must speak the truth and be divisive, and call out the wolves by name and expose their false teachings? You don’t believe that so and so is one of the best teachers… like… ever?
    You don’t idolize Israel?
    And one of my favorites:
    You wear a head covering when praying publicly as a woman?

    I just tell them that I’m a Biblical Christian. I don’t just believe what the Bible says, I do it. I don’t argue about it and make up a convenient excuse when the truth is inconvenient.

    And so here I am too, one of the last ones standing.
    All alone here by myself.

    • ken

      Anna, I do not think repentance is a ‘part of salvation’ and I am currently writing a lengthy article on it for my Facebook page and blogsite. Stay tuned for my take on the salvation transaction !

  6. manny galea

    though what you have written here is fact, it’s the building blocks of knowing someone’s fruit, God knows there is plenty out there spewing untruths, however when someone such as yourself, on public forums accuses a well known minister of being a heretic, one cannot simply claim they made such and such statement and then move on to seal their fate, then expecting everyone to follow suit, one must produce evidence, else you become nothing more then the judge and executioner, it’s rather convenient for you to say; quote “you learned long ago not to argue with people” that’s good but it does not put you above reproach for not providing proof that what you claim was said as fact, thus slandering this person’s ministry, by such you have become guilty of tabloid trash and an advocate of the enemy not The Lord, so please provide this quote with some evidence other than your word as you believe you understood mr swaggart to have said something of a heretic nature. if you cannot provide proof then you need to have some integrity and post a retraction lest you damage your credibility, … Sincerely Rev; Emanuel no buddy …

    • C.H. Fisher

      My article was not an expose’ on Swaggart’s doctrine, thus I did not give it much space or attention. However, since it’s inception in 1997,there have been many expose’s written about his MOTC. Swaggart has been in a process of refining it and, as Rick Warren, he washes the Internet and other sources of his bizarre statements ASAP after they are exposed. One must do screen shots to protect themselves when writing about heretics. However, his website publishes an article on the MOTC with errors that any discerning individual should be able to spot. I choose not to expose them lest he wash those out also.

      You can visit the link (included below) for a published expose’ or visit a number of other sites that publish articles exposing the heresy. Some of the links to his statements are broken because his statements were removed. He claims he never made them, but there are individuals that have copies.

      Additionally, you should read his Expositor’s Bible, an older version might be more revealing. Again, any discerning individual should be able to recognize the errors. I assume that since you were able to spot what you consider error in my article, you are one of those discerners that should have no problem spotting Swaggart’s errors.

  7. Linda

    I always marvel at how many come out of the woodwork to defend the heretics and wolves, but only a handful stand up to defend the truth. And how the devil has devised all the machinery to come against discerning exposers of heresy! Now you’re supposed to write a biography book with a full bibliography of every false statement the wolf ever made, or they won’t believe you, and that regarding someone as notoriously wolfish as Swaggart or Copeland or some other slithering snake of heresy and deception! And they come with lines like “oh, you’re ‘slandering’ the Lord’s ‘anointed’!” gasp! Uh, no we’re not. The Lord’s anointed are reporting the facts just as in the OT, but Israel would not hear.

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