The Heresy of Ham

I am working my way chapter by chapter through Joel Edmund Andersons's very erudite book The Heresy of Ham (Archdeacon books, 2016).  Joel covers interesting topics like biblical literalism (I prefer hyper-literalism) as idolatry and heresy is anything that promotes division and schism in the church.  I love Joel's insights and his writing style is both powerful and filled with beautiful prose.  Even though so much of this book registers with me, I will say as I read his section on history and heresy (chapter 2), I was surprised at his understanding of the Arian controversy is so different than mine.

Let me explain, I fully agree with the orthodox position and the early councils eventually siding with Athanasius.  After saying that, it just seems to this student of history that Joel paints with a very big brush between Arius and Arianism (as if they are identical and I don't believe they are) and Athanasius as a saint and Arius as a terrible sinner.  He says the Arians never fully took over the church, they didn't?  I remember for about a ten year period where they pretty much had taken over every high position and power territory of the church.

Arius I don't believe denied the divinity of Christ as Joel claims (although this is closer to the truth when it came to later Arians).  Arius focused on the humanity of Christ whereas Athanasius focused on the divinity of Christ.  Was some of Arius theology blurry and fuzzy?  Absolutely?  Was Arius this terrible heretic?  I doubt it.  Arius did lay the roots to what did turn into some very bad fruit.  But before we get too critical of Arius, let's not forget it was Augustine who laid the foundation for the church and state joining forces and power that eventually later turned into the inquisition, witch hunts, and the crusades.

Joel rightly says the early church fathers were not infallible or saints but he paints the whole picture in such stark black and white hues of the orthodox as always the good guys and Arius and his followers as doing all the bad stuff in history.  History I believe is more messy and more colored than Joel makes it out to be.  Yes, Athanasius did get banned 5 times, but he was the guy who was on this never ending crusade against Arius.  Arius just wanted to preach the gospel and be left alone.  Rather than Arius simply playing the victim card as Joel suggests, maybe other church leaders saw Athanasius really as the bully and zealot?

The power of the Holy Spirit led the early church into the right conclusions for orthodoxy but that does not mean everything they did as fallen humans was right or proper.  The power politics used against Nestorius and misrepresenting his views was absurd.  Montanism was accused of several things but the real threat was them running towards martyrdom.  If everyone ran to martyrdom, there would be no church left to defend.  Everyone followed the orthodoxy of Origen but that did not stop the later church to condemn the Originists as heretics even though there was little resemblance to Origen who died a martyred death 500 years earlier.  And what about Joan of Ark who died faithfully for her Catholic faith and branded a heretic only to be made a saint 500 years later.

If there is something to learn from church history and the complex story of orthodoxy and heresy is sometimes the church needs it heretics to define orthodoxy and sometimes the church just got things wrong at a certain time.  In the end, I fully concur with Joel's thesis that if Evangelicals and Protestants are going to combat and safeguard themselves against heresy, they need to become much better students of church history and embody history better themselves.

The Heresy of Schism

Many Christians think of heresy as wrong belief or doctrine.  In the early church, heresy of the worst sorts was that which divided or separated the catholicity and unity of God's people (the church).  There are not only outward divisions between one brother and sister in Christ from another but there is also inward divisions of the heart.  God hates a double minded person or one whose loyalties and heart is divided.

Our problem today is it seems we don't to not notice the inward heresies of the heart.  The places we are separated from within that also leads to separating from others from without.  The hidden secret idols, the many places we are distracted that keeps us from being centered on God with an undivided heart.  Let us not forget the truth of God's Word that applies not only to the church but also to our interior lives, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

As I reflect about our time during this cruise as a family, I am reminded that life is like a game of chess.  Our family spent some good togetherness on this cruise to the Caribbean.  On this cruise ship there was this giant chess game where you moved these giant chess pieces on this large chess board.
Life is a priceless gift from God and the way we combat heresy of separateness is by the gift of humility.  Humility is like the Queen which is the only way to checkmate the Divine King.

Skating on Thin Ice

"The person who speaks to this hour's need will always be skirting the edge of heresy, but only the person who risks these heresies can gain the truth"  -  Helmut Thielicke

Jesus was a risk taker but when it comes to Christian theology, Christians are to play it safe and are certainly not to be innovative or say something different than what theologians in the past have said.
Much like modern Christian commentaries that plagiarize and copy off each other, so should modern Christians stay within the boundaries of orthodoxy.  Certainly staying within the parameters of ancient wisdom is good but what if some of what modern Christian Bible Colleges and Seminaries are teaching these young intellectuals more concurs with conventional wisdom of Christendom than what God or His Word actually teaches us?  It's not that what Christian schools or churches is saying in necessarily wrong but it is often backwards and that's a big problem.  Here are some things I was taught that I have had to unlearn as I read Scripture or listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

1.  The physical world proves the spiritual world.  Things like water, food, exercise, and changing seasons of the year correlate to things like the Holy Spirit is living water, reading and digesting the Bible is like spiritual food, spiritual disciplines exercises our spiritual muscles and grows the inner person, and there are spiritual seasons to go through just like the different seasons we go through in a year.  But the physical world does not prove the spiritual world as if the spiritual world is a shadowy vapor of the real physical world but the real world is the world of the Spirit and this earthly existence is the shadow of that reality (See Hebrews 8:4-5; 9:23-24).

2.  God is self-sufficient and does not need us or anything else.  It is true that God can do anything God wants to do and God does not depend on the world that God created and lives in perfect community within the beauty of the Trinity.  Often theology tries to protect God but if there is something God does not need, God does not need our theologies and our protection.  God is perfectly capable of protecting oneself without needing our help.  And what does it really say to people that "God doesn't really need you."  Obviously there is something within God that needs to create, needs to love, needs to call into existence because that is what God does.  We need God and God needs us because that is what love does.  We depend on God as if everything depends upon God and God depends on us for fruitful living.

3.  We are human beings seeking spiritual experiences with God.  If there is one thing that Scripture keeps pointing us towards are heavenly realities and spiritual truths.  God's Spirit speaks to our spirit because we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  People have confused their worldly attachments and many illusions of this world onto their identity as if doing things make us become what God wants us to become.  We have twisted, complicated, and turned things around so badly where God simply wants us to be who we truly are and from our being and true self leads to what we should be doing.

4.  God wants to have first place in your life.  Prepare yourself but first place is not enough for the God who made, designed, and created you.  God does not love you with an everlasting love just to be first among many loves in your life.  God wants the only place in your life.  This does not mean you can not have other loves and other interests.  What it does mean is once you have given God the only place in your life, your love becomes multiplied and your creative interests become innumerable.

5.  God wants us to burn out rather than rust out.  This conventional wisdom found often in the church is exactly what leads to much exhaustion, burnout, and instability in the ministry.  We are trying so hard to work for God, others, and the world that we do not take care of our own health much less our souls in the process.  God wants us to love ourselves if we are going to love our neighbor.  God wants us to live sacrificially but it is on God's terms and God's power and not on our own success driven mentality and unrealistic demands of church ministry today.

6.  Adam and Eve fell in the garden because they wanted to be like God.  The early church fathers and even scripture itself infers that we are like God.  The desire to be in God's likeness is not a bad desire.  The reason Adam and Eve fell in the garden is they wanted to be like God without God.  And herein is the same problem that persists today.  People want to be like God on their own terms and without God.  In other words, they want to be their own God without submitting to God who is Sovereign and rules over all.  It is only God who make us truly like God.

7.  God does God's part and we are to do our part.  There is some smuggled form of works righteousness when we think God's part ends and our part begins.  The whole Christian existence is a life of grace.  It starts with grace, is sustained by grace, and ends in grace.  Even when we do good works, the work we do is not from our self but from the gift of God's grace and Spirit working within us. Even when we have done what should be done, all we can do is praise God and give God the glory for God does the good work in us and for us to accomplish God's good purposes.