America is a rich and powerful nation that assumes this power and wealth was afforded to us by the God of the Bible. Could it be perhaps that this wealth and power came from another benefactor? Is it possible that our forefathers succumbed to temptation as offered by the Great Tempter and that we are now enjoying the short lived pleasures of our choice to follow after him, who has portrayed himself to us as an Angel of Light? Could it be that instead of embracing truth, righteousness and justice, the American people have embraced lies, deceptions and half truths? Could it be that this so-called, "life in Christ" that American Evangelicals and all of American Christendom are living in, is just imagery, distractions, distortions and illusions? What will come of us, if in our secure state of being, we begin to catch glimpses of a wolf's tail, a wolf's snout and wolf tracks beneath the sheep skin? Will it be too late to escape from the wolf's clutches? Who will rescue us, for we sheep are no defense against a wolf, especially one so mighty who takes the name of Satan. Yet,in the midst of such danger, the Great Shepard also is near, ready to rescue with all swiftness, those who call out to Him for salvation.
Heresy can be defined as, "wrong teaching", "that which portrays God incorrectly", or "that which does not hold to the Apostolic Traditions". Through a simple study of church history, one can ascertain particular facts about the roots of our Christian faith. If we follow the genealogy of our Church Fathers back to the times of Christ, we will find landmarks along the way that can enlighten us as to why we are where we are today. Rather than work our way backwards, let's start with Christ who just prior to His ascension into the clouds, commissioned the Apostles to go into all the world preaching the gospel and baptizing all in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These twelve disciples along with the early followers of Christ accomplished an astounding feat in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a significant portion of the world within just the first generation after Christ's ascension into glory and within the first thousand years of church history, most of the world had received news of this Gospel.
During the first millennium, the church was united and when heresy confronted the church, it was addressed in the Ecumenical Councils of which there were seven, the first being at Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15, where the Apostles, upon addressing the acceptance of Gentiles into the church and acting with divine authority, stated, "As seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us". These councils established church rules, canons and decrees which provided a stable foundation and framework in which the church could thrive, blossom and grow. This practice of convening Church councils when the enemy encroached into God's Kingdom on earth continued with great success for many centuries but as prophecy would reveal, the faith of many would eventually begin to grow cold and consequently many would be deceived and deluded. Thus was the demise of the Roman Orthodox Church until in 1054, the final falling away was accomplished with Satan having his victory and for the first time in the history of the church, a major and catastrophic schism occurred and the great Orthodox Church of Rome was excommunicated from rest of Christendom.
As the Apostles and the Church Fathers teach, the seeds of heresy are sowed, watered and fertilized by the Evil One. His diabolical strategy is to sow seeds, be they ever so small that can eventually take root and grow into large trees that spread their branches far and wide for birds of many varieties and species to nestle in. These trees drop their poisonous fruit which is then carried by the birds of the air far and wide, eventually wrecking havoc upon the entire earth. Consistent with this strategy, Satan confuses, deludes and deceives the masses and even the elect by growing trees that bear resemblance in every respect to those of God's Kingdom and only men filled with the Spirit of God having had hands laid on them by the faithful Fathers before them are be able to discern the difference in the origin of the trees. These priests in turn having been ordained by God, teach His elect how to discern and parse truth from falsehood, lies from truth, imagery from reality and this order is consistent with the anointed St. Paul's teaching regarding the preservation of truth by entrusting faithful men through the "laying on of hands" as recorded in the letters to St. Timothy.
The Orthodox Roman Church having fallen from her glorious position in the heavenlies, lost her true beauty and having exchanged divine truth and godliness for power, avarice and pride took on a deceptively beastly character and began to devour the elect and the masses within her realm of dominion. As a wolf devours sheep, Rome devoured the flock of God and having betrayed the innocent and the weak, her appetite was whet with increasing abandon to carnal abuses. Eventually, of her mighty multiple realms, one rebelled and this realm was spewed from her mouth and thus was born the Reformation. Having been far removed from the garden from which all life was brought forth, that is the Church of the East; this small band of seekers of truth and beauty set out on their own to find the Kingdom of God and reclaim it for their own. Sadly, these children turned not to their Mother of the East but were yet again, deceived by the mighty dragon of old, who using his ancient mastery of deception and imagery, portrayed himself as an angel of light, beauty and truth and thus began again to lead this new Adam and Eve astray.
Satan, in promising great riches, power and pleasure is not lame. He is more than able to provide mankind with all manner of temporal blessings but they are "temporal" and although they satisfy, enrich and bring pleasure, it is short lived. The lake of fire was not created for mankind, it was created for Satan and his demons. Mankind was made to enjoy God forever but to enjoy God, one must freely want to seek Him and God has allowed us the privilege of loving Him and love is not love unless it is freely given of one's own volition. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, it was revealed to us through this experience that Satan has great power and dominion over the earth, yet, it is short lived. Jesus willingly rejected the short lived pleasures of sin for the long term blessings of obeying God, His Father. We must do the same.
Thus this new Adam and Eve of the Reformation grew up and proliferated profusely enjoying a feast of both bitter herbs and sweet delights, of truths and deceptions, of good fruits and poisoned fruits; thus was the way of this new world. And just as weeds when left to grow on their own, grow profusely, so these sincere Protestants grew and spread throughout the West and even began to encroach into the strange and foreign lands of the East. The cunning king of this new world didn't need to intervene with his subjects. He simply sowed bad seed and let nature takes it's course with the birds of the air and the winds of the earth taking this seed far and wide. But the time would come when this King would send his officers out to gather the debts owed to him and those debts would carry a heavy penalty of interest and in lieu of not being able to pay their debt, the consequences would be life imprisonment. But the times were good, the money flowed, the pleasures were many and the food was abundant and no one wanted to think about unpleasantries like debt or penalties or imprisonment.
America, the beautiful, the proud, the blessed, the powerful, the rich. Our poorest are among the richest on the earth. We have spread our wings both far and wide and we have nested in strange lands in every corner of the earth. But where are our roots? From where did we come? Where are our beginnings? Are we really a nation blessed by the Trinitarian God of the Scriptures or is our God of another origin?
Jesus teaches us about the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and compares it to a field where wheat grows and tells how Satan by stealth of night sowed tares among the wheat. What happens to the tares? What happens to the wheat? They are both allowed to grow up together until the end of the age when the angels will reap and the tares will be thrown into the fire and the wheat will gathered for the harvest. As we approach the end of the age the harvest is ripening and weeds continue to grow and spread and just as the scriptures teach, the harvest near the end of age will be thin, the love of many will grow cold and the masses will be deceived.
With the reformation well under way, the task of separation was made even more secure and Satan with his demons could continue their work of ushering in the last great rebellion against their Creator. As we enter into yet another chapter in this diabolical scheme of usurpation of God's Holy Kingdom, we see more completely the danger of heresies and their full effect on mankind. Heresy emanates from Satan himself; he is author of every teaching that sets itself against God's Holy throne. The scriptures are replete with admonitions and warnings that we are to have nothing to do with heretics after warning them two, perhaps three times. Why, the admonition to shun them, to separate ourselves from them? Because their bacterium is contagious and deadly and regardless of the strength of your knowledge or your holiness, unless you are armed with the vaccine of truth and are coming into the presence of such an infected environment for the purpose of saving a soul from death, you has no business in such a dangerous place without the anointing and equipping of God's Holy Spirit and His divine protection.
It is indeed a dangerous place, confirmed by Paul the Apostle of God who warns of our need to be ever so careful lest we be sucked into the dark abyss in our efforts to save that man drowning in heresy. No man can stand against such a deadly disease as heresy without himself becoming infected. This bacterium attacks the immune system, breaking down our defenses, weakening us and opening the way for this leprosy to take up residence. This continuing work of the Evil One persists with wave upon wave of heresies. Lies upon lies upon lies until we are so deep in deceptions, half truths, distractions and distortions that we don't know up from down, or truth from falsehood until we find ourselves in a whirlpool of dark, turgid waters being sucked into the depths of a realm so thick with darkness, so vast with emptiness, that we will never escape, no matter how desirous we are to repent for then it will be too late.
Just as Adam and Eve were tempted and fell; we, their offspring reaping the consequences of their acts, yet not being responsible for their original actions but having inherited the consequences of their deeds, we now finding ourselves having to repent of what we were born into, otherwise we find ourselves continuing to live in this spirit of their deception. In the same way, our ancestors, the Romanists and the Protestants sinned against God by embracing heresies that until this very day keep them separated from the living God and the fullness of His blessings as He has preserved them in His Holy, Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic Church; the Church of the East. We again find ourselves in similar circumstances as with Adam and Eve, in that we are surrounded by the fallout of the actions of the Romanists and the Protestants and we, though not committing the original act must repent of where we are because of our ancestors and return to our Father God and our Mother church. If we choose not to return after having come into a knowledge of the truth of their actions and deeds, then we stand in danger of eternal separation from our Father God and our Mother church and by doing so, we will find ourselves in the eternal company of the great robber and rebeller, Satan himself along with all his demon companions. Yet, all the while our Father who bore us desires our company, our fellowship, our repentance and that we may enjoy Him forever and that He also may in turn enjoy us forever in the realm of His glorious, eternal and magnificent kingdom.
"And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." Matthew 24:10-12
"For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." Mat 24:24
"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works." 2 Cor.11:13-15
O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.
2 Tim 6:20-21
St. Irenaeus says that heretics do not follow the Apostolic Tradition,
Cyprian compares heretics to "the sons of Aaron, who placed strange fire (heresy) upon the Altar of God," that is, "despising God's Tradition, seek after strange doctrines and bring in teachings of human appointment"
Heretics usually form "sects" which become historically competitive to the Church.
Paul advises us that "a man that is an heretic" we should "reject, after the first and second admonition." Titus 3:8-10
The Church Fathers teach that heresy has its roots, not in incorrect belief and teaching alone, but in a mean spirit and in persistence in one's error, even after repeated entreaties that he repent.
A true Christian seeks to correct those in error, to lead them with love, and to avoid strife and discord.
The Church never issues its condemnations with the intention of destroying souls, but of awakening those in the dark sleep of error and bringing them to repentance.
