Do Protestants believe others are heretics?

[fred_conty]

Heretic, one who professes a heresy; esp., a church menber who holds beliefs
opposed to church dogma. (Webster’s Dictionary, 1990)

Let’s say that Sally Sue was raised from early childhood in the Vomly protestant faith
and believes in eating grass as necessary work to gain salvation. She has a cousin,
Peggy Lou, who believes that the one true church is the Zing protestant faith and they
believe that eating grass is a sin. Would the Zing minister consider Sally Sue a heretic?
Would the Vomly minister consider Peggy Lou a heretic? Or would they both consider
each other only different churches, and not heretics? Just what does their decision of
others being heretics depend on? Church policy? Ministerial policy? Or mayby conference?

Do any out there have any expierence with this in your church toward other faiths?

The Catholic church would say that someone who grew up in another church faith,
is not a formal heretic, even tho at one time there were those in history who were
catholic and were formally heretics. Because we are not guillty of those things that
people did before us. So Sally Sue and Peggy Lou would be innocent of committing
heresy in the eyes of the catholic church.

Just a simple question.

 

[Nine_Two]

Some do, some don’t.

 

[GaryTaylor]

Heretic is term used by all denominations to validate what they proclaim to be the Truth. A arguement which quickly crumbles when placed under scrutiny.

 

[Bezant]

It depends. I wouldn’t talk of Protestants so homogeneously.

 

[Georgia]

We didn’t use that term in my Fundamentalist church. People who believed other that the way we did were those we pitied or maybe scorned, depending on how close the belief was to ours. Someone would say something like “Well, they haven’t read John :_ or they would see that they are wrong.” If it were a belief associated with the Catholic Church, the statement would be “They don’t really believe in the Bible.”

No one would be called a heretic. The offending belief was merely dismissed.

 

[grandfather]

Sally and Peggy would be material heretics to Catholics.

The heresy test for probably most Protestants whose doctrines are not in agreement with one another is that they agree on all the “big” things, the ones that really matter. If we agree on the essentials that is what counts.

Defining big is a problem. They would probably say they agree with Catholics on the big things, the Trinity, resurrection, virgin birth, atoning sacrifice of Christ, etc.

Catholics on the other hand thing things like transubstatiation, the seven sacraments are essential ancient dogma that really matter.

The irony is that when you look at all the divisions in Protestantism, all the almost countless denominations and non-denominations that agree on all the big things, it is implicit that they allowed all this division which Jesus forbade over small things.

 

[GaryTaylor]

No one would be called a heretic. The offending belief was merely dismissed.

So then they would be considered a heretic by non verbal communication?

 

[Georgia]

Maybe, but I don’t think so. The word is a little too strong for what we were taught to feel. We thought others were misled, that their faith was outside the Bible, and that they needed to be shown the right way, but, other the pope, there was never a direct characterization of a person.

 

[GaryTaylor]

First off what is a heresy?

Read all the theological works one after another. In all of them heresy is the subject which first presents itself for definition; since every theological work deals with the True Doctrine of Christ as distiguished from the erroneous Doctrines which surround it, that is, heresies. Yet you will not find anywhere, anything like a definition of heresy.

As to the real historical fact, there has existed, and still exist, several bodies of men , each asserting that it is the one True church of Jesus Christ. Thus the Doctrine they present is in fact the real one, otherwise they would have to admit they are not the True Church of Christ.

Of course then we have those who proclaim they have no Doctrine of Creed? However, when asked to write down what they DO BELIEVE, well it seems to me they do have a Creed and Doctrine?

And the story proceeds like that.

 

[GaryTaylor]

It depends. I wouldn’t talk of Protestants so homogeneously.

In charity its better to speak exactly as such as not to offend anyone, read the above post:thumbsup: And I am speaking of “everyone” not just Protestants.

 

[ltwin]

It depends. Many fundamentalist/evangelical Protestants believe in heresy, even if they don’t use the term. Then there are Christians who are so far out that they don’t believe anything is heretical.

 

[fred_conty]

So what I gather from listening to the responses is that heretic is a
dead word now. It just isn’t used any more today.

Or is “not saved” a more up to date version of the word “heretic”?

What do you think?

 

[AlltheRoses]

Heretic, one who professes a heresy; esp., a church menber who holds beliefs
opposed to church dogma. (Webster’s Dictionary, 1990)

Let’s say that Sally Sue was raised from early childhood in the Vomly protestant faith
and believes in eating grass as necessary work to gain salvation. She has a cousin,
Peggy Lou, who believes that the one true church is the Zing protestant faith and they
believe that eating grass is a sin. Would the Zing minister consider Sally Sue a heretic?
Would the Vomly minister consider Peggy Lou a heretic? Or would they both consider
each other only different churches, and not heretics? Just what does their decision of
others being heretics depend on? Church policy? Ministerial policy? Or mayby conference?

Do any out there have any expierence with this in your church toward other faiths?

The Catholic church would say that someone who grew up in another church faith,
is not a formal heretic, even tho at one time there were those in history who were
catholic and were formally heretics. Because we are not guillty of those things that
people did before us. So Sally Sue and Peggy Lou would be innocent of committing
heresy in the eyes of the catholic church.

Just a simple question.

The Protestants that I know (a Lutheran from what I would assume is a more liberal synod as she supports abortion and gay marriage, and a fair amount of evangelical Protestants) don’t really place a lot of emphasis upon belonging to a particular church. They, essentially, believe that, as long as a person believes in Jesus, that person should belong to whatever church he/she feels more comfortable in or believes most clearly reflect his/her beliefs and interpretation of the Bible. They also believe that the different churches (Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, etc.) are all part of a large Christian church, and that what denomination a person belongs to isn’t important. They say that they define themselves more as a “Christian” than as a Baptist or a Lutheran or a Methodist.

The idea of heresy might be a bigger concern in more traditional Anglican or Lutheran churches or within more extreme evangelical sects, but I haven’t encountered it with the Protestants with whom I regularly discuss religion.

 

[GaryTaylor]

There are Christians who have slightly different views than other Christians. I never use the word heretic. However their are many known heresies in the CC. Pretty much the same all around. Today you may hear it described in a more polite way. Nevertheless it comes down to the same aspect.

Look how many Christian Faiths believe their no basis for the Catholic beliefs in Marion Doctrines for example? They use words like idol worship, cult whatever, untrue etc. all comes out the same in the wash. For example if I state I am diametrically opposed to a specific belief of yours, another term which easily fits is heresy.

Bascially why I stated what I did above. What is a heresy, differs from one area to the next. Depends of which paradigm you deem as the objective truth.

Thus by Dictionary there can be no defined meaning of heresy in different Christian congregations. So then until one states for example I am Catholic and firmly believe in what the Church defines, then from here you view what heresies exit in this paradigm.

And so forth and so on.

 

[AlltheRoses]

So what I gather from listening to the responses is that heretic is a
dead word now. It just isn’t used any more today.

Or is “not saved” a more up to date version of the word “heretic”?

What do you think?

“Not Saved” would probably be the more up-to-date version of the word heretic at least for the more evangelical types of Christians.

 

[GaryTaylor]

“Not Saved” would probably be the more up-to-date version of the word heretic at least for the more evangelical types of Christians.

You mean a polite way of saying your going to hell? That is unless you become saved

Now we already “know” there is no purgatory

Peace

 

[exnihilo]

So what I gather from listening to the responses is that heretic is a dead word now. It just isn’t used any more today. Or is “not saved” a more up to date version of the word “heretic”?

I think heretic as a word is mostly dead. I think you are correct that ‘not saved’ can often be used where heretic was formerly. But not saved would encompass more people than just heretics.

I do not recall seeing the word heretic used in mainline protestantism recently. Personally I think mainline protestantism is mostly heretical these days. For much of the leadership heresy would be not accepting contraception, abortion, female ordination, gay clergy, gay relationships, gay marriage, and other humanist ideals or Jacobin politics. I cant speak to evangelical, non-denominational churches as I dont have much experience with them.

 

[GaryTaylor]

For much of the leadership heresy would be not accepting contraception, abortion, female ordination, gay clergy, gay relationships, gay marriage, and other humanist ideals or Jacobin politics. I cant speak to evangelical, non-denominational churches as I dont have much experience with them.

Right its become alarming. Its the Burger King philosophy, “Have it Your Way” in Christianity.

Tell you what, if that were true, than Christianity itself would be a lie.

Hey I’ve always said the Lord has a way of turning a nightmare into a Blessing. Perhaps that is what we are witnessing in this very year.

 

[AlltheRoses]

You mean a polite way of saying your going to hell? That is unless you become saved

Now we already “know” there is no purgatory

Peace

Yeah, “not saved” among the evangelical Protestants I know is a polite way of saying that if someone continues living as he/she is now, he/she will land in a toasty spot during the afterlife.

Purgatory would definitely be a concept not present in the theology of the Protestants I know.

 

[AlltheRoses]

I think heretic as a word is mostly dead. I think you are correct that ‘not saved’ can often be used where heretic was formerly. But not saved would encompass more people than just heretics.

I do not recall seeing the word heretic used in mainline protestantism recently. Personally I think mainline protestantism is mostly heretical these days. For much of the leadership heresy would be not accepting contraception, abortion, female ordination, gay clergy, gay relationships, gay marriage, and other humanist ideals or Jacobin politics. I cant speak to evangelical, non-denominational churches as I dont have much experience with them.

I agree about “not saved” encompassing more than just heretics, and I definitely don’t think it means the same thing as heretic. Among the Protestants I know who use the phrase, “not saved” means someone has not accepted that Jesus is his/her Savior. Such a person, in their understanding, could belong to another faith (Islam or Hinduism, for example) or could claim to be Christian, but not really believe in God/ have faith in God or could think that he/she could earn his/her salvation.

What you say about mainstream Protestantism is interesting. I don’t know much about mainstream Protestantism, because I was raised in an area mostly populated by Irish and Italian Catholics, and now that I’m in the South, the Protestants I know are mainly of the evangelical stripe.

It makes me wonder if my Lutheran friend actually might not be from as liberal a synod as I thought. It does make me sad that so many of the mainstream denominations that theologically should be closest to Catholicism have embraced gay clergy, gay marriage, female ordination, contraception, and abortion. It is a shame that some Christians are letting secular beliefs influence Christian practice so much