{"id":6639,"date":"2011-03-02T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T14:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/?p=6639"},"modified":"2011-05-03T16:55:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T16:55:07","slug":"orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html","title":{"rendered":"Orthodoxy vs. Heresy: A Power Game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Adam Ellis<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I originally thought I might write a response to all of the \u201ccontroversy\u201d surrounding\u00a0 Rob Bell and his forthcoming new book. I have appreciated Rob\u2019s work over the years, and certainly feel the sudden, passionate outrage was both premature and unfair.\u00a0 With that being said, I fully expect most neo-Calvinists to not agree with what Rob says in his book, whether it\u2019s what they thought he was going to say or not. None of this is exactly surprising information. Rob isn\u2019t a Calvinist.\u00a0 When I get my hands on a copy of the book (advance or otherwise…HarperOne, are you listening?), I intend on writing a review.\u00a0 However, the related Twitter\/Blog\/Facebook spectacle from this weekend got me thinking about the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy in general.\u00a0 Here, for better or worse, are my random thoughts on the subject (which are sure to get me in trouble with someone).<\/p>\n

-The word Orthodoxy comes from two greek roots (stay with me…):\u00a0 \u201cOrtho\u201d, meaning \u201cRight\u201d or \u201cCorrect,\u201d and \u201cDoxa\u201d meaning \u201cOpinion\u201d.\u00a0 Did you get that?\u00a0 It literally means \u201cthe right\/correct opinion\u201d, and over the years this has been used to denote that an opinion\/interpretation agreed with the opinion held by the majority, or sometimes by those in power.\u00a0 Heterodoxy literally means a different or other opinion, with the implication being that it is different or other than the commonly held view.\u00a0 Heresy simply comes from a root word meaning \u201cchoice\u201d, denoting a conscious decision.\u00a0 Usage of this term would seem to indicate that it implies that someone has made a conscious decision to deviate from or consciously question the opinion held by the majority.<\/p>\n

-This being the case, Jesus was technically a heretic.<\/p>\n

-This being the case, all reformers of any kind were heretics, including Luther and Calvin.<\/p>\n

-It strikes me that Orthodoxy and Heresy have come to essentially be a sort of \u201cpower game\u201d whereby a \u201cmotivation by exclusion\u201d social pressure is employed to create a \u201cno-fly zone\u201d for questions.\u00a0 It also strikes me that truth is never afraid of questions, and when questions are rendered off limits, it at least creates the impression that it is not truth that is being sought, but rather a maintaining of the status-quo.
\nSince when does one\u2019s belief about the afterlife call their salvation into question?\u00a0 Grace covers a multitude of sins, but not misunderstanding?\u00a0 Such a \u201ccognitive salvation\u201d seems difficult to support Biblically given the accounts of Christians recorded in the New Testament.<\/p>\n

-Since when are the terms \u201cOrthodoxy\u201d and \u201cCalvinism\u201d synonyms?\u00a0 Since when are the terms \u201cCalvinist\u201d and \u201cChristian\u201d interchangeable?\u00a0 It seems that charges of heresy abound when people like Rob Bell, Greg Boyd, or Brian McLaren articulate anything other than Calvinist doctrine.)<\/p>\n

-What do the \u201corthodoxy police\u201d do with the early church fathers, many of who, to one degree or another, advocated something other than the \u201ctraditional\u201d Exclusive view of salvation?\u00a0 (Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, etc.?<\/p>\n

-What do the \u201corthodoxy police\u201d do with more contemporary, but widely respected Christian authors and thinkers who questioned or advocated something different than the \u201ctraditional\u201d Exclusivist view of salvation?\u00a0 (John Wesley, C.S. Lewis, John Stott, Clark Pinnock, F.F. Bruce, Lesslie Newbigin, Dallas Willard, Billy Graham, and J.I. Packer, just to name a few).<\/p>\n

-Whenever I see heresy hunts, I ask myself who this behavior resembles in the Gospels.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s the people who crucified him. Character is a powerful apologetic.\u00a0 Always ask yourself who displays the most Christ-like character in these situations. If that suggestion bothers you, ask yourself why.<\/p>\n

Read Adam’s blog here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Adam Ellis. I originally thought I might write a response to all of the \u201ccontroversy\u201d surrounding\u00a0 Rob Bell and his forthcoming new book. I have appreciated Rob\u2019s work over the years, and certainly feel the sudden, passionate outrage was both premature and unfair.\u00a0 With that being said, I fully expect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-guest-post"],"yoast_head":"\nOrthodoxy vs. Heresy: A Power Game? - Jesus Needs New PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orthodoxy vs. Heresy: A Power Game? - Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post was written by Adam Ellis. I originally thought I might write a response to all of the \u201ccontroversy\u201d surrounding\u00a0 Rob Bell and his forthcoming new book. 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I have appreciated Rob\u2019s work over the years, and certainly feel the sudden, passionate outrage was both premature and unfair.\u00a0 With that being said, I fully expect…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Needs New PR","article_published_time":"2011-03-02T14:17:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-03T16:55:07+00:00","author":"Matthew Paul Turner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html","name":"Orthodoxy vs. Heresy: A Power Game? - Jesus Needs New PR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-02T14:17:11+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-03T16:55:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/76db64a6819f8f63a896a0e0a5a6aaf6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/03\/orthodoxy-vs-heresy-a-power-game.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Orthodoxy vs. Heresy: A Power Game?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/","name":"Jesus Needs New PR","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Matthew Paul Turner","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/76db64a6819f8f63a896a0e0a5a6aaf6","name":"Matthew Paul Turner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8e9\/8e908220acd7221e2b6f851e31b19923x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8e9\/8e908220acd7221e2b6f851e31b19923x96.jpg","caption":"Matthew Paul Turner"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/author\/mturner"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61130,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6639\/revisions\/61130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}