‘Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit’ (Jer 2:11).
We have seen a number of false teachings through centuries. Of them, many we acknowledge as heresies because they originated from within the Church, but expressly or impliedly denied what the Church believed. If heresies could arise during the lifetime of the apostles (1 Tim 2:18), we are more susceptible to heresies in this modern era when the number of lukewarm Christians are increasing.
There are certain other kinds of false teachings in the world that deny the revealed truth. We do not call them heresies because they originated from outside the Church. But a common thread links both the heresies within the Church and the false teachings that flourished outside the Church. Both have Christians as their primary target. Both have swerved from truth. Both presented themselves as better substitutes for traditional Christian faith. Both promote a philosophy and lifestyle that is in essence the negation of God’s commandments. Yet both claim to be true heirs to Christ and his teachings!
The most important commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind (Mt 22:37). So denying the existence of God or loving any other being above God is a violation of the first commandment. It is elementary. But sadly, this elementary lesson has somehow been lost from the minds of many Christians. This is the reason they nod in agreement when someone says that all paths lead to God or when some others say that a tribal deity introduced by a self proclaimed prophet in the sixth century is the true God!
Who has bewitched (Gal 3:1) Christians into denying the uniqueness of true God when Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified before their very eyes? (Gal 3:1).
Worshiping any other being or entity as God means directly breaking the first commandment. Often we hear homilies equating idolatry with greed and our excessive attachment with a person, place, object or philosophy. It is true. But the peak of idolatry is replacing the true God with a false God. Unfortunately, billions of people are deceived into believing that a cruel and bloodthirsty tribal deity and the merciful God whom Jesus Christ revealed to us are one and the same!
Not surprisingly, this false teaching has borrowed heavily, or to be precise, stolen heavily, from the Holy Bible. ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy’ (Jn 10:10). He has done the act of theft in such an ingenious way that many Christians were deceived into believing that the fictional characters of a book written centuries after the gospels and epistles were written are the same real characters they have read in the Holy Bible. If we fail to recognize the thieves and bandits (Jn 10:8) whom ‘the sheep ought not have listened to’, it is easy for them to wean us away from worshiping the true God. Sadly, it happens now.
Beware of any philosophies that go against the first commandment, because breaking the first commandment is the first step towards breaking all other commandments. So it is the mother of all heresies. God willing, we will go into it in detail in the coming articles.
