Truth is so important to Christians. Ours is the living and true God and the God of truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The Spirit sanctifies us through the truth. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Yet the Christian church is constantly having to resist erroneous doctrines, false teachings, and heresies. Why does God allow such dangerous untruths and half-truths to continue even within His church and among those who profess to be His people? A large part of the answer is that it provides an opportunity for those who love the truth to make this clearly apparent. Paul explains to the church of Corinth, “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19). In the way same way as the furnace makes it obvious what is precious metal and what is dross, so when heresies crop up, they test the quality of church members as to whether they resist or accept the false teaching. In the following updated extract, George Gillespie offers some reflections on Paul’s explanation.

Why must there be heresies?

The point I want to make here that God in His most wise and sovereign providence can and does make a good use of heresies, “so that they which are approved may be made manifest.”

“They which are approved” means those who are true and sincere saints, approved and accepted of God, or (as the Reformed theologian Bullinger puts it) the “truly godly.” The same word is used in this sense in Romans 16:10; 2 Corinthians 10:18; 2 Timothy 2:15, etc. The word is basically means good money, or well-refined silver, and it refers to saints with special reference to their mortification, i.e., their being refined from the dross of their corruptions. The opposite is “reprobate,” something to be rejected or thrown away, like dross (1 Corinthians 9:27; 2 Corinthians 13:5–6).

How is it that by heresies the godly are made manifest? Clearly the authors and followers of heresies are not the godly ones, for the apostle calls heresy a “work of the flesh” (Galatians 5:20) and wants heretics to be rejected, as those who are self-condemned (Titus 3:10). Rather, those who are approved are known by this, as one of their characteristics, that they hate, avoid, and resist heresies, and earnestly contend for the faith. They hold fast the truth of Christ without wavering.

Those who introduce or adhere to heresies are by that very fact known to be un-approved, like reprobate silver. So, anyone who sides with heresies or heretics, or commits themselves to them — anyone who does not stand fast in the faith — ipso facto declares that he is not included in the group Paul regards as godly. This is how contrary the Holy Ghost’s language is to the tone of the sects in our times.

Not only in this Scripture, but in various other Scriptures, the Holy Ghost distinguishes those who are approved by God, (a) from those who turn away from the truth after false doctrines, and believe seducing spirits, as well as (b) from those who live an ungodly life. In Deuteronomy 13:3, when a false prophet arose, and the sign or wonder he prophesied came to passe, what was God’s meaning in permitting this? “The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul.” Anyone who hearkened to the false prophet, even when his sign or wonder came to pass, made it known about themselves that they had not been loving God with all their heart.

Similarly, in Matthew 24:24, those who are elect are not deceived by false christs and false prophets. Conversely, those who are deceived by them, and go on in their error to the end, are not elect but reprobate (Galatians 5:20–21).

Heresy is a work of the flesh, and is included among the things which render a person incapable of inheriting the kingdom of God. Therefore, those who walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, and are made ready to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, are not only not heretics themselves, but they resist and oppose heresy, as a work of the flesh. Those who are Christ’s “disciples indeed” continue in His word: those who do not continue in His word are not his “disciples indeed” (John 8:31; see also 1 John 2:24 with 2 John v.9).

The wonder of providence

Justin Martyr, a theologian from the 2nd century, responded in one of his books to those who questioned God’s providence, saying, “If God has taken away the idolatries of the heathen and also abolished the Jewish worship, why has He allowed heresies to enter the Christian church?”

He gives this solution, that although heresies come into the church through people’s negligence and slothfulness (while men slept, the enemy sowed the tares among the wheat, Matthew 13:25), yet the providence of God is in no way slothful in this. God foresaw and foretold that heresies would come, and has given plain warning of it in His Word. He adds that the same God who has destroyed heathenish worship and abolished the Jewish religion will also destroy heresies, after He has permitted them for a time.

Even if we had no distinct knowledge of what God intends to bring out of heresies, yet we ought not to censure providence, but humbly and reverently adore God’s most wise and most holy (though secret and unsearchable) ways of working. If we saw some deadly poison among some drugs which a skilled and qualified physician is using, we would not rashly criticise the physician, for he knows how to disabuse that which is in itself poisonous, and to make it one of the ingredients in a most effective medicine.

Or if we came into the workshop of a skilled craftsman, and saw some ugly-looking instruments, which we think can serve no good, yet it would be deeply foolish to censure the craftsman, who knows to make an excellent good use of these things, though we don’t.

How much more foolish and sinful it is, to allow thoughts to rise in our hearts against the wisdom and providence of God, just because we do not know what He intends to work out of such things! And all the more inexcusable to accuse His providence, when He has made known to us in His Word that He is using heresies in order to make manifest who are and are not approved! As Chrysostom says, God permitting heresies to arise will not hurt you, if you are among the approved, for this will be the means of making you more manifest!

The inexcusableness of heretics

Yet all this cannot excuse either the heretics or schismatics themselves, or these who connive at them. What Christ says of scandals in general is true of heresies in particular. “It must needs be that heresies come, but woe to him by whom they come!” I add, “and woe also to him who does not work towards extirpating them, according to his place and calling!”

The text 1 Corinthians 11:17 does not have reference to the will of God’s commandment (which is the rule of our duty), but to the will of God’s decree, i.e., the secret counsel of His will. It is God’s purpose to permit heresies, and to overrule them so that His graces in His children may shine forth more, and that, contrary to the intentions of Satan and heretics, even heresies may make manifest who are approved, namely (as Tertullian says), those who cannot be corrupted by them.

Can God’s people be taken in by heresies?

Is it possible for someone who has been chosen and justified, and is regenerate, be drawn away, and infected with heresy through the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive?

I would reply that it is possible for a regenerate person to be tempted and drawn into heresy, just as he may be tempted and drawn into other great sins. Heresy is as inconsistent with the state of grace in any person as the other “works of the flesh,” such as adultery, fornication, drunkenness, or the like. We must think of an elect and justified person poisoned with heresy in the same way as we think of an elect and justified person lying in some great sin (for instance, Noah, Lot, David, Peter).

But then, that person, being elected, justified and regenerate, cannot be supposed to live and die in that sinful state. God will certainly heal his backslidings, and rescue his soul out of the snare of the devil by repentance, for the elect cannot be deceived in such a way as to continue and die in a heresy (Matt. 24:24). And, while he continues in such a gross sin or heresy, you may truly say that for that time, he is “unapproved,” or like dross, and unrefined silver. He is unapproved, greatly reproveable, to be rejected and cast away to the furnace like drossy and unrefined silver. And no wonder, for in that state he is not exercising his graces but his corruptions, and by his great sin he extremely grieves and dangerously quenches the Holy Spirit once given to him.

What if unbelievers resist heresies?

Is it possible for those who are not approved of God to be preserved from being infected with heresies, and indeed be forward in resisting them?

I would reply that we must remember it is not the aim of this text to give us the distinguishing features between these who are “approved,” and all counterfeit Christians (“unapproved”), but between these who are approved, and these who foment or follow heresies. Those who are approved of God will continue in the truth of Christ, grounded and settled, and will stand fast in the faith and contend for it, and this is one of the characteristics found in all who are approved. Meanwhile, anyone who turns away from the truth, and from the doctrine of Christ, and turns aside after heresies, in doing so infallibly declares themselves to be unapproved, whatever profession or show of holiness they have. Whatever happens to the white mark of those who are “approved,” most certainly, this black mark cannot fail on the side of the “unapproved.” It is impossible for anyone who is of a heretical belief and faction to be holy, spiritual, mortified, and “approved,” or one who “walks in the Spirit, and not in the flesh.”

I do not doubt, but by the heresies and schisms of these times .God is exposing many unapproved, unmortified nominal Christians, who only claim to be pious. I may apply to our time what Chrysostom observed of his own day. “How many who are clothed with a shadow and show of godliness, and who have a counterfeit meekness, and who were thought to be some great ones, have been quickly manifested in this time, when so many fall away. Their hypocrisy has been detected, and they have appeared as they are, not what they feigned themselves to be.”

This is no small matter, but very much for the profit and edification of those who will observe it, to know distinguishingly those who are clothed in sheep’s clothing, and not to include hidden wolves indiscriminately among the true sheep. This time has become a furnace which exposes the false copper coin, melting the lead, burning up the chaff, and making the precious metals more manifest.

FURTHER READING

AUTHOR MENU

Just as it is unhelpful to label as heretical any opinion we happen to disagree with, so it is unhealthy to dismiss the spiritual threat of heresy altogether. The Lord Jesus hates error in His church and it pleases Him when false teachings are resisted. But what kinds of error are significant enough to be called heresy? In the following updated extract, George Gillespie explores what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 11:19 when he wrote about the “heresies among you.” He lists six features which co-occur to make an error so bad as to be classified as heresy.

The apostle says (1 Corinthians 11:19), “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”

By “heresies” here some understand no more but divisions and sects, and conceive that heresies in point of opinion or doctrine, are not meant here. If so, then the very divisions and sects themselves will expose who are “approved,” and who not, before it comes to heretical opinions. Sectaries are not approved, and these who are indeed approved, are none of theirs, but those who keep themselves unspotted, and free from them. So the word “heretic” in Titus 3:10 is understood as an “author of sects,” for example. Sometimes the word “heresy” is used in the New Testament for a sect, yet we may note that it is used only for the kind of sect which either was in reality, or was esteemed to be, of some heretical opinion (e.g., Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 26:5; 28:22).

The apostle uses the word “heresy” twice in his epistles, and in both places he makes some distinction between heresies, and divisions, or strifes and variance (1 Cor. 11:18–19; Gal. 5:20). For not every division, strife, or variance, is heresy.

Therefore in the text which I now speak to, 1 Corinthians 11:19, I understand “heresy” to be somewhat more than division. The Arabic translation of this verse repeats the word “schisms” out of the preceding verse, reading “for there must arise schisms and heresies among you …” It seems that those who take the word “heresies” to mean only divisions do not observe the flow of the apostle’s argument, for after he has spoken of their schismatic divisions, contrary to the rule of love, he adds, “for there must also be heresies among you.” He is saying in effect, “I partly believe it, that there are divisions among you, for there must be not only schisms, but, worse than that, there must be heresies also!”

So, what is heresy? I answer with two things that are not heresy, before giving six positive identifications.

Two things which are not heresy

Not every unscriptural error is a heresy

Heresy is to be understood neither so broadly as to include every error which may be confuted by Scripture (even if perhaps that error is maintained too tenaciously), nor so narrowly that it includes only errors which are destructive to some fundamental article of the Christian faith, if a “fundamental article” means a truth without which, if you do not know and believe it, it is impossible to get salvation.

When Peter Martyr Vermigli defines heresy, he makes no mention of a fundamental error, but speaks of an error “contrary to the Scriptures.” Likewise Calvin understands heretics to be those who make a division in the church by false doctrines. Walaeus [a Dutch theologian who contributed to the Canons of Dort] says that heretical churches err either in the foundation, or in some other things built upon the foundation. When Peter speaks of the heresies which take away the very foundation, Jesus Christ, he thinks it too little to call them simply heresies, but he calls them “damnable heresies.”

But you might understand fundamental truths to be all the chief and substantial principles of Christianity — not meaning only the first rudiments, or ABC of a catechism, which we first of all put to new beginners, but I mean all such truths as are commonly put in the confessions of faith, and in the fuller and larger catechisms of the Reformed churches, or all such truths as all and every one who lives in a true Christian Reformed church are commanded and required to learn and know, as they expect in the ordinary dispensation of God to be saved — in this sense, I may agree that heresy is always contrary to some fundamental truth.

It is one thing to dispute about the absolute sovereign power of God, and what are the truths, which, if someone doesn’t believe them, it is absolutely and altogether impossible that they can be saved. I don’t really think this is a question which Scripture provides an answer for, and I don’t know what edification there is in canvassing it. I’m only sure it is a question much abused.

It is another thing to dispute what are the truths which, in a church where the gospel is truly preached, all and every one who has come to years of knowledge and discretion and who has the means and opportunities to learn, ought to know and (according to the revealed will and ordinary dispensation of God) must learn, as they desire or expect to have a true fellowship with Christ in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, or to be accepted of God, and saved eternally.

Something can be heresy without being condemned (yet) by the church

We must not think that no one is a heretic but one who has been formally admonished by the church, and then continues pertinaciously in his error. For when it says in Titus 3:10, “a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject,” it implies that he is a heretic before such admonition.

Six things which concur to make a heresy

Heresy is an error held by someone in the church

Heresy is an error held by some minister or member of a church, by which I mean either a true church or an assembly claiming and professing to be a true church. Both Peter and Paul, where they foretell that heresies are to come (in 2 Peter 2:1 and 1 Corinthians 11:19). they add “among you,” i.e., among you Christians. (See also Acts 20:30: “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things.”) Therefore the Scripture does not give the name of heretics to those who are altogether outside the visible church — those are called by the names of heathens or unbelievers, or “they that are without,” or the like.

And held voluntarily

Heresy is an error voluntarily and freely chosen, both in the first invention and broaching of it (which is what heresiarchs do, i.e., the arch-heretics who invent heresies and lead heretical sects), and in the maintaining of it or adhering to it (which is done by all heretics). This I collect from the very name which the Scripture gives to it, for hairesis “heresy” comes from aireomai, “I choose.” Therefore we do not give the name of heretics to Christians who are compelled in time of persecution to profess this or that error, which would perhaps be formally a heresy, if professed voluntarily and without compulsion. They ought indeed to prefer to die, and to endure the greatest torments, before they profess what they know to be an error, but this sin is not properly called heresy.

In this respect, Tertullian thinks that an heretic is said to be “condemned of himself” (Tit. 3:10), because he has of himself chosen that which condemns him. The apostle has just commanded us to reject a heretic. “But if I reject him,” someone might say, “then I will lose him, I destroy his soul.” “No,” says the apostle, “his perdition is of himself, for he has chosen his own ways, and his soul delights in his abominations.” This interpretation is much surer and safer than to say that a heretic is called self-condemned because he goes against his own light, and against the principles received and acknowledged by himself, an interpretation which is accompanied with many dangerous consequences.

And replaces the truth

Heresy is a choosing of error which is accompanied with a rejecting of truth. A heretic puts light for darkness, and darkness for light; good for evil, and evil for good. He chooses error as truth, and refuses truth as error. Those who “give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,” do also “depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1), “resist the truth” (2 Tim. 3:8), and “turn away their ears from the truth” (2 Tim. 4:4). Their trajectory has a terminus a quo as well as a terminus ad quem (a starting point as well as an endpoint).

And ensnares others

Heresy is an error which is professed and maintained, and which by that means becomes a scandal (stumbling block) and snare to others. For although there may be heresies (just as much as other kinds of sin) lurking and hidden in the thoughts, yet that belongs to God’s judgement only, not to man’s. The heresies which are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11:19 are certainly known and clearly distinguishing to other people. And heretics are scandalous persons who must be avoided and rejected (Rom. 16:17; Tit. 3:10), which could not be the case if their errors were not known.

And contradicts some chief truth

Heresy is an error which is contradictory to some chief and substantial truth, grounded on, or by necessary consequence drawn from, the Holy Scripture. There was never yet a heretic in the Christian world who contradicted something that is literally there in black and white in Scripture. The most damnable heretic will offer to subscribe to the Scripture instead of a Confession of Faith, yet they will not subscribe to all the truths which necessarily follow from the words of Scripture.

But I do not call heresy every error which is contrary to some consequent truth, grounded upon Scripture. Just as Scripture does not reckon all who sin to be “workers of iniquity,” so it does not reckon not all who err to be heretics. Although no sin and no error is insignificant in its own nature, yet not every sin is a gross and heinous sin, and not every error is heresy. Heresies are mentioned as greater evils than schisms (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:18–19), but this could not be so, if every error was a heresy.

And is divisive

Heresy is an error which is maintained factiously, or contentiously, in a way which involves dividing the church, and drawing away disciples after it. “I may err,” said Augustine, “but I shall not be a heretic.” Heretics are deceivers and seducers who endeavour to pervert others, and to overthrow their faith (2 Tim. 3:13; Acts 20:30; 2 Tim. 2:17–18; Rom. 16:17–19; 2 Pet. 2:2). All known and noted heretics are also schismatics, who make a rupture, and strengthen their own grouping by drawing disciples and followers after them (to the extent that, as we have seen, the word “heresy” is often used for a sect). Heresy as carries schism with it in its bosom. Calvin says that the breaking of church communion and the making of a division is a thing common both to heretics and schismatics, for heretics break one bond of church communion, i.e., consent in doctrine, while schismatics break another, i.e., love, though sometimes they agree in doctrine.

From all these scriptural observations we may make up a description of heresy like this. Heresy is a gross and dangerous error, held voluntarily and maintained divisively, by some person or persons within the visible church, in opposition to some chief or substantial truth or truths grounded on and drawn from the Holy Scripture by necessary consequence.

FURTHER READING

AUTHOR MENU

Souls are saved, settled and sanctified through the truth. When there is so much false teaching around, it brings spiritual damage and it is dishonouring to God. Those who are susceptible to false ideas need to be established in the truth. False teachings can be very enticing, but we need to resist them. Stability in the truth and opposition to false teaching are clear and recurring priorities in the writings of the Apostles. Indeed, the purpose of Scripture is to give us certainty in the truth (see, e.g., John 20:31). The theologian George Gillespie had a great concern to protect souls from error. In the following updated excerpt from one of his treatises, Gillespie gives nine positive ways in which we can protect ourselves against false teaching. He calls them “preservatives against wavering, and helps to steadfastness in the faith.”

Grow in knowledge and discernment

Do not be simple, as “children in understanding”. There is such a thing as the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. That is how the apostle describes those who spread diverse and strange doctrines (Eph. 4:14). In Romans 16:18 he warns us that “by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple.” You therefore have need of the wisdom of the serpent so that you will not be deceived, as well as the simplicity of the dove, so that you yourself would not be a deceiver (Phil 1:9-10). Do not rashly commit yourself to any new opinion, much less get involved in spreading it. With the well-advised is wisdom. Pythagoras wanted scholars only to hear, and not to speak, for five years. Be swift to hear but not to speak or commit yourself. Prove all things, and when you have proved, then be sure to hold fast that which is good (1 Thess. 5:2; Matt. 7:15-17). There was never a heresy yet broached, but under some attractive, plausible pretence, “beguiling unstable souls,” as Peter puts it (2 Pet. 2:14). “The simple believeth every word” (Prov. 14:15). Do not be like the two hundred who went in the simplicity of their hearts after Absolom in his rebellion (2 Sam. 15:11).

Grow in grace and holiness, and the love of the truth

The stability of the mind in the truth, and the stability of the heart in grace, go hand in hand together (Heb. 13:9). David’s rule is good, “What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose” (Psa. 24:12; see also Jn. 7:17; Deut. 11:13, 16). Similar to how Elisha healed the unwholesome waters of Jericho by throwing salt into the fountain (2 Kings 2:21), so must the bitter streams of pernicious errors be healed by the salt of mortification, and true sanctifying grace in the fountain.

Cling to your teachers who are faithful and sound

The sheep that follow the shepherd are best kept from the wolf. I find that the exhortation to stability in the faith is joined with the fruitful labours of faithful teachers (Phil. 3:16-17; Heb. 13:7-9). Likewise, in Ephesians 4, the apostle moves from the work of the ministry (v. 11-13) to draw the consequence “that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (v. 14). The Galatians were easily seduced, as soon as they were made to take against Paul.

Watch against the first beginnings of declining

Be vigilant against the first seeds of error. It was while they slept that the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and when he had done, went his way (Matt. 13:25). Therefore, “watch ye” and “stand fast in the faith” go hand in hand together (1 Cor. 16:13).

Avoid and withdraw from those who start and spread heresies and dangerous errors

This is clear from Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 John 10-11; Philippians 3:2. Those who want to be godly should not usually be in ungodly company, and those who want to be orthodox should not usually be in heretical company. Chrysostom in various places warns his hearers how much they endangered their souls by going into the Jewish synagogues, and there was a great zeal in the early church to keep Christians who were orthodox away from the assemblies and company of heretics.

Get church discipline established and duly exercised

Church discipline is ordained to purge the church from false doctrine (Rev 2:14-20).

Do not depend on your own reason

“Lean not to thy own understanding, and be not wise in thine own eyes” (Prov. 3:5-7). Let reason be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). What made the Anti-Trinitarians and Socinians fall away from believing in the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, and the union of the two natures of God and man in the person of Christ, was because their reason could not comprehend these articles of the faith. Their own reason is the basis of their opinions they profess. When I say reason must be captive, I mean that the eyes of my understanding must be opened by the Holy Spirit so that I may know that this doctrine is presented in Scripture to be believed, and therefore I do believe that it is true, even if my reason cannot comprehend how it is.

Count the cost of discipleship

Count the cost to yourself, and be well resolved beforehand what it will cost you to be a disciple of Christ, and to be consistent in professing the truth (Lk. 14:26-34). “Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). This is safer than to confirm ourselves in the hopes of a golden age of prosperity in which we shall feel no affliction.

Search the Scriptures

This advice is given in John 5:39 (see also Acts 17:11). Do not take new light on trust from anyone, be they never so eminent for gifts or for grace, but go to the law and the testimony.

Conclusion

The upshot of all this is that we ought to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and be steadfast and even unmoveable in the truth, and not give place to the adversaries, no, not for an hour (Gal. 2:4-5). I do not mean perverse obstinacy in the least error, nor a vain, presumptuous, overweening conceit of our knowledge, to make us despise any light which others may give us from Scripture. Obstinacy is an evil on the one hand, and holding too tenaciously to our own opinions. But fickleness, inconstancy, or wavering is an evil on the other hand. “Be not soon shaken in mind, etc” (2 Thess. 2:2). Fickleness is an epidemic among the sectarians of this time. Their word is “yea and nay,” not unlike what Sallust accused Cicero of, “He says one thing sitting, and another thing standing!”

Yet it may be sometimes observed that those who are the greatest sceptics in reference to the common and received tenets, are the most obstinate and tenacious in tenets invented by themselves. Socinus set at nought the church fathers, church councils, and the whole current of ancient and modern interpreters of Scripture, yet vainglory made him stiffly and tenaciously maintain any opinion or invention of his own, as if he had been infallible.

People are drawn from truth sooner than they are drawn from error. Yet some are unstable in the truth, and unstable in error too. They are of a new faith, and a new religion, every year, if not every month. Remember Reuben’s reproach, “Unstable as water, thou shall not excel” (Gen. 49:4). Indeed, there are even some who do not commit themselves to believing any thing, but are known by believing nothing. These pass now under the name of “seekers,” but we might as well call them atheists.

FURTHER READING

AUTHOR MENU

It is likely that the word “superstition” conjures up the idea of some pagan ritual or elaborate ceremony in ancient religions such as Hinduism. A more trivial form of superstition which pervades society, but is not really taken seriously by Christians, is the concept of luck. For those who believe in the working of a divine providence, such practices as crossing our fingers, touching wood, or using some star sign to comfort us, however seriously used by others, are really just foolish or even childish superstitions.

The Reformation brought the charge of superstition much closer to home. Not only were the practices of the Roman Catholic church removed as superstitious, but anything that didn’t come with divine authority from scripture was removed from the worship of the church. Indeed, religious ceremonies or practices of any kind were declared unlawful when devoid of a biblical mandate. This sweeping principle removed more than the obvious superstitions of paganism – it declared to be unlawful what was not commanded in every aspect of religious life, as well as in worship.

But how can we tell if our practices are superstitious? George Gillespie ministered in a time when only a few apparently innocuous religious ceremonies were imposed on the Scottish church. These had been observed in England since the Reformation and the Scottish Reformers had removed them. The simple principle had been applied, that they did not have authority for them in the Bible. While still in his twenties, and before ordination, Gillespie wrote an extensive treatment of this issue. Published anonymously, the work became pivotal to the Second Reformation and the Westminster Standards. He argued that the imposed ceremonies were neither necessary, expedient, lawful or indifferent. In the following updated extract, Gillespie sets down seven ways in which any activity or practice in worship is superstitious.

When it is excessive

The basic way in which the vice of superstition is opposite to religion is that superstition goes to excess. The great theologian Zanchi said, “If you add something to what which Christ established, or if you follow something added by others, [e.g.,] if you add other sacraments …, or other sacrifices … or if you add rites to the ceremonies of some sacrament, all those are rightly called by the name ‘superstition’.” Superstition is done “beyond what is established” [by Christ]. It is something used in God’s worship on no basis other than human appointment.

When it is misdirected

Superstition gives worship either to whom it does not owe it, or not in the way in which it owes it. A ceremony is superstitious, even if it gives worship to God, when it is done inordinately, or when the worship is performed otherwise than it should be. For example, God is worshipped by baptism, but there is a problem with baptisms administered in private, because (as pointed out in the Leiden Synopsis) baptism is a supplement to public ministry, not to private exhortation. Similarly, the Church Fathers of the fourth century regarded the private administration of the Lord’s Supper as something “inordinate” in the same sense.

When it is not edifying

Some things have no necessary or profitable use in the church, and cannot be used without being superstitious. It was according to this rubric that the Waldenses and Albigenses taught against the exorcisms, breathings, crossings, salt, spittle, unction, chrism, etc., used in baptism. As these were neither necessary nor requisite in the administration of baptism, they occasioned error and superstition, rather than edification to salvation.

When it displaces necessary duties

A ceremony is superstitious when it is not only used in God’s worship unnecessarily and unprofitably, but in fact it hinders other necessary duties. People are superstitious when they set about to serve the true God, yet they do so with needless services, while they defraud Him of duties that are actually necessary. By “necessary duties” I mean things like worshipping God in a spiritual and lively manner, pressing the power of godliness on people’s consciences, maintaining faithful and well qualified ministers in the church, showing mercy and meekness, not offending the weak, having all things in God’s worship ordered according to the Word and not according to the will of man, not exercising lordship over the consciences of those whom Christ has made free, and abolishing past and present idolatry. If these and other necessary duties are shut outdoors by needless ceremonies, these ceremonies are superstitious.

When it promotes external activities above spiritual activities

Something is superstitious if it gives God a merely external service and a grace-defacing worship. God does not care for this. It makes fleshly observations step into the place of God’s spiritual worship. Augustine used the word, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), against superstitious persons, who devoted their primary concern to externals. Christian worship ought to be “in spirit.” Indeed, the kingdom of God comes not with splendour and worldly ostentation. Carnal worship, therefore, is superfluous in religion, and by consequence superstitious.

When it is regarded as holy itself

When people associate holiness and necessity with a ceremony, that makes the ceremony superstitious.

Holiness. For example, some say the festival days are “clothed with outward robes of holiness,” and “more holy than other days.” Some call the cross “a holy sign.” Of course, they claim that these things are not holy in themselves, by only per aliud (by virtue of something else) (such as their association with something holy). But read on in their writings and they claim that these things are worship in themselves! In practice they offer this or that ceremony as worship to God. So we see that superstition is not only offering to God in worship something which He has not commanded, but also using for help in God’s worship anything as if it was sacred or holy when He Himself has not ordained it.

Necessity. Some will say that observing this or that ceremony is necessary for God’s glory, or promoting piety, or for orderliness, peace, charity, and so on. Yet if something is observed for the sake of orderliness and policy, that must mean that it can be changed — yet the argument from necessity is used as a reason why it cannot be changed! Or sometimes they say it is necessary because the church leadership (or other influential people) have decided it should be done. Yet appealing to such human authority as the sole reason for doing something means it is superstitious.

When there is no distinction between appointment and consecration

We have to distinguish three things.

One is appointment, when you designate something for a certain use, yet reserving the right to put it to a different use as and when you wish. In this way the church appoints seasons and times for preaching on weekdays, yet reserving the right to use those times for other things when she sees fit.

Distinguish this from dedication, when you devote a thing to some use (whether religious or secular), and waive all right to reclaim it subsequently. For example, you might dedicate a sum of money to build a hospital, or a church, and then you cannot later claim your rights to that money.

Distinguish both these from consecration (also called sanctification), when you set something apart for a holy and religious use, so that it cannot afterwards be put to any other use.

It is right and proper for the church to set time apart for ordinary and weekly preaching when they do this by “appointment”. The church is not then saying that 7pm on a Tuesday is a holy time, only that we are temporarily using that time for a holy use. Note too that we do not say that the worship is appointed because it’s appropriate for that time — only that the time is appointed as convenient for the worship.

Contrast this with “holy days” such as Christmas and Easter. They are regarded as holy both by “dedication” and by “consecration”. But if certain times (or places, or things) can be made holy by the church’s dedication or consecration, then it would follow that other things, places, or times are more profane, and less suitable for divine worship, even if they are used for the same holy activities. Yet, as someone has said, to us Christians, no land is strange, no ground is unholy, and every faithful company (indeed, every faithful body) is a temple to serve God in. For Christians, it is superstitious to bind religion to particular places (or things, or times). If I am standing in a churchyard when it rains, may I not go into the church to keep dry? A church building, then, may serve for a secular use in the same way as it serves for a holy use. It’s the same with preaching on weekdays — the time may rightly be used for something other than divine worship [something that cannot be said of the Lord’s Day].

Certain things are not in reality observed as circumstances of worship, for order and policy. Rather, as the chief parts of God’s worship are placed in them, they are kept and celebrated superstitiously, as if they have some sacred meaning, or are holier in themselves than other things. What happens in practice is that the worship which is performed around them is attributed to them, making it superstitious.

FURTHER READING

AUTHOR MENU