That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete (1 John 1:1-4)All of us have wondered if what the Church has labeled as heresies might just be nit-picky obsession about little details. For example, the dividing line between heresy and orthodoxy in one controversy is the addition of a single Greek letter. You are okay if you confess that Jesus was homoousios with God the Father, but you are literally damned if you believe that he was only homoiousios. One Greek letter – iota.
But of course, that one letter changes the meaning of the word entirely. Either you believe that the Son and the Father are of the same divine essence or you think they have only “similar natures.” So what appears to be just an iota of a difference is in truth the difference between two entirely different confessions of God and therefore two radically different conceptions of the world, life, and the future.
But it’s not just little details in doctrinal disputes. Christians claim that ostensibly “little events” make all the difference in the world. It’s kind of like the little parts without which a machine could not operate. Or like putting together a Christmas gift for your children. Let's say you don’t read, or you ignore the instructions, dismissing early on a small part here or the orientation of something little there. You get to the end and the bicycle doesn’t work or the final pieces don’t line up. And all because you got something seemingly small wrong near the beginning of the process. It is not difficult to envision the same kinds of problems when engineers and carpenters build buildings. What might appear to be a small mistake near the foundation could end up ruining the entire project.
Even though toys and buildings are often forgiving with many mistakes, there are some omissions and errors that are systemic and spoil everything. So it is with life, and God’s world, and the Kingdom God—Christian civilization. There are certain practices and beliefs that we all forgive in one another and make adjustments—different views on church government, or about the mode of baptism, etc. But there are others—what might appear to outsiders to be minuscule puzzle pieces—that are the corners and straight edge sides without which there would be no completed image. And they are game changers, culture crushers, eternally significant.
Damnable heresies.
