Authors like N.T. Wright, Rob Bell, Charles Spurgeon, Joel Osteen, Carl Medearis, Gene Veith, Max Lucado, Beth Moore, Philip Yancey, Rick Warren, Karl Barth, R.C. Sproul, Francis Schaeffer, and many others keep the Christian book business profitable.
In many cases, each book which falls from the pen of these writers has been both praised and condemned by various reviewers. A single book may instigate articles and more books in response. If one critic finds fault with a publication, another rushes to its defense.
Huge amounts of time and ink are spent in the process of responding to responses. At which point does this effort become a waste of resources?
In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he writes:
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
We may conclude that Paul is asking us sort through those writings which come to our attention: “test everything.” This is an imperative toward careful examination and close reading. When we find something “good,” we are to retain it.
Paul does not, however, explicitly indicate what we should do with something which is not “good” - what do we do with something that is bad?
Paul does not tell us to carry on an extended polemic against those things which we find to be bad. The cottage industry which produces printed vitriol against items in the continuous flood of books which falls from the presses of the Christian book industry is not instituted by Scripture.
One might instead conjecture that Paul wants us to devote thought and attention to that which is good. In written analysis, so with ethical behavior: it is more important and valuable to do good than to condemn evil. He writes in his letter to the Philippians:
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things.
It might be that Paul would instruct us, when we find something which is not good, to ignore it, discard it, or pass over it in silence.
To produce endless reams of verbiage identifying and condemning the heresies may not be the most productive or constructive use of one’s time and ink. Merely because heresies are printed does not mean that followers of Jesus are required to catalogue and explain each error.
Building the Kingdom of Heaven is a constructive, not destructive, activity. Speaking the truth is not synonymous with refuting error, and sometimes the best refutation is to simply assert a truth without specifically explaining the error.
One may unwittingly or unintentionally assist an error by dwelling on it too long. Paul speaks of “the ability to distinguish between spirits” in his letter to the Corinthians, but he does not instruct us to dwell on the details of error at length.
It is true that it is occasionally necessary to identify heresy as heresy. But having so diagnosed it, let us then move on to other, more edifying matters.
Theological disputes and debates can make valuable contributions to the knowledge-base of Jesus followers. But when these discussions morph into a continuous stream of articles and books which endlessly parse the sentences of one’s opponents, and which are motivated by an unhealthy passion which verges on hatred, then they have ceased to be productive.
Those who write, or habitually read, such Streitschriften are likely to overestimate the importance of their squabbles, likely not to see that they have eventually become irrelevant, and likely not to understand that the rest of the reading public has simply moved on to something else. They have reduced themselves to trivia, and look foolish as they fight battles which manifest themselves as exercises in nitpicking and oblivious misunderstanding.
There is no need for animus in the analysis of texts; we are obliged to view their authors, even authors of heresy, with compassion. There is no need for fear; in the long run, heresies never triumph, and truth always does. We may proceed with calm assurance, a “peace which passes all understanding,” which allows us to not remain stuck in the endless cycle of verbal retaliations and repeated clarifications.
