The Genesis of False Doctrine

Via The Church and Her Treasures: Lectures on Justification and the True Visible Church

The Ninth Lecture

As I have already indicated, Holy Writ is composed in such a way that the right teaching not only can be discerned but it must be discerned – so long as one remains by the Scripture words. One would have to ignore the clear words of Scripture or do them violence in order to fall into error in any of the doctrines. The history of the Christian church confirms this, in particular the history of the individual false-teachings which in time have been brought into the church. No false teaching or heresy, however, has ever resulted from a genuine misunderstanding of Scripture passages which reveal the individual doctrines. The genesis of every false teaching is rather thus: One has, in fact, read and understood the clear and lucid words of Holy Writ but has found a meaning which is objectionable, a meaning which runs against his interests, the interests of man’s presumed wisdom, or those of a comfortable life and bank account. Bias likewise often resists Scripture’s clear and discernible meaning, especially if one has been raised in a heterodox assembly. Thus they search for a meaning other than the one given in Scripture, a meaning which serves their purposes. In short, they ignore the words of Scripture and construct a doctrine with their own opinions. But then they must also be able to defend it to themselves and others. How? It would not do to openly declare, “What we have here is a doctrine not of Scripture but of our own invention!” Instead they seek passages into which with seeming validity, they can inject their contrived meanings. From this point on they adulterate the sedes doctrinae (seat of doctrine) for themselves as well as for others. Despite such contrivances they contend that their doctrine is absolutely scriptural and thus they are bound not to deviate from it. This is the genesis of all false doctrine, about which we have still more to report.