How (Not) to Judge Someone’s Orthodoxy
Monday, August 27th, 2007
everal times in the past, the subject of orthodoxy has come up on this blog. And quite honestly, I’ve taken a lot of flack over my hesitancy to write some people off as being “heretics”.
This evening, while perusing some blogs, I spotted this paragraph from a commenter:
It seems to me that the wrong way to identify whether someone believes the Bible is to ask them if they do.
Better to find out what they believe on a variety of subjects which the Bible teaches us about, and then determine for them whether or not they really believe it.
That, my friends, is apparently how we are to judge others.
Forgive my bitter cynicism, but I fail to see the justification in this kind of approach. It could easily be paraphrased as such: “Don’t give your brother any benefit of the doubt. Give them, rather, a theological quiz, and grade it based on your own inerrant, infallible, and complete knowledge of the truth.”
No, thank you.
Until next time,
steve 
