/ˈhed(ə)rəˌdäksē/
noun
deviation from accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.
"his work was marked by elements of theological heterodoxy"
The definition of heterodoxy is pretty straight up, and we as Christians need to try to avoid heterodoxy at all costs. Heterodoxy is the work of Satan, it's one of his greatest weapons in his battle against God. Satan knows that he cannot win against God so he will try to take as many of us with him as he can.
This creature to the left here is Haresis Dias. She's a 16th Century, satirical depiction of a goddess heresy or heterodoxy, and she contradicts the teachings of Christian Church. This is a pretty good illustration of heterodoxy, she looks kind of nice from a distance but when you look closer you start to see the evil creatures that wrap themselves around her, and I think that's a body of a demon she's clutching, she's got the ears of a donkey, her neck is made of brick, and she has cloven hooves. To battle Heterodoxy, the false teaching itself, our best weapon is Apologetics
apologetics
/əˌpäləˈjediks/
noun
reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine.
Apologetics is useful against the false teaching itself, when we see a friend getting swallowed up in false teaching we intervene with the truth from the Gospel and use quotes from the great masters. Masters such as Charles Spurgeon:
Who, think you, are the most honest men - those who tell you plainly what the scriptures say concerning this wrath of God, or those who smooth in over or deny it all together?
What do we do about the purveyors of heterodoxy? I'm talking about the false teachers who every Sunday tell you about your great destiny, how God wants you to be the best you that you can be, and prosperity! God's going to give you so much prosperity that you will get tired of prospering! There are those that tell you that they are an actual apostle and prophesy so many things that never come to pass, but that's ok because they have a very special understanding of scripture. Their followers stumble after them like The Night of the Spiritually Dead, following them off the edge of the cliff without a second thought.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees not just because He knew the word of God better than they did, He did it because He IS the spirit of God. All of Matthew 23 is spent in his condemnation of the Pharisees, but that confrontation is His job, not ours. No where in the bible does it tell us to confront evil, we're just told to defend ourselves against it and report (via prayer) to our Commander. When Jesus sent the 12 apostles out did he tell them to confront non-believers? No, He told them "Just walk away"
Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. (Matthew 10:14)
Recently an acquaintance was convicted of the spirit and realized they were in an apostate church, the pastor was sliding down the slippery slope of the prosperity gospel and the elders were in full agreement. I mean, why not? The prosperity gospel is a great draw, it puts meat in the seats, and a full house means a full collection basket. This person was also convicted by proper apologetics, and decided to remove themselves from this church and wanted to confront the leader of this cult in the making.
I suggest that if you're ever in this position, take Jesus instruction and just walk away. The people you're planning to confront know their personal bible much better than you know the true gospel because they wrote their own version of the bible and they've they've been practicing it day in and day out since God gave them over to Satan (Remember: Romans 1:28 doesn't just apply to sexual perversion, it applies to spiritual perversion also)
First; get out of there. Go find a small church that teaches, preaches, and lives the Gospel.
If you insist that you must do something I suggest following Martin Luther's example, draw up your own 95 theses in love insuring what you state is factual and 100% in accordance with the bible, then do a modern day posting to the church door: Email a copy to everyone in the church you have an email address for, snail mail to the church elders, and put it up on social media, like Instagram and Facebook. Large churches and corporations use software to scour social media for their name so they will eventually see that you 'took it to the streets' so make sure you have your ducks in a row and insure you communicate that you're doing out of love for the flock because they could come back at you. (the hounds of the legal community may say that you were trying to commit financial harm to the institution)
DO NOT directly confront the false teachers, their #1 goal in life is turning hearts to the dark side, and they have acolytes to aid them. Honestly - you'll think you're caught in the middle of a spiritual remake of Day of the Living Dead. We are not called to confront Satan, we are to defend the cross. The teaching of standing firm is wrapped up in Ephesians 6:10-18
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