Tertullian on Cancelling False Teachers

“We oppose them … by not admitting them to any kind of discussion of the Scriptures.”

In my previous post dealing with the necessity of the church to engage in what is now called cancelling, particularly in dealing with false teachers, I mentioned that the Fathers could be not very “winsome” and even “unkind”* is so doing.

Well, it so happens that I just came across the following from Tertullian (ca. 200 A. D.) that is all too relevant.  He notes that gnostic heretics “recommend their opinions out of the Scriptures.  Of course they do.”  Then he continues:

Now this heresy of theirs does not accept certain Scriptures; but whichever of them it does accept, it perverts by means of additions and deletions for their own purposes.  The Scriptures that they do accept, they do so not in their entirety.  But when they accept them up to a certain point as entire, they still pervert even these by contriving different interpretations.  Truth is just as much opposed by an adulteration of its meaning as it is by a corruption of its text. (On the Prescription of Heretics 14.17, quoted in D. H. Williams, ed., Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation, p. 58)

Was Tertullian describing the church in his day or the church today and for the past hundred years and more?  This is all too familiar!  Take church people who reject orthodoxy for alphabet ideologies - please.  Many of them do “not accept certain Scriptures,” namely what they call “clobber verses” that clearly condemn homosexual practice.  But others, knowing that dismissing Scripture won’t fly among most actual Christians, “pervert even these by contriving different interpretations.”  Echoing the snake in the Garden, they ask, “Did God really say” what is clearly said about same-sex coupling?  And they twist the “clobber verses” in knots to claim something else is addressed, like pagan cultic practices or rape or even lack of hospitality.  (Yes, there are people that say that is the chief sin of Sodom.)

Or take woke churchers who misinterpret passages calling for justice to mean Socialist “justice.”  They call it “social justice” or merely “justice” but we know what they mean.  Or worse, they twist Scripture into calling for a Critical Theory version of “justice.”

And I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Libchurch apostates of various sorts claim to hold to Scripture in some fashion but just differ on interpretation.  Among those were the Emergent cool kids (now older, not cool, and mostly forgotten) who reduced the Faith to just another “metanarrative” before most of them apostasized altogether to become exvangelicals or something.

And of course, particularly in recent decades, there are apostate church people who are more open about rejecting Scripture they don’t like.  I don’t know if this is better or worse than those who “pervert . . . by contriving different interpretations.”  But at least it’s more honest.

Later, Tertullian describes both the results and the remedy of such Scripture mangling and cutting.

They put forward the Scriptures, and by this act of daring they influence some immediately.  In the encounter with others, however, they weary the strong, snare the weak, and confuse those who are hesitant with doubts.  Accordingly, we oppose them in this process beyond all others by not admitting them to any kind of discussion of the Scriptures.  (15.19)

As someone who is strong — or at least stubborn — in his orthodoxy and rejection of diverse apostasies, I can testify that dealing with false teachers can indeed be exhausting.  Only God knows how much time and energy I’ve put into exposing and opposing the woke church cabal.  And one of the purposes of “dialogue” and “prayerful conversation” not to mention pushing the same lib resolutions year after year is to wear out once strong churches until they give in.

And, sadly, I’ve seen the weak confused and snared.  I’ve seen young committed Christian men who I thought had excellent futures go completely woke.  These in turn have led others who look up to them into toxic error.  Unless one is thoroughly catechized and discipled and a bit stubborn to boot, wokeness has been difficult to resist, especially since rejecting wokeness reduces prospects in many careers and even in some churches and since the culture has been pushing Critical Theory garbage non-stop for years.  (Yes, the tide may finally be turning against Critical Theory, aka “wokeness,” but the damage is done.)

But Tertullian was neither resigned nor passive.  He and other Fathers not only refuted the errors of the apostates and heretics.  They also did some cancelling: “we oppose them . . . by not admitting them to any kind of discussion of the Scriptures.”

In other words, if you teach serious error, you do not get to teach and spread your error in the church.  And, as both the Apostles and Fathers frequently did, orthodox church leaders call out false teachers and warn the faithful against them.  That is all the more necessary today when it is too easy for wolves to promote their error on social media.

That may seem mean and odious and too much like me, but look at the damage done, especially in many evangelical circles, because winsome woke wolves were not put in their place early on.  Before that, look at what happened to the mainline Protestant denominations because the laity kept sitting in the pews and dropping their offerings in the plates instead of standing up and saying NO.  And you can look way before that and see what Tertullian saw:

…they weary the strong, snare the weak, and confuse those who are hesitant with doubts.

So actually it is loving for church leaders and informed laity to expose the wolves and drive them out from amongst the sheep.  Especially today when error and lies spread like wildfire, the faithful church needs to be more alert and quicker to deplatform, defrock, dewhatever unrepentant false teachers in its midst.  That certainly includes those who use and abuse the church to push Critical Theory or whatever the next trendy toxic ideology will be.

If such cancelling was needed is Tertullian’s time, it is certainly needed now.

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*For those wondering at my scare quotes, these are pious buzzwords among woke and woke-adjacent evangelicals.