Heresy is a teaching contrary to the truth revealed in the Bible. It is commonly a false belief or a false teaching against the orthodox teaching of the Church. The word heresy occurs only once in the New Testament (2 Peter 2:1).
The Creeds were formulated by the early Church fathers to preserve and guard ‘the faith which was’ once for all delivered to the saints’ Jude 3, when the Church was attacked by various heretical teachings. The apostles of Jesus Christ, did not draft any Creed but their beliefs were found in various writings in the written form.
Most of the basic heresies present today on the person of Jesus Christ, were also present during the time of the early Church. The Bible also deals with some of them. The heresies in the early Church led the Church fathers to formulate doctrinal statements and Creeds for the Church, to defend the truth. Here are few major heresies of the early Church.
Jehovah’s Witnesses:
Founded in 1884 by C.T. Russell at Pittsburgh.
F.W. Franz is the present President.
Headquarters at Brooklyn, New York.
Periodicals are Awake and Watch Tower.
Their Bible is The New World Translation and other books by the leaders.
The Hindus believe that the four castes came out from the body of Brahma. Here are the four castes and their origin.
Brahmin or high caste: Originated from the head of Brahma.
Kshatriya or soldiers: Came out from the shoulders of Brahma.
Vaisyas or Business people: Originated from the thigh of Brahma.
Sudras or labourers: Came out from the feet of Brahma.
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They say that the Bible does not teach that Jesus Christ is God. They consider Him only as a mighty God and not the ‘Almighty God’
Many believers are burdened to reach their neighbours. But they don’t know how to present the gospel to them. Here are a few ways and approaches to present the gospel effectively to them.
Dialoguing and Debating is one of the best methods to reach educated Hindus. But care should be taken to see that it will not lead to arguments. Open discussions will answer the questions of a Hindu and enable him to find out the truth.
Wrong view about God: TM is based on the belief that God is an impersonal being and TM claims that God is all, and all is God. Maharishi makes God a part of the creation, thus making his followers worship ‘the created things rather than the creator
The founder of Transcendental Meditation was Mahesh Brasad Warma from central India. He graduated from Allahabad University in Physics in 1940. Then he became the disciple of Guru Dev, who taught him the techniques of meditation from Hindu scriptures