GodsGrace,
You've started an excellent topic.
For the Christian who takes the Bible seriously, heresy is based on the Greek noun,
hairesis. The Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich Lexicon gives the foundational meaning as “sect, party, school” (BAG, 1957, p. 23).
It was used to describe the “party of the Sadducees” in Acts 5:17; the Pharisees in Acts 26:5 were described as “the strictest sect of our religion.” In the secular literature of the first century, it meant “heretical sect.”
In a later sense they were called “a dissension, a faction” (1 Cor 11:19; Gal 5:20). They also were called an “opinion, dogma . . . a way of thinking” (2 Pet 2:1).
Applications
To sum up: A heresy in today’s understanding is a sect whose way of thinking is dogma that promotes theology contrary to biblical Christianity – an heretical sect.
An example would be the
Jehovah’s Witnesses today who do not believe Jesus is God and they
reject human beings as having an immortal soul.
From a Christian perspective
, Islam is heretical as it does not promote the Trinitarian God.
Islam rejects Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
I would be interested to consider whether you regard the "prosperity gospel" as being heretical. What about Mormonism?
Oz
Works consulted
Arndt, William F. and F. Wilbur Gingrich, tr. & adapt. of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur, 4th and aug edn 1957. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (limited edn licensed to Zondervan Publishing House for sale only in the United States of America).