Bible verses about "heresy" | Goodspeed

⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you good news that contradicts the good news we have preached to you, a curse upon him! ⁹ We have said it before, and I repeat it now—if anyone is preaching to you good news that contradicts the good news you have already received, a curse upon him!

¹² For the message of God is a living and active force, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing through soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and keen in judging the thoughts and purposes of the mind.

²⁴ As we have heard that some of our number, without any instructions from us, have disturbed you by their teaching and unsettled your minds,

⁷ not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around.

³ Dear friends, I was just on the point of writing to you about our common salvation, when it became necessary for me to write and appeal to you to come to the defense of the faith that has once for all been intrusted to God's people. ⁴ For some people have sneaked in among us—their doom was foretold long ago—godless persons, who turn the mercy of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. ⁵ Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that he who brought the people safely out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed the ones who did not believe, ⁶ and the angels who neglected their responsibilities and abandoned their homes he has put in everlasting chains to be kept in darkness for the judgment of the great Day, ⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like them indulged in immorality and unnatural vice stand as a warning, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. ⁸ In that same way these dreamers defile the body, make light of authority, and deride majesty. ⁹ The archangel Michael himself, when he had the dispute with the devil about Moses' body, did not venture to condemn him for blasphemy; he only said, "May the Lord rebuke you!" ¹⁰ But these people deride anything they do not understand, and the things they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, they use for their own destruction. ¹¹ Alas for them, for they follow Cain's path, they plunge into Balaam's error for gain, and they perish in rebelliousness like Korah's. ¹² They are stains on your religious meals, where they carouse together, boldly attending to no one but themselves; rainless clouds driven before the wind; leafless trees without fruit, doubly dead, and uprooted; ¹³ wild sea waves foaming up their own shame; wandering stars doomed forever to utter darkness. ¹⁴ Of them also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, when he said, "See! The Lord comes with his holy myriads ¹⁵ to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the godless of all the godless deeds they have done, and of all the harsh things that godless sinners have said against him." ¹⁶ These men are grumblers, dissatisfied with life. They go where their passions lead, their talk is arrogant and they cultivate people in the hope of gain.

¹⁵ They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain,

¹¹ For anyone who bids him good morning shares in his wicked work.

¹⁹ The things our physical nature does are clear enough—immorality, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party-spirit, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I did before that people who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

⁴ For when somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you without bringing this teaching, do not let him come into the house or bid him good morning.

¹ There were false prophets too among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction.

¹⁰ If a man is inclined to a sect, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him.

¹ Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world.

¹ There were false prophets too among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. ² Many people will follow their immoral ways, and they will cause the true way to be maligned. ³ In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered. ⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but plunged them into Tartarus, and committed them to dark dungeons to await their doom, ⁵ and if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood upon the godless world; ⁶ and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and overwhelmed them with ashes, as a warning to ungodly men of what was to come, ⁷ and saved the upright Lot who was so distressed by the immoral conduct of unprincipled men— ⁸ for as long as that upright man lived among them, day after day his upright soul was tormented by what he saw and heard of their lawless actions— ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue God-fearing people from trial and to punish wrongdoers while they are being kept for the Day of Judgment, ¹⁰ especially those who yield to their physical nature and indulge in passions that defile them, and despise authority. Rash, headstrong men! They stand in no awe of majesty, but deride beings ¹¹ against whom even angels far superior to these beings in strength and power bring no abusive charge before the Lord. ¹² These men, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse what they do not understand and will be destroyed like animals, ¹³ suffering wrong as the reward for their wrongdoing. They find pleasure in the indulgence of the moment; they are a stain and a disgrace, and they revel in their deceit while they join in your religious meals. ¹⁴ They have eyes for nobody but adulterous women—eyes insatiable in sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are accursed! ¹⁵ They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain, ¹⁶ but he was rebuked for his offense; a dumb animal spoke with a human voice and checked the prophet's madness. ¹⁷ Such men are dried-up springs, clouds driven before the storm, and they are doomed to utter darkness. ¹⁸ They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error; ¹⁹ promising them freedom when they are themselves slaves of destruction; for a man is the slave of whatever overcomes him. ²⁰ For if after men have escaped the corrupting influences of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome by them, their final condition is worse than their former one. ²¹ For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than after knowing it to have turned their backs upon the sacred command with which they had been intrusted. ²² What has happened to them shows the truth of the proverb, "A dog returns to what he has vomited up, and a sow that has washed goes back to wallow in the mire."