“Some … have erred concerning the faith’’ (I. Tim. 6:21).
“Ye (Sadducees) do err, not knowing the scriptures” (Matt. 22:29)
“He that refuseth reproof erreth” (Prov. 10:17).
“Idols “are vanity and the work of errors” (Jer. 10:15).
“He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not. By this know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (I John 4:6).
Error, according to Webster’s Dictionary, First Edition, 1828, is defined as follows: “. erro, ‘to wander,’ A wandering or deviation from the truth; a mistake in judgment by which men assent to or believe what is not true. Error may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary, when men neglect or pervert the proper means to inform the mind; involuntary, when the means of judging correctly are not in their power. An error committed through carelessness or haste is a blunder.”
“Say not, it was an error.” Eccles. 5: 6
“Who can understand his errors?” Psalm 19: 12
“To err is to miss the right way, in morals or religion…”
“We have erred and strayed like lost sheep. Book of Common Prayer.”
This word error is rendered delusion in II Thess. 2:11, and deceit in I Thess. 2:3. The verb root of the word, occurring in the New Testament 39 times, means “to go astray,” as in Matt. 18:12, “one of them be gone astray”; as in 22:29, ‘‘ye do err (or, do go astray), not knowing the scriptures”; in 24:5,11, ‘‘and shall deceive many” (cause many to go astray); as in Heb. 11:28, “they wandered in deserts”; and in Rev. 2:20, “a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants.” An adjectival form appears in Jude 13, ‘wandering stars …” A noun form in II John 7 appears: ‘‘This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” From these dictionary definitions and scripture usages we can detect that Noah Webster was a godly man with a scripture-saturated mind. His aim was to define words in our language according to the standard of scripture. That to a considerable degree he attained this goal, the first edition of his work reveals.
Now let us consider in more detail this evil of error to see something of its trend, and that not so much in the world, but of error as it creeps into the church. It is bad enough that there is error in the wicked world, but error in the church is much worse. We are sometimes misled, in that, though we expect to find error in the ungodly world, yet with respect to the church we have a tendency to let down our guard. But we must not be deceived in this regard, for, as we have seen, deception is a form of error. Therefore, it should be recognized that error always unrelentingly works at creeping in wherever it can. It does not necessarily come at first with a placard whereby it advertizes itself. No, error is more subtly spread by first slipping in unobtrusively and then just sitting there quietly holding a place where it would just as soon remain unnoticed and undisturbed. If this does not work, or does not last, then error will always fight to be tolerated. Of course, it does so, not in an offensive, but in a cultured, sophisticated, socially acceptable manner. But it will persist, like the ‘‘Big Lie” tactic, until it is tolerated. Once it is put up with, its aim will be to gain respect, as many religions and cults in their beliefs and practices gain status without any widespread sharing of them. When this is accomplished, it will demand equal rights and equal time. This is true right now with respect to the error of feminism (see dictionary for meaning of the term) and homosexual sin. These errors battle for recognition and acceptance everywhere, and now, especially, in the church. Next, once error secures equal rights and equal time, it will insist on wielding controlling power. This means that it will not abate its insidious exertions until it ushers in the reign of Baal-Peorism and Jezebelism in the church. To illustrate on a purely natural level, let the voice of communism (or socialism) once be tolerated in the land, and it will demand equal rights with the legitimate political parties. Before you know it, communism will demand controlling power. A similar illustration we have in the error of individualism which arose before, during and after the French Revolution. This reign of error resulted in the Reign of Terror. Individualism results in anarchy, which, in turn, results in chaos. Error will never be satisfied until the light of truth is blotted out of state and church and the whole world is plunged into darkness. We could say for all persistent, incurable errorists and their dupes that things get the darkest just before they go completely black! (Jude 11 and 13).
We understand, don’t we?, that the church from its beginning to end had and has incessant difficulties with the intermingling of truth and error. The church always has had, beside its faithful suffering ones, those wicked blasphemers who really belong to the synagogue of Satan. The church always had saints whose zeal for God’s house consumed them, yet at the same time there always were disgusting Laodiceans with their empty profession, nauseating lukewarmness, base conceit and inimical exclusion of Christ. Wherever sowers of the kingdom go forth, bearing precious seed, Satan will see that the field is oversown with a deleterious seed. God sowed the good seed in Paradise, but Satan crept in to there sow tares. In the harvest, before the altar just outside the gate of Paradise, there appeared both saint and murderer. Before the Flood, the sons of God were everywhere opposed by the children of the wicked one. Among the apostles, there was a Judas. Among the first converts of the early church, an Ananias and Sapphira plus a Simon Magus. Among the first public servants of the church, a Deman and a Diotrophes. In every age, Christ was opposed by. Antichrist. If I look for an absolutely perfect church, think I have found it, then join it, no longer is it perfect, because I am not perfect. (In myself, I’m a dirty, rotten sinner!) Always there are tares growing with the wheat. You do find pure preaching, and strict though prudent discipline, yet these will never make it any different from that already described and self-evident throughout the church-world. Before the return of the Lord the apostasy must first come (II Thess. 2), and that great falling away will develop and work on until the Lord does come and destroys it all with the glory of His presence and power.
Think of it: the first of the seven churches in Asia left its first love! Soon this church was troubled with those who had left the simple gospel to take to a heresy partly pagan, partly Jewish — a Jewish ritualism and a pagan philosophy. This was Nicolaitanism (from nike, victory and laos, people, laity), which put forth the ministry as a priestly caste, the clergy, which pushed aside the laity and set up a hierarchy over the people. The second church there suffered the reproach and slander of those who could only be characterized as a “synagogue of Satan.”
In the third church, what were only “deeds” (of the Nicolaitans) had developed into “doctrine.” Bad talk leads to wrong conduct; then the two become molded into an article of faith (though it may be unwritten). What began as mere talk became act, and then emerged as heresy. So we have the doctrine of Balaam. The word means “a swallowing up (and thus destroying) of the people.” After error has conquered the people, it goes on to destroy them.
We see, then, that the history of the church moves in a downward course of deterioration. Errors of every sort have continuously attacked the church. Out of these errors emerges the false church, the destiny of which is never to recover from these errors. Are we to conclude from this that the church must be considered a failure and that the gospel never realizes its purpose? Not at all; for the very creeds of the church are so many protestations against and victories over the errors which assailed and invaded it. The purpose of the gospel according to Paul is to “save some.” or, in other words, to take out of the gentiles a people for His name. This purpose is always realized. God always has a people — an Enoch and a Noah in the prediluvian generations, a Lot in Sodom itself. There is always a “little flock,” a “church in the wilderness,” though it be a despised shack in a cucumber patch. There are, indeed, tares, but the Lord is cultivating not them but His wheat field. Pruned branches are thrown away to be burned, yet God’s purpose to preserve the Vine and the fruitful branches persists evermore. Natural branches are cut out of the Olive Tree, but wild branches are grafted in, and it endures a fruitful tree throughout the ages and to eternity. Tares and chaff serve the purpose of the wheat. (The counterfeit is evidence of the existence of the genuine.) The scaffold serves the purpose of the completed building. The nation serves the purpose of the remnant. Reprobation serves the purpose of election. Romans 9:18, 11. Wrath and judgment serve the purpose of mercy. Psalm 136. History serves the purpose of the church. In all history, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Help, mighty God!
The strong man bows himself,
The good and wise are few,
The standard-bearers faint,
The enemy prevails.
Help, God of might,
In this Thy Church’s night!
Help, mighty God!
The world is waxing gray,
And charity grow chill,
And faith is at its ebb.
And hope is withering
Help. God of might!
Appear in glory bright!