"If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not re-
ceive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds."
Here is the clearest Biblical teaching on how to handle heretics at our doors. When people come to us with false gospels, and want us to lis-
ten to them--instead of doing so, we must "not receive them into [our] house[s]." We do not have to be cranky, but we do have to be steadfast. If we do anything, we should invite them onto the "turf" of our own churches, where they can hear the true gospel.
Why all this dogmatism (by John, the "apostle of love," above)? Be-
cause doctrine is the key to life (and death). Way too much is at stake, to play "free and loose" with the faithful church's cardinal tenets.
[Puritan quote of the day: "We are never more precious in God's eyes than when we are lepers in our own." --Thomas Watson, in, "The Doc-
trine of Repentance"]
