Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 10 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up  /  Chapter 6: What They Believed About Salvation  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 10
The chapter ends with the unsettling claim that a “grace alone / totally depraved / works play no role / cannot lose salvation” package was preached by the Gnostics—how do you respond to that comparison, and what safeguards can we use to evaluate whether a doctrine is truly biblical rather than merely sharing vocabulary with historic heresies (especially given John’s warning about denying Christ “coming in the flesh”)?
Another way to ask: The chapter says the Gnostics preached a “grace alone, cannot lose salvation, works don’t matter” message. How do you react to that, and how can we test whether a doctrine is truly biblical and not just using similar Christian-sounding words?

Direct Answer Bercot’s comparison is meant to unsettle: he argues that the earliest teachers of a “grace alone with no role for works and no loss of salvation” package were Gnostics—whom John calls deceivers and antichrists—so we must test doctrines by their full content and by the whole Scripture, not by familiar slogans. A key safeguard he highlights is doctrinal and christological testing, especially confessing Christ truly “coming in the flesh.”

Support from Transcript:

  • He says a group labeled “heretics” taught: “totally depraved… saved solely by grace… works play no role… cannot lose our salvation.”
  • He anticipates the reaction: you might think “this group… were the real Christians,” but says that’s “impossible” because “the group… are the Gnostics.”
  • He summarizes their broader system: Creator different from Father of Jesus; material world botched; OT God is inferior.
  • Their Christology: Son “could not have actually become a man… took on the appearance… never really died or was resurrected.”
  • John’s safeguard: “do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh… This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
  • He presses the implication: if evangelical salvation doctrine is true, it’s “uncomfortable” that it was taught by “deceivers and antichrists before… the church.”
Discussion Follow-ups How do we distinguish between sharing some vocabulary (grace, faith) and sharing the same meaning? What role should christology (incarnation, death, resurrection) play in evaluating any salvation framework?

Jumpstarter 10 of 10
Back Questions Done