I was recently challenged on Dr. Carson and blurted out that I understood him to be a heretic as of late. I later regretted this since I could not give a cogent reason for this. It was an impression I’ve gotten over the past couple of years, but I could not find evidence.
In looking into it further, his writings seem to be fairly solid. Although his denominational background and seminary are dodgy. His leadership in the TGC is a huge red light, but not heretical in and of itself…yet.
Has there been any solid critique (positive or negative) on him of late, covering the corpus of his work, and giving some guidance on using his materials?
While this may not directly be related to the thread, Dr. Carson was the one who first instilled in me in seminary the idea that “effeminate” in 1 Corinthians 6 was really referring only to the ‘female’ partner in a homosexual act. I had to listen to Tim Bayly several times and read the appropriate passage of Grace of Shame to shake that idea.
Where’s the line between “Brother in serious error” and “heretic”? Does “heretic” mean “false brother” as in Gal. 2:4, or can a heretic actually be a true brother? Is a heretic anyone who espouses false teaching? If not, what kind of false teachings warrant the title?
I share the concerns about Carson stated above, but I want to make sure we’re precise in our language since the label “heretic” has been applied to him.
Before I forget this thread, I can’t imagine how anyone would think, let alone say, that Don is a heretic. He has promoted serious error in his neutering of Scripture, and there are warnings against those who tamper with Scripture. But this does not make him a heretic, in my judgment. Love,
I think what you have is young men waking up and beginning to pay attention to spiritual things, realizing that they have been remiss for being lethargic for so long, and trying to correct that by being precipitous in their judgments. They see calls for careful investigation and establishing of facts as cover for inaction—so it’s all got to be summary judgment, they think. I’m glad they’re not satisfied with apathy; now they need to learn wisdom.