Will the real heretics please stand up by David Bercot ~ A MUST READ!

Hello everyone, I just wanted to recommend this book to all of you. For so long i have been struggling with many issues in my mind. Trying to come to some "fit" with scriptures that seem to oppose each other, on one hand you have such scriptures that say God wants all to repent vs the God choses verses.

So after recent reading and searching,, i came across this book and read it. And basically it is a book that compares the early church, by that i mean thoise who where in direct connection with some of the apostles or someone who was taught by them.

And how this book makes a perfect match without compromise scriptures as to subjects as mans free will and Gods sovereignty , so often we are told it is one or the other. By this book i received lightning flashes of light by reading David Bercots compiled quotes about these subjects, these early church men, men like Polycarp who knew the Apostle John and learned from him. And read these mens writings and see how they interpreted scripture is amazing, Before i saw two sides, now i see one, and without contradiction.

So if any of you have this issue, known usually as calvinism vs arminianism, you need to read this book. I thank God for it.

Also it deals with so many things, like how these first christians dealt with their culture, that in many ways remind us very much about our own present culture, and how they lived and how their lifes was such an impact on the society around them.

Also interesting how they looked upon divorce, clothing, and the church. We have come a far far far way from the first generation Christians.

[url=http://www.amazon.com/Will-Real-Heretics-Please-Stand/dp/0924722002]You can get it here[/url]

This book is truly an eye-opener to just how far we have strayed in our times from the old paths. There is a Spanish version available for download at:
http://www.elcristianismoprimitivo.com/cuandonuevointro.htm

This book by Bercot is very, very good! I also recommend, "The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside-Down". It follows on the heels of the "Heretics" book.

After reading David Bercot's books, listening to Paul Washer, et al, makes one wonder whether the American Christian will ever measure up! **sigh**

Christian, why don't you share some quotes here on this thread from this book? I do not have the one you mentioned but do have "The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down." I also have listened to his CDs on church history. Very insightful. They teach one that the church throughout history has gone through predicable cycles of revival, lukewarmness, and apostasy. Challenging read/listen.

ginnyrose

ill post a few quotes when i find some time to transcribe them, for now ill post a review that i amen.

[i]Seldom has a book challenged my views as much as Mr. Bercot's work has done. David Bercot is an individual qualified to assess exactly just what the Early Christian community taught and believed. Not only is he a lawyer, but he also has a Master of Divinity degree and is an accredited member of the National Patristics Society. What impressed me most about this work was the standard that Mr. Bercot employed to determine if a teaching was truly Apostolic in origin and a valid belief of the Christian community. If a teaching was not held by several Fathers of the same time period from different geographical locations, then that teaching would not be included in the book.

What really convicted me was how different my brand of Christianity is from that of the earliest followers of the Apostles and their Spiritual descendants. For instance, Bercot notes how the Early Church believed that Jesus' teachings in the Synoptic gospels were literal. Sure, they understood that Jesus wasn't commanding us to literally pluck out our eyes, but many parts of Jesus' teaching that they understood literally, todays Christian community has watered down or spiritualized to accomodate our 21st century mentality. For example, how many believe that Jesus really wanted us to sell everything that we own and follow Him? I know of no church that teaches such a doctrine and if one were to teach this they would probably be regarded as strange, bizarre and out of their mind. Yet, this is exactly how the Early Church understood Jesus' message and this is what compelled Cyprian, the great 3rd century bishop of Carthage, to liquidate his vast fortune and follow Jesus with everything that he had. Most Christians today are victims of the materialistic message of our capitalistic culture and they don't even realize it; Virtually every church teaches that wealth and possessions are good things and that they are signs of God's blessings. Many believe that as long as they don't diligently pursue wealth and possessions that they are ok, but Jesus' message was simple, a man cannot serve two masters because he will either hate one and love the other. This is exactly what most Christians do, believing that they can pursue some things as long as they don't do it excessively. Yet, this was not the teaching of the Early Church and it was not how they understood Jesus' gospel. I am not exempting myself from such criticism because I am guilty of such practices myself, and thanks to this book I have begun to reevaluate my beliefs.

Another aspect of this book that convicted me was Bercot's explanation of the Early Christians' view of entertainment. I felt extremely uneasy when I read what Bercot had to say because I knew I was guilty of such practices. I realized I needed to exercise more caution and discretion in deciding what was acceptable to view because such material can and does have an impact on my spiritual well-being. Furthermore, Bercot's treatment of how the Early Christians viewed baptism should serve as a valuable wake up call to most of Christendom that has substituted man made inventions in place of the biblical practice of the early Christian community.

One thing about this book, it will not be liked by those of the Reformed persuasion. Bercot takes serious issue with Martin Luther and Augustine and disagrees with the Reformation doctrine of Sola Fide. Disagree with him all you like, he proves his point by showing that the Early Church insisted that obedience and a life of holiness were necessary for salvation. Moreover, Bercot disagrees with the doctrine of predestination believing that such a teaching has more in common with Gnosticism than with Apostolic Christianity. Again, disagree with him all you want, but Bercot clearly demonstrates that the Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries did not believe in unconditional election, but upheld the idea of free will. For those who argue that the ancient concept of fate and Augustinian predestination are different ideas, that argument will not work. Martin Luther argued in favor of predestination by illustrating how pagans believed in fate and arguing that even pagans relized the truth, showing that Luther believed predestination and fate to be one and the same. Also, Methodius writing in the 3rd century argued that those favoring fate and disavowing free will are guilty of making God the author of evils. Thus, Methodius shows that he equated fate with God and this is squarely predestinationism.

Anyways, buy this book to discover more about the beliefs of the Early Church. You may not agree with everything Mr. Bercot has to offer but I guarantee it will force you to reassess many of the teachings and principles you currently adhere to and believe in. [/i]

a quote from the book:

[b][i]"We evangelical Christians today generally think that we are following apostolic Christianity. The early Christians thought they were too. Yet, as we've seen, our beliefs and practices very considerably from theirs. So how can we know which one of us is more closely following the pattern set by the apostles? A tempting, but simplistic solution is to say, "Let's simply compare their beliefs and ours to what the Bible teaches." The problem is that the early Christians based their beliefs on the Bible - the same as we do. They quoted scriptures to support their beliefs, the same as we do. The real issue is one of Bible interpretation. The most we can do is to compare their interpretations of Scripture with our interpretations of Scripture. And that in itself doesn't prove very much. So the question becomes: Whose interpretation is more likely to be correct - ours or theirs?"[/i][/b]

I just finished this book three days ago, and I must say that I have always felt that these scriptures that seemingly contradict each other actually present all the facets of God's many faceted wisdom. They don't clash, they mesh. the Hebrews way of thinking is what some call "block" logic, everything doesn't have to be "systematic" although most of us from western cultures think like that. One block of truth, stacked on another block of truth, they don't have to fit in any order but they are all truths revealing God's perspective. It's like reading the book of The Revelation over and over and.....and still trying to fit everything in a systematic order, it just doesn't fit! Those Hebrews just don't think like that,(and obviously neither does God) so why do we feel so compelled to make every truth that God has revealed fit into a nicely ordered system? I've heard people say, "One group says it's blue, another says it's yellow , but I say it's green" Although this statement maybe true in many ways, I think that the more accurate statement would be this, (and I do not remember who said it) "We keep on trying to figure out what the shape "yellow" looks like until one day we finally understand that yellow is not a shape, it's a color.

This book is very eye opening and very challenging (isn't that what we want?)

Didn't Christ come to save us from sin, "Salvation unto obedience"? if He didn't,and it doesn't matter what we do after we're saved, then why didn't He just pay for all our sins and then just take everyone to heaven on the spot?

We were predestined to be "conformed into His image", so that we could manifest the manifold wisdom, love, justice, and mercy of God to all the universe, to the glory of God.

Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away "the sin" of the world.

Blessings, bonni

This book is very eye opening and very challenging (isn't that what we want?)

Yep! This book totally changed the way I thought about many things in Christianity.