Villains.

Heretics kill people. But you have to think it through for a minute to really see how. Its far from obvious, so don’t feel bad if you doubt me on this end.

 

Take, for example, Praxeas. Now, I’ve selected Praxeas because by name alone he could be only one of three possible things: A cyborg overlord of a distant alien machine-race bent on industry and destruction; a devious figure of Roman mythology who carelessly subjected entire armies to the throes of a bloody war when he enticed a mortal’s wife with a magic pear; or a noted Christian heretic who believed and taught others to believe in an uninspired version of the Trinity. For clarity, he’s the last one.

 

(why yes, I am killer at Balderdash.)

 

So what’s the big deal? So he doesn’t subscribe fully to a concept that doesn’t actually come from a verse. Is God going to send people to hell that don’t subscribe to a word that isn’t even in the Bible? In short, yes and no. No, because God doesn’t send people to hell for failing a vocab test. Yes, because ideas have consequences, especially bad ones.

 

When people do not have the right ideas about God, they make themselves susceptible to dangerous lines of thought, e.g. imagining they can escape death by a means besides Jesus. No one escapes death, except those who cling to the one man who overcame death. That should seem pretty straight forward, but millions of people settle for discount-diamond clarity on this point.

 

Tertullian was quite clear on the distinction. When Praxeas persisted with his Tri-Polar version of the Trinity featuring One-God-In-Three-Mood-Swings, Tertullian didn’t hesitate to issue this scathing rebuke: “Praxeus has done the devil a twofold service:…He has put to flight the [Holy Spirit] and he has crucified the Father.” While we’re all kicking ourselves that we didn’t come up with that last line, we can’t escape his point: if you distort the Trinity, you sacrifice two out of three members of the Godhead. And that just ain’t right.

 

Now, the problem compounds under the pressure of Persecution. It’s when Christians are labeled Enemies of the State that they really see if their finer theological points can pass muster. Why? Because they either have a Jesus who defeated death, or they have a three-faced demigod who cheated death. And if the second, they begin to wonder if he really intends for them to hold out, or if there’s room for them to link arms with all the peaceful religions of the earth– like Islam– and emphasize religious sentiment. After all, religion ought not to be on the list of things to die for, right? They completely lose sight of the fact that the man who defeated death was able to do that because he was God. Oh yeah, that.

And I don’t have to point out (but I will anyway) that cheating death is a temporary solution. The hammer falls sooner or later. So the Praxean proselyte escapes execution by edict, only to pass more gently at a ripe old age in a hospital bed afforded him by the universal healthcare of the Socialist’s Union of Jihad. What has he really gained? He dies like everyone else–well, of course, not like those foolish zealots he knew in his youth who sacrificed life, liberty, and happiness because they wouldn’t bend on their “dogmatism” (the poor souls). All that to say, especially in persecution, a right idea of God is the line between death and eternal life.

When you put it that way, you see a guy like Praxeas for what he really is: a villain, and one no less nefarious as a cyborg tyrant that crushes the lives of millions beneath the machinery of his own caprice. And what are guys like Praxeas doing anyway besides exercising their right to be speculative? But unfortunately vain speculation has always proved to be an enticing pear.