The Christian’s Immune System
“If there is no immune system to resist heresy, there will soon be nothing but the teeming infestation of heresy.” —Thomas C. Oden
Your immune system is a complex defense system for suppressing and eliminating infections. Agents that can invade your body live everywhere—in the air; on dust particles, food and plants; on and in animals and humans; in soil and water; and on virtually every other surface. They range from microscopic organisms to lager parasites.
The vast majority of these organisms do not produce disease, but some do. This majority is usually kept under control by your immune system but, if that system becomes weakened or you encounter an organism to which you have not built up a resistance, illness results.
We live with the constant battle that is going on between the body and infection—a battle your body usually wins, but not always. We don’t have to be told how important our immune system is for our good health. A strong and healthy immune system protects us from disease.
We know how important it is that we pump–up the immune system with vaccinations, injections or oral immunization agents. We can be immunized for the flue, measles, chickenpox, diphtheria, mumps, smallpox, and many, many more threats to health and life.
It might be well to think of the Christian religion as an immune system that protects us from dissolution and death. But the benefits that Jesus Christ offers us include much, much more than immortality.
The great plague that, more than anything else, infects us and inhibits us is selfishness. The selfish need an immunization of love. Harry Emerson Fosdick in “Riverside Sermons,” wrote: “Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”
Bitterness is the end result of selfishness. It is a deep feeling of anguish created by anger, resentment or animosity to people or life. Life owes us and it has not paid off. Only the application of the therapy of love can gradually wash away the fruits of bitterness.
Thomas C. Oden speaks of an immune system for heresy. Heresy is like an infection. Heresy can be understood as an opinion or doctrine that is not in line with the accepted teachings of Jesus Christ. It is more than false teachings; it also has to do with improper attitudes.
The siren call of the heretic enters smoothly into the ear and mind. The message is one that supports our own personal gods, whatever they may be. The message infects our morals, our ethics, our values, our attitudes, and our relationships. We are victims. We are bound by unnecessary restrictions. We do not allow ourselves to experience the pleasures of life. It is an old song which reverberates from Eden to the present day.
There is a vaccine which we can take that helps the immune system resist heresy. It is the good news taught by Jesus Christ. There is a clinic which dispenses the vaccine, it is called the church. The clinic is open seven days a week to provide the information and use of the antitoxin that saves us not only from the heretics but also from ourselves. The invitation is open. It’s up to you.
It was a very wise pastor who observed, “The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this: irritations get into his shell. He does not like them. But when he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritation to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has a chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription: make a pearl.” Harry Emerson Fosdick
Creative pearl making,