The
Ecumenical council in the history of Christianity was a conference between
theologists discussing about the heresy in the Christian doctrine. There were a
total of twenty-one councils being recognized as ecumenical in the Roman
Catholic Church. The heresy, considered as something which is almost right or
partial truth, appear because of the people’s misunderstanding and personal
interpretation. On the other hand, Orthodoxy is the opposite of heresy;
therefore, it can be defined as the main stream of the truth or full truth. Many
of the Gospel preachers, having a good rhetoric skill and a deep understanding
of the Christian Doctrine, clarify the partial truth heresy in contrast with
the orthodoxy which is the full truth. They were able to stand for the truth
since they have a strong foundation to their conviction by mastering the
Christian Doctrines.
In
the world today, people have no strong foundation to their belief or conviction
causing them to be easily deceived with partial truth. There are many partial
truths in the world today which spreads very quickly especially through the
medias such as movies or music selling the smooth lies. Many people were not
able to stand strong in their belief of conviction when smooth lies were
offered to them because they have not mastered the full truth. They don’t how
to discern between what is truth and partial truth; similar to heresy, partial
truth is considered the Satan’s strategy of twisting the truth. The devil will
not appear as fully false since no one would directly follow the wrong path;
therefore, the devil will appear as something which is similar to the truth,
but not the truth itself such that people with a week conviction will be
attracted and slowly led into the wrong path. Though someone only deviates a
little from the righteous path, they could end up in a fully wrong path. This
is similar to an airplane which is only deviated by one degree gap from its
flight path and after few hours the gap will increase and could be fatal if not
corrected.
As a
Christian, we should make the Word of God as our foundation to our conviction;
moreover, we should understand them so that we may stand strong in our true
foundation. With a strong foundation, we will not be easily deceived by lies
which are similar to the truth or partial truths. Being diligent in studying
the Word of God is very important since it is the only way for us to build our
discernment in order to strengthen our conviction. To understand all the lies
and partial truths, we should first understand all the truth just like how the
Gospel preachers requires much intelligence, especially referring to the
Christian Doctrines, to be able to clarify the heresy. Besides understanding
the truth, we also should ask God for His revelation that God may help us see
the truth and to understand them better.
Personally, I’m still continuing
to study the Word of God that I may not be easily deceived by smooth truth or
partial truth; however, in many cases the media was still able to deceive me
with smooth lies. One of the examples is when I watch the movie Limitless about
a drug which has the ability for humans to access 100% of the brain's power, as
opposed to the normal 20%. After this movie, I somehow belief that there is
actually such thing which is able to maximize my potential; with it, all my
jobs such as home works would be no burden to me. Conversely, this is not the
way out of my burdens since there is no such thing in this world that could
actually increase the God given human potential. Instead, the Bible says in
Matthew 11: 28-30 that the way to enlighten our burden is to share them with
God by doing our best and letting God do the rest.
As a conclusion, the Gospel
preachers in the early Christian period have shown us through the Ecumenical
council how they are able to defend their faith and stand strong in their
conviction. They have a strong foundation since they deeply understand the full
truth of the Christian Doctrine. The problem in the world today is that many
people were easily deceived by partial truths, especially through the media;
this does not mean that we should close ourselves form the media. Instilling
partial truth in us is one of the devil’s ways to deceive us in to the wrong
path; therefore, we should diligently study the truth which is the Word of God
so that we may discern between what is the truth and almost truth. 1 John 4: 1
says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the
world.”