Why God Lets Great Teachers Bring in Novelties

But someone will ask: “How is it, then, that God often permits certain excellent people, who hold positions in the church, to preach new doctrines to catholics?” A fair question, certainly, and one that ought to be dealt with very carefully and fully. But it should be answered not by relying on one’s own ability, but by the authority of the divine law and by appeal to the church’s ruling. Let us listen, then, to holy Moses, and let him teach us why learned men, men whom the apostle even calls prophets because of their knowledge, are sometimes permitted to put forward new doctrines. The Old Testament usually calls these, by way of allegory, “strange gods,” because heretics pay their notions the same sort of reverence that the Gentiles pay their gods. [a]

Blessed Moses, then, writes this in Deuteronomy: “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you.” That is, someone who holds the office of teacher in the church, and whom his disciples or hearers believe to teach by revelation. Well, what follows? “And gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder that he spoke of comes to pass.” He is pointing to some eminent teacher, whose learning is such that his followers believe he not only knows human things but also foreknows things beyond the human. Such, as their disciples commonly boast, were Valentinus, Donatus, Photinus, Apollinaris, and the rest of that kind! What next? “And says to you, ‘Let us go after other gods, whom you do not know, and serve them.’” What are those other gods but strange errors that you do not know, that is, new ones, never heard of before? “And let us serve them,” that is, “Let us believe them and follow them.” And what comes last? “You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams.” And why, I ask you, does God not forbid to be taught what he forbids to be heard? “For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.” The reason is clearer than day why divine Providence sometimes permits certain teachers of the churches to preach new doctrines: “that the Lord your God may test you,” he says. And it is certainly a great trial when someone you believe to be a prophet, a disciple of prophets, a teacher and defender of the truth, someone you have held to your heart with the utmost reverence and love, suddenly, secretly, and stealthily brings in harmful errors. You can neither detect them quickly, held as you are by the prestige of his former authority, nor easily bring yourself to condemn them, held back by affection for your old master. [b]