I wasn’t going to say anything else on this, but found a last little quote that seemed to fit nicely on this topic. In reading last night in Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul by Octavius Winslow, I cam across these two paragraphs in his chapter on doctrinal error (here) that I felt were particularly applicable to our day, especially on the internet where it seems that not only do heretics over flow abundantly, but they appear to also have infinite time.
In closing, let us remark, that, living as we do in a day of abounding error, it solemnly behooves those who believe the truth, fearlessly to maintain it. Let there be no compromise, no barter of the truth; buy it at any sacrifice of human opinion, sell it at no price whatever. ” Buy the truth, and sell it not.” Stand up a witness of the truth, humbly, boldly, and in the strength of the Lord, wherever his providence may place you. O consider the honor of being permitted to testify to the truth as it is in Jesus! You may be a lone, a solitary witness, yet fear not; he who is ” the truth ” itself says to you, as he did to the church in Philadelphia, – “You have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name. Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which you have, that no man take your crown.” Rev. iii. 10, 11
Let those who hold the truth, be careful to maintain good works, and so walk in all the holiness of the truth they profess; let them see that by no carelessness of deportment, by no want of integrity, by no neglect of the means of grace, by no exhibitions of unholy temper, by no worldly conformity, yes, by no inconsistency whatever, they bring a slur upon the holy doctrines they avowedly maintain and love; let them not be satisfied with maintaining a string of doctrines, unaccompanied with their sanctifying power: but let them see that with the truth in their judgments, they possess grace in the heart, and unspotted holiness in the life. ” Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John viii 31, 32.
The Strasbourg Inn 