The purpose of this OP is to see how we are to view all the people that are supposedly heretics to someone or to some group.
For example to those that believe in speaking in tongues and actually do pray in tongues on a daily basis to their Father - they have been called heretics by whole denominations because they don't agree with this doctrine.
This will be a 2 post OP. This 1st one is to set up the premise and then 2nd one is to ask questions to see how we are to view this subject.
There are lot's of self-proclaimed heretic hunters on the internet. To them everyone is a heretic.
There are websites dedicated to the heretic Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Stanley, D.L. Moody, C.S. Lewis, John McArthur, Paul Washer, Joseph Prince, Dr. Michael Brown, Justin Peters, Bill Johnson, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Andrew Wommack...etc..basically anyone who is known has a website dedicated to their "heresies".
There are even websites dedicated to the heretic apostle Paul because his epistles "conflict" with some of Jesus' words.
Basically these self-proclaimed heretic hunters have a beef about some thing with what someone else believes and so they are now "heretics".
Their motto is: "If people don't believe some scriptures in the way that"they"do - they are heretics and they try to prove it with "their" version of what the scriptures say.." This is not what we were taught in "my" church or in our whole church tradition.
It's the nature of the beast. Martin Luther was a heretic to the catholic church at the time because for 1100 years prior to Luther they had always "believed" the same way.
Where these types cross the line is when they turn a disagreement that they have with someone doctrinally on a secondary issue and turn it into "So and so is a false teacher and they are in error and a heretic/satanist/controlled by a demon" type stuff.
This sounds perilously to me like someone trying to downplay the fact that there are real heresies in the modern church. For that matter, there have been heretics since the NT, with many verses warning people of false teachers, and warning others of false doctrines that were taking hold of some churches. From gnostics in the 2nd century AD through to the big one in the mid 3rd century, in which many in the church who said Jesus wasn't God, it seems to be human nature to take something that is very clear in the Bible, and make it into something that leads people astray.
Yes, the Catholic church is a good example of a heresy believed by many people, which Martin Luther, Zwingli and Calvin all called and changed the future of the church in the 15 century.
Today, there are cults like Mormans, JW's, and other groups who use the Bible to their own ends.
I think we can pretty much all agree on those heresies.
But what about today? We do need to agree on sound doctrine. If not, we do have to consider that what we ourselves are believing might also be heresy. I'm not talking side issues, but rather basic soteriology. How are we saved? And theology - who is God? And what is his character? And who is man, (that you are mindful of him?). Anthropology and so on and so on.
My thought is some basic doctrines have stood the test of time - such as Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, when we believe and repent! Or is that repent and believe? To name only one thing that seems to be up for discussion.
But all these johny-come-lately types with a church and/or some channel on Youtube to preach "another" gospel. These are the ones we really need to be wary of.
As for main stream preachers, like you have listed above, it is a small fringe of people calling these people heretics, often heretics themselves. But other aspects of modern preachers, who twist the Bible, well, we all should be wary of those people. They have not stood the test of time, like Martin Luther, or even the very orthodox people in your list.
What concerns me about this post, is that it mocks the fact that there are real heretics today. This whole post is situational ethics and certainly there is truth and lies, and people do need to realize that not necessarily "everything" is ok, and that we do need to be aware when groups come into CC, for example and twist the Bible to make it look like their favourite preacher has discovered some new truth, when in fact, it might just be antinomanism revisted!
We need to call a spade a spade, for sure!