When Politics Becomes Heresy: The Idol of Power and the Gospel of Christ

by Tim Perry

Evangelicals have chosen heresy

Evangelicals fought for a place at the table, but we lost our house. The church has been consumed by politics―political priorities and allegiances. Christian brothers and sisters have become opponents. We are no longer united by shared faith, but divided by shared heresy.

When Politics Becomes Heresy is Tim Perry’s loving rebuke and call to repentance. Evangelicals are embracing the logic of ancient heresies, and these heresies lead to each other. Once we exchange the gospel for power (Simony), our faith becomes a mere add-on (Gnosticism), our Savior a teacher of self-improvement (Arianism), our mission social action (Pelagianism), and our unity division (Donatism).

The solution is not to switch sides or carve out a third way. Rather, the right response to unbelief is repentance. We must stop, turn around, and return to God’s gracious throne.

As for the idols of the nations, they are but silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

Those who make them are like them,

and so are all who put their trust in them.

Genres: Christian

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 2025

Reviews

[Lindsay John Kennedy]

Confronts evangelicals with the political lies that we believe, shows that the lies are grounded in ancient heresies, and calls us to repent and believe the Gospel

[Amanda E. (aebooksandwords) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When Politics Becomes Heresy” by Lutheran pastor Tim Perry expounds on how the heresies of church history persist even today in our current era, and calls the church to respond rightly in repentance and returning to the Gospel and God’s ways.

It’s no surprise to us now that politics has a growing influence in the church in concerning ways. In this book, ancient heresies are addressed and related to the current state of much of the church, to include:

1. Gnosticism (integrating our faith with worldliness)
2. Simony (using the gospel for power)
3. Arianism (exchanging our heavenly Savior for a human helper)
4. Pelagianism (transforming our mission into social action)
5. Donatism (demonizing other believers)

This book does not name names but is thoroughly researched and a needed addition to this topic for believers, especially those in the midst of America’s current political and religious landscape. Though it was a slightly challenging read, I appreciated the information on the history of these heresies in the early church, which sets the stage for how they relate to the church today.

Highlights:

“Whatever debates or discussions we evangelicals have, they need to be brought back inside and not aired on social or mainstream media . . . we are making a mockery of the gospel when we parade our divisions in front of the world.”

“To embrace a heresy is to deny some core aspect of the gospel.”

“The rejection of false ideas in the pursuit of truth is part and parcel of being the church in history; it is the task of faith seeking understanding, of faith and reason working together in the pursuit of him who is the Truth.”

“The biblical story cannot be adapted and adopted into modernity. It must out-narrate, transform, indeed convert and annihilate modernity.”

“. . . the Bible is not a handbook, and its purpose is not to produce a happy, well-adjusted life. Its purpose is to absorb the world, to tell the truth about it, and to call it and us to repentance.”

“Pick a hot-button political issue, and you will find someone insisting Jesus is exclusively on their side.”


Total: 3.5 ⭐️

Readability: 3
Impact: 4
Content: 4
Enjoyment: 3

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.

[Andrew Pineda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realized about halfway through that I would have gotten a lot more out of this book if I had a degree in theology. So this is a review from an ignorant layman.

I didn't like it. Perry took such great pains to be vaguely critical of "both sides" that he was unable to give any direct examples of the heresies he's talking about. Just admit that you're condemning the American Church's involvement in the MAGA movement, man. The author KKOWS that the vast of American Evangelicals are conservative/far-right/republican, but he won't address the elephant in the room.

Then again, he made his political position pretty clear when he went on a strange tangent against renewable energy.

I'm glad Perry tried to call the American Evangelical Church away from politics and back to Christ. I just wish he'd been bolder about it.

[Matthew Richey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads contemporary evangelism, especially in our obsession with politics, through the lens of classical heresies (Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism). I'm predisposed to agree with him and appreciated his thoughtfulness but he tries so hard to avoid picking a side between right and left that he intentionally avoids any concrete examples in contemporary evangelicalism and is purposely vague. He said he did this to avoid losing readers on either side of the aisle, but I think this choice takes away from the book's impact. I suspect he is, like me, wary of both the progressive evangelicalism that gets its marching orders from the culture and the MAGA right that also gets its marching orders from culture but his failure to connect the dots weakens his argument (that I think is probably largely correct, but as it is, remains unfinished).

[Tucker Dobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, deliver me from ever believing that an alliance with the powers of this world will even capture a glimpse of Your Kingdom come.

Here, Tim Perry captures an evangelical crisis with humility and a long view of history. He elucidates heresies with sympathy for their formulators and outlines how they really just germinate from fears and proposed solutions common to all of us.

Comfort seems to be at least a large part (or perhaps the main objective) of the error that Perry identifies (in himself just as much as in the wider movement). We could afford to be comfortable as American evangelical Christians when most everyone still had a Bible in the house for one reason or another and stories from the Bible were still cultural touchstones that most folks off the street had heard. And so, like often happens in comfort, we didn't build anything. Nothing that could last, anyway. Sure, we constructed a sub-culture of sorts, but we didn't feel the need to cling to Scripture, the Spirit, and the ekklesia to try and imitate and anticipate the in-breaking heavenly Kingdom as distinct from the powers. We were too comfortable.

So, when comfort was snatched away by radically changing cultural tides, we didn't have anything to fall back on. We forgot that worldly culture was never supposed to like us or incorporate us. And we really wanted to stay comfortable. We lent Jesus' voice to any cause that we liked, forgetting to put His purpose and the simple proclamation of His death and resurrection front and center and the source of all our efforts. We lost Him in this process in many instances. We started to believe that we could build the Kingdom ourselves, on the corpses of those who disagree. We started to think, in all our (sometimes understandable) concern for the future of our movement in the church, like those who started with real issues and landed in the wrong places despite their best, sincerest efforts. And now we are comfortable again.

Problem? Vote it away. Protest it away. Legislate it away.

What Perry suggests (again, primarily to himself) is to do something far more uncomfortable. Repentance demands that we become less insular, more patient, more trusting, perhaps more foolish and naïve as the world might estimate it. It requires that we look quite different. It requires submission to the Word and to each other. It requires that we work more toward the crucifixion hill than toward a project of power-fueled world change, an incarnation of the Kingdom that we would all-too-happily stamp our faces on. It requires that we refuse to bow to Caesar and to look to the true King.

It's going to take time, and conversation, and holding our ideas with an open hand. But a thousand years is like a day to our Lord. While we get antsy during the climaxes of our election cycles, hoping that our (often Kingdom-minded) objectives will be expediently brought to bear by the next guy, He is already assured of His victory and restoration. We can participate, and it isn't by grabbing a shovel and trying to dig a foundation for our vision of the Kingdom, meanwhile attempting to shore up our survival against a culture that is, after all, hostile to us. It certainly isn't by telling our brothers and sisters how to vote (I don't think Perry goes this far, but I would go as far as to say it's not even by telling anyone to go vote in the first place). It's found here, as Perry references in the final chapter:

"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength." - Is. 30:15

If we live quiet lives and trust the Lord, all the things we hope to establish as shadows of the Kingdom will come to pass as an outflowing of His Spirit and love within us, and we will look different from those who want to leverage power and steamroll those who disagree. We won't be comfortable. But it's not comfort we should be after. It's rest.

[Mark Caleb Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tim Perry's When Politics Becomes Heresy is a challenge to North American evangelicals. Perry does not so much make an argument, but he asks the reader to reconsider their perception of the Christianity that surrounds them. Through the lens of heresies, Perry argues evangelicals come into sharper focus.

While he is not claiming that everyone you share a pew with at church is heretical, and headed toward hell, he does believe evangelicalism is suffering versions of Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism.

Too many of us, on the right and the left, have rendered to Caesar the things that are God's, even if it is unconscious. The gospel has been trimmed to fit categories of right and left for the sake of political influence. This affects how we view Christ, sin, salvation, and reality itself.

I find Perry's book provocative and sometimes persuasive. He generally chooses not to use particular examples as evidence. This is understandable because he is seeking to maximize his audience and by choosing particular figures to attack, he would alienate their followers. He is correct in this assessment, but this also weakens the presentation. He is allowed, then, to abstract his heresies, root them in a historical setting, and then generally nod to our current time and place. Sometimes, it feels like it would be harder to demonstrate his claims if he had to compile direct evidence.

Either way, it is an interesting read.

[Kyle Tomlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is much needed today. The problem, so accurately diagnosed here, is that Christians on both the political right and the political left have, by embracing the ancient heresies of the church, gotten into bed with politics thinking that political leaders, political parties, and political power are the answer to the problems of the world. But, as Anglican theologian Tim Perry rightly points out, only Jesus is the answer to the problems of our world today, and those answers are given to us in the promise of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. To that end, Tim Perry does a good job of explaining in each chapter one of the classic heresies of the church and identifying how that heresy has taken on a new form today; he then calls the church to repentance for embracing these heresies before calling us back to faith in the dying and rising Christ given to us in the Scriptures. This is a book that all pastors and lay persons should read today. There are a lot of wisdom and insight here. Highly recommended!

[Jason Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book!!

I highly recommend it. The Bible warns us throughout Scripture of how tempting it is to idolize politics. Saul, Psalm 146, Israel and Egypt (Isa 30), and multiple other warnings. Something in our heart wants control and sees government as the answer, so we replace God with government and break the 1st Commandment.

Yes it’s okay to be politically active, but please do so fully aware of the dangers. It’s like plutonium, has a purpose, but should be handled with caution.

When Politics Becomes Heresy does a good job of both confronting our heart through errors made by people in church history.

At times the historical analysis is tedious, but keep reading. The lessons are valuable

Once we no longer rest in God, willing to address ideas with patience replacing disciple making with cancelling people, we’ve lost the Gospel. Asking government to establish the kingdom ignores that our citizenship is in heaven. Great book!

Btw He’s not saying no involvement, but know the dangers and rely on the Lord.

[Helen Paynter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four and a half stars.
A little repetitive, and I think chapters 4 (Arianism) and 5 (Pelagianism) are essentially making the same point.
But for all that, a searing and prophetic indictment on both the theological right and left, especially as they tend, in our day, to strain towards the political right and left. His analysis is almost as relevant here in the UK as it is in the author's USA context.
To his brief constructive final chapter, I would add: communion (or eucharist, or the Lord's Supper; call it what you will). To this table we can come only and entirely upon the Lord's terms and at his bidding (rejecting the temptation of Simony and the deceptive offers of Gnosticism, Arianism, and Pelagianism), and here we discover ourselves as sinners and our sisters and brothers as forgiven and redeemed (countering our tebdency to Donatism).

[Joel Wentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was shocked at how much I loved this little firecracker of a book. The historical research and grounding is solid, and the prophetic cultural critique is outstanding. A really stand-out book, with a refreshing take, in a very-crowded publishing space. Highly, highly recommended!

Full video review here: https://youtu.be/UexJwlv-DeQ

[Vanessa van Vliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good points made but sometimes the heresies as applied seems a stretch. Some much needed criticisms are pointed out.