Kirk Cameron came out recently saying that he leaned toward a view of conditionalism which is a flavor of annihilationism. Many people started to ask, "Is Kirk Cameron a heretic?" Todd Friel described why he thinks annihilationism is not a heresy and why therefore Cameron is not a heretic. To do this, he utilized a common method that categorizes each theology as either "Essential" or "Non-Essential". In his view, to be classified as a heresy, the wrong idea must be about an essential doctrine (he also seemed to say if you hold to a heresy, then you are a heretic, but that may have just been in the context of Cameron's position as a teacher) The problem is that this method of categorization regarding heresy does not come from Scripture. So we feel that it is worth discussing what the bible actually says about heresy and what makes a man a heretic. While Friel and many others say that heresy is different than error or being wrong, the Greek word that is translated heresy means "to choose". The word also contains the idea of creating divisions. So heresy fundamentally means to choose to believe something that is not true. But does this mean that everyone who chooses to believe something that is not true is a heretic. NO. Absolutely not. According to scripture, a heretic is one who refuses to repent when corrected and who teaches their false view to others, causing division in the body of Christ.So, why is it dangerous to make heresy to hold to something essential? Because what scripture teaches us is that God loves those things that we do out of faith and he hates those who love lawlessness. And lawlessness is not limited to "essential" doctrines, but springs up