Irenaeus on expositing heresies in the 2nd century. Some thoughts are timeless ....
Some people have been setting the truth aside in favor of myths
and endless genealogies which, as the apostle says, “promote speculations
rather than the divine training that is known by faith” [1 Tim 1:4].
Through their subtly concocted arguments they seduce the minds of the
inexperienced and take them captive. They deal unfaithfully with the
oracles of God and show that they are bad interpreters of the good word
of revelation. They overthrow the faith of many by drawing them away,
under a pretense of superior knowledge, from him who founded and
adorned the universe, as if they had something more exalted to proclaim
than the God who made heaven and earth and everything in them. . . .
Error is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed,
it should immediately be detected for what it is. It is craftily decked
out in attractive dress, so that, by its outward form, it might appear to
the inexperienced—ridiculous as the expression may seem—truer than
truth itself. . . . What inexperienced person can readily detect the presence
of brass when it has been mixed with silver? . . . The language of
these deceivers resembles ours, but what they mean with it is very different.
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