One of the fundamental misconceptions among most preachers and church members is the concept that all error is sin, therefore, if one is in error the "sinner must be converted from the error of his way." While all sin is error, all error cannot be correctly classified as sin. This misconception is productive of all kinds of schisms and factions among God's people.
Sin is a perverse condition of the heart that puts one in rebellion against God. If a man's heart is corrupt, if his heart is perverted like a heretic, if his heart is rebellious, obviously this man is a sinner in the first degree. But be it observed that one with an obedient heart, one with a pure heart before God, one with a honest heart may be mistaken about a number of things, like, the age of Methuselah, the details of Paul's journeys, the interpretations of some of the prophecies and who wrote the book of Hebrews?...Yet this does not render one to be a sinner in need or repentance. Errors of the intellect are not to be equated with the perversity of the heart.
As I often tell others when I make a spiritual boo-boo, it's a mistake of the head and not of the heart.
It would be ideal if every one held a correct position on every verse of scripture, but we have never seen nor will we likely experience the utopian of ideals. In the meantime, we must be tolerant of honestly mistaken brethren, and discuss our differing viewpoints without being ugly, un-Christian and ostracizing one another. Does anyone out there in cyberspace care to join me in that type of discussion, as some have been doing and probably will continue, but some should rise above the name-calling, cursing, consigning some to the nether world all because of this simple thing called "disagreement"! Well why can't we agree to disagree as we search for truth, but do it without being disagreeable!
Yours for Truth and Freedom.....Horace Hooper