Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. Now, before you all e-mail me and jump down my throat, let me qualify that topic title.
Heresy is a plague on the church.
But rather, I am suggesting that God has, throughout history, used heresy to strengthen the church and to cause it to search the Scriptures. It denied the teaching of the Trinity. Christ was really the Father appearing in human nature. It was God the Father who appeared and died on the cross. This led Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Origen to search the Scriptures and see if this teaching was true.