Is updating a heresy?

Disputes around the word “update” in the Brazilian evangelical field (2020-2021)

Abstract

This article analyzes the controversy that arose in Brazilian evangelical circles when Baptist pastor Ed René Kivitz delivered a sermon on October 25, 2020, in which he stated that the Bible needed to be updated. This episode aroused strong reactions among many Brazilian evangelicals, and culminated in the dismissal of Pastor Kivitz from the Order of Brazilian Baptist Pastors (OPBB) in December 2021. We claim that the “Kivitz case” manifests the plurality of forms of updating, not being possible to reduce this concept to its specifically updatist form, which aligns with the argument proposed by Valdei Araujo and Mateus Pereira in the book Atualismo 1.0. To develop our argument, we proceed in three steps. First, we present a brief historical outline of the uses of the concept of updating in the theological context, notably the emblematic case of the Second Vatican Council. In the second part, we present some positions that emerged in the context of the Kivitz case, outlining the main meanings that have been attributed to the word “updating”. Finally, we analyze the defense speech written by Ed René Kivitz, in order to show how the Baptist pastor sought to reconcile the perenniality of the biblical principles with the affirmation of the historicity of the Scriptures.