Thanks for clarifying things a bit. I think it helps. I think the confusion for me was this statement
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On occasion when I do see something true in what people like McLaren said, when I am obedient I use it to take stock in my own life and if I am found wanting. I see it as God's way of showing me something about myself that needs cleaning up.
It sounds like you can possibly glean something personally could from an erroneous author or erroneous book. I guess when I've run into things that I'm in agreement with from an erroneous teacher I have a difficult time to "use it to take stock in my own life" (as you said) simply for the fact the the author is not coming from the right place and something not from God.". Yes I'm in agreement with you about that there's always some "truth" in heresy/error/false teaching. I guess for me the whole thing becomes false then because of the twisting of the truth. I think we're probably just looking at things from a little bit of a different perspective.