Cruelty of Heresy
Class 3
Christological Heresies
1) Last week – Questions on the Trinity?
Remember:
a) Allison pp 100 – that personhood does not mean modern individuality but, rather, the capacity for relationships. We cannot think of the Trinity materially since the Godhead is not flesh and blood (as the Mormons would claim).
b) Remember that our call is to faith and obedience. Because of our fallen nature and state we will fail in our behaviors and reasoning; however said failure is washed away by Christ’s redeeming blood on the cross. Disobedience – refusal to believe or to submit to God as revealed through Scripture – particularly that which is clear and un-refuted (and secondarily as understood by the Apostles and Church) – is a rejection of Christ. It becomes idolatrous as we seek to remake God in OUR image.
c) Remember all heresies ultimately seek to limit the Trinity or Christ through a change, limitation or reduction in His being.
2) “How then did Jesus think of himself? He was aware, I suggest, of a
vocation to do and be for
Scripture, only
sense, 'aware of being God' in the way one knows one is male or female, or
hungry or thirsty.” +NT Wright
3) Christology – the study of the person of Christ – particularly as regards the union of the nature of the godhead and the nature of humanity in the single person of Jesus –
a) The Hypostatic Union (accepted at
b) Jesus was fully God – the Word became incarnate – John
i) Opposes
(1) Theophany (appearance of God in visible form; Ex 33:20– an appearance by God (Doecetism)
(2) Adoptionisim – Christ was a particularly good guy whom God selected as His agent on earth
ii) Affirms the union of Godhead with manhood without the integrity or permanence of either being impaired.
iii) Provides a certain point in time when this miracle occurred – the Annunciation (March 25)
4) In Trinitarian heresies we see two extremes – either monism or polytheism – in a variety of forms and guises. All Trinitarian heresies have one of these two problems.
Likewise, there are two extremes in our study of Christology: Adoptionism or Docestism.
See page 82 of Allison
a) Forms of Adoptionism (Antiochene or Jewish school) – Christ was a man like any of us. He was chosen by God at some point in time and anointed to be the first among all human beings…elevated by his acceptability in God’s eyes.
i) Inspiration – Reminders of others selected by God: Noah, Abraham.
ii) Secular Humanism – Man is the measure of all things. In extreme form denies God entirely
iii) Arianism – Christ was a created being…a lesser God than the Father.
b) Forms of Docetism - to seem - (Alexandrian or Greek school) –
i) Christ’s humanity and sufferings were more apparent than real
(1) “If he suffered he was not God; if he was God he did not suffer”
(a) God is immutable – unchangeable.
(2) Christ had no humanity
ii) Christ was not really on the cross –
(1) Generally modalistic and/or Monist.
5) Hair Splitting – other damaging Christological heresies of a finer nature.
i) Apollinariansim – denied the presence of the human “soul or mind” in Christ – therefore Christ’s manhood was not complete.
(1) +Allison makes the point that much of Christianity today is Apollinarian.
(a) “I liked him better before he was converted” – as though something was lost when someone becomes a Christian (pp 107/108)
(b) “Don’t ask questions, just have faith” – leaves out the mind.
(2) If Christ had no human mind that of what value were the temptations?
ii) Nestorianism – two separate persons in the being of Christ (i.e., two natures AND two persons).
(1) Disputed use of the word “Theotokas” as mixing of the two natures – Godhood and manhood – of Jesus:
(a) Title given to Mary, means “God bearer” or “the one who gave birth to God” or (particularly in the West “Mother of God”.
(b) Proposed word Christotokas instead.
iii) Monophysitism (Eutychianism) – “One Flesh – Divine & human nature mix to form something new. A single nature. (Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syrian Orthodox churches are generally monophysitist, however the gaps have been largely bridged in recent years between these churches and
iv) Monothelitism (Christ has one will – and it ain’t human)
6) Orthodoxy – Jesus is one person with two natures.
a) The denial of either Christ’s Godhood or manhood causes Christianity to fail! If Jesus was not both God and man He cannot save, He cannot bear our sin; He cannot mediate between God and humans
i) 1 Timothy 2
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
ii) 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Anselm (Archbishop of Canterbury @ 1100 AD) – To deny Christ’s true humanity is to deny the basis of our reconciliation to God.
7) Look at the Nicene Creed (pp 115)
8) So, what about Bishop Wright? Is his statement OK? It is always tempting to reduce the Incarnation to mentally manageable proportions.
a) CS Lewis – in *Mere Christianity* stated: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell." (p. 56)
b) What are examples of Christ as God-Man?
i) Of His Godhood
(1) Incarnation by the Holy Ghost
(2) Seeing Nathan at the end of John 1
(3) Miracles
(a) Water to Wine
(b) Feeding the 4000 and the 5000
(c) Various healings
(d) Knowledge of people’s inner thoughts and souls
(i) Samarian Woman at the well (John 4)
(ii) Knowledge of what many critics think or plan
(e) Resurrection
ii) Of His manhood
(1) Natural birth
(2) Growth in wisdom & stature (Luke )
(3) Thirsts, hungers, sleeps, dies
(4) Limited knowledge of the Second Coming -
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[ 24:36 Some manuscripts do not have nor the Son.] but only the Father.
c) The Tome of St Leo –
i) The Chalcedonian formula advocates that Jesus was *fully* God and *fully* human. That means that his ignorance was absolutely real and His omniscience was absolutely real. Neither can be dropped without distorting the Person of Christ. The reason is that we see evidence of both in the Gospels.
ii) The formula is faithful to Scripture, and, therefore, it warns us that this Person is a Mystery within specific parameters of humanity and divinity.
iii) The mystery of Christ remains a mystery even in His glory, because humanity remains distinct from divinity even in the ascended Incarnate Christ!
iv) COMPARE THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION TO THE MYSTERY OF THE EUCHARIST.
d) Athanasian Creed
Athanasian Creed
1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
20. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42. and shall give account of their own works.
43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
44. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
