Christological Heresies
This heresy states that Jesus was 100% human but 0% God.
What is Ebionism?
(This makes it a heresy since if Jesus was only a man he could have only died for the salvation of one other man.)
This doctrine says that Jesus was 100% human and 100% God, 2 natures in 1 person.
What is the Hypostatic Union?
( It is necessary to believe this because without it Jesus wouldn’t be fully God and fully man so He couldn’t die for everyone’s sins.)
We examine what a teaching says about God, about man, and about the necessity of the cross in order to determine whether it qualifies as this.
What is heresy?
The doctrine that God exists as one divine essence and three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What is the Trinity?
(distinct in role, equal in glory, perfect in love)
It is a declaration of all the dogmas of Christianity and it shows the unity of the church.
What is the Nicene Creed?
(It was formed at the council of Nicea to refute heresies, specifically Arianism.)
This heresy stated that Jesus was only a projection from heaven, like a divine hologram. It says that Jesus was 100% God but 0% human.
What is Docetism?
(This makes it a heresy since if Jesus was just God then he could have only died to atone in the place of other “gods,” and not humans.)
This term means "similar substance."
What is homoiousious?
(This means that Jesus is made of a similar substance that the Father is made out of. This makes it a heresy since it is saying that the Trinity are not equal, but just mostly equal.)
This is the Greek word for "choosing."
What is hairesis? (And it defines how someone must know the error of one’s belief and after the proof, they willfully choose it.)
This is the belief that the 3 persons of the Trinity are 3 distinct gods.
What is tritheism?
This Latin term was added to the Nicene Creed by the Western church to explain the double procession of the Holy Spirit.
What is filioque?
The Western Catholics believed that the Father and the Son send down the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Orthodox believed that the Father alone sends the Spirit. The Catholics hold their view because they refuse to say anything that makes the Son subordinate to the Father. The Orthodox hold their view because they refuse to make the Holy Spirit inferior in the Trinity. This controversy is the theological reason behind the 1054 Great Schism
This heresy states that Jesus was ½ God and ½ man.
What is Apollinarianism?
(If He was a ½ God and ½ man then He would only be able to save demigods when He died on the cross.)
This term means "the same substance."
What is homoousios?
(It is a synonym for consubstantial. This means that Jesus is of the same substance that the Father is.)
This takes place when someone who has professed every Orthodox belief and been a member of the church willfully rejects the Christian truth and ceases to be a Christian.
What is apostasy?
This is the belief that 3 persons of the trinity are actually one person who wears 3 different masks.
What is unitarianism?
This heresy holds that man can take the initial and fundamental steps towards salvation by his own efforts, apart from divine grace.
What is Pelagianism?
(It denies original sin. It says that humans are always capable of choosing to do good, and therefore are condemned by our choices and not because of our sin nature.)
This heresy states that God adopts Jesus as the Son of God at his Baptism, and says that he was just an ordinary guy before then.
What is Adoptionism?
(The Nicene Creed refutes it when it says that Jesus was “Begotten, not made,” and “born of the Father before all ages.”)
God needed to do this, because it was humanity that incurred a debt and it is humanity that deserves punishment.
What is become a man?
(Only a human can justly pay that debt, that human being Jesus.)
These are beliefs which fall outside of the Circle of OrthodoxyTM and are the things that contradict or start outside of the Scriptures.
What is heterodoxy?
This term defines the ways in which each person of the Trinity indwells in one another.
What is perichoresis?
(meaning that despite the distinctiveness of their roles, the Godhead is grounded in oneness)
The role of this person in the Trinity is to be the sender, the planner, and the lover.
Who is the Father?
(What about the Son? And the Holy Spirit?)
This heresy states that Jesus was sometimes God and sometimes man.
What is Nestorianism?
(God can’t die on the cross so He would be man at that time so when He died, and therefore would only save one person’s life.)
This event proves the defeat of death and the spiritual resurrection of sanctification for all who trust in Jesus and are united to Him.
What is the resurrection of Jesus?
One of the oldest heresies, it teaches that everyone's souls were holy and that the physical realm is evil.
What is Gnosticism?
(Gnostics believed that Jesus came to save our souls from our bodies. It is a heresy because it claims a soul vs. body dichotomy, it says that we are saved by knowledge, not faith, and it is not a catholic (universal) salvation.)
This is the number of members of the Trinity present at the cross.
What is 3?
This person is mentioned in the Nicene Creed because the virgin birth presents Jesus as the second Adam, free from the original sin passed on through Adam’s line.
Who is the Virgin Mary?