According to the revelation of God in the New Testament, Jesus was the Son of God and God the Son, fully God, fully man. How was that possible? What did that mean? A lot of controversy took place over the nature of Jesus in the first few centuries after His death and resurrection. We explore three of them in this lesson: Adoptionism, Docetism, and Arianism.
Christological Controversies (1) | Sermon Outline
Adoptionism
Also known as: dynamistic monarchianism, adoptianism
Claim: Jesus was not born the Son of God, but was a good person, adopted as the Son of God at His baptism.
Difficulties: Gabriel’s announcement of His Messiahship (Luke 1); Jesus as child prodigy (Luke 2); Jesus as Word becoming flesh (John 1).
Docetism
Inherent in Gnosticism; part of Islamic view of Jesus
Claim: Jesus only seemed to be human and/or to die.
Difficulties: Explicitly considered heretical in 1 John 4:1-5, 2 John 1:9-11; if Jesus did not really die, He was not really raised; the dead are thus not raised, and we are lost in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-20)!
Arianism
In modified form, present today among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Claim: the Son not equally divine with the Father, but created by the Father (Proverbs 2:7, 8:23-24, John 14:28, 17:20-26, Hebrews 1:5).
Difficulties: Jesus accepted worship, which is not due the creation but the Creator (Matthew 28:20, John 20:28, Romans 1:18-25); Jesus as fullness of deity in bodily form (Colossians 2:9); how can the Word be God if there were a time when the Word were not?
