November 23 – Arianism and Docetism

“There was a time when he was not.” – Arius on Jesus Christ

"O Lord God almighty... I bless you and glorify you through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your
beloved Son, through whom be glory to you, with Him and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever" –Polycarp

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has
been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.” – Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)

A Few Stories

Bill sat in the pews at church while the pastor discussed opportunities for service,
connection, and growth. These were all good, Bill thought, but he certainly didn’t have time
for all of them. However, he felt that he wouldn’t be good enough in the eyes of his fellow
churchgoers, even in the eyes of God, if he didn’t take these opportunities. It most
certainly didn’t help that Jim, the small groups leader, was pressuring him to do more and
more in the church. He knew that in getting involved and doing, he’d be blessing God, but
the more he did, he couldn’t help but feel more empty and hopeless with his work.

Elise was angry with God. She was disappointed that her church taught that women could
not be pastors. She felt that the pastorate was a higher calling, and that she, being a lowly
seamstress, had the intellect to achieve that higher calling. There was something more
spiritual about being a pastor. God would bless her so much more (get her out of the debt
she was in, certainly) if she just gave up her profession and went for one more spiritual.
But God seemed to be punishing her.

Introduction

At some point in our lives, we can all identify with one or both of the above stories. We
often live our Christian walk to one of two extremes—either we deny the ―things of this
world‖ and look only to the ―more spiritual‖ realm (the second story) or we look at what
we’re not doing and can be doing in order to make God happy. Friends, these are not new
ideas. They’ve been around since the dawn of Christianity, and we’re going to discuss their
origins and practical applications in today’s reading.

Arianism: There Was a Time When He Was Not

The humanity of Jesus is something that is rarely questioned in the Church (although our
next heresy will question it). Jesus was a living, breathing human being who walked,
talked, ate, cried, and suffered. No matter your view on the divinity of Christ, pretty much
everybody believes that He was a real man. The problem arises when we try to reconcile
the humanity of Christ with His divinity. Hebrews 1 uses ―begotten‖ language when
describing the relationship between the Father and the Son (―you are my Son, today I have
begotten you‖ – Heb. 1:5 NAS), and Jesus Himself talks about how He is the ―only
begotten‖ (John 3:16) Son of His Father. Therefore, the question of Jesus’ preexistence is
an important one.
A man by the name of Arius, a priest in Alexandria (don’t be fooled by where he was from—
his thought process was very Antiochene) explained this relationship by concluding that
since Jesus was begotten, ―there was a time when he was not.‖ He taught that Jesus was a
man and that he was adopted into the Godhead because he lived a sinless life. Athanasius
of Alexandria saw the error in this, that this made Christ no more than a perfect example to
be followed (and always in vain), and he dedicated his life to fighting this heresy. However,
this view was extremely popular in the late third and early fourth centuries, and Athanasius
was deposed five separate times while trying to fight against this cruel heresy. Finally, at
the council of Nicaea in 325, Athanasius argued his case before the church leaders, and
Arianism was declared heretical.

The reason that Arianism does not work is that John 1:1 clearly states the following: ―In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.‖ This leads
orthodox thinkers to the conclusion that the Son of God was ―begotten, [but] not made‖
(Nicene Creed). Christ’s human body was begotten, but the divine logoV was with God in
the beginning (and was God even in the beginning). Arianism not only takes away the
preexistent deity of Christ; it also contradicts the doctrine of the Trinity by ontologically
subordinating the Son to the Father. This led to a distinction between two terms—
Athanasius claimed that the Son was homoousios (homo=same, ousios=essence) with the
Father, while Arius claimed the Son was homoiousios (homoi=different) with the Father.
The former was adopted by the Nicene council.

Arianism did not die in the early fourth century. Instead, it bred different Christological
heresies that pervade the church even today. More drastic examples of Arianism today are
found in the cultic Jehovah’s Witnesses tradition and in the Unitarian church (both of which
deny the Trinity and ascribe to an adoptionist perspective on Christ). However, Arianism
exists even in the mainstream church today in that, since Christ was sinless and good
enough to be adopted into the Godhead, so should we strive to be like Christ in that way.
That sets us up for failure immediately. We cannot, and will not, ever be able to be perfect
like Christ on earth. The first story about Bill is a very unfortunate example of what
happens so often in churches today. We want so much to be perfect—we want so much to
make God happy—that we forget that even our most righteous acts are ―like filthy rags‖
(Isaiah 64:6) from God’s perspective. Arianism leads to a hopelessness that comes from
never being good enough, and that, my friends, is a very sad way to live. We serve a God
that is faithful despite our iniquities, and we serve a God who knows us so intimately that
he loves us despite our imperfections. I am glad we do not serve an Arian god.

Docetism

Perhaps the earliest Christological heresy formed around 70 AD and, like Arianism,
struggled with the delicate composition of the humanity and deity of Christ. Unlike
Arianism, however, Docetism (from the Greek dokew, to seem) claimed that Christ was not
fuilly man, but that He, being God, took on a humanlike form and only seemed to be man.
The logical flow of argument (per those who hold to a docetic faith) is that, since the body is
temporal and the spirit is eternal, Christ could not have become a man due to his eternality.
This was a very popular heresy, as it is a ―quick and easy‖ answer to the problem of Jesus’
humanity and divinity. Ignatius of Antioch and Irenaeus spent large portions of their career
arguing against this heresy, and while no council expressly condemned Docetism, the
Nicene/Constantinople Creed voices strongly against it. The practical application of the
heresy in life was the goal of ―escaping‖ from the things of this world into a more spiritual
realm in order to become more like Jesus. This played out as asceticism, a denial of the
physical desires.

The problem with this heresy should be very evident. Jesus did not appear to suffer, he
actually suffered. Jesus came and took on human form so that he could, as the author of
Hebrews stated, ―sympathize with our weaknesses.‖ As the Cappadocian fathers
(instrumental in combating heresy) said, ―that which he did not assume, he cannot save.‖
Christ had to become a man, fully and completely, in order so that we, mere men, might be
saved through him. This could not be achieved by a mere apparition of God in nature. If
Jesus did not suffer and die, we could not be spared suffering or eternal death.

If we’re orthodox Christians, we truly believe that Jesus’ divinity and humanity exist
together (we call it hypostatic union). But this heresy lies deeper in our hearts. We believe
in the lies—aye, the cruelty—of this heresy when we try to ―escape‖ into a spiritual happy
place away from this world. Our will to escape the world signifies that the world that God
created is bad, when, in fact, at creation, God said quite explicitly that it is good! Living our
lives on this earth is important to God, and existing in a ―spiritual happy place‖ is no better
than going through your life in an attitude of worship. Paul subtly denies Docetism when he
says in I Thessalonians 4, ―Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own
business and to work with your hands, just as we told you…‖

Along the same vein, seeing pastors or missionaries as having ―higher‖ or ―more spiritual‖
callings is also a form of Docetism. God made the world, he made each person in it, and
each person in the body of Christ serves a purpose. Certainly, the pastor’s calling is a high
one, but if the blacksmith doesn’t do his job as unto the Lord, the effects can be as
catastrophic as if a pastor doesn’t do his job as unto the Lord. God does not call everyone
to a pastoral role—if he did, there would be no flock to feed. The important thing to
remember is that if you are doing your work for the glory of God, you will be blessed by that
same God.

Tomorrow, we will discuss some offspring of these heresies.