Since God the Son became the theanthropic Jesus Christ, His legacy has been one of strife, turmoil and controversy.
- Early in the first century, the Docetists taught that Jesus was merely a spirit; He only appeared to be flesh and blood during His incarnation. Conversely, the Ebionites taught that Jesus was only flesh and blood and denied that Jesus was God.
- In the first half of the third century, Sabellius taught that the Holy Trinity did not exist. Instead, God is merely one person who appears at different times as either Father, Son or Holy Spirit. Sabellianism was rejected by the ecumenical councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. (See Section 2.7 of Theology Corner)
- In the fourth century, the Arians taught that Jesus Christ was one person with two natures. One nature was human but the other nature was not divine. Jesus was viewed as a creation of God and, therefore, not God himself. Jesus was, more or less, the physical incarnation of an angel. Arianism was condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD but was resurrected in the nineteenth century by Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. (See Section 2.5 of Theology Corner)
- Also, in the fourth century, the Apollinarians reacted strongly to the Arians and flipped to the other extreme. They taught that Jesus Christ was one person with two natures. One nature was divine but the other nature was not human. They based this teaching on the belief that man consists of body, soul and spirit making the trichotomous assumption that soul and spirit are distinguishable substantive entities. Jesus was thought to have the body and soul of a man but the spirit of the pre-existing Logos. Apollinarianism was condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. (See Section 2.5 of Theology Corner)
- In the fifth century, the Nestorians taught that Jesus Christ was two persons, one the divine Jesus and one the human Jesus. Mary gave birth to the human Jesus but not the divine Jesus. Nestorianism was condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. (See Section 2.5 of Theology Corner)
- Also in the fifth century, Pelagius, a contemporary of Augustine, taught that no one is born with a sin nature and our human intellect, wisdom and willpower are sufficient to overcome sin should it appear. Pelagianism was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. (See Section 2.8 of Theology Corner)
- Finally, in the fifth century, the Eutychians perpetuated the monophysite heresy. They taught that Jesus Christ was one person with one nature. That nature was neither fully divine nor fully human but a mixture of the two. Eutychianism was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. (See Section 2.5 of Theology Corner)
- For the next millennia, the eastern and western churches ruled Christianity with an iron fist. The eastern church lost significant power after Constantinople was overrun by the Ottomans in 1453. The western church of Rome has persisted as a center of power.
- In approximately 1540, however, Protestantism exploded under Luther and Calvin. Lutheran Theology is more deeply sacramental while the Reformed Theology of Calvin revived the predestination theology of Augustine. Luther publicly condemned Jews who did not convert to Christianity, during the last three years of his life, which tainted his legacy. Calvinism flourished and found its fullest expression in the 1646 Westminster Confession.
- Near the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Remonstrant Confession appeared in Holland as a foil to the perceived blasphemy of Calvinism; it was developed under the guidance of Arminius and Episcopius. A century later, Wesley added the concepts of Assurance of Salvation and Entire Sanctification resulting in what we now call Wesleyan/Arminian theology which frames the contents of this website.
- But after all this, the church of Jesus Christ today seems like a great ship that has slipped its moorings and is drifting into the darkness of the unknown. WOKE teaching has infiltrated many churches and major denominations have either split or are about to split. The UMC is the most recent.
The frequency of proposed improvements to Christianity increased after the Protestant Reformation. Corrections have been suggested by the adherents of Baha’i, Christian Science, Hare Krishna, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Transcendental Meditation, the Unification Church, the Unity School, the Way, the Worldwide Church of God and, most recently, by the progressive Church of Woke just to name a few. Challenges are often limited to changes in Christian beliefs about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Sin and Salvation. But some challenges demand all of Christianity be sent to the dust bin except for a few token analogies useful to the challengers. Regardless of the details, all these challenges, since the incarnation, represent lawlessness, apostasy, heresy and blasphemy. All are fraudulent. All are lies. None are remotely Christian!
Would Christianity have been better served without this constant upheaval? William Burt Pope thought not!
“The history of heresy in Christendom, the manifold perversions of doctrine within the Church, and the endless diversities of opinion among believers themselves, are pleas of which much use has been made. It cannot be denied that every truth has been perverted, and that almost every truth has been denied, among the communities professing to hold the Head; and moreover, that the same documents have been and are still made the standard of appeal by maintainers of very opposite opinions on some most important points. But this undoubted fact is, on the whole rather in favour of the Christian system than to its prejudice. Religious truth is not like truth mathematical. It is probationary and does not command assent. Had it been otherwise it might have banished every error from the world in the course of one age. But it has the entire strength of sin and sinful prejudice against it; and those whose lives it cannot reform would fain reform its teaching. The Wisdom of God in the Gospel has ever waged, according to its own prediction, a double conflict; against errors in the world without, and against the foes of its own household. To obviate the argument that might and would be found in the unfaithfulness of the professors of His religion, our Lord has left on record His own testimony that many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. So also St. Paul predicted the greater and lesser apostasies, and that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And St John summed up the strain: declaring that prophesy had already become fact: Even now are there many Antichrists. Moreover, he turns the existence and abounding of these opponents of Christ and His doctrine into an argument in favour of the religion from which they declined. Meanwhile the heresies pass away, but the truth endureth forever.” (Pope, v1, p 133-134)
(See also Sections 10.12 and 13.6 of Theology Corner)
