“It is an heretic that makes the fire, Not she which burns in ‘t.”
William Shakespeare, “The Winter’s Tale” (2.3.114-5)

Are You a Heretic?

Nobody expects the American Inquisition! When I saw this quiz, I wondered how I’d score.

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you’re not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451. Chalcedon compliant 67% Pelagianism 58% Apollainarian 42% Adoptionist 42% Arianism 42% Socinianism 42% Monarchianism 42% Donatism 42% Monophysitism 33% Nestorianism 33% Albigensianism 8% Modalism 8% Docetism 8% Gnosticism 0%

Are you a heretic?
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Heresies are doctrinal views that are officially “false teachings.” Some examples of heresies: Jesus is not God, the Holy Spirit is not a person, men may become gods, there is more than one God, Jesus lost His divinity in hell and finished the atonement there, and (surprised?) that good works are necessary for salvation.

Is Chalecedon the measure of heresy? It centers on questions of the trinity and Christ’s all-at-once humanity and divinity. I thought sure that I would be a heretic. Well, then, can I look at the bright side? Will I be exempt from stoning by the Christian Reconstructionists who have stolen the word and intend to finish stealing our land of freedom? Probably not. They don’t actually pay much attention to freedom or grace or forgiveness or any of that nambly-pambly Jesus stuff.

“The purpose of regeneration is that man reconstruct all things in conformity to God’s order, not in terms of man’s desire for peace,” Rushdoony warned in his Institutes of Biblical Law. “This purpose and mission involves law and coercion.”

Count me out.

Here’s a quick, overly simplified guide to some christian heresies. See if any appeal to you.

• Adoptionism – Adoptionism first appeared in the second century. Those who held it denied the preexistence of Christ and, therefore, His deity. Adoptionists taught that Jesus was tested by God and after passing this test and upon His baptism He was granted supernatural powers by God and adopted as the Son. As a reward for His great accomplishments and perfect character Jesus was raised from the dead and adopted into the Godhead.
• Albigenses – Developed in the town of Albi in the middle ages. Those who held it believed that there were two gods: the good god of light usually referred to as Jesus in the New Testament and the god of darkness and evil usually associated with Satan and the “God of the Old Testament.” Anything material was considered evil including the body which was created by Satan. The soul, created by the good god, was imprisoned in the evil flesh and salvation was possible only through holy living and doing good works. They also taught reincarnation.
• Apollinarianism – Jesus divine will overshadowed and replaced the human. Apollinarianism was the heresy taught by Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea in Syria about 361. He taught that the Logos of God, which became the divine nature of Christ, took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of Christ was a glorified form of human nature. Though Jesus was a human, the mind of Christ was solely divine.
• Arianism – Arianism appeared around the year 320. It taught that God could not appear on the earth, that Jesus was not eternal and could not be God. Additionally, it taught that there was only one person in the Godhead: the Father. Jesus, then, was a creation. Jesus was a lesser, created being. It was condemned by the Council of Nicea in 325.
• Docetism – Jesus was divine, but only seemed to be human. Generally, it taught that Jesus only appeared to have a body, that he was not really incarnate. It stemmed from a dualistic philosophy which viewed matter as inherently evil, so that God could not be associated with matter – nor could God suffer, being perfect and infinite. Docetism was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
• Donatism – Donatism, the belief that the effectiveness of the sacraments depends on the moral character of the minister, was taught by Donatus, bishop of Casae Nigrae. In other words, if a minister who was involved in a serious enough sin were to baptize a person, that baptism would be considered invalid. Against this view, it was argued that God is not restricted by the moral state of the administrant.
  

  At the consecration of bishop Caecilian of Carthage in 311, one of the three bishops, Felix, bishop of Aptunga, who consecrated Caecilian, had given copies of the Bible to the Roman persecutors. A group of about 70 bishops formed a synod and declared the consecration of the bishop to be invalid. Great debate arose concerning the validity of the sacraments (baptism, the Lord’s Supper, etc.) by one who had sinned so greatly against other Christians.
  Ater the death of Caecilian, Aelius Donatus the Great became bishop of Carthage and it is from his name that the movement is called. The Donatists were gaining “converts” to their cause and a division was arising in the Catholic church. They began to practice rebaptism which was particularly troublesome to the church at the time and was condemned at the Synod of Arles in 314 since it basically said the authority in the Catholic church was lost.
  The Donatist issue was raised at several ecumenical councils and finally submitted to Emporer Constantine in 316. In each case the consecration of bishop Caecilian was upheld. However, persecution fuels emotions and by 350 the Donatists had gained many converts and outnumbered the Orthodox in Africa. But it was the apologetic by Augustine that turned the tide against the Donatist movement which eventually died out in the next century.

• Gnosticism – The word “gnosticism” comes from the Greek word “gnosis” which means “knowledge.” There were a wide range of Gnostic groups and beliefs, but they are all dualistic and teach that there is good and evil, spirit and matter, light and dark (and some say, men and women) that are all related to one another along a single axis. Good-light-spirit-man opposes Bad-dark-matter-woman. Since the unknowable God is too pure and perfect to have anything to do with the material, evil universe God generated lesser divinities, or emanations – one of which was Wisdom, who desired to know God. Out of this erring desire, the demiurge, an evil god was formed and it was this evil god that created the universe. He along with archons keep mortals in bondage in material matter to prevent pure spirit souls from ascending back to god after the death of the physical bodies. Deliverance from material form (evil) was attainable only through special knowledge revealed by special Gnostic teachers, such as Christ. Christ was the divine redeemer who descended from the spiritual realm to reveal the knowledge necessary for this redemption. Gnosticism therefore denies the incarnation of God as the Christ. If Jesus is not God, He could not “atone” for our sins. Since this set of ideas predates Christianity, it’s a weird sort of heresy.
• Kenosis – The kenosis (emptying out) theory states that while he was a man, Jesus gave up some of His divine attributes (omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence) so that He could function as a man in order to fulfill the work of redemption. This view was first introduced in the late 1800s by the Lutheran theologian Gottfried Thomasius in Germany. It is a heresy because it says that Jesus was not fully divine and therefore would not be sufficient to atone for the sins of the world.

Oh, really, I can’t go on with this today. Here’s the basic drift – look ’em up.

• Modalism – God is one person in three modes.
• Monarchianism – God is one person.
• Monophysitism – Jesus had only one nature: divine.
• Nestorianism – Jesus was two persons.
• Patripassionism – The Father suffered on the cross
• Pelagianism – Man is unaffected by the fall and can keep all of God’s laws.
• Socinianism – Denial of the Trinity. Jesus is a deified man.
• Tritheism – the Trinity is really three separate gods.