The Four Heresies

In the book Heresies and How to Avoid Them by Ben Quash and Michael Ward, several chapters are dedicated to the heresies revolving around who and what Jesus is not. Arianism, docetism, nestorianism, and eutychianism are four heresies explore the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. I will argue these four heresies had an overarching theme of causing the church to struggle with the idea of God’s intimacy and how Jesus delivered us from our sin. I will do this by exploring the unique nature of Jesus Christ. Arianism is named after Arius, a man who believed Jesus was created, instead of eternal like God the Father. This in turn implied that Jesus was inferior to God, and therefore could not completely be God. Docetism was a heresy that concluded Jesus only appeared human, but in

Nestorianism, named after Nestorius, was built on the denial that Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time; his explanation was something like a split personality between the human and the divine nature. The two natures could cannot coexist at the same time, however, they can switch back and forth; although Jesus has both natures inside on him, they could not both at the same time. Eutychianism was named after Eutyches, a man who opposed Nestorianism, who believed that Jesus’ divinity and human nature combined to create a new, third thing. He taught, “Christ’s humanity was so united with his divinity that it was not the same as ours” (Quash and Ward, 41). If Jesus was not able to be both man and God at the same time, he would not have the ability to save us from our sins. Only God can save us from enduring hell, but God needed a pure sacrifice, so Jesus stepped in as the ultimate sacrifice. He lived a life fully human, dealing with temptation, hungry, thirst, and weariness. If Jesus was not fully God and human our salvation would not have been