You Heretic! Again!

The search for ancient and condemned heresies continues in the evangelical church today as we go on to examine if any of the ancient Christological heresies are alive and well today. Are you a heretic? Go ahead, take the heretic challenge! Don't settle for just being like Mike, be like Apollinarius! Or maybe Nestorius! Or even (drum roll), maybe you can be like Eutyches!

First of all, we need a little theological geography lesson. The Christological debates were held between two important cities, Antioch and Alexandria. Antioch favored focusing upon the human: Scriptures were by human men and Jesus was human (and, oh yes, divine too). Alexandria favored the divine: the Scriptures were of God and Jesus was God (and somehow, he was human in that mix, too). So the first key to picking your favorite heretic is picking your favorite city. If you like to conform to your subculture, the American evangelical church is strongly Alexandrian. People will die for the divinity of Christ, but barely even notice that Jesus was also truly human. The Scriptures are utterly of God and inerrant in every way, and the amount of human influence on them is usually viewed as minimal.

But on to our first contestant: Apollinarius! This Alexandrian said that Jesus did not have a human mind (I'm making this a little on the simple side, those of you who are church historians can correct me if I make an error by making it too simple). He said this to try and protect the deity of Jesus, since we don't want Jesus thinking human thoughts which might be sinful. This kind of thinking is fairly common today. If you tell the person in the pew (well, chair) that  Jesus had two minds, they will look at you strangely. But as the Antiochenes noted, if Jesus does not have a human mind, then he is not truly human. And if he is not truly human, then he cannot be our substitute, and we are still in our sins. Those are big stakes! Many evangelicals have the trap-door idea. Since Jesus was God, he knew everything. There is a trap-door between the divine side and the human side through which knowledge can slide. He can "cheat" on the knowledge factor. But that is not the case. The divine mind of Jesus did indeed know all things. But the human mind was a human mind: it did not know all things and had to learn just like we do. The human mind of Jesus did not necessarily work better, just because he was God. The scene in the movie the Passion of Christ where Jesus invents the four legged table and chairs to sit at it subtly presents this error (besides being absurd). 

But on to our second contestant: Nestorius! After the condemning of Apollinarius, it was time for the Antiochenes to be condemned, and Nestorius was the lucky man of the hour. Nestorius may not have believed in Nestorianism, but for the sake of argument we are going to use his name anyway. He said that the person of Christ was split into two: two natures, two persons. This was done so that the humanity of Jesus would be defended: in order to be true human there needed to be a human person attached to the human nature. If you are wondering how this is committed today, don't think about it too hard because it is only rarely seen today. The Anitochenes have few fans in today's evangelical church. However, there are entire church systems today that are still Nestorian in the Middle East. 

So moving quickly onto the third (and greatest?) contestant: Eutyches.  Once again, it was time for the Alexandrians to get in for their last chance to be condemned. Eutyches said that before the incarnation the two natures of Jesus were distinct, but after the incarnation they came together to form a new nature. He basically said that the two natures became one nature: Jesus was one nature and one person. This new nature was mostly divine with a mild human streak thrown in. This is, in my opinion, the most committed Christological heresy today. We have this idea that Jesus was special in how he acted because he was God. How did he perform miracles? Because he was God. How did he resist sin? He was God! How did he follow God so well? Because he was God! These thoughts all are Eutychian. The humanity of Jesus is just like ours. He did not cheat. How did he resist temptation? The same way we do: through the power of the Holy Spirit. Missing points like this blinds us to one of the key points of Luke-Acts: Jesus did miracles and great things the same way the early church did: they were both empowered by the Holy Spirit. Viewing Jesus as Eutyches did causes us to view Jesus as some superhuman Zeus, instead of as a true human who was just like us. Don't try to make the humanity of Jesus something less than truly human by mixing it with the divine. 

Well, may you pick your favorite heretic! My favorite is Nestorius. I lean strongly towards Antioch, mostly in reaction to those around me. But come, let us condemn each other!  Who is your favorite heretic?

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