It was the Docetists who inspired St. John to include in his gospel this warning, “This is how we may recognize the false spirit of God: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit which does not thus acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” (John 4:2-3)
The Problem of Docetism
The Docetists had a fundamental problem with believing in a Saviour who could suffer and die as a man. They considered this a paradox, and therefore, they came up with many teachings which indicated that Jesus Christ did not physically suffer or die during the crucifixion. Rather, it was a mass hallucination produced by His divine power. The first Docetist known was Simon Magus mentioned in the scriptures; the Book of Acts.
It was an unheard of belief at the time of Christ that a divine personage could suffer at the hands of humans. It was simply an unacceptable view – one that many Muslims share today.
The First Formal Christian Creed of Ignatius of Antioch
Gnostic Christians spread the gospel of Docetism to such a degree that it provoked a formal Orthodox Christian creed. Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred between 98 and 117 A.D. wrote that creed.
In the Ignatian creed, he affirmed Jesus “truly, and not in appearance”suffered all the events recorded in the Gospels regarding the crucifixion and resurrection.
Heresy According to the Early Church Fathers
Marcion was a figure who played out highly in the Docetist religion, and the Early Church Fathers did not hold a high opinion of him as they felt he had led many astray from the true gospel. “Marcion [a docetist] met Polycarp on one occasion, and he said, ‘Do you know me?’ Polycarp relied, ‘I do know you, the first-born of Satan!’ Such was the horror that the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth . . . But Marcion, mutilating the Gospel according to Luke, is still proved to be a blasphemer of the only existing God, from those passages which he still retains. Those, again, who separate Jesus from Christ, alleging that Christ remained impassible, but that it was Jesus who suffered, prefer the Gospel by Mark. However, if they read it with a love of truth, they would have their errors rectified.” according to (Irenaeus) A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers.
Other interesting heresies include the Collyridans and Donatism.
Sources:
- Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics, by Charles S. Clifton.
- A Catholic Dictionary, by William E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, M.A.
- Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, by Dr. Ludwig Ott.
- A Short History of Christian Doctrine: From the First Century to the Present, by Bernhard Lohse.
- The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils, 325 - 1870, by Philip Hughes.
- A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, edited by David W. Bercot.
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