The Heresies

The Apostle Paul warned us that the Church would be attacked by false teachings, or heresies:

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Tim 4.3-4)

Heresy (from the Greek word αιρεσις, which is a derivative of αιρεομαι, meaning "to choose") always comes from within the Church, never from without. It is not simply a difference of opinion, but is a corruption or perversion of correct (i.e. orthodox) teaching. Islam, for example, which rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, is not a heresy; it’s an entirely different religion. However, a Christian doctrine that rejects the Trinity is a heresy.

Heresy is not the same as apostasy, which is a rejection of the Christian faith entirely.

The following are a few of the major heresies that the Church has confronted over the centuries:

The Judaizers (1st Century)
Taught that one must become a Jew in order to be a Christian (Acts 15.1). The majority of the first Christians were Jews, and early Christianity itself was considered to be a part of Judaism. As Gentiles (non-Jews) sought conversion, a conflict arose concerning what was required of them in order to become Christians.
The Church declared that Gentiles may become Christians without being required to keep the Law of Moses. Paul vigorously defended this teaching in his epistles to the churches in areas where the Judaizers’ heresy had spread, such as Rome (3.27-31), Philipi (3.2-4), and Galatia (2.11-21).
Condemned by the Council of Jerusalem, A.D. 50

Gnosticism (1st and 2nd Centuries)
From the Greek γνώσις meaning “knowledge.” Taught that matter is evil and that salvation is achieved through a cosmic process in which one gains ever deeper spiritual insights.
Gnosticism rejected the Incarnation and contradicted the scriptural teaching that everything God created is “very good” (Gen 1.31).
They also believed in divine beings, known as “æons,” who mediated between man and the ultimate, unreachable God, and that the lowest of these æons, the one with whom men had contact, was Jesus Christ.
Docetism, from the Greek δοκέω meaning “to seem,” was a subcategory of Gnosticism that believed Christ was a purely spiritual being and only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die.
Condemned in one form or another by every Church council

Sabellianism (Early 3rd Century)
Also called Modalism and Monarchianism, this heresy taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were not three distinct persons, but three aspects or “modes” of one person. According to them, the three persons of the Trinity exist only in God’s relation to man, not in objective reality.
Condemned by the First Council of Constantinople, 381

Arianism (4th Century)
Arius, a priest from Alexandria, denied the divinity of Christ and taught that, if Jesus was born, then there must have been a time when He did not exist; if Jesus became divine, then there was a time when He was not divine. By citing Scripture and dressing his heresy in orthodox or near-orthodox terminology, Arius was able to muster the support of many bishops.
Condemned by the First Council of Nicaea, 325

Macedonianism (4th Century)
Named for Bishop Macedonius I of Constantinople, who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Condemned by the First Council of Constantinople, 381

Apollinarianism (4th Century)
Also called Apollinarism. A belief taught by Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, that Jesus had a human body, but a divine soul.
Condemned by the First Council of Constantinople, 381

Donatism (4th Century)
Named for Donatus Magnus, whose followers refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of the priests and bishops who had fallen away from the faith during the Roman persecution.
Condemned by the Synod of Arles, 314; and the Council of Carthage, 411

Pelagianism (5th Century)
Pelagius, a British theologian, taught that we can become personally righteous by imitating Christ without the need of God’s grace. He believed that man is born morally neutral and can achieve salvation through his own efforts, and that the purpose of God’s grace is merely to make easier the otherwise difficult task of pursuing righteousness.
Condemned by the Council of Ephesus, 431

Nestorianism (5th Century)
Named for Archbishop Nestorius of Constantinople, who taught that the Virgin Mary gave birth to a man, Jesus Christ, not God. Nestorius claimed that she bore only Christ’s human nature in her womb, and proposed the title Christotokos (Greek Χριστοτόκος "Christ-bearer" or "Mother of Christ"). He taught that Christ was a vessel for divinity but not Himself divine.
Condemned by the Council of Ephesus, 431

Monophysitism (5th Century)
Originating as a reaction to Nestorianism, monophysitism (from μόνος “one” and φυσις “nature”) went to the other extreme, claiming that Christ was one person with only one nature: a fusion of human and divine elements.
Condemned by the Council of Chalcedon, 451

Monothelitism (7th Century)
A misguided attempt to appease the non-Chalcedonian churches, monothelitism (from μόνoς “one” and θέληση “will”) taught that Jesus Christ had two natures but only one will.
Condemned by the Third Council of Constantinople, 680

Iconoclasm (7th and 8th Centuries)
This heresy, driven by a misinterpretation of the Second Commandment and propogated by a group of people known as iconoclasts (literally "icon smashers"), taught that it was sinful to make pictures and statues of Christ and the saints.
Condemned by the Second Council of Nicaea, 787