I. Introduction

Christology, then, is a study of who Jesus is in regards to his life, his human/divine nature, and the work that he accomplished through his death and resurrection. The cornerstone of Christian doctrine hangs on the person, nature, and work of Christ; it is the centrality of the Gospel itself! Indeed, the virgin birth and the resurrection of Christ are indicators that we have something unique in the realm of humanity. Not only does Scripture give us an account of the person, nature, and work of Jesus Christ, but who or what he is can be discovered even more clearly by contrasting him with others.

As is quite obvious, the cults, and new age philosophies have well-developed Christologies of their own. But what is interesting is the Christological heresies of the cults either emphasize the true humanity of Jesus at the expense of his true divinity (or deity), or emphasize his true divinity at the expense of his humanity. It was at the great ecumenical councils of the church (Nicea, 325 and Chalcedon, 451) which put to rest the controversy regarding Jesus' true nature. In those particular councils, it was declared that the Son was homoousios (coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal) with the Father, and that his two natures (human and divine) were unmixed, unchanged, undivided, and inseparable.

With this in mind, notice the following Christological theories and how they deviate from the historic Nicene and Chalcedonian definitions:
 

1. Adoptianism: Jesus, merely human, and was made divine, hence he was adopted as God's Son.
2. Apollinarianism: Christ's human will was replaced by the divine will of the Second Person of the Trinity.
3. Arianism: Christ was God's first and greatest creature, divine, but not God Almighty.
4. Baha'ism: Jesus was one of a line of prophets, ending with Baha'u'allah.
5. Christian Science: Christ is God's Son as we all are; As with the material world, Christ's humanity was unreal, an illusion.
6. Deism: An anti-supernaturalistic philosophy which denied that God was in any unique or real sense in Jesus Christ.
7. Docetism: Christ, a divine being less than God, could not touch the material world which was inherently evil, seemed to be human.
8. Ebionism: Jesus was the Messiah, but not God. He did not pre-exist at all.
9. Eutychianism: The human nature of Christ was absorbed by the Logos.
10. Faith teachers (E.W. Kenyon, Copeland, et. al): Jesus took on Satan's nature; was born-again in the pit of hell.
11. Gnosticism: Christ was a divine being who came to bring us the secret knowledge (gnosis) of how to be freed from the evil world of matter.
12. Islam: Jesus was a prophet, not God's Son, and not as great as Mohammed.
13. Jehovah's Witnesses: Jesus is a god, mighty, but not the Almighty God.
14. Judaism: Jesus was a false Messiah, is now the Gentile God.
15. Kenoticism: Christ's self-emptying (kenosis) was, in part or in full, a temporary ceasing of his Deity.
16. Liberalism: Christ was an ideal, an example, a personification of God's love, but not God, not unique.
17. Local Church: The incarnation is a "mingling" of God and man, and is repeatable in every Christian; the Son was the Father, and now is the Spirit.
18. Modalism: The Father became the Son, who later became the Spirit.
19. Modernism: Christ is interpreted to conform to "modern" anti-supernatural, historicist presuppositions.
20. Monarchianism: Christ was God the Father incarnate (also called Patripassianism)
21. Monophysitism: Christ had one nature, not two; the divine absorbed the human.
22. Mormonism: Christ was one of God the Father's inummerable spirit sons who like his Father, became a God.
23. Nestorianism: The son of Mary the human nature of Jesus only; the two natures are separated.
24. Orthodoxy: Formulated explicitly in the 4th and 5th centuries, viewing Christ as the Second Person of the Triune God; fully God and fully man in the Incarnation; one person having two distinct natures.
25. Unification Church ("Rev. Moon"): claims to be Christ returned.
26. Unitarianism: Christ was a great man, not God. He is God's son only as other men are God's sons also.
27. The Way International (Wierwille): Teaches a form of Adoptianism; Jesus Christ is not God.
28. New Age: Jesus is a god-realized man; a Christ-conscious master. Christ is a cosmic principle.

II. Historical development of Christology: A brief overview

Athanasius, in his long struggle against Arius, sought to uphold the unity of essence of the Father and Son by basing his argument not on a philosophical doctrine of the nature of the Logos, but on the nature of the redemption accomplished by the Word in the flesh.

The theologians of the Middle Ages accepted the authority of patristic Christology with due influence of Augustine's stress on the real humanity of Christ in his atoning work, on his example in humility, and on mystical experience.

At the Reformation, Luther's Christology was based on Christ as true God and true man in inseparable unity. Calvin also approved of the orthodox Christological statements of the church councils.

Since the early nineteenth century the tendency has been to try to depart from the Chalcedonian doctrine of the two natures on the ground that this could not be related to the human Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. (Schleiermacher, Ritschl, etc.)

About the middle of the twentieth century we saw a return to the use of the Chalcedonian doctrine of the two natures, particularily as interpreted in the Reformed tradition.
 
 

III. Conclusion

Let's pray the focus remains there, for if we ever deviate from the centrality of the Gospel, there won't be any good news to share with a dying world!