THE HALL OF HERESIES: DOCETISM

Heresies are destructive because they misrepresent Christ. The biblical writers made great efforts to reveal who Christ is so that we may put our trust in Him. John once said, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:31). Today, we are going to discuss one of the earliest false teachings about Christ’s identity. If in Arianism Christ is denied to be fully God, this one is the opposite—it claims that He was not fully human. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s talk about Docetism.

The History

Docetism comes from the Greek word dokein, which means “to seem” or “to appear.” It referred to the belief that Christ was not truly human and did not really suffer as a man. He only appeared to be human, or “just seemed human.” This was one of the earliest heresies, already circulating during the late New Testament times. John himself encountered this false teaching, which is why he wrote: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 Jn 4:2-3). That’s how serious this belief was—for John, it came from the antichrist!

Some known teachers of this belief include Simon the Samaritan (sometimes associated with Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8:9), Saturninus, Marcion, and Basilides. Early church leaders in the second century strongly opposed this false teaching. Among them were Ignatius (d. c. 110 AD) and Irenaeus (c. 120–203 AD). The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381 AD) affirmed Christ’s full humanity when He suffered for us: Jesus “was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried.”

The Heresy

Behind this heresy was the belief that material creation is evil; therefore, Jesus could not truly be human. For some teachers, if Jesus was really God, then He could not have suffered. And if He did suffer, then He was no longer God. So, they concluded that Jesus only appeared to suffer as a man. To “protect” God’s image from suffering, they came up with different explanations. Today, we group all these under the name Docetism. For Marcion, Jesus only appeared to be human. For Cerinthus, Jesus and Christ were two different beings. Jesus was the human son of Mary and Joseph, while Christ was the divine being from the Father. Before Jesus suffered on the cross, Christ supposedly departed from Him. Another bizarre explanation came from Basilides, who claimed that Simon of Cyrene (the man forced to carry Jesus’ cross, Matt 27:32) was the one actually crucified. According to Basilides, Simon’s face was transformed to look like Jesus, while the real Jesus stood by, watching and laughing.

But the Bible clearly shows that Christ truly became human from birth to death. Beyond that, Docetism creates serious problems for the Christian faith: If Christ was not fully human, He could not be our mediator before God. Paul emphasized this: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:5). If Christ was not fully human, He could not be an acceptable substitute for us. Hebrews 2:17 says, “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” If Christ truly escaped suffering and was not “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8), then we would have no reason to take Him as our model of faith. Yet Christ’s suffering is repeatedly presented as our example to follow (1 Pet 2:21; Phil 2:5–8; Heb 12:2–3; 1 Jn 3:16, etc.). These are just some of the issues with Docetism, which explains why the early church opposed it so strongly.

The Hoax

At present, no Christian denomination openly embraces Docetism. However, like other early heresies, it remains a danger to anyone who is not careful. Any theological belief that diminishes the humanity of Christ can easily fall into this heresy if unchecked. Christ became human like us—He was not merely “like” a human. Every believer must be vigilant about what the Bible truly teaches concerning Christ’s identity, for there will always be “false Messiahs” or “fake Christs” who may deceive those who are not watchful. Stay Curious.

Sources and Studies:

Davie, M. (Gen. Ed). (2016).“Docetism.” 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺: 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤. Intervarsity Press.
Vanhoozer, K. (Gen.Ed.). (2005). “𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘥-𝘍𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺”. Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible. Baker Books House
Geisler N. (1999). “Docetism.” 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴. Baker Books.
Grudem, W. (1994). “Why was Jesus’ Full Humanity Necessary?” 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺. Zondervan