Early Christian heresies centered around the twin issues of the nature of God (Trinity) and the nature of Jesus Christ (Christological Controversies).
The official stand on these issues (according to all the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches) are as follows:
1. God is a trinity, three persons but one essence;
2. Jesus Christ was one person, simultaneously human and divine.
Modalism / Sabellianism
God is one person in three modes. This, of course, implies that Jesus Christ was purely divine, without humanness, and therefore could not truly have suffered or died.
Docetism
Jesus was divine, but only seemed to be human.
Adoptionism
Jesus was a human being who was "adopted" by God and granted a divine nature.
Monophysitism
Jesus Christ has two separate natures joined in one body.
Nestorianism
Jesus Christ had two natures - man and God which remained separate throughout his period on earth.
Apollinarianism
Jesus fully God, partially or incompletely human, Jesus divine will overshadowed and replaced the human. Apollinarians suggested that he had a human body and a human soul, but his mind was taken over by the eternal Logos.
Arianism
Jesus was a lesser, created being, a special creation by God for man's salvation.
Socinianism - (A version of Arianism)
Denial of the Trinity. Jesus is a deified man. This heresy still lives on in two very different forms, the Unitarians and the Jehova's Witnesses.
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