Patton Docetism

MAP Report Docetism Matt Patton 4/18/13 1. Context. Docetism began to develop in the Christian church as early as 70a.d. It was a kind of amalgamation of Jewish or Oriental and Greek thought. I was propagated as an attempt to make the gospel more appealing to a Greek audience. As it was one of the earliest heresies to appear in the church, refutations of it appear even in the new testament epistles. It teaches a dichotomy presenting the physical universe as evil and the spiritual universe as good. 2. Impact This belief in all physical things being evil forced them to spiritualise things in the gospel. They couldn't accept the incarnation because the divine couldn't descend in the "evil" of a physical body forcing them to spiritualise teachings on Christ specifically his death and resurrection. Further, since Docetists believed the body of Christ was an allusion, they couldn't accept the Eucharist as either representatively or actually the blood and body of Christ. Another implication of the docetic teaching that our true selves are spiritual not physical was the belief that if I sinned, it wasn't the real me. It was just my body. Therefore they could indulge in all kinds of sinful behaviors without it ever effecting their soul or their spirit. Docetism continues to have subtle effects on modern Christian thinking at times as well. People often imagine that heaven will not be so much a physical place, but merely a spiritual place where our souls go when we die. The biblical message affirms the goodness of the physical self through the doctrine of the future resurrection of our physical bodies. Modern Christian thought can also slide into Docetic like thinking in regard to it's view of sin. Just like Docetists didn't imagine sin as affecting them or being real at all, Modern Christians can imagine since their soul is destined for heaven that sinning doesn't really effect the at all either. Summarize: The essential doctrine of Docetism is physical matter is evil, and spiritual matter is good. They believed the physical realm was created by a false god or demiurge in order to cloud the truth that true humanity is the divine spiritual spark within. True salvation then receiving the true knowledge of your true nature being spiritual not physical. Quotes: With the illusion stripped away, I could see that we were part of an ocean of light. We are light flowing, moving, and transmuting shape similarly to the way that water morphs into steam and ice and snow.” Jonathan Talat Phillips, The Electric Jesus: The Healing Journey of a Contemporary Gnostic Mind is the lock. Knowing is the key. Unlock the mind and open your heart.” ― Robin Craig Clark, Voyager: The Art of Pure Awareness Evaluation: Scripture quickly and resoundingly corrects this heresy in Genesis when God declares everything that was created was good (Gen 1:31). Christian doctrine resoundingly affirms the goodness of the created physical world as well as the spiritual. Secondly denying the goodness of the physical universe destroys our grounding of our future hope because the Christian hope is based on the bodily resurrection of Christ as a first fruits of our own future bodily resurrection at the return of Christ. As Paul puts in in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ was not raised we are of all people most to be pitied. Opponents: The first and primary opponent of Docetism was the apostle John. In first John he attacks the heresy on three fronts. First the in regards to the incarnation he thoroughly affirms Christ coming "in the flesh." As he says at the very beginning of his first epistle. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life" 1 John 1:1 Secondly John corrects their heresy that they could sin only with their body and their spirit remain without sin. "If we claim to be without sin, we decieve ourselves and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8 Thirdly he criticises the Docetist for their failure to love as they rejected all who do not have their special knowledge. "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 1:8 Resources: Helpful recources might be this article from Princeton online. https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Docetism.html Another helpful recourse would be the TDNT commentary on 1 John.