Monday April 14: Then There was Conflict Sabbath School Lesson podcast

As Christianity spread through the Greco-Roman world and moved
into the second generation, people began to reflect on its basic message
about Jesus’ person, and to raise questions: How could Divinity
and humanity cohabit the same body? How could Deity become mortal?
What is Jesus’ relationship to the Father? And so forth . . .
Beginning in the first century, two conflicting emphases emerged. One
would stress Christ’s humanity at the expense of His divinity; the other
would do just the opposite. Among those denying Christ’s deity were the
Ebionites, early Jewish Christians who taught that Jesus became the Son
of God only at His baptism, at which time He became united with the
eternal Christ, a nondivine being who could not save humanity but came,
instead, to call humanity to obedience. The Arians later would take up the
struggle against Christ’s divinity, beginning around the late third century,
a position strongly condemned by the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.
The heavyweights on the other side of the spectrum were the
Gnostics, who taught that spirit was good and matter evil, particularly
the matter that forms our body. Therefore, the human body could not
serve as a vehicle for the revelation of the Supreme Being.

Study 1 John 4:1–3. In what way does John’s concern relate to the
Gnostic emphasis just described?

The controversy over who Jesus was raged for five solid centuries,
from the second century all the way down to the sixth. At first it was
over His deity. Was He God? And if so, how was He related to God
the Father? The questions then shifted to His humanity, and to how
Divinity and humanity were combined in a single person. There were
statements and counterstatements, pronouncements and counterpronouncements,
accusations and condemnations and excommunications,
with one “ism” after another claiming the day. Incredibly, amid
all the turmoil and controversy, biblical orthodoxy in respect to Jesus’
essential nature and person ultimately prevailed. (See the quotation
from the Creed of Chalcedon in Friday’s lesson.)

What are some of the questions in the church today about the
human nature of Christ? Why must we be careful not to let
these questions divide us, as they often did the early church?