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Apollinarianism
Apollinarianism was the heresy taught by
Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea in Syria about 361. He
taught that the Logos of God, which became the divine nature of Christ,
took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of
Christ was a glorified form of human nature. In other words, though
Jesus was a man, He did not have a human mind but that the mind of Christ
was solely divine. Apollinaris taught that the two natures of Christ
could not coexist within one person. His solution was to lessen the
human nature of Christ.
Apollinarianism was condemned by the Second General
Council at Constantinople in 381. This heresy denies the true and
complete humanity in the person of Jesus which in turn, can jeopardize the
value of the atonement since Jesus is declared to be both God and man to
atone. He needed to be God to offer a pure and holy sacrifice of
sufficient value and He needed to be a man in order to die for men.
Jesus is completely both God and man. This
is known as the Hypostatic Union.
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"In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." (John 1:1,14).
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"for Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily
form," (Col. 2:9).
References
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Microsoft Encarta 96.
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Baker's Dictionary of
Theology
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