Docetism
Outside historic orthodoxy
The ancient teaching that Christ only seemed to have a human body and only appeared to suffer and die.
Also called: docetic, Docetist
What it means
Docetism comes from a Greek word meaning "to seem." It taught that the divine Christ only appeared to be human. His body was a kind of vision, or else the divine Christ left the man Jesus before the cross, so that he did not truly suffer and die. Behind it lay the belief, common in the ancient world, that physical matter is unworthy of God or is itself evil.
The apostle John was already confronting this idea when he wrote that those who deny Jesus Christ has come in the flesh are not from God. Early church leaders such as Ignatius of Antioch insisted that Christ was truly born, truly ate and drank, truly suffered, and truly rose.
Few churches today call themselves docetic, but the tendency remains: a Jesus who is so divine that his humanity is not real, who did not truly feel hunger, temptation, or pain. Historic Christianity confesses that the Son took a true body and a reasonable soul.
What Scripture says
Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
The apostles heard, saw, and touched with their hands the Word of life.
The risen Jesus says a spirit does not have flesh and bones as he does.
Since the children share flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity.
Deceivers do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
What is wrong with it
Scripture insists that Jesus had a real body. He was born, he grew, he ate and slept, he bled and died, and after his resurrection he invited his disciples to touch his flesh and bones. John treats the denial of his coming in the flesh as the mark of a false spirit.
How it undermines the truth
It undermines the atonement and the resurrection. If Christ only seemed to die, he did not bear our sins in his body on the tree, and if he did not rise bodily, we have no hope of our own resurrection. It also undermines his sympathy as our high priest, who was tempted as we are.
How it can harm a church
Docetic tendencies make Christ distant and unreal. Believers lose the comfort of a Savior who knows hunger, grief, and pain from the inside. They also learn to despise the body and the created world, which God made good and which Christ will raise and renew.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: Chalcedonian Definition; WCF 8.2; LBCF 1689 8.2
Related terms
Christological heresiesOutside historic orthodoxy
Teachings about Christ that deny his full deity, his full humanity, or the union of the two in one person.
Hypostatic unionHistoric orthodoxy
In Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God took a full human nature, so that he is one person who is truly God and truly man.
AdoptionismOutside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that Jesus was an ordinary man whom God adopted as his Son, usually at his baptism or resurrection, rather than the eternal Son who became man.