2,000 Years of Controversy
The Heresy Timeline
Every heresy below was once someone's deeply held belief — and every condemnation reflects the consensus of a particular time and place. Explore them all.
Trinity
Arianism
Jesus was created by God — divine, but not truly God.
Subordinationism
The Son is divine but subordinate to the Father in nature, power, or authority.
Anomoeanism
ContestedThe Son is fundamentally unlike the Father — radical Arianism.
Nicene Trinitarianism (condemned 341-380)
ContestedThree persons sharing one substance — affirmed at Nicaea (325) but condemned by the majority of 4th-century councils.
Modalism (Sabellianism)
God is one person who wears three masks.
Homoianism
ContestedThe Son is "like" the Father but without shared substance — the official imperial faith 360-380 AD.
Semi-Arianism (Homoiousian)
ContestedThe Son has a "similar" substance to the Father, but not an identical one.
Eternal Functional Subordination
The Son eternally submits to the Father's authority within the Trinity.
Christology
Docetism
Jesus only appeared to be human — his body was an illusion.
Adoptionism
Jesus was a normal human whom God "adopted" as his Son.
Apollinarianism
Jesus had a human body but a divine mind — no human soul or intellect.
Nestorianism
Jesus was two persons — one divine, one human — loosely joined.
Eutychianism (Monophysitism)
Jesus's divine and human natures merged into one hybrid nature.
Monothelitism
Jesus had only one will (divine), not a human will.
Soteriology
Eschatology
Sacraments
Transubstantiation
The bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.
Paedobaptism
Infants of believing parents should be baptized.
Memorialism (Zwinglianism)
Communion is a memorial — bread and wine are symbols only.
Credobaptism (Believer's Baptism)
Only conscious believers should be baptized — by full immersion.
Authority
Pneumatology
Scripture
Worship
Other
Trinitarian Agnosticism
Uncertainty or agnosticism about the doctrine of the Trinity.
Continuity Theology
The OT and NT reveal the same God — wrath and love appear in both.
Iconodulism (Icon Veneration)
Religious images are legitimate aids to worship, affirmed at Nicaea II (787).
Adiaphorism (Indifference)
Some matters of worship and practice are indifferent — neither commanded nor forbidden.
Spiritual Presence
Christ is spiritually (but not physically) present in the Eucharist.
Eucharistic Agnosticism
Uncertainty about what exactly happens during communion — but something sacred.
Eternal Conscious Torment
The unsaved suffer conscious punishment forever in hell.
Metaphorical Hell
Hell is a metaphor for the consequences of rejecting God, not a literal place of fire.
Penal Substitutionary Atonement
Christ bore the legal penalty for human sin, satisfying divine justice.
Christus Victor
Christ's death and resurrection defeated the powers of evil, liberating humanity.
Moral Influence Theory
The cross primarily demonstrates God's love, inspiring transformed lives.
Recapitulation Theory
Christ relived and redeemed the human story from within, healing what Adam broke.
Calvinism (Reformed Soteriology)
God unconditionally elects individuals for salvation; grace is irresistible.
Synergism
Salvation requires both divine grace and human cooperation.
Wesleyan Quadrilateral
Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience together guide Christian belief.
Exclusivism
Conscious faith in Jesus Christ is required for salvation — no exceptions.
Inclusivism
God can save people through Christ even if they never heard his name.
Religious Pluralism
All major religions are valid paths to God — no single faith has exclusive truth.
The Anti-Nicene Councils (335–360 AD)
Between Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), at least 13 councils rejected the Nicene formula. For twenty years, homoousios was the heretical position. These are the councils that history mostly forgot.
Council of Tyre
Deposed Athanasius, the chief defender of Nicaea. Rehabilitated Arius. Began the anti-Nicene reaction that would dominate the church for decades.
Position: Anti-Nicene · Imperial backing: Constantine I
Council of Antioch (Dedication Council)
Produced four creeds, none of which used the Nicene term homoousios. Represented the Eastern majority's discomfort with Nicene language.
Position: Homoian / Semi-Arian · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Sardica (Eastern Session)
The Eastern bishops refused to sit with the Western bishops and held their own council, condemning Athanasius and rejecting Nicene theology. The church was splitting in half.
Position: Anti-Nicene · Imperial backing: Constantius II
First Council of Sirmium
Condemned Photinus for denying the pre-existence of Christ, but also avoided the Nicene homoousios formula.
Position: Anti-Nicene · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Second Council of Sirmium
Produced a creed that avoided homoousios and leaned toward a subordinationist position — the Son is "like" the Father.
Position: Homoian · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Arles
CoercedUnder imperial pressure from Constantius II, condemned Athanasius. Western bishops who refused to sign were exiled.
Position: Anti-Nicene · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Milan
CoercedConstantius II personally attended and demanded condemnation of Athanasius. Bishops who refused — including Pope Liberius and Hilary of Poitiers — were exiled.
Position: Anti-Nicene · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Third Council of Sirmium ("The Blasphemy of Sirmium")
The most extreme anti-Nicene creed. Explicitly banned the use of both homoousios AND homoiousios — all "substance" language was forbidden. Even the semi-Arians were appalled.
Position: Anomoean · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Ancyra
A semi-Arian reaction to Sirmium III. Affirmed homoiousios (similar substance) as a middle ground — rejecting both Nicene homoousios and radical Anomoeanism.
Position: Homoiousian · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Fifth Council of Sirmium (Dated Creed)
Produced the "Dated Creed" — the Son is "like the Father" (homoios) with no substance language. This was the formula imposed on Rimini and Seleucia.
Position: Homoian · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Rimini
CoercedThe largest council of the 4th century. Over 300 bishops initially voted FOR the Nicene position — then were pressured and effectively required to sign the homoian formula before they could leave. Jerome wrote: "The whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian."
Position: Homoian (coerced) · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Seleucia
CoercedThe Eastern counterpart to Rimini. Initially favoured homoiousios (similar substance), but imperial pressure forced acceptance of the homoian formula.
Position: Homoiousian → Homoian · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Council of Constantinople (360)
CoercedRatified the homoian creed empire-wide. From 360-380 AD, the official state religion held that the Son is merely "like" the Father — homoousios was the heretical position. This was the high-water mark of anti-Nicene Christianity.
Position: Homoian (empire-wide) · Imperial backing: Constantius II
Ecumenical, Regional & Confessional Councils
First Council of Nicaea
Condemned Arianism and produced the original Nicene Creed, affirming that the Son is "of one substance" (homoousios) with the Father.
First Council of Constantinople
Expanded the Nicene Creed, affirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism.
Council of Carthage
Condemned Pelagianism, affirming original sin and the necessity of grace.
Council of Ephesus
Condemned Nestorianism and affirmed Mary as Theotokos ("God-bearer").
Council of Chalcedon
Defined Christ as one person in two natures, "without confusion, without change, without division, without separation." Condemned Eutychianism and monophysitism.
Council of Orange
Condemned Semi-Pelagianism and affirmed that grace precedes faith.
Second Council of Constantinople
Condemned the Three Chapters and reaffirmed Chalcedonian Christology.
Second Council of Constantinople (Origenist Anathemas)
Anathematized Origen and his teachings, including apokatastasis (universal restoration) — the idea that all souls, including the devil, would eventually be saved.
Third Council of Constantinople
Condemned Monothelitism, affirming that Christ has two wills (divine and human).
Second Council of Nicaea
Condemned Iconoclasm and restored the veneration of icons.
Council of Frankfurt
Condemned Adoptionism as taught by Felix of Urgel and Elipandus of Toledo.
Fourth Lateran Council
Defined transubstantiation as dogma, requiring belief that bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.
Fifth Lateran Council
Affirmed the immortality of the individual soul, effectively condemning annihilationism and mortalism.
Marburg Colloquy
Luther and Zwingli met to resolve the Protestant eucharistic dispute. They agreed on 14 of 15 points but split on the real presence of Christ in communion. Luther called Zwingli a heretic.
Diet of Speyer
Sentenced Anabaptists to death for practicing believer's baptism. Both Catholic and Protestant authorities agreed the Anabaptists were dangerous heretics.
Augsburg Confession
The primary Lutheran confession. Article XVII explicitly condemned premillennialism as "Jewish opinions." Defined Lutheran positions on justification, sacraments, and church order.
Council of Trent
The Catholic Counter-Reformation council. Addressed Protestant doctrines on justification, sacraments, and Scripture.
Synod of Dort
Condemned Arminianism and established the Canons of Dort — the five points later summarized by the TULIP acronym (a 20th-century mnemonic).
Westminster Assembly
Produced the Westminster Confession of Faith — the foundational Reformed/Presbyterian confession. Defined positions on predestination, perseverance, sacraments, and Scripture.
First Vatican Council
Defined papal infallibility — the Pope, when speaking ex cathedra on faith and morals, is preserved from error by the Holy Spirit.
Strange Fire Conference
John MacArthur's conference condemned continuationism and charismatic practices as dangerous and borderline heretical, calling modern prophecy claims a form of neo-Montanism.
Evangelical Theological Society Debate
The ETS held a major plenary forum on the Trinity, where significant opposition to EFS was voiced. No formal doctrinal position was issued, but the debate highlighted that many evangelical theologians consider EFS incompatible with Nicene Trinitarianism.