Heresies at a Glance and Their Modern Echoes
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| Heresy | Core claim | Addressed by | Modern echo |
| Arianism | The Son is a created being | Nicaea I, Constantinople I | Jehovah's Witnesses, some unitarian groups |
| Pneumatomachianism | The Spirit is a creature | Constantinople I | Views treating the Spirit as a mere "force" |
| Apollinarianism | Christ lacked a human mind | Constantinople I | Popular piety that imagines Christ "only acting" human |
| Nestorianism | Two persons in Christ | Ephesus, Constantinople II | Presentations that split "Jesus the man" from "the Christ" |
| Eutychianism / Monophysitism | Humanity absorbed into divinity | Chalcedon | Docetic-leaning views that Christ only seemed human |
| Monothelitism | One will in Christ | Constantinople III | Underplaying Gethsemane |
| Iconoclasm | Images are idolatrous | Nicaea II | Debates over religious art in worship |
| Modalism (Sabellianism) | One person in three "modes" | Background to Nicaea I | Oneness Pentecostalism |
| Pelagianism | Humans can save themselves without grace | Ephesus | Self-help or moralistic Christianity |
Why It Still Matters
The apostle John gives the standard: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God" (1 John 4:2). Paul adds, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). The councils were, at their best, attempts to protect that foundation. Their summary can be put in the apostle's own words: "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Timothy 3:16).