Docetism and the Mandate for Dominion

Docetism denies Christ’s true incarnation and, in doing so, empties Christianity of its power in history. By treating salvation as escape from the material world rather than deliverance from sin, it undermines God’s law, Christ’s kingship, and the biblical call to exercise dominion.

The incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ redeems flesh and history, restoring His people to righteous rule under God. Dominion is not unspiritual—it is the fruit of the true gospel lived out in obedience.

Docetism: The Crippling Heresy

Docetism denies the full humanity of Christ, treating His incarnation as a mere appearance rather than real flesh and blood. Scripture condemns this error plainly: “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (2 John 7). By spiritualizing Christ, Docetism also devalues God’s law, history, and the physical world, leading to retreatism and powerlessness in the church.

A Christ who is not truly incarnate cannot truly redeem. The gospel is not escape from the world, but Christ’s victory in the world—body and soul—calling His church to faithful obedience and dominion under Him.

Modern Gnosticism

Modern Gnosticism repeats an ancient error: it elevates elite “knowledge,” symbolism, and changing ideas above the plain Word of God. It rejects the literal meaning of Scripture, especially Genesis, downplays God’s law, and scorns ordinary believers as naïve, while adapting Christianity to current philosophy, science, and cultural fashion.

Whether in theology, art, politics, or even conservatism, modern Gnosticism replaces God’s unchanging truth with evolving meanings set by the spirit of the age. Yet Scripture remains clear: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot extinguish it” (John 1:5).

Gnosticism

Gnosticism teaches that evil lies in the material world and that salvation comes through secret knowledge, not through Christ’s finished work. It rejects the Old Testament, God’s law, and moral responsibility, replacing grace with human insight and autonomy.

Though ancient, Gnosticism lives on today—in modern art, philosophy, theology, and ethics—where immediacy replaces mediation, feelings replace truth, and man replaces God. Against this, Scripture declares a God who speaks, commands, judges, and saves—and who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.

Heresy today thrives under the banner of “personal choice.” In the name of peace, churches often silence defenders of orthodoxy while tolerating false teaching. Truth is sacrificed to harmony, and those who insist on Scripture are labeled divisive.

Modern culture denies objective truth altogether, treating belief as personal preference rather than submission to God’s revealed Word. This spirit makes heresy normal and orthodoxy suspect. Yet the task remains: to contend for the faith once delivered, even when the age prefers choice over truth.

Heresy originally meant choice—placing personal opinion above God’s revealed truth. Throughout history, heresies have taken many forms, but they share a common root: redefining God, Christ, or salvation to fit human philosophy rather than Scripture.

From ancient Gnosticism and Arianism to modern process theology, heresy consistently undermines revelation, incarnation, and God’s authority. When man reshapes theology, truth erodes. Orthodoxy is not rigidity—it is faithfulness to the God who has spoken.

Modern religion often claims belief in God while rejecting His law. When pastors say Jesus had “no rules,” they replace God’s authority with human preference. A god without law makes no claim on our lives—and therefore changes nothing.

This antinomian faith breeds lawlessness. When obedience is grounded in feelings instead of God’s commandments, man dethrones God and enthrones himself. God is not dethroned in reality—only in man’s imagination. He still reigns, and the call remains: repent and submit to His rule.

All true knowledge begins with God. When man makes himself the final judge of truth—treating nature, reason, or experience as ultimate—knowledge collapses into meaninglessness. Apart from God, facts become brute and irrational, and reason has no foundation.

Scripture is clear: man cannot escape dependence on his Creator. Though he rebels morally, he remains under God’s law and government. Without God there is no knowledge—only confusion; with God, meaning and truth are possible.