Adoptionism

A less common, though still common, heresy is known as adoptionism. I had never heard of adoptionism prior to researching heresies, in order to write these explanations, but I am surprised that it took me this long to hear about this belief.

In short, adoptionism is the belief that God was really pleased (for lack of a better term) with Jesus, so God adopted Jesus as His Son. This is a very interesting belief, and it is actually pretty humorous, but its humor is not worth the eternal damnation that comes with holding said belief. God never adopted Jesus, Jesus was sent to earth to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament. Also, adoptionism implies that Jesus is not God, which is also heretical. How could God adopt Himself?

The other glaring issue is the idea that anybody could earn his way to being the Son of God. It is also impossible to be born into this fallen world and live a life free of sin. Even if somebody could follow every single bit of what God commands us to do, he would still be sinful. By being born into this world, we inherit Original Sin, thus making us sinful (our sinful actions do not make things any better). Jesus is God. Jesus was the only exception to the aforementioned burden of Original Sin, which is part of the whole “Jesus-is-the-Messiah” thing. Jesus did not earn His way to being God, He has been God always. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This heresy contradicts everything that the Bible says about Jesus.