[Darris McNeely] We've been going through a series here on the BT Dailys answering the question, "Could you deny Jesus Christ?" We looked at the beginning at the story of Peter, on the night Christ was arrested, where Peter denied Christ three times. And we've been going through a study and an examination for ourselves as we approach the Passover and the all important Days of Unleavened Bread.

Let's go back to the question. What specific areas might it be that we could deny Christ? Well, let's look at scripture to help us understand. In 2 John the seventh verse, the apostle John addresses a problem that was beginning in his day, and it is a problem for our day. 2 John 1:7, "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh." This is a deceiver and an anti-Christ. And so he talks about deception and spirit of anti-Christ, anything that is against Christ.

Now, in John's day, there was a big problem called docetism that was beginning to rear its head. And this is a heresy that you study in Church history, and he nails it right here. Docetism was the idea that Jesus as a man or in the flesh was merely a phantom. That he had not really as God come in the flesh and he was only a phantom. That is a heresy, that is not true. If it is true, you don't have a savior, I don't have a savior. The scriptures very clearly show that Christ was the Son of Man, He was God in the flesh. John the first chapter talks about this. Any less of a teaching denies that. And so John is going against it.

There was another heresy that came up a few years later in the Church. And that was that Christ was not divine. In other words, He had not been God before his human birth. That He had been a created being and He took various forms. That particular heresy is called Arianism. And though it was condemned in the early Church, it still rears its head. And the denial of Jesus Christ as God in any heart or any shape is a heresy according to scripture. And again, denies Christ, and to hold such an idea would make us guilty of that.

These ideas that deny Jesus Christ was God, that He died, that He was resurrected. So many different variants of ideas that deny Jesus Christ. They can impact us. Beware of any teaching that you might ever come across that does not adhere to the very important Biblical teaching that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He was God before His human birth and He came as God. And He was also fully human, a unique part of the teaching about Christ and about God having come that we must understand if we are to understand the fullness of the Gospel and the truth that we have a Savior, and that we have the hope of eternal life.

And so look at one additional point that will help us come back in the next daily. It will help us understand and avoid the trap of possibly denying Jesus Christ. Come back and see us on that one.

That's BT Daily, join us next time.