Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as a Divine revelation, and to
regard the exemplary life of Jesus as a model to be copied, while they
deny His Divine origin, His sacrificial death, and His universal
authority.

The early controversies concerning the Second Person of the Trinity were
disputes regarding His nature and the relation in which He stands to the
Father. Certain heretics affirmed that Jesus was a mere man, selected by
God and specially endowed with the gift of His Spirit. Others maintained
that Christ was not God, but a created spirit, nearest to the Father in
dignity, who took upon Him human nature, and, having finished the work
appointed Him on earth, went up again to God the Father. One class, the
Ebionites, regarded Him as a being essentially human, though begotten of
the Spirit, by whom He was anointed above measure; while another, the
Docetae, regarded Him as a Divine Being seemingly bearing human form and
united with the man Jesus. These views were finally rejected by the
Catholic Church, because they conflicted with the Word of God which
affirms the true Divinity of the Son of God, the true humanity of the
Son of Man, and the true union of the two natures of God and man in One
Person, Jesus Christ.

The Gnostics, who were the leaders in connection with such heretical
views, are generally thought to date from the time of Simon Magus. He
had been enrolled as a disciple of the Apostles, and, professing faith
in Christ, was baptized by Peter. But he had joined the Christian Church
for selfish ends,[030] as Luke's statements show. Hymenaeus,[031]
Phygellus, and Hermogenes,[032] referred to by Paul in his second letter
to Timothy, are believed to have been Gnostics, and towards the close of
the first century Cerinthus and Ebion extended the system.[033]