KingBrilliant,

It took the ancient church a while to sort out the appropriate ways to conceptualize and talk about the person, ministry, and purpose of the earthly Jesus. Some early theologians could make no sense out of the notion of a deity (infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, etc.) becoming a human being (finite, limited in all the ways humans are limited). It sounded like logically contradictory nonsense to them. Some couldn't handle the idea of God as a completely spiritual entity (spiritual/nonmaterial = good) truly becoming a human material entity (material/corporeal = bad). Others couldn't deal with the idea of an incarnate omnipotent deity apparently being thwarted and truly suffering, dying, and to all appearances failing. So for a variety of reasons a variety of "theories" denying the true humanity of the earthly Jesus were developed. Sometimes these theologians are grouped together and referred to as "Docetists." They insisted that the earthly Jesus was only an illusion and only seemed to be human, to have been born, to have lived and suffered.

You will occasionally run into contemporary Christians who are uncomfortable with the all the implications of a fully human earthly Jesus. You might want to take a look at www.newadvent.org/cathen/05070c.htm