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One of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity is the deity of Christ, the doctrine that the God of the Bible came to earth as a man, born of a woman.  Theologians refer to this as the incarnation.  Without this doctrine, there would be no doctrine of the Trinity and no basis for what happened on the cross to be an eternal solution for the sinfulness of humanity.  Only God is eternal, so you need the incarnation.

You would think, given its centrality to biblical theology, that everyone in the early years of Christianity would have fully embraced the doctrine of the incarnation. Amazingly, that is not the case.  It's not that Scripture is unclear on the matter.  Rather, some people didn't want to believe it.  They thought it was too great a condescension for God to make.  Others just couldn't wrap their minds around it.  Before we condemn anyone too quickly, think about it for a moment.  How could God be conceived in a woman's womb, gestate for nine months, travel down the birth canal, and be born? How could one person be both God and man?

Alternative interpretations of Jesus' identity arose early in the history of Christianity.  Some, such as the Ebiontes, decided to reject the incarnation altogether.  They argued Jesus was only a man.  Ebionites thought the incarnation, which produced a Godhead, undermined monotheism.  The Arians considered Jesus divine, but not co-equal with the Father.  As such, Jesus wasn't God incarnate but God's first and highest creation.  Adoptionists argued that Jesus was merely a man but became God at some point, perhaps at his baptism or resurrection.  Rather than incarnation, God entered into the man Jesus, and the result was the deification of Jesus.

On the other side, there were groups who embraced the full deity of Jesus but denied his humanity. Docetism asserted that Jesus only seemed to be human.  Apollinarianism didn't go quite so far.  Instead of denying Jesus was human, Apollinarianism suggested that the divine Jesus took on aspects of human nature but not the complete human nature.  Nestorians taught that two distinct persons, one human and the other God, were inside Jesus, who therefore could not be equated with God.  The Monophysites said the incarnation eradicated the human nature, denying Jesus' humanity.

Christian sects argued for and against these positions for centuries.  Certain verses were relied on for each view (to the neglect or omission of other verses).  Eventually,  a commitment to all verses emerged, embracing the entirety of biblical teaching on Jesus.  The Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Calcedon (AD 451) produced teaching that Jesus was fully God and fully man, that there were two natures in one person.

Christian history is helpful in that it can guide you to discern heretical teaching when it occurs.