Diakon Christian Azarias

The Divinity of Christ

The Oriental Orthodox Church teaches that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – One in Essence with The Father and the Holy Spirit. Of all the Three Persons of The Holy Trinity, Only The Word (Jesus Christ) became Incarnate for our sake. This means that as the Eternal Logos (Word) of The Father, He took on flesh from the Virgin Mary – making Him perfect God and Perfect man in One Concrete Nature (More on this in a future post).

To expand on this dogmatic truth, St. Clement of Alexandria says the following: “The Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning—for he was in God—and of our well-being. And now this same Word has appeared as man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things” (Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1 [A.D. 190]).

Sola Scriptura & the Private Interpretation of Scripture: Is it Orthodox?

“…that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation…” ( 2 Peter 1:20).

What exactly is the Private interpretation of scripture?

St. Basil the Great defines the private interpretation of scripture as one refusing “to follow the fathers, (and) not holding their declaration of more authority than one’s own opinion…” (Letter to the Canonicae 52:1 [A.D. 370]).

In other words, the one interpreting the Bible interprets it in accordance to how they want it to be understood. This is dangerous since this creates opportunities for false doctrines to arise, as the individual misinterpreting the scriptures departs from the Tradition of the Church and the Gospel message as a whole.

Repent and Believe in The Gospel!

The word Gospel comes from the Greek word evaggelion (εὐαγγέλιον) which means “Good news” or “Glad Tidings”. Within the ancient & pre-Christian Greco-Roman empire, it was common to see this word used when a king was praised for their accomplishments, military victory, or ascension to a throne.

For example, the Roman senator Paullus Fabius Maximus issued an edict in honor of Caesar Augustus. He declared that his birthday should be considered as the beginning of the year on the provincial calendar since he brought peace to the Roman Empire. Because of this, his birth was considered to be the beginning of “εὐαγγέλιον”.