Theology – Page 4 – Faith Unto Ages

The Early Church Fathers: Were they Miaphysite?

A common misconception about the Oriental Orthodox Church is that it’s Christology is ‘Monophysite’, meaning, that She followers the erroneous teachings of Eutyches of Constantinople that Jesus’ humanity had disappeared into His Divinity.

On the contrary, the Church teaches that Jesus Christ is Fully God and Fully Man; but One Concrete and Composite Nature from Two. This form of Christology is known as ‘Miaphysitism’, which has its basis in the teachings of the Early Church Fathers.

Below is an explanation of our Church’s Christology is more detail by His Holiness Pope Shenouda the Third, followed by a Florilegium on this dogmatic teaching.

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.

Reflection: Why was Jesus Baptized? The Feast of Epiphany & Biblical Catechesis

My brothers and sisters, today I wanted to share some catechesis for the Holy Feast of Epiphany:

As we know, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus within the Jordan river. But why? Is not baptism used for the remission of sin? Was Jesus not sinless? Below I will answer the reasons why our Lord was baptized.

1. Christ was baptized to fulfill the Old Testament story of Exodus. How so? Because: Just as God called the Israelites out of the land Egypt through water (Exodus 12) to which they later passed through the Jordan to enter the promised land (Book of Numbers), so has Christ been called out of Egypt (Matt 2:15), to also later pass through the Jordan through His baptism to show that He is the fulfillment of Israel. Thus His words to John: “It is fitting to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matt 3:15).