Why Christian Orthodoxy?
By Victor Beshir
Is Christian
Orthodoxy different from other Christian churches? Are these differences making any impact on
the spiritual life of individuals?
To answer
these questions and others about Christian Orthodoxy, I invite you to discover
that yourself. Here, I will take you on
a wonderful journey back in time to the origins of Christianity, and then from
there we will travel quickly over the century to discover what happened to the
church that was established by Christ and His apostles.
First: What Did happen To The Church In The First five
centuries of Christianity?
The church lived as one church with one faith, one baptism (Eph 4:5), one spirit, one kind of administration, and very closed rituals in the whole world for about five centuries. At that time you could go to any church in the world and share in the Holy Communion. There were no denominations or sects in the church. Although there were different church names, this was merely based on geographical areas to make administration of the churches achievable.
The sad division came
in the year 451 AD in the Chalcedon Council. In this council,
The Oriental Orthodox Churches decided on
continuing to follow the faith as it was delivered from Christ and His disciples
and continue to do so until today.
These churches are the Coptic Orthodox Church (
Starting from this schism, the
other churches, especially in
Second: Why Did The Reformation
In the few centuries preceded the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church in
Starting from the eleventh century, the history of the Roman Catholic Church is full of persecution, inquisitions, and heresies. Burning heretics at the stake and using torture were common methods to deal with the heretics. Here, the word heresy could refer to a false teaching related to the principle of Christian faith or could refer to an act as in the case of William Tyndale, who was strangled and burned in 1536 because he translated the New Testament into English. The word heresy could also just refer to an opinion of matters related more to science or philosophy than to Christianity as in the case of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who was tried by the Inquisition of Rome and forced to spent the last eight years of his life under house arrest because of his scientific evidences that proved the earth revolves around the sun.[1]
Renaissance in the fifteenth and sixteenth century revived the value of the classical Greek and Roman writings, which included among other things the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Learned people at that time started comparing what they read in the Bible and the Classics by the reality they witnessed in the Catholic Church and concluded that ‘Catholicism differed from the church of the New Testament in doctrine, morals, and administration.’ [2] Some called for ‘reform in head and member.’[3]
One example that shows how corrupted the Catholic Church as at that time is the story of Jan Hus, a disciple of John Wyclif. He considered leaving the Catholic Church as an act of honoring Christ and the gospel. Yes, to that extent the learned people started refusing the church and its corruption. Learned people refused the moral corruption in the life of the clergy and the heresies of the church.
Therefore, as soon as Martin
Luther (1483-1546 AD) announced his
disputation on indulgences and posted his 95 theses, the news spread
like wildfire throughout
People of the Middle
Ages in Europe had a very real dread of the period of punishment in purgatory
and hell, which were graphically portrayed in the church. Based on the teachings of the indulgence of
the Catholic Church, the Church controlled both destinations. Unfortunately, facing
all the fears of both, the Church offered selling indulgences, which
were hard to pay by the poor and a source of distress for the rich, instead of
offering Christ as the Savior.
As a result, when Reformation started,
people hurried to join to get rid of the nightmare of both the purgatory and
the hell.
Salvation and grace were almost forgotten topics in the Catholic Church at that time. Of course, in the middle of the corruption there were very faithful clergy and laymen who led good Christian lives. But, as usual, most human beings forget the good and remember the bad, even inflate the bad to make it look worse than the reality.
In conclusion, now you can see why the reformation movement separated itself from the church and denied most of what belonged to the church. They had had it with the Catholic Church and they were eager to get rid of all that belonged to the church. They put all their efforts, derived by psychological and social impulses, to refute all what the church called for and believed in, especially those things that were done by the clergy. They refused priesthood because of the corruption of the clergy and subsequently denied all work that required a priest. Since all the sacraments were administered by a priest, Protestants refused most, if not all, of the sacraments (Of course this depends on what Protestant denomination you talk about. Some denied all sacraments, while others still acknowledge some with the same perspective or different ones from the Catholic Church’s perspectives).
So, Protestants refused
some or all of the sacraments, the intercession of saints, many rites, and
other traditions not because of biblical, traditional, or historical reasons,
but rather because of inner- psychological, historical, and social
reasons. Then, later on they tried to
rationalize them by finding biblical verses that supported their beliefs.
In addition, they based all their teachings on salvation and grace because
Catholics forgot them.
The
Coptic Orthodox Church had no relationship with what happened by the Catholic
Church during this period. On
the contrary, the Coptic Church did not adhere to
any of the teachings or heresies of the Catholic Church during this
period. Rather, Copts adhered to the
apostolic teaching as was received directly from Christ and handed down over
the centuries until it reached us today, without change or addition or elimination. It considered itself as a defender of the
faith that was once for all delivered by the saints ((Jude 1: 2,3), and the
Lord along with His apostles asked to observe, reserve, and guard (Matt 28:20,
2 John 1:10, 2 Tim 1:13, 1 Tim 6:3-4, 2 Thes 2:15, Phi 4:9, Gal 1:8).
.
Third: Where Is The Church of The New Testament?
Many are eager to know
about what happened to the church of the New Testament and where it is
now. Many
more ask about what happened to the church between the apostolic age and the
Reformation era.
To answer these questions, Let us visit the landmarks
of the Christian history.
1. Christ taught His disciples not from a book but He delivered a life and taught them all that were related to the church life.
2.
All the disciples had one faith, which they
delivered to all the nations and exhorted them to keep; ‘I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to
contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’
(Jude 1:4).
3. The church lived as a guardian of the faith.
4. The church in the entire world lived for at least five centuries with one faith and almost the same worship (culture impact usually appears in worship) and administration. At that time there were no Orthodox or Catholics or Protestants, but Christians belonging to local churches that were established to help in pastoral care.
5. The first schism in the church in the Chalcedon Council (451 AD) happened over the issue of the nature of Christ. Please review the drawing in this page to see the line that refers to the one church before this council, and the two lines derived from this line: one to refer to the schism into the ‘Oriental Orthodox Churches’ and the other one to the Western Churches, which split again in 1054 AD to the ‘Roman Catholic Church’ and ‘Eastern Orthodox Church’ because of many heresies that crept into the Roman Catholic Church. Now, pay attention to the two lines out of the line that was referring to the Western Churches, one to refer to the Roman Catholic Church and the second to refer to the ‘Eastern Orthodox Church.’
6. In the sixteenth century the ‘Roman Catholic Church’ suffered another sever split by the ‘Reformation.’ Now, review the other branch from the line depicted the ‘Roman Catholic Church.’
7. The ‘Oriental Orthodox Church’ never split or had any deviation of faith. It did not experience change of faith. So, it kept the faith as it was delivered by our Lord through His apostles.
8. Oriental Churches have a spiritual treasure. One of these churches is the Coptic Orthodox Church.
9. When you look carefully at the drawing, you will find that the Coptic Church still on the same drawn lines that started in the days of the apostles. This is because the Coptic Church did not suffer any schism and still has the same faith and practices of the church of the New Testament.
Eastern Orthodox
Reformation
1054 AD 1529 AD
Roman Catholic
Western Churches
33 AD 451 AD Oriental Orthodox Churches (Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian,
Chalcedon Armenian Orthodox Churches) continued with the same Council faith as in 33 AD.
Fifth: Why Orthodoxy?
In addition to the historical aspects that we discussed above, there are very important aspects of Orthodoxy that you may need to be aware of. The Coptic Orthodoxy still has a treasure: ‘the fullness of Christ’ that Orthodoxy still has in its sacramental life and its long- experienced spiritual life.
What the Coptic Orthodox Church has today is exactly the same one that was delivered once and for all by the Saints (Jude 1: 2,3) and was pass down throughout the centuries faithfully by the church. The richness of the Coptic Orthodox Church is found in its preservation of the faith, beliefs, spirituality and worship without changes.’ ‘Therefore, it still keeps the spiritual treasure as it was delivered from Christ to the apostles.’ ‘The sacraments that the Lord instituted to be the means of our salvation are still in the Coptic Orthodox Church.’ In other words, ‘What you see in the Coptic Church is exactly how salvation was obtained in the early church.’