Unfortunately, like the rest of the Patristic writings, we do not have Arabic translations of his writings. St Cyril, St Athanasius, or St Dioscorus for example, we have around 10% of what they wrote, yet they are ones of the greatest defenders of t…
Unfortunately Fr. Matta did not quote the fathers when he wrote his books on the Gospel. He relied mostly on Western theologians. This is why he fell into lot of mistakes. This is in contrast to Fr. Tadros Malaty who explained the Scriptures entirel…
I agree with Fr. Peter. I misread LID's to refer to St Augustine.
St Augustine has at least 17 heretical teachings ....
I do respect St Sawiros and am very careful to honor him on his feasts in my church. The Copts love him so much that he is list…
LID
You mentioned:
"Sometimes fathers like even the great St Augustine mistakenly developed teachings such as predestination;"
This is very interesting. Will you please share the reference(s) about this?
If what is mentioned contradicts the holy Bible, Holy Tradition, the Fathers, then do not accept it. How? Through consulting your father of confession, your bishop, discussing it in a forum like this one, ....
Let me give you an example: you read t…
Stavro,
I wrote: "The idea of elevating man to be like Christ in His divine nature is found in his books. We understand that he is not a trained theologian and that he might have misspoken. But the ideas have to be refuted."
Then you posted a ques…
Stavro,
You say the following
"It is personal between the two, unless you missed the past 60 years."
in response to my comment: "Well, HH always says: "we are not against a particular person, but against an idea"
You are entitled to your own opi…
Stavro,
You commented on my comment:
When he says all of what is Christ's is ours, Fr. Matta elevates man to be like Christ in His divine nature. All of the Fathers that you listed can be misquoted to prove any topic you like including deification
…
Stavro,
You say "I hope you understand that deification is not a heresy and is not a profane word. It is the central pillar of the theology of the Alexandrian Church. "
I never said it is. It is a heresy if it is taken in the context of elevating …
Stavro,
You say "The disaster is that the very holy Pope used the term “El sherk bellah” to describe the teachings of the Cyril in attacking Father Matta El-Maskeen, which the same exact term the Muslims use to describe the Christian theology relat…
Stavro:
You say "Terms like "Allah munazah" and "Allah ta3alah" are understood in Arabic to signify that a complete estrangement between the Divine and the human, with no possibility of unity between both. "
What Arabic reference did you use to ar…
Satan was not sure if Jesus was really the Son of God. At times he sees Jesus glorified by the Father in the Jordan and at times he sees Him hungry. Satan tested Jesus as the Son of God and when Jesus rebuked him, He did so as the Son of God.
Sata…
Ophadece,
The change in the Creed is a small one compared to the other things that need to be corrected. How about changing the homily of St John Chrysostom, that is read on the 11th hour of Tuesday, to fit the new teaching that Judas did not parta…
He became man so that we could become God
He became man under the weakness of the flesh like us. He was tempted just like but was victorious. He blessed our nature through His incarnation and gave us the means to become sons of God.
The phrase "so…
Partakers of the Divine Nature
Partaker of the Divine Nature takes us to Genesis 1 when God created man after His own image in purity, righteousness, saintly conduct, doing what is good, has the power of the weakness over the flesh...etc. Compare w…
A hymn can vary, a prayer can vary but the declaration of faith cannot.
The creed is not a prayer or a hymn, it is a proclamation of faith that was agreed on by all the Ecumenical Churches. Thus, the Copts do not have the right to change it.
When…
Zoksasi,
Your English seems to be pretty good.
Here is a link for the Pascha book in English you can download.
http://www.copticchurch.net/paschabook/
Thanks.
My FoC's theory was that there are people in Egypt who have a vested interest in the debate who are intentionally corrupting the translations and adding unorthodox statements to them, we need to be certain that we're not unintentionally attacking pe…
Very true but why did the Holy synod wake up all of a sudden after 1500 years to correct a wrong practice.
Dear Ophadece,
I am not challenging you but do you have any reference beside the current books that say we skip. I have researched in the ma…
Mozes,
Does Baba Shenoda reject the belief in theosis? Or what does the Coptic church exactly belief and reject?
It seems you know Arabic and understand it well, correct me if I am wrong. Consequently, read HH book "the Modern Heresies", listen to …
zoksasi,
I was just joking. What is happening in your church is utterly wrong and unfortunately it is happening in many small churches here in the US.
Have you spoken with the priest assuming you can communicate with him?
Why are you picking on Coptic?
You said that Arabic also is being read and I am assuming you do not understand Arabic. So the problem is you .. you do not know either Coptic or Arabic ;D
zoksasi,
I think there is a problem with the scenario you just described, there should be accommodation so you can understand be it via a live interpreter, screen, books, .... etc
But this is an exception and not the rule. This probably happens in…
Calm down zoxsasi,
I am sure the gospel is read in the native language. So I do not see a problem. I do not see anything against God Commandment. In fact in Nehemiah 8, Ezra was reading the Law in Hebrew and the Levites were translating. This is wh…
The matanias are done in conjunction with any prayer whether it is Pascha, Ajpeya or just personal prayers.
So, you can mix your ajpeya prayer with few matanias if you can.
But we pray with understanding.
I do not see you point about praying. How does reading the gospel in Coptic make us pray without understanding if we reading the Gospel in Arabic, English, and whatever other language?
How can reading the Gospel in …
You are keeping it alive ON THE expense of prayer.
But look what Christ has said about tradition:
"You have devalued my commandments by doing your traditions."
Praying in "Coptic" is not a spiritual tradition.
What commandment has been devalued…