+ Lesson 1 Introduction The Holy Scriptures and Sacred Tradition Saint Mark Evangelism Group September 14, 2010 Introduction: The Struggle and the Call We are blessed to start this class on evangelism, in the name of Saint Mark, the first preacher in the land of Egypt. The goal of this class is two-fold. First, we ourselves need to be rooted and grounded in Orthodox teaching, and well-rounded in all aspects of our Coptic tradition. In order to pour out to others, we ourselves need to be filled. If we are empty and do not know our faith well, then it will be impossible to lead others to Christ. How can we develop roots? We must struggle where we are. This is always the advice of the Church Fathers - to struggle. Before you plant a seed, you have to till the soil and cultivate the land. You have to turn the earth. And then when you plant the seed, you have to water it and fertilize the soil, and wait patiently for it grow. But imagine, if we just threw the seed into the ground. And then when we do not see anything growing, we dig up the seed, and check it, and then throw it back into the ground. If we do this repeatedly, we will never allow roots to develop so that a large plant or strong tree can grow. We also need to struggle and be persistent. We need to first struggle in our hearts. We need to be persistent and committed in prayer, fasting, the sacraments and the Divine Liturgy, and the reading of the Holy Bible. It is easy to give up because we are bored, or because we do not understand, or because we don t feel it, and it is not exciting enough. We will never be rooted in our relationship with Christ. Also, we need to struggle in our local parish church and with one another - to bear with one another. If we quickly jump from one church to another for different reasons, then we will also never establish roots. 1
There are many religious organizations and so-called churches that are becoming very worldly and fake in order to satisfy larger numbers of people, to entertain them, to satisfy the need for fun, and to cater to the masses. But where is the sacrifice and the struggle? When a person gives and sacrifices, they will find more peace, actually, not hardship. If we only work on the satisfaction of the self, it will produce anxiety, because we will never ever be satisfied. But when we focus on the other, then we become Christ-like, and He is the King of Peace, and the source of joy, and the source of love, and mercy, etc. We will gain great grace. The second goal of this class is to prepare preachers and teachers of the Coptic Orthodox Christian faith. In order to preach, we must do so with meekness and fear. Saint Peter writes in his first epistle, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15). Our hearts must be dedicated and consecrated to the Lord in whatever circumstance we find ourselves - whether at work, at school, in our families, etc. When we preach, it should be with meekness, for this is the way of Christ, and we are His disciples. To be meek means to be quiet and gentle, and to be submissive. The Lord said, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle (meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). We not only preach in gentleness and without aggression, and also with fear. To live in the fear of God is not to be afraid and worried, but to fear judgment that will motivate us toward repentance. And as a person grows in the fear of the Lord, they also grow in wisdom and love. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Then the person will only fear being separated from God. When we approach evangelism, we do so because we are called. Some of us will be called to preach and serve within our local churches, some within the local 2
community, or on our college campuses, and some in other countries and to the ends of the earth. The call should be discerned and understood through prayer, with God speaking in the heart, and also with the guidance of the father of confession. The end goal is the same - the salvation of our own souls and the salvation of others. This is not just a social service. We re not in the business of entertaining people, but we are trying to produce a change toward holiness in individuals, starting with ourselves and then with others. The Beauty of Orthodoxy in the Coptic Church The beauty of the Orthodox Church with her proper interpretation of the Bible, and her sacraments and Divine Liturgy means very little if our lives and the lives of others are not changed. See how many beautiful saints the Orthodox Church has produced. Let us be motivated by love to produce saints; to return ourselves, and our brothers and sisters from error, to cover a multitude of sins and to save a soul from death (James 5:19-20), so that the angels in heaven may rejoice with us (Luke 15:10). Along these same lines, we must remember that we have a treasure that needs to be shared. One cannot have something so precious and keep it from others. We are blessed to have the fullness of the Christian faith. We have a pure form of faith. The interpretation of the Holy Bible is very sound and correct. This is a faith that is passed from one generation to the next since the time of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles. And not only are we blessed to have a treasure in Orthodoxy, but also because we are Coptic. The Orthodox Church, in general, is rich in her saints and martyrs in every generation. Also, the Coptic Church is especially rich. Also, the rites of the Coptic Church especially are beautiful gems. Think about Holy Week, where people are attending services day and night and enjoying them. Or also, consider the Fast of Saint Mary with its vespers services and glorification hymns. Or consider, the Coptic Month of Koiak with its joyful praises and all-night vigils. Or consider Great Lent with its weekday liturgies full of prostrations of repentance (metanias). The life of the Church is so beautiful. This is the beauty that we want 3
to appreciate as we learn about it more and more, and to share this treasure with others. The Search for Truth We are going to begin today by understanding the two main sources of Orthodox teaching: 1) The Holy Scriptures and 2) Sacred Tradition. The Church s main concern is that her children walk in Truth. Saint John writes in his third epistle, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth (3 John 4). At every point in a person s life, they will begin to ask themselves questions like, What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? Why is there evil and suffering? Does God exist? Is there life beyond the grave? and so on. So a person begins to study religion to find the answers, with the hope that he or she will come into contact with a reality that is deeper than anything we find in the world. Everything in this world is changing and temporary. People are looking for permanence. The Truth comes in our Lord Jesus Christ, who answers all of our questions, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). And in order to properly understand the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in the knowledge of Truth, we have to turn toward the Holy Scriptures as interpreted properly in Sacred Tradition and the Holy Fathers of the Church. The faith of the Orthodox church has remained unchanged. Orthodox means straight or right (Orthos) glory, judgment, opinion (doxa). When people started coming up with different opinions, either because they were influenced by other religions and philosophies, or because of pride, or because they wanted to justify their behavior, the church had to express the truth in what are called dogmas. Dogmas are expressions of the faith. For example, in Acts 15, we read that the Apostles met in a council in Jerusalem to decide how the Gentiles (the non-jews) 4
should be accepted in the Church and what would be required of them. After they made their decision, Saint Paul and Saint Timothy went through the cities and delivered to the believers the decrees (dogmata) to keep. They were delivering the expression of truth. Dogma is not a personal opinion, but they are constant and non-personal opinions. These are reached through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the consensus of the Church and her Fathers. The Dogmas of the Church are based on the Holy Scriptures and Sacred Tradition. The Holy Scriptures The Bible is a collection of books written by the holy prophets and apostles under the action of the Holy Spirit. That is, these books are divinely inspired. Saint Paul writes, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Holy Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is focused on the expectation of Christ. After the fall of man, there was a need for the Messiah to come, a Savior, who could save man from eternal death. Therefore, all the righteous men and women, and the prophets died in the hope and the expectation of the coming of Christ. In the New Testament, this is fulfilled with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who saved mankind and returned him to paradise once again. First, the Orthodox Church recognizes 38 books of the Old Testament. Some of these books may be joined together to form a single book, which brings the number down to 22 and corresponds to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These books are further divided into four parts: 1) The Books of Moses (the Torah/ the Law), 2) the Historical Books, 3) The Wisdom Books, and 4) the Prophets 5
In addition there are other non-canonical or the second canonical books included in the Greek Bible - the Septuagint - that also have authority. They are called noncanonical, not because they are against Church law or canon, but because they were not included in the original Hebrew Canon. These books are also part of the Coptic Church s cycle of reading. For example, we read from the Wisdom of Solomon during Holy Week, or the Book of Tobit on the Sixth Friday of Great Lent. The Hebrew originals of most of these books have been lost, and most of the books were composed in the last few centuries before Christ. The following are the 22 Canonical Books: 1. Genesis 2. Exodus 3. Leviticus 4. Numbers 5. Deuteronomy 6. Joshua 7. Judges and Ruth 8. First and Second Kings (First and Second Samuel) 9. Third and Fourth Kings (First and Second Kings) 10.First and Second Paralipomena (First and Second Chronicles) 11.First Esdras (Ezra) and Nehemiah 12.Esther 13.Job 14.Psalms 15.Proverbs 16.Ecclesiastes 17.Song of Songs 18.Isaiah 19.Jeremiah (including Lamentations) 20.Ezekiel 21.Daniel 6
22.The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). The non-canonical or second canonical books: 1. Second and Third Esdras (often called First and Second Esdras in the West) 2. Tobit 3. Judith 4. The Wisdom of Solomon 5. Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Joshua, the Son of Sirach) 6. Baruch 7. Macabees I, II, and III 8. The Epistle of Jeremiah 9. Psalm 151 10.Additions to the books of Esther, 2 Chronicles (The Prayer of Manesseh), and Daniel (the Song of the Three Youth, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon). As for the New Testament, the Church recognizes 27 canonical books, also divided in four parts, similar to the Old Testament: 1) The Four Gospels (the New Law), 2) The Acts of the Apostles (historical book about the early church), 3) the Epistles of Saint Paul and the Catholic Epistles (expresses the wisdom of Christianity and practical Christian living), and 4) the Book of Revelation (a book of prophecy about the end times). We have to consider that the books of the New Testament were written between the late 40 s A.D. and almost 100 A.D. But also, other books started to appear that claimed to have apostolic origins. For example, a group or person might write a gospel and call it the Gospel of Thomas, or the Gospel of Barnabas, or the Gospel of Peter. There are also the Acts of Paul and the Apocalypse of Mary, and so on. So the church was faced with the task of deciding which books are real and which ones are not. Which ones were written by Apostles and which ones only carried the name of an apostle? Which ones were in line with the teachings of the church and which ones were not? 7
The Fathers of the Church started making lists of acceptable Holy Books, but they were very, very cautious. They did not trust themselves until the Church as a whole or the universal voice of the Church spoke and decided on this matter. The local Council of Carthage in 397 A.D., in its 33 rd Canon listed all the books of the New Testament without exception. Saint Athanasius also did the same earlier in one of his Paschal (Easter) letters. Also, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4 th century did the same as well as Saint Augustine in the west. Therefore, by the end of the 4 th century, there were no disagreements about which books made up the New Testament. This is very important for us to consider, especially for those who say, Sola Scriptura or the Bible only, and no tradition. This leads to a great difficulty. If we say the teachings of the Church are based on the Bible only and not tradition, then what was the church doing for the first few centuries until the Bible was fully formed? And also, if we trust the Church Fathers who decided which books of the Bible were in accordance with the teachings of the Church, then why wouldn t we trust them to give us the proper interpretation of the Holy Scriptures? As preachers and teachers, we must be well-established in the Holy Bible and be servants of the Word. This is a concept we will explore later when we talk about the characteristics of an evangelist. For now, let us take to heart the words of our Lord when He said, If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed (John 8:31). Our Lord did not simply say read, or even memorize or understand, but to truly live the Holy Scriptures, so that others will see us as a living Gospel bearing the word of truth. Consider the great honor and esteem that we give the reading of the Holy Scriptures during the Divine Liturgy, in that we even have a whole prayer and litany that prepares us to read and understand, so that we may not only hear, but act according to the Holy Gospel. And also, when the bishop or priest carries the Gospel container, he carries it above His head, teaching us to submit to the Word of God and to obey. These are just glimpses into how we ought to approach the Holy Scriptures. As Saint John Chrysostom says that the Bible is an inexhaustible treasury with all kinds of precious gems. 8
Sacred Tradition We cannot understand the Holy Scriptures without Sacred Tradition. Holy Tradition has been handed down to us from the early Church of the Apostles and their successors, the Early Church Fathers. Sacred Tradition is every teaching not found explicitly in the Holy Scriptures that truly is related to our faith. We are not talking about cultural traditions or even some traditions in practice. For instance, we do not say, We are a traditional church. Therefore, nothing remains unchanged, and therefore, if the early church prayed in the dark because there was no electricity, we should do the same! Although the teachings that have come down to us in the church are not found in the Holy Scriptures, they do not contradict it. Tradition is not stagnant or remain still. It does not mean that nothing can ever be done for the first time. It is a living response to God s voice in the present moment. However, there is no new revelation. Something is not shown for the first time, but rather, we may have to take something that the Church has always believed and express it in a certain way for the first time. For example, in the early 4 th century, there was a heretic named Arius who denied that Christ is God. He said that the Father and the Son were not equal in essence and that there was a time when the Son did not exist. With Saint Athanasius as its champion, the Council of Nicea met to discuss this issue and to express the faith of the church in order to respond to this false teaching or heresy. Did the church make up a new belief? Or for instance, when King Constantine called together the Council, did he invent a new belief that Christ is God? No, of course not. The Church always believed that Christ is God. The martyrs before the Council of Nicea died for this belief. But now, the church had use terms like essence and to express what she had always believed in the Creed. It was expressed and formulated for the first time and carried into the future in order to protect the Church from future heresies also. There are many examples in the Holy Bible itself about the concept of tradition: - Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice to God before there was any written Mosaic Law 9
- Abraham offered a tithe to Melchizedek the priest before there was any written law considering tithing and the priesthood - Saint Jude in his epistle mentions the dispute over Moses body between Archangel Michael and the devil (Jude v. 8) - Saint Paul writes to Saint Timothy saying, Now Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith (2 Timothy 3:8). Who are these men that are never mentioned in the Old Testament? - Saint Paul also quotes the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in His farewell speech at Ephesus, saying, It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). Where is this phrase found in the Gospel? - After His resurrection, the Lord appeared to His disciples for 40 days, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). What did He teach them? We say that He was giving them instructions about the work of His church on earth. - And also, after His resurrection, He appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27). Our Lord explained to them how the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Himself. These interpretations were passed on to the Apostles, as we see Saint Peter quoting the prophecies on the Day of Pentecost, as well as other early Church Fathers. - Also, the apostles baptized 3000 souls on the day of Pentecost. How did they baptize and what were the rites of baptism? They also gathered from house to house breaking bread. What prayers were said? So aren t these rites and rituals, for instance, mentioned in the Holy Scriptures? Because they were already part of the daily life of the Christians for whom these books were written. One of our fathers the priests gave us a good analogy. Imagine giving driving directions to someone. Instead of giving them a simple turn list, you include an entire manual of how their car operates, and then finally, you include the specific directions. This would be silly, because the car is part of our daily experience. 10
Most people asking for driving directions already know how to operate a car. In the Holy Scriptures, it is enough for us to know that the Apostles did these things, but the Church has safeguarded the practices, rites, and rituals through Sacred Tradition. Saint Basil writes about tradition in On the Holy Spirit, chapter 27. In this chapter he asks where we got the idea of facing east in our prayers, or the sign of the cross, or the words said in the rite of baptism. These all came from Sacred Tradition. We can summarize the sources of Sacred Tradition as follows: 1. The Canons of the Holy Apostles - this is a collection of 85 ecclesiastical canons or laws handed down from the apostles and their successors. Some of these canons were cited and approved at the Ecumenical Councils beginning with Nicea. These canons are not apostolic in the sense that they were handed down from the apostles themselves, but they are in the apostolic tradition. 2. The Symbols of Faith in ancient local churches 3. The ancient Divine Liturgies, rites, and prayers 4. The Acts of Christian martyrs, which were examined and approved by local bishops. They were read in public gatherings of Christians under the supervision of the leaders of the churches. In these acts, we see the confession of the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of Christ, and other doctrine and Tradition that the Church still holds today. 5. Ancient records of history, especially Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea, who gathered stories about the apostles and recorded other ancient traditions. 6. The works of the early Christian Fathers and teachers of the Church 7. The very spirit of the Church s life. 11
Conclusion We pray that God will give us the wisdom and the understanding to comprehend the Holy Scriptures and the teachings handed down to us through Sacred Tradition, so that we may grow in the knowledge of Truth in our Lord Jesus Christ and to bear the image of Christ to others in meekness and fear. Glory is due to God forever. Amen. 12