Jesus has done life’s heaviest lifting; George was merely urging the Church to stay out of the way.  See the column below, 

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Spirituality Column #872

August 1, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 6

By Bob Walters

“Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” – Romans 6:1-2

This week we are wrapping up George’s 12 warnings to the Coptic Orthodox Church (background HERE), #11 dealing with sin and mercy, and #12, our life in Christ.

“Eleventh: Whoever imagines that the Lord died to unite justice with mercy, and that “eternal sins” required an eternal redemption; then he has by this given sin a divine attribute, which is the attribute of eternality, and made a god out of sin and sinners.  By this he loses the powerful work of Christ crucified, for with Him we are crucified, die, and [are] resurrected, as the Apostle of the Lord [Paul] says in Romans 6:1-8. By our death in Him, we also rise to newness of life, and whoever denies the power of the Cross denies the glory of the Resurrection.”

Paul’s question in Romans 6:1 about “Should we sin more that righteousness may abound?” – I have to say – made a lot of sense to me my first time reading through the Bible.  I expected 6:2 to say “Yes!” not “No!”  Jesus so often defies human logic.

I’m guessing George’s complaint about temporal Coptic doctrine of a decade ago, on this point, involved the Church skipping past gracious redemption while assigning unconditional condemnation for certain sins.  George had a knack for sniffing out false doctrine and seeing scriptural truth hiding in plain sight.  

Paul of course explains his answer throughout Romans with thorough depth and elegance.  George here puts it bluntly: sin is not eternal; grace and redemption are.  The work of God, Christ and the Spirit are eternal.  Typical George, going straight for the pressure point.  In this case, sin is not eternal and was not created by God; humans did that on our own with the freedom God gave us … and with an assist from Satan.

Freedom opens us to sin, yes.  But without freedom, love is impossible.  Jesus brings new life, the Gospel is about renewal, and faith is a journey that never stops.

Also, justice and mercy are not counter-weight opposites but complementary and gracious attributes of God’s righteousness. Sin is human and temporal; grace is divine and eternal.  Justice may not mean punishment, and mercy is always love in action.

“Twelfth: Whoever denies that we are partakers of the divine nature (1 Peter 2:4), and that this is partaking in immortality, adoption, resurrection, and inheritance of the Kingdom; then he has denied the divinity of the Lord, who has given us from His immortality, his sonship, his resurrection, and has promised that we will be on the right hand of the Father in His Second Appearance.”

Much as I would love to know George’s exact observation prompting this warning, I have no doubt he was seeing the Church interrupting or interfering with the free and personal relationship between congregants and Christ.  George saw “The Kingdom” or “Heaven” not as something only “ahead” or “in the future” for humans, but an eternal component, partaken of now, of our true and fully human life.

Are we fully human?  No (don’t be surprised) … not without Jesus, and not yet, not in this fallen life. But our faith, joy, love, creativity, and hope allow an occasional and powerful peek behind God’s divine, mystical curtain. Immortality, adoption, resurrection, and inheritance of the Kingdom are promised and shared in a life with Christ.  So, smile.

Jesus has done life’s heaviest lifting, once for all.  Don’t ever say otherwise.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) again thanks Joyce Vannatta for sharing George’s letter. This has been fun.

George’s 12-part Coptic Orthodox warning lands this week on salvation’s payment plan … of which – spoiler alert – there isn’t one. See the column below... - Blessings, Bob

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Labels:12 warnings, Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt, Galatians 2:20,  George Bebawi, grace, Jesus paid it all, punishment, retribution, transaction

Spirituality Column #871

July 25, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 5

By Bob Walters

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” – Galatians 2:20

Before we get to George’s tenth warning to the Coptic Orthodox Church  (background HERE), let’s taste-test the retributive and transactional fine whine of the modern secular and Christian age: “Eye for an eye … A pound of flesh … I want my rights … That’s not fair … I deserve it … You owe me … Jesus paid it all.”

OK, that last one – I know – sticks stubbornly in our collective Christian craws and consciousness. But, oh my goodness – and I agree with Orthodoxy on this one – it is a piece of heresy that misdirects all that Jesus did.  Sadly, this profane, unbiblical, divinity-stripping metaphor – “Jesus paid for my sins” – has become basic modern Western Christian doctrinal exposition and belief while having nothing to do with the divine mission of Christ, purpose of God, or the comforting light of the Holy Spirit.  It puts Jesus and us in the check-out lane, not the Kingdom highway.

God is love (1 John 4:8), not a payment plan.  Jesus came to heal us, not buy us. The Spirit comforts us, not guilt-trips us. Payment, purchase, and guilt have become the default currency, human dynamic, and woeful understanding of Jesus’s divine and perfect sacrifice. 

Yes, we are forgiven, redeemed, and our sins are covered.  But, our salvation is not a receipt of transaction; it is the faithful plan, way, and will of God for us to return to His Kingdom.  God does not buy us like slaves, He adopts us like children. Only if we so choose are we slaves of our own love and so let Jesus live in us in faith and sharing.  It is love, not guilt. Renewal, not price.

“Price” puts believers on the wrong path of payment rather than grace.  Errantly, it is how we process the Cross of Jesus and translate it, coarsely, into the gaudy modern aesthetic of transaction.

Anyway … What did Jesus pay? Who did He pay? What did He buy? Here’s George:

“Tenth: Whoever thinks that the Lord paid the price of sins on the Cross, and that the Father has punished him and lighted on him the fire of divine justice; has by this tasted the bitterness of straying away from the Apostolic teachings that the disciple of the Lord [Paul] taught saying, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). He has lost the fountain of salvation, the Cross, the seal of baptism and the chrismation, because he has not been sealed by a seal of punishment and retribution from the son, but by the seal of righteousness, love, forgiveness, and renewal.”

This one is a real jolt for most Western Christians because in all things we think in terms of payment and punishment.  Jesus is different.  Paul says we are not sealed – i.e., restored to life – by God’s punishment, but by God’s love and Jesus’s life and obedience. Today’s culture thinks in terms of price and retributive justice, but Jesus is a divine sacrifice and a gift in grace.  He is not paying God; Jesus is freeing us and opening to humanity the only gate to the Kingdom of God, which is faith in Christ.  His life in us gives us life with God.  We don’t get an itemized monthly bill (thank God).

(And by the way, “chrismation” is the Coptic rite of what Catholics and others call “confirmation,” or doctrinal acceptance into the Church body.)

God – Father-Son-Spirit – wants our faith and obedience freely.  It is not a march of guilt or control by fear, it is the glorious truth joining our lives with God’s love.  We short-sell ourselves thinking we are a tradeable commodity.  No, we – humans – are God’s favorite Creation, created in His own image.  Here’s one way to compare and accept the mystery: I don’t think my own children owe me anything.  I just love them and feel no debt either way.  True loyalty is love, not price.

Alas, we will not escape this miserable doctrine of payment anytime soon.  It is claimed in almost every modern hymn and burbles up in almost every prayer. Why? Likely because payment is easy to understand; grace is not.  Heresy – or even inept metaphors – hurt us, not God, and are a low comment on our righteousness and present joy, not God’s.  Besides, the check – if one still insists on payment – has already cleared.  George’s final warnings eleven and twelve are next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), long ago, gave up calculating the value of his salvation.  The coin of God’s realm is thankfulness that returns to us as joy and love.  Praise God; Jesus lives.

George always knew it was one’s heart, not one’s church affiliation, that carries the key to God’s Kingdom.  And he’d fight a church that said otherwise.  See the column below.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #870

July 18, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 4

By Bob Walters

“…and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:10

George Bebawi and his wife May Rifka for many years hosted Friday night Bible and theological studies at their home in Carmel, Ind.  What was especially fascinating, beyond George’s teaching, was the makeup of the all-comers crowd.

It was completely normal to have Christian ministers, Catholic students, Orthodox priests, Bible scholars, serious Christian church members, and even the occasional seeker or non-believer crowded into their spacious living room.  When George talked, people listened and asked questions, but this was not a debate society. Conversations with this eclectic group during the social time before and after were always interesting.

I describe this because George, a Coptic priest in Cairo in the 1970s and 1980s, first begged trouble with the Church when he allowed non-Coptic Christians to share a Coptic eucharist (communion) he was celebrating.  George knew that Jesus looked at one’s heart, not denominational identity, and George’s faith led him the same way.

This led to rifts between George, who was a top Coptic administrator, and other clergy. George was first excommunicated, which meant the church wanted him gone.  Later George was anathematized, which euphemistically meant it wanted him dead.

Thankfully, inquisitions had gone out of style. When Coptic leadership changed decades later, George was restored to communion in late 2020 before passing in February 2021.

His firm focus on “Jesus as No. 1” helps explain the fourth installment in our series (background HERE) on 12 warnings George issued to Church leaders in 2012.

“Eighth: Whoever thinks that the bishop or priest, etc., are the mediators between himself and the Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord, then he has fallen far from grace that comes from and is given by the Lord Jesus Christ alone.”

This follows last week’s warnings, numbers six and seven, regarding holiness of the clergy and the church. George is now addressing who mediates between God and man.  Scripture is pretty clear: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:5).  See also Hebrews 8:6 (ministry and mediator superior to the old covenant), 9:15 (“Christ the mediator of a new covenant”), and 12:24 (“mediator of the new covenant”). It is a trap for man to lose the mediation of his soul with Jesus, instead giving it to a fallen, earthly human. Grace is Christ’s alone.

“Ninth: Whoever says that the Patriarch is the head of the Church, or says so in theory, then he has denied the leadership of Christ, the head, from whom grows every member of the body (Col 2:19).”

While this is a fairly direct broadside at the leader of the Coptic Church – there were obvious issues between him and George – we must remember Christ is the head of the Church.  We can look around at all of Christendom and see examples of clergy humbly in control of their mission and acknowledging their roles as shepherd, teacher, and steward.  Sadly, we see the charlatans, too, and those “puffed up without reason” (Colossians 2:18).  Our spiritual growth and faith, are gifts from Father-Son-Spirit, God.  

I am grateful for all the humble but joyous clergy who have directed my steps, so we will close this week with a quote from George’s mentor, an Egyptian monk named Philemon: “You will be humble when you feel the glory of God and realize it isn’t you.”

Amen. More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) especially enjoys refreshers of Philemon’s wisdom.

Friends, Today we address George’s 5^th, 6th, and 7^th warnings to the Coptic Church, which are also good reminders for all of us today. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #869

July 11, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 3

By Bob Walters

“The Spirit who raised Christ will give life to your mortal bodies as well.” Romans 8:11.

We are into Part 3 of examining George Bebawi’s 12 warnings to the Coptic Church that he penned – in Arabic – in 2012.  We explained the exercise in Part 1 (HERE), and today we’re looking at warnings five, six, and seven. George was from Egypt, and the Coptics – “Copt” is the “language of the Pharaohs” – are the Christian Orthodox Church of Egypt founded by Mark (yes, THAT Mark) in the first century.

George wasn’t one to mince words. The modern Coptic offenses he discerned are not always clear in this recently discovered English translation, but his basic theology of the body of Christ and the nature of the Spirit’s work in humanity is stunning.  It is not our task or aim to engage with the Copts, but we take an opportunity to marvel at George’s fruitful mind at work. George’s “warnings” are followed by my comments.

“Fifth: Whoever denies the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, upon the believers, and teaches the lie that this is the descent of grace only; then he has divided his participation with the Trinity and has lost his eternal inheritance, and even his resurrection from the dead (Romans 8:11).”

In his lesson notes on Romans 8:5-11 (Oct. 8, 2008), George wrote: “Paul does not speak of two human elements which are at war in us, the human flesh and the human spirit. Paul is speaking of the human life and its war against the Spirit, that is, God.” First, understand this life spirit is the Holy Spirit, not a human spirit.  Two, “descent of grace only” isolates “salvation” – our “get out of jail free” card – from the Lordship of Jesus. Everyone wants a savior; many are less enthusiastic about obeying a Lord. Our journey into eternity is only complete with both Savior and Lord.

“Sixth: Whoever teaches that the Mysteries are from the clergy and that they are its source rather than its servant only, then he has denied the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, and he has lost the power and work of the one Mediator and one Lord, Jesus Christ, who alone offers us to the service of the Mysteries that he distributes by himself.”

George here is telling priests and clergy to stay in their lane.  They are teachers, servants, and shepherds, not sources of grace or power nor mediators between our faith and Jesus. “Mysteries” are how George refers to God’s love, life, and truth, our redemption in Jesus’s sacrifice, and the Spirit’s presence in humanity.  God does all that; it is not the clergy’s job to declare or rescind salvation.  Jesus is our priest, period.

“Seventh: Whoever thinks that the holiness of a person is rooted in the episcopate or priesthood, or that the holiness of the bishop or the priest is the reason for him remaining holy, then he has denied his baptism and the chrism, and his participation in the one, holy, and catholic body of the Church.”

“Episcopate” means bishops, and “chrism” is the “oil of anointing” used in various Christian rites of consecration or “dedication to God” which, I think, is perhaps the best definition of the word “holy”: something dedicated to God.  George likely perceived that the Coptic leadership saw itself and its church too much as the purveyor of holiness while not assigning proper and full credit for holiness to the Father, Son, and Spirit.  We are drawn together as the Body of Christ, the Church, by the Holy Spirit, not by man.

Any Christian and any clergy in any denomination does well to maintain proper humility within their servant station.  It’s good advice, and George shared it abundantly.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends “georgebebawi.com” for a deep dive, and offers thanks again to Stan Naraine for curating the site..

Friends, my mentor George knew the Christian mistakes of the old days, and a decade ago had some correctives for the modern Coptic Church. Part 2 of the series ... Bob

Spirituality Column #868

July 4, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 2

By Bob Walters

“I have not written anathemas, but warnings.” George Bebawi to the Coptics, 2012

This is the second installment of our look into Dr. George Bebawi’s 12 modern warnings to the Coptic Church.  We explained the exercise last week (#867, scroll down HERE), and today we deal with warnings 2-3-4, the Church as Christ’s Body.

It is fair to say that George harbored little doubt.  Here’s George, then my notes.     

“Second: Whoever says that the phrase and name ‘Body of Christ’ is an analogy or symbol that has no significance to the divine life, then he has divided the Head from the Body; that is, he has divided Christ from the Church, and as such no longer has hope in the new life that has conquered death.”

Here we must encounter our participation and membership as the eternal Body of Jesus, the Church, within the reality of God, Christ, and Spirit.  We must not apply to the mystery of this Body an earthly explanation – or evasion – that satisfies “God as falsehood” scientists, secularists, and philosophers. Our true life is our true membership in the living Body of Christ, the capital C Church.  It extends eternally beyond the walls we occupy on Sundays and cannot be divided; God cannot be divided.

“Third: Whoever denies the holiness of the Church, and that it is the gift of God the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit, because the Church, that is, the Body of Jesus who was christened by the Holy Spirit so that we may be christened by Him, as St. Athanasius said (Contra Arianus, 2:37-38); [that person] denies the economy of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection as the foundations of the Church, and has divided the Spirit of God the Father from the Son, thus losing eternal life.”

We err to think the true Church is a human institution created by and for humans.  Yes … humans do the best we can organizing ourselves around the truth of Jesus Christ: fully God and fully human; lived, crucified, died, resurrected. Athanasius (c.325 A.D.) wrote vigorously Against the Arians to defeat a heresy that denies the divinity of the man Jesus.  It is His divinity that makes the Church His eternal body.  “Economy” is a common term describing the divine relationship and actions of the Trinity.  If the Church is not eternal, our life is not eternal. Key George note: Love cannot be divided.

“Fourth: Whoever says that he communes of the Body and Blood of the Lord without his divinity has fallen into the condemnation of the anathemas listed in the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.), and has become a partner with Nestorius.”

Nestorius, fifth century archbishop of Constantinople, errantly taught that God imprinted himself on the human Jesus, rather than Jesus being the actual Son of God, i.e., two separate persons rather than the dual natures of fully God / fully man. Nestorius did not believe Mary could have given birth to God.  The point here is that the bread and cup of communion – still – must be taken with the faith that Jesus was in fact God and man; that our human body is in communion with God as Jesus was in communion with God.  We are in communion with Christ’s Body, the Church – i.e., each other – as well.

Please know your thoughts are welcome.  And for those who knew George, I hope you have the same comfort I enjoy in again hearing his idiom.  No one like him.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has thousands of pages of notes from George’s classes and prays George’s critique of these current musings would be gentle.