Evangelical Snapshots

1. Snakehandler Dies from Bite.

Linda Long, 48, was bitten Sunday at East London Holiness Church, where neighbors said the reptiles are handled as part of religious services, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Tuesday. Long died at University of Kentucky Medical Center about four hours after being bitten, authorities told the newspaper. "She said she was bitten by a snake at her church," said Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office...Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine. Police said they had not received any reports of snake handling at the church. Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible that says a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed. Church officials could not be reached for comment.

2. An Evangelical Pope. I got this in an e-mail ad for a new book:

An alarming trend is developing in the Evangelical church. The same pastors who were once touting themselves to have the biggest church are now making even bolder statements, such as..."One of the World leaders of the Christian Church"..."All denominations believe in the same basic doctrine, Love God, and Love your neighbor, we should all unite"...notice the absence of Jesus’ name here...One pastor is even being announced as “The World’s Pastor.”

"The world's pastor"? Isn't that what El Papa claims to be?

The Feast of St. Willibrord, Bishop and Confessor

Today is the celebration of St. Willibrord, a British-born, Irish-trained, Roman-commissioned Benedictine who evangelized the Netherlands (or in the words of the Roman Martyrology, "Friesland and Denmark").

Charles [Martel] brought many nations under the power of the Franks, and among these were the Frisians, whose lands were added to his dominions after the defeat of Radbod. At that time St. Willibrord was officially appointed to preach to the Frisian people, and his episcopal see was fixed at the fortress of Utrecht. Being given greater scope for the preaching of the Gospel, he now attempted to bring into the Church by baptism the people that had recently been won by the sword. He allowed no error or past ignorance to pass unnoticed and lost no time in shedding upon them the light of the Gospel, so that soon among that people the statement of the prophet was fulfilled: " In that place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." [Hos 1:10]

- from St. Alcuin's Life of St. Willibrord.

As the first bishop of Utrecht, he is not only the parton saint of Holland but also the patron of the Old Catholics, including those of the episcopoi vagante movement in this country. For them, I offer this humble prayer:

St. Willibrord, lead the people who call upon thee, through thine intercessions, into the fullness of truth and into unity with thy Church, that with thee and all the saints they may give glory unto thine all-merciful Lord, Who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever liveth and reigneth God, world without end. Amen.

A prayer of the feast:

O God, Who didst vouchsafe to send thy blessed Saint Willibrord to preach Thy glory to the Gentiles : we humbly pray Thee that, by his intercession, we may both see and know the things which we ought to do, and by Thy mercy be enabled to perform the same. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who livest and reignest with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Super-Orthodox vs. the Copts

Our friend Julio Gurrea submitted this comment, and I found it worth a post of its own. Nikolai Stanosheck from the "Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church" (ROAC) -- who is also webmaster of The Saint Euphrosynos Cafe -- had written in response to this post about the Malankara church, "You do realize the Monophysites (Oriental orthodox in PC-Eccumenistic talk) are anathema and have been for 1,500 years, right?" Julio responded:

Do you realize that anathemas are not self-enforcing "curses" that, once they are pronounced, just run away from the Church's control and function on their own without the bishops who govern the Church.

The anathemas of Chalcedon against Eutyches and his doctrine don't really matter to the Copts and other Oriental Orthodox. They also anathemize Eutyches and consider him a heretic. That is why the Copts have been insisting until they have no breath left that we can anthemzie Eutyches all we want- **HE IS NOT A SAINT IN THEIR CHURCH**. This fact is purposely overlooked. Sometimes even reliable sites (like orthodoxinfo.com) keep repeating the lie that the Copts venerate Eutyches as a saint.

Dioscorus was anathemized for not coming to the Council.

The non-Chalcedonians categorically reject the false doctrine of monophysitism as Eutyches taught it (i.e. that the humanity of Christ was swallowed up in His divinity like a drop of vinegar in the ocean). Countless Coptic liturgical texts (such as the "Tasbeha" or midnight praises) speak of Christ as "consubstantial with the Father in His divinity and consubstantial with us in His humanity" or that after the hypostatic union his human and divine natures became as one "without seperation, confusion, comingling, and without alteration."

This indicates that according to the Copts (and other churches in communion with them), the human nature which the Logos took from the Theotokos has not been mixed or blended into the divine nature as some sort of third human/divine "supernature" which is seperate from both human nature and divine nature.

You don't get a chance to find out what the bishops of this church are teaching their flock and what they believe and pray in their liturgies unless you sit down with them and actually *TALK*. When Eastern Orthodox Christians (which I am one) act like pharisees that can't talk with those of other communions, or when we always insist that other groups are lying to us when they tell us that they DON'T believe something, then we are strictly dependent on the polemics of schismatic bishops for our information.

As you may well know, these old, bitter schismatic "bishops" are usually interested in keeping their equally bitter and pharisaical flock/cult from talking with other Christians. This ensures that they keep a "fortress mentality" against the rest of the universe and always look to their pedophile pseudodox "hierarchs" for guidance. It doesn't do much for the growth of said cult, but at least it keeps the members sufficiently frightened and keeps them from leaving.

-Julio

P.S. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the weekly Monday night Bible study held by the Coptic youth group at my school. This month we are working through Nehemiah. We only interrupted the Nehemiah lectures for one week so that my Antiochian priest could give a "guest lecture" on the Orthodox view of personhood. I'm soooo glad I'm not in the "True One Holy Traditional Orthodox Church of S. Florida" or some other similar group. Those are some depressing "churches" to be a member of.

I would only add two points: first, for a full view of the relations between OO and EO, see this site. Secondly, OrthodoxInfo.com is a mixed bag, IMHO. Otherwise, thanks for this much-needed injection of reality.

The Most Assertive Saint?

From the today's Roman Martyrology:

At Brescia, St. Dominator, bishop.

Who's that?

The fourteenth bishop of Brescia, Italy. He served Brescia in the much troubled era following the final collapse of the Roman Empire in the West and at a time when Germanic tribes were in full control of Italy.

St. Dominator, ora pro nobis. St. Dominator, deprecare Dominum Deum.