Doctrinal differences with Protestants regarding mediation – intercession
This lecture explains the historical background of the emergence of Protestantism as a reaction against practices in the Catholic Church during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then clarifies the core doctrinal disagreement from a Coptic Orthodox perspective.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III focuses on the most serious issue in Protestant thought, which is the rejection of any mediation between God and people, whether in intercession, priesthood, or the role of the Church.
He affirms that the biblical verse about the one mediator between God and humanity, Jesus Christ, refers specifically to atonement and redemption, and does not cancel other forms of mediation that God used throughout history, such as the prophets and the apostles.
The apostles themselves are called in Scripture “ambassadors for Christ” and “stewards of the mysteries of God,” meaning they are mediators for conveying God’s message and teaching to humanity.
His Holiness explains that the Church is the means through which a person received faith, obtained baptism, learned doctrine, and practiced repentance, all through the work of the Holy Spirit within the Church.
He shows that the Lord Christ Himself entrusted the Church with preaching, teaching, baptism, and the forgiveness of sins, and that these works are not practiced individually but through the ecclesial body.
He also explains that even direct divine callings, such as the calling of Saul of Tarsus, had to pass through the Church by prayer and the laying on of hands, because the Church is the legitimate channel chosen by God.
The lecture concludes by affirming that the Church cannot exist without priesthood, because priests are the servants of the divine mysteries, through whom believers receive God’s grace and the Kingdom of God is built on earth.
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