Parousia – Hegomen Fr Athanasius Iskander
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THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST Students of early church history often disagree, but there is one thing they all agree upon: the early church was consumed by earnest expectation of the imminent "Parousia" (the Lord's second coming). Some even say that this expectation was the driving force behind the fervor that the early church exhibited in it's practices. Maranatha! exclaims St. Paul at the end of his first letter to the Corinthians (1Co 16:22), and even though the letter was addressed to a Greek community, yet he includes this Aramaic word - no doubt part of the earliest Liturgy - that meant: Come Lord ! PAROUSIA The day of the Parousia - we are told by our Lord - is known only to God the Father (Mat 24:36). It comes suddenly, like lightning (Mat 24:27) and unexpectedly, like the day Noah entered into the Ark and the flood came suddenly and took the whole old world by surprise. People were eating and drinking and even getting married when the flood came. (Mat24:38,39). Hence the Lord's advice to the church: "Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord Parousia doth come." (Mat 24:42). Our Coptic Church, so faithful to the traditions of the old church, keeps this tradition alive in it's practices. The same two chapters mentioned earlier (Luke 12 and Mat 25) are appointed to be read as part of the canonical hours of the midnight prayer. Another tradition also kept by our church, is the vigil on Great Saturday (Saturday before Easter) when the whole church keeps vigil all night, praising the Lord and meditating on the Apocalypse (the Book of Revelations), which - more than any other book in the Bible - speaks to us about the Lord's Parousia (second coming). "Behold I come quickly." "Seal not the sayings of the prophesy of this book, for the time is at hand...and behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." "Surely I come quickly. Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev 22: 7, 10, 12, 20). FATHER ATHANASIUS ISKANDER Front page article, first issue of Parusia March, 1990 PAROUSIA A selection of articles published by Father Athanasius Iskander in PAROUSIA 2000 - 2009 ST. MARY'S COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH KITCHENER, ONTARIO, CANADA www.smcoc.ca First printing June, 2013 FOREWORD Parousia, a periodical published by Saint Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada started in March 1990 and continued for more than twenty years, when electronic publishing made paper publishing almost obsolete. Many of the articles published in Parousia were series dealing with a particular topic. Many of these series were later published as books. A series under the title Understanding the Liturgy, published between September 1993 and March 1997 was published as a book with the same name in September 2001. Another series titled The Abomination of Desolation published between September 1997 and January 2003 was published as a book with the same name in January 2003. A third series titled Practical Spirituality published between June 2004 and January 2005 was published as a book with the same name in February 2005. This book was translated into Arabic, Portuguese and Amharic and is sold almost all over the world, even in Japan! The final series titled Science, Genesis and Creation was published between March and July 2007 and was published as a book titled Creation in September 2011. Most of these books are available for free download on our website www.smcoc.ca and are also available as paper copies by contacting me at [email protected] . Many other single topic articles were interspersed in between the series. This book has several of the most popular of these articles. These articles while useful for high school and university age Copts are also useful as resources for servants. Many of them are a must reading for potential converts to the Coptic Church. I hope it will be used unto the glory of our Lord. Amen. Father Athanasius Iskander Pachons 24, 1729 AM June 1, 2013 Feast of the Entrance of Our Lord into the Land of Egypt COPTIC ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE SAINT MARY’S COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH 388 Ottawa St. S. Kitchener, ON Canada N2M 3P4 www.stmarycoptorthodox.org E-mail: [email protected] Father Athanasius Iskander (519) 740-7627 Fax (519) 621-1444 VOLUME XI APRIL 2000 NUMBER 1 EGYPT AND THE BIBLE1 I would like to address this topic under 5 sub-headings: 1. Egypt in the Old Testament. 2. Egypt in the inter-Testamental period. 3. Egypt and the New Testament. 4. Egypt and Biblical scholarship. 5. The place of the Bible in the Egyptian church. EGYPT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: The first mention of Egypt in te Old Testament is in Gen 12:10, where we are told that “ there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there.” Egypt is mentioned once again in Gen 13:10, “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt.” 1An address by Father Athanasius Iskander to the Canadian Bible Society dinner meeting in Guelph, Ontario, April 5, 2000 Egypt was a land of plenty, described as being even as the garden of the Lord. The Lord allowed Joseph to be sold to the Egyptians by his brothers, in order to bring Israel and his children into Egypt, where for more than 400 years, the church of the Old Testament would be nurtured in Egypt. When the time came for the Lord to bring His people out of Egypt, he allowed Moses to be raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, and we are told “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” (Acts 7:22) But the major story about Egypt in the Old Testament is without a doubt the story of Exodus. A simplistic way of looking upon the Exodus account is to view it as a good guys versus bad guys story, the good guys win and the bad guys loose. If, on the other hand we look more carefully at the account in Exodus, we will find a totally different story emerging. In Exodus 7:3 The Lord tells Moses, “And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.” One may wonder, why would the Lord harden Pharaoh’s heart, and then punish the Egyptians by visiting the 10 plagues upon them? But the answer to this query comes in Exodus 7:5, where the Lord explains, “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” The key word here is “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” This was God’s plan for the salvation of the Egyptians. The Lord wanted to bring them into His fold. But the Lord knew that the Egyptians were stubborn and proud and that the only way to bring them into His fold was to bring them to their knees. Again, in Exodus 14:4 “And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. Exodus 14:17 “And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” In a most emphatic way, the lord tells Moses that the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And it worked, for when the Lord troubles the host of the Egyptians and takes off their chariot wheels (Ex 14:24,) 2 the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them. (Ex 14:25) A similar encounter between the Egyptians and the Lord happened 900 years later, in the time of Ezekiel and Jeremiah. When Nebuchadnezzar set siege to Jerusalem, the Egyptians incited the Israelis to resist, promising them military assistance. This was contrary to the word of the Lord through Jeremiah, who told the Israelis to submit themselves to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, for the Babylonian exile was fore-ordained by the Lord. The Egyptians were thus a stumbling block unto Judah, and for this the Lord visited them with another set of plagues that are described in the Book of Ezekiel. In EZE 29:3-6 the Lord says, “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.” The same words used in Exodus are used here. EZE 29:9 “And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the Lord.” EZE 30:8 “And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.” Again and again we are told that the object of these plagues is to bring the Egyptians to the knowledge of the Lord.