Coptic Church Practices Contradicting Scripture
Coptic Church Practices Contradicting Scripture
The Coptic Orthodox Church, one of the oldest Christian communions tracing its origins to apostolic Alexandria, maintains distinctive liturgical and devotional practices that Reformed and Protestant traditions have historically identified as departing from biblical norms. These critiques center on several key areas: the invocation of saints, sacramental theology, the role of tradition, and ecclesiastical authority.
The Invocation of Saints and Mary
The Coptic practice of seeking intercession from departed saints—particularly the Virgin Mary—stands as a primary point of contention. Reformed theology argues this practice "supposes some deficiency in Him, if we need other mediators to approach God in our behalf" and contradicts Scripture by assuming "the saints are assumed to prevail with God on account of their personal merits" [1]. The biblical witness presents Christ as the sole mediator: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Charles Hodge identifies this practice as both unscriptural and superstitious, defining superstition as "belief without evidence" [1].
The Coptic veneration extends beyond simple respect for holy figures to active petition for their intercession, a practice without clear apostolic warrant. While Copts defend this by appealing to the communion of saints and the church's unity across death, Protestant exegesis finds no New Testament command or example of believers praying to departed saints. The early church's emphasis was on Scripture as "the surest of all demonstrations, or rather is the only demonstration" for establishing doctrine [2].
Sacramental Theology and Real Presence
Coptic eucharistic theology affirms a transformation of the bread and wine into Christ's actual body and blood, similar to but distinct from Roman Catholic transubstantiation. This understanding goes beyond the Reformed view that Christ is spiritually present to believers through faith. The question of whether "bread and wine can be the body and blood of Christ" has divided Western and Eastern traditions for centuries [3].
The Augsburg Confession addresses related sacramental disputes, emphasizing that "to the laity are given Both Kinds in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because this usage has the commandment of the Lord" [4]. While this particular issue concerns the withholding of the cup rather than the nature of Christ's presence, it illustrates how liturgical practices can diverge from explicit biblical commands. The Coptic Church does administer both elements, yet its metaphysical claims about the eucharistic elements exceed what Reformed interpreters find warranted by passages like 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Tradition and Scripture
A fundamental disagreement concerns the relationship between Scripture and tradition. Irenaeus noted that heretics, "when confuted from the Scriptures, turn round and accuse these same Scriptures" and claim "that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but viva voce" [7]. While Irenaeus wrote this against Gnostics, Reformed theologians apply similar logic to traditions that elevate unwritten apostolic teaching to equal authority with Scripture.
Calvin explicitly rejected the notion that councils possess inherent interpretive authority, denying "that every interpretation of Scripture is true and certain which has received the votes of a council" [8]. The Coptic Church's reliance on patristic consensus and conciliar decisions as authoritative interpretive frameworks conflicts with the Protestant principle of sola scriptura. Jesus himself warned against traditions that nullify God's commands, providing "an instance where the Pharisees' traditions contradicted God's law and allowed them to sidestep its requirements" [6].
The Authority Question
The Coptic Church's hierarchical structure and claims to apostolic succession through the See of Saint Mark raise questions about ecclesiastical authority. Reformed theology finds "no command to the Church to assume the prerogative" of determining who belongs to the visible church beyond recognizing "all who profess their faith in Christ" [9]. The elaborate Coptic liturgical calendar, fasting regulations, and monastic traditions represent developments that, while ancient, lack explicit biblical mandate.
Tertullian observed that doctrinal diversity requires examining whether "the corruption both of the Scriptures and the expositions thereof" has occurred, noting that those teaching differently must necessarily arrange "the instruments of doctrine" differently [5]. From a Protestant perspective, Coptic practices reflect an accumulation of tradition that has obscured the simpler apostolic pattern preserved in Scripture.
Sources
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 119: ever willing to hear and answer the prayers of his people, it supposes some deficiency in Him, if we need other mediators to approach God in our behalf. 4. It moreover is contrary to Scripture, inasmuch as the saints are assumed to prevail with God on account of their personal merits. Such merit no human being has before God. No man has any merit to plead for his own salvation, much less for the salvation of others. 5. The practice is superstitious and degrading. Superstition is belief without evidence. The practice of the invocation of ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. XVI.--SCRIPTURE THE CRITERION BY WHICH TRUTH AND HERESY ARE DISTINGUISHED.[3] (part 3): Lord, which is the surest of all demonstrations, or rather is the only demonstration; in which knowledge those who have merely tasted the Scriptures are believers; while those who, having advanced further, and become correct expounders of the truth, are Gnostics. Since also, in what pertains to life, craftsmen are superior to ordinary people, and model what is beyond common notions; so, consequently, we also, giving a complete”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 71: taken and broken; and therefore it was the bread which He affirmed was, either literally or figuratively, his body. Lutherans themselves cannot avoid saying and admitting that the bread in the Lord’s Supper is the body of Christ. Thus Luther ( Larger Catechism , v. 12, 13; Hase, Libri Symbolici , p. 554) tells his catechumen to say, “Though infinite myriads of devils and all fanatics should impudently demand, How bread and wine can be the body and blood of Christ? I know that all spirits and all learned men put together have not as much i”
- Augsburg Confession (Lutheran) “Augsburg Confession (Lutheran, 1530), 1 To the laity are given Both Kinds in the Sacrament of the Lord’s: 1 To the laity are given Both Kinds in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, because this usage has the commandment of the Lord in Matt. 26:27: Drink ye all of it, 2 where Christ has manifestly commanded concerning the cup that all should drink. 3 And lest any man should craftily say that this refers only to priests, Paul in 1 Cor. 11:27 recites an example from which it appears that the whole congregation did use both kinds. 4 And this usage has long remained in the Church, nor is it known w”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 3: Tertullian — CHAP.XXXVIII.--HARMONY OF THE CHURCH AND THE SCRIPTURES.HERETICS HAVE TAMPERED WITH THE SCRIPTURES, AND MUTILATED, AND ALTERED THEM. CATHOLICS NEVER CHANGE THE SCRIPTURES, WHICH ALWAYS TESTIFY FOR THE (part 1): Where diversity of doctrine is found, there, then, must the corruption both of the Scriptures and the expositions thereof be regarded as existing. On those whose purpose it was to teach differently, lay the necessity of differently arranging the instruments of doctrine.(13) They could not possibly have effected their diversity of teaching in any other way than by”
- Mark (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Mark 7:9: 7:9-13 Next, Jesus provides an instance where the Pharisees’ traditions contradicted God’s law and allowed them to sidestep its requirements.”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 1: Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus — CHAP. II.--THE HERETICS FOLLOW NEITHER SCRIPTURE NOR TRADITION. (part 1): 1. When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but viva voce: wherefore also Paul declared, "But we speak wisdom among those t”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 91: victorious in his own time. I deny, however, that every interpretation of Scripture is true and certain which has received the votes of a council. 14. But the Romanists have another end in view when they say that the power of interpreting Scripture belongs to councils, and that without challenge. For they employ it as a pretext for giving the name of an interpretation of Scripture to everything which is determined in councils. Of purgatory, the intercession of saints, and auricular confession, and the like, not one syllable can be ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 64: to assert that all Jews admitted to circumcision and the passover, were, in the judgment of charity, truly regenerate persons. 2. The New Testament contains no command to the Church to assume the prerogative in question. There is the command often repeated to recognize as brethren all who profess their faith in Christ. There are explicit directions given as to those who, although calling themselves brethren, are to be rejected. ( 1 Cor. v. 9, 10 ; Rom. xvi. 17 ; 2 Thess. iii. 6 ; Tit. iii. 10 ; Matt. vii. 15-17 .) But there is no command ”