Question for Barkhu about syrian orthodox theology

[k5125]

Do you guys believe in a rapture? Are you dispensationalists like many evangelical christians are in the USA?

[Bar Amru]

See I'm not Syriac Orthodox but I'll answer your question anyways

From what I know none of the Eastern Churches believe in the rapture, the Syriac Orthodox Church (Or any of the Orthodox Churches for that matter) do not believe in it, the rapture was actually made up some what 150 years ago by the Protestans, although I'm not sure about that but I'm certainly sure that none of the Eastern Churches believe in it.

Our Church (Assyrian Church of the East) or also known as Nestorian Church to others does't believe in the book of Revelations either, we don't have that book in our Bible, last time I checked the Peshitta is was't there, of course the older Nestorian Church was more hardcore with its beliefs and did't believe like the other Churches because their main belief was that Jesus had a human nature because God cannot die and Jesus died on the cross, they also rejected the Tirnity and did't believe in the "Marry mother of God" theme also because God does not have a mother, they respected Marry as the mother of Jesus and that's it, sadly most of these beliefs are gone because they mixed in with the Catholic Church and decided to adopt many Catholic traditions.

I personally think that if there's any Christian sect that had very similar beliefs with Judaism it mus'tve been the Nestorian sect.

[k5125]

barkhu said:

See I'm not Syriac Orthodox but I'll answer your question anyways

From what I know none of the Eastern Churches believe in the rapture, the Syriac Orthodox Church (Or any of the Orthodox Churches for that matter) do not believe in it, the rapture was actually made up some what 150 years ago by the Protestans, although I'm not sure about that but I'm certainly sure that none of the Eastern Churches believe in it.

Our Church (Assyrian Church of the East) or also known as Nestorian Church to others does't believe in the book of Revelations either, we don't have that book in our Bible, last time I checked the Peshitta is was't there, of course the older Nestorian Church was more hardcore with its beliefs and did't believe like the other Churches because their main belief was that Jesus had a human nature because God cannot die and Jesus died on the cross, they also rejected the Tirnity and did't believe in the "Marry mother of God" theme also because God does not have a mother, they respected Marry as the mother of Jesus and that's it, sadly most of these beliefs are gone because they mixed in with the Catholic Church and decided to adopt many Catholic traditions.

I personally think that if there's any Christian sect that had very similar beliefs with Judaism it mus'tve been the Nestorian sect.

So you guys don't believe in the book of revelation? When did this happen? It just kinda took me by surprise.

Also, the assyrian church of the east, do they dress the same as syrian orthodox?

[Bar Amru]

Not sure when it happened, but I guess it happened when the Church of the East was made up around the 3rd/4th century CE.

As for the dress, their preists you mean? if so well they're almost the same, but different hats, but if you're talking about people well nothing special the only thing you'll notice about our Church or our Syriac Assyrian Churches in general is the women cover their heads when inside the Church.

The main difference you'll notice between our Church and other Churches is that our Church carries no pictures of anything what so ever, all we have is a simple alter and a cross (Even the cross itself does't have a figure on it).

Here's a pic of the Assyrian Church of the East (Nestorian) dress, check out the guy with the white beard, that's how the Bishops dress like:


Here's the Syriac Orthodox Church (Often known as Jacobite):


And here's the Chaldean Catholic Church dress (Their Bishops dress like the person on the right with the hat):

[k5125]

You know there was this CIA translator guy that learned a lot of arabic and got dropped off in Baghdad, and then made his way up to other villages in Iraq to communicate with the locals. Anyway, he said that all of a sudden these particular Iraqis started speaking aramaic. So he was completely lost, and couldn't hear what they were saying.

I'm still confused, what kind of aramaic do you guess they spoke? I'm guessing eastern, is that synonomous with Syriac?

And do you know any Farsi by any chance?

[Bar Amru]

Yea, Eastern Syriac Aramaic is what he heard, 99.9% of Aramaic speakers in Iraq speak the Eastern Syriac dialect.