The Omnipotence of God is Not Diminished by the Fall of Bishops #
New Ritualist: If we agree with you that the church can be without a bishop, we must admit that God is not omnipotent, that He promised to preserve His church unconquerable and failed to do so. You do not believe in the omnipotence of God when you say that bishops can fall into heresy and the church can exist without them. This is extreme impiety and blasphemy.
Old Ritualist: We have already demonstrated that the church remained unconquered even when bishops fell into heresy. A church is conquered by the gates of hell if it contains heresies, even if it has a bishop; but a church that contains no heresies is unconquered, even if it lacks a bishop. If it still seems to you that the bishops’ fall into heresy contradicts God’s promise, let me bring you the words of St. John Chrysostom: “Do not be troubled when circumstances seem contrary to God’s promise. For when the Lord came to save His people—or rather, to save the whole world—what was the beginning? His mother fled, His homeland was struck with intolerable suffering, and a massacre was committed—the most grievous of murders; everywhere there was weeping, lamentation, and great wailing. But do not be troubled! To give the clearest proof of His power, the Lord usually accomplishes His purposes through means that are always contrary” (Homily 9 on the Gospel of Matthew, p. 164). Thus, God’s promises are not violated simply because circumstances appear to contradict them. So, too, it may seem to you that the bishops’ fall into error and the church’s being left without them is contrary to God’s promise. But do not be troubled! St.@ John Chrysostom encourages us. Why? Does this break God’s promise? Does it show that God is not omnipotent? No—“To give the clearest proof of His power, the Lord usually accomplishes His purposes through means that are always contrary,” says the holy father.
Regarding faith in the omnipotence of God, it must be said that it is not we who doubt it, but you. We, the Old Ritualists, affirm that even if bishops fall into heresy, God, by His power and omnipotence, can preserve His church unconquered by the gates of hell. It is not our place to reason about how God should govern His church or how He should fulfill His promises most conveniently; our duty is only to fulfill His holy and saving commandments. God will govern His church and fulfill His promises and purposes not according to our sinful reasoning but by His power and omnipotence. According to your teaching, however, if bishops fall into heresy, God can no longer save His church; God can only preserve His church unconquered as long as bishops remain Orthodox. But if they fall into heresy, then neither God’s promise, nor His omnipotence, nor His providence and foreknowledge, can save His church from destruction or keep it unconquerable. With bishops, God can keep His church unconquerable, but without bishops, He can do nothing. And bishops can keep the church unconquerable without God, even when they fall away from Him to some degree or accept heresies. Such teaching is indeed impious and blasphemous: you believe not in the omnipotence of God but in the omnipotence of your bishops.
But we, the Old Ritualists, believe in the omnipotence of God, not in the omnipotence of bishops—we believe that the Almighty God can save and preserve His church unconquerable even if bishops fall into heresy.
Of course, God could have kept the bishops from falling into heresy. But if they fall, it does not mean He is not omnipotent. He does not do everything He could do. Without a doubt, He could have arranged that heresies would not exist at all, yet they exist in countless forms. He could have arranged for us never to sin, but He did not. He could have arranged that Adam did not transgress the commandment, but He did not. Yet none of this diminishes God’s omnipotence. I remind you of what I said earlier. If God had arranged that no one could ever sin, err, or fall into heresy, there would be no reward for virtue, no merit in keeping the commandments, in holding to the Orthodox faith, or in remaining in Christ’s church, and people would be like unreasoning cattle, who, as we know, have no share in the life to come.
Thus, God’s promises—“Lo, I am with you always” and “Upon this rock I will build My church”—in no way prove that bishops can never fall away from Orthodoxy or that the church cannot be without them, even for a moment.