The Promise of God: Lo, I Am with You #
New Ritualist: But I have one more piece of evidence against which you will be unable to argue. It directly proves (p. 47) that bishops can never fall into heresy. In the book On Faith, it is written:
As the herald of the Father’s wisdom and power, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Shepherd of shepherds, having established the one Church as the one body with Himself as its sole Head, and having laid down His life for His people, whom He redeemed with His precious blood, He did not desire to leave His possession on earth without proper order upon His ascension to heaven. Rather, He took two denarii and gave them to the innkeepers, namely, the Old and New Testaments. To whom did He give them? Who are these innkeepers? The Apostles, and after them their successors—the pastors and teachers, archbishops and bishops—who serve as ministers of His majestic providence, and to whom He promised to remain until the end of the age. In accordance with this unfailing promise, He graciously chooses worthy individuals for Himself, and He ordains and sanctifies them through the ordination of the holy order via patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops (On Faith, ch. 7, p. 59 verso).
Here is clear proof that bishops can never fall into error. It directly states that the Lord promised to be with them until the end of the age, which implies, of course, in Orthodoxy.
Old Ritualist: You are misinterpreting and misunderstanding the words from the book On Faith. It does not say that the Lord promised that bishops would remain in Orthodoxy until the end of the age; it only says that the Lord will be with them. It does not say “remain,” but rather “be with,” or “accompany.” These are two different concepts. “Remain” implies continuity or constancy for something over a period; however, “be with” implies a presence, one person being with another. Much like the words wayfarer and companion carry distinct meanings, so too do “remain” and “be with.” In the passage you read, it states not “remain” but “be with”—meaning Christ did not give bishops a guarantee of remaining eternally in the Orthodox faith, but rather that He would be with them. Just as in the book On Faith the Gospel hymn proclaims: “Christ God and Savior of our souls promised to be with them unfailingly” (Hymn 1, First Tone). This expression, “to be with them,” is based on the words of the Savior spoken at His ascension: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20, reading 116). This only demonstrates that Christ will be with those who believe in Him, not that bishops can never fall into heresy.
This is the meaning of the passage you quoted from On Faith
New Ritualist: But this still supports my point—that bishops cannot fall into heresy. If Christ promised to be with the apostles and their successors—the bishops—until the end of the age, then how could they fall into error or heresy? If bishops were to fall into heresy, then with whom would Christ be? He would have no one to be with, thus breaking His promise to remain with the apostles and bishops until the end of the age.
Old Ritualist: What childish reasoning! What weak logic and flimsy evidence! Does God really depend on people to fulfill His intentions and promises? Transgressors of God’s commandments themselves become guilty and will face punishment, but God does not suffer or bear guilt because of this. You claim that if bishops fall into error, then God would have no one to be with, implying that He would suffer a lack and be held accountable for an unfulfilled promise. This is not the teaching of the holy fathers. “The One who made the promise is not at fault,” writes Blessed Jerome, “if the one to whom the promise was made becomes unworthy of it, especially when the promise comes with a choice: `If you are willing and listen to Me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse, the sword shall devour you’” (Works vol. 10, p. 277, Commentary on the Prophet Ezekiel ch. 20:5-6). “The kingdom of heaven is promised to me in the Gospel,” says this same teacher of the Church elsewhere, “but if I do not fulfill what is commanded, the fault lies not with the One who made the promise, but with me, for failing to earn what was promised. When free will is part of the choice, if you are unwilling to strive, it is foolish to expect the reward” (Works of Blessed Jerome vol. 3, Letter 105, p. 317).
Moreover, do you not know that Christ is with not only the bishops but all believers—both priests and laity? When the bishops fell into error in Nikon’s time, there remained Orthodox priests and laity who did not follow them. Therefore, your assertion that God had no one to be with is utterly unfounded. And the promise of the Savior—“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age”—refers not only to the apostles and their successors, the bishops, but also to all believers. This is demonstrated, firstly, by the fact that at His ascension, when He made this promise, not only the apostles were present but others as well, including women. Secondly, St. John Chrysostom explains it thus: “He is not saying He will only be with them (the apostles), but with all who believe after them. For the apostles themselves could not remain until the end of the age; He is speaking to all the faithful, as to one body” (Homilies on Matthew vol. 3, Homily 90, p. 530; Gospel Explanation of Matthew, reading 116). This presence of the Savior with all believers can be called direct, as He Himself is present with each Christian. But Jesus Christ is also present with believers indirectly—through the sacrament of His body and blood—as St. Symeon of Thessalonica writes: “Until the end of the age, He will be with us through His mysteries” (Response to the Archbishop, 56, p. 414). Thus, when bishops were in heresy, God still had people to be with—specifically, all believers who kept His commandments, such as the Old Believers and their priests.
Finally, the Lord is present both with all true believers who faithfully follow His holy commandments and also with those who transgress them and stray into impiety. “It is a faithful saying,” declares the Apostle Paul, “For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us: if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:11-13, reading 293). Blessed Augustine states: “O Thou, who art everywhere present! Yet Thou dost stand far from wicked thoughts. Nevertheless, Thou art also present where Thou seemest far off; for where Thy grace of salvation is not, there Thou art present in the judgment of vengeance” (The Mystical Theology, Book 3, ch. 28, no. 3). In Blessed Jerome’s commentary on the Prophet Ezekiel, we read: “And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, `We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’ As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you” (Ezek. 20:32-33). (Commentary): This means, ‘Do not think that the thoughts in which you blaspheme against Me can be fulfilled. For you say, ‘We will not be under the dominion of the Lord, nor be called His people, but, like all the nations across the earth, and as each nation follows its own will, to honor wood and stones and serve idols, so will we be one among many peoples.’ To this, God replies, swearing by Himself, and says, ‘I will not leave you, nor forsake you, as masters commonly forsake and despise runaway slaves, but I will return you under My authority and, with an outstretched arm and in wrath, I will bring you back to your former service and rule over you, so that you, whether according to your will or against it, shall have Me as your King, and shall experience the wrath of the King whose goodness you despised’” (Works of Blessed Jerome, vol. 10).
Thus, even if the bishops fell into error in Nikon’s time, this did not exempt them from God’s authority: He ruled over them and remained with them in the judgment of vengeance, in the outpouring of wrath and fury. Therefore, His promise to be with all believers, including bishops, is not negated by their deviation into error. He remains with them nonetheless, if not through the grace of salvation, then through the judgment of vengeance, even if they do not wish for Him to be present in such a way.
Although God remains with erring hierarchs in this manner, He withdraws His saving grace and assistance. St. John Chrysostom, in his commentary on the Apostle Paul’s words, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,” teaches: “This is also what the Lord commanded, saying to His disciples, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ But this occurs if we so desire; for He will not be with us if we drive Him away. He said, ‘I will be with you always.’ So let us not drive away His grace” (Homilies on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, 2 Thessalonians, Homily 5, p. 2358).
Thus, Christ’s promise to be with us teaches not that bishops should live complacently, assuming that God will prevent their fall into sin and error, and allowing themselves to sin under the delusion that their mistakes are not their own but rather fall upon Him, who promised to always be with them. No, this promise does not encourage such absurdity and presumption, which your doctrine seems to promote. Rather, it teaches that if God is always with us, He sees all our deeds, words, and thoughts, and therefore we must avoid any actions that offend God, “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph. 4:1, reading 224), and fulfill the will of God by keeping His holy and salvific commandments. Otherwise, while we may not lose His presence, we shall incur punishment for our deeds.
In general, the promises of God are not nullified by human sin, as they were not negated by the fall of Adam and Eve. After creating them, God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28). And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). According to your reasoning, one could conclude that Adam could not transgress God’s commandment; otherwise, God’s promise of the multiplication of mankind and dominion over the earth and all its creatures would be broken. Following your logic, one might say, “If Adam were to die on the same day he broke the commandment, how could he multiply and have dominion over the earth afterward?” Consequently, God would have to prevent him from falling, at least until he had children, so as not to break His promise and blessing of humanity’s increase. But events did not unfold according to such human speculations. Adam broke God’s command even before having children, yet humanity multiplied from him and filled the earth—the divine promise was not broken in the slightest. Likewise here: the bishops fell into heresy, yet God’s promise to remain with them, as well as with all believers, was not broken. If the bishops could not fall into error, God would have told them so, saying, “You cannot stray.” But He made no such promise; rather, He issued this warning: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matt. 5:13, reading 10). Here, then, are two promises of God: one, that He will be with them always; and the other, that they may become salt that has lost its savor, that is, fall into error. Yet these promises do not contradict each other. We see that both of these promises were indeed fulfilled among the bishops who fell into heresy, just as both promises made to Adam were fulfilled. And just as the restoration of Adam required a means of salvation—the incarnation and suffering of the Son of God—so the restoration of bishops from their fall requires a means of salvation—repentance, granted to us through His suffering and death (52nd Canon of the Holy Apostles; 8th Canon of the First Ecumenical Council).
From all of this, it is clear that God’s promise to always remain with bishops, as well as with all believers, does not at all prove that bishops cannot sin or err. His promise is in no way compromised by their actions; first, because God remains with them regardless, if not through the grace of salvation, then through His omnipresence, providence, authority, the judgment of vengeance, and the outpouring of wrath and fury. Secondly, because Christ’s promise to remain was not made solely to the bishops but also to priests and laity who uphold the Orthodox faith. And the Old Believer Church has always had such faithful, even when bishops were in unorthodoxy.
New Ritualist: Let the promise of God—“Lo, I am with you”—not serve as proof of the bishops’ infallibility and their incapability of falling into error. But there are other words of the Savior that directly prove this. Christ said of His apostles and bishops: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29, reading 38). So how can bishops fall into error when no one can snatch them from God’s hand? Don’t these words of the Savior guarantee the bishops’ infallibility in faith?
Old Ritualist: No, these words do not prove that bishops are incapable of error or fallibility. They simply indicate that if someone listens to God’s voice and fulfills His commandments, no one can forcibly separate them from God. However, if someone is led astray by the devil’s deception or their own will, God does not hold them back by force. This is how the holy fathers interpret the words of the Savior that you have quoted, and we shall read from them now. In the Commentary, it says:
“But someone may ask: how did the Lord say that no one will snatch them out of My Father’s hand, while we see that many perish? To this, we may answer that no one can snatch them from the Father’s hand, but many can deceive them. For no one can forcibly or autonomously draw them away from the Father God; but by deception, we stumble every day. How then does He say, ‘My sheep will follow Me and will not perish’? Meanwhile, we see that Judas perished. But he perished because he did not follow Jesus and did not remain as one of the sheep to the end. The Lord is speaking about His true followers and sheep, who will not perish. If anyone leaves the flock of sheep and ceases to follow the Shepherd, that one will soon perish” (Commentary on John, ch. 10, p. 269).
“Some may ask,” writes Blessed Jerome, “since no one can snatch from the hands of God when He takes, carries, and holds them according to what is written, ‘No man can pluck them out of My Father’s hand’ (John 10:29), how was Judas torn from God’s hand through betrayal? To this, we answer briefly: no one can forcibly snatch them from God’s hand; but one can, of their own will, remove themselves from God’s hand, the very hand that holds them” (Works of Blessed Jerome, vol. 12, commentary on the Prophet Hosea, ch. 5:14-15).
“No one will snatch them out of My hand.” Here, there is a hint at the wolf who seizes the sheep when the hireling leaves them (John 10:12). With Him (Christ), the Good Shepherd, and not a hireling, no enemy will scatter or steal away the sheep, for they are under the protection of the Almighty (John 10:29). Moreover, in this passage, the hand symbolizes not only power and might but also the ownership of the sheep. The possibility of falling away from Christ is not denied by these words, for one who falls away is no longer one of Christ’s sheep. No enemy can overpower Him (God), and as a result, cannot snatch His sheep from His hand—that is, forcibly and against the will and desire of the faithful, they cannot be separated from God (Gospel of John, with Commentary by Bishop Michael, ch. 10:28-29).
This, then, is the meaning of the Savior’s words that no one can snatch His followers out of His hand—namely, no one can take them forcibly, against their will and desire. However, by one’s own will, anyone may fall away from God. Therefore, this evidence of yours does not prove that bishops are incapable of error or deviation.