When Was the Church Created? #
Old Ritualist: I am happy to fulfill your request. I will point to a historical event where the Church indeed lost all truly faithful bishops for a certain time. But first, I think it’s necessary to determine from what point we should begin the history of Christ’s Church—whether it started a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, or perhaps even longer.
New Ritualist: I agree with this question, but it won’t make things any easier for you. No matter where you begin its history, you won’t be able to point to a time when the Church was without a bishop.
Old Ritualist: That will be shown by the further discussion. But for now, let us decide from what moment the Church of Christ began to exist.
New Ritualist: Very well. Go ahead; I’m listening.
Old Ritualist: The Church was created by God before all else, even before the visible world, and it consisted only of holy, incorporeal spirits. To Hermas, an apostolic man, to whom the Church appeared in a vision as an aged woman, he asked why she was old. The angel replied, “Because she was created first of all, she is old, and the world was created for her” (Shepherd, Book 1, Vision 2, in Memorials of Ancient Christian Writings, vol. 2). But when a portion of this Church—called the heavenly Church, composed of angels—fell and turned into demons, God created man to replace the fallen part and placed him in Paradise to enjoy blessedness. However, when man also fell, deceived by the devil, and could not rise by his own power or free himself from the devil’s grasp, it was then that God, in His mercy, sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world to save and redeem him from the devil’s power and from hell. For this purpose, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary, fulfilled and perfected the law and the prophets (Matthew, reading 11), taught the nations, suffered on the cross, shed His precious blood, rose again, ascended into heaven, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
During His earthly life, our Lord Jesus Christ, when Peter confessed Him as the Son of God, said, “Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew, reading 67). But when and how did He establish the Church if it had already been created first of all? He created it when He shed His precious, life-giving blood on the cross, thereby purchasing or redeeming it from the devil’s power and restoring it from the fall it had suffered since Adam’s transgression. This is the very moment when the Lord established His new grace-filled Church on earth. The Apostle Paul testifies to this, saying that “the Lord purchased the Church with His own blood” (Acts, reading 44). And in the Church’s hymns, we sing, “Establish, O Lord, Thy Church, which Thou hast purchased with Thy precious blood” (Irmos of the 3rd Ode, Meeting of the Lord). “Thou wast lifted up in long-suffering upon the wood and didst establish Thy Church thereon” (Irmos of the 1st Tone, 4th Ode). “The Church which Thou didst redeem with Thy blood, Thy Church is established upon Thee” (Irmos of the 5th Tone, 3rd Ode for St.@ Olga). It is written—in the Acts of the 3rd Ecumenical Council—that the two shall be one flesh; these two are God and man, Christ and the Church, which came forth from the Bridegroom’s flesh at the moment when blood and water flowed from the side of the Crucified, giving her the sacraments of redemption and rebirth (Acts of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 3, p. 87). Saint Athanasius the Great, in his commentary on the words of the Psalm, “Thy power and Thy righteousness,” writes, “He is called Power because He bound the strong one and plundered his vessels; He is called Righteousness because He redeemed us, held unjustly in captivity. God, even unto the Highest, I shall proclaim, for not only the earthly but also the heavenly will You redeem with Your blood” (Works, part 4, p. 270, commentary on Psalm 69). Your own New Ritualist Church teaches similarly, as it says in the Theology of Metropolitan Macarius: “Even during His public ministry, the Lord spoke of His Church as already existing (Matthew 18:17). But, specifically, He founded or established His Church on the cross, where He purchased it, as the Apostle says, with His own blood (Acts 20:28). For it was only on the cross that the Lord truly redeemed us and united us with God—without which Christianity would have no meaning” (part 2, §167).
Thus, according to the teachings of the Word of God and the theology of your Church, the Church was created or redeemed by Christ on the cross through the shedding of His precious, life-giving blood. From that moment on, the New Testament Church exists. The Church, of course, existed before this as we have shown, but it was not redeemed; it was as if it were in captivity to the devil and was called the Old Testament Church. But when Christ redeemed or bought it back with His blood, that was the moment when the Church of Christ, called the New Testament Church, truly began.
New Ritualist: According to you, then, Christ did not create the Church out of non-existence but merely redeemed or improved it. But how, then, did He say, “I will build My Church”?
Old Ritualist: The word “build” here is used in the sense of improvement. Saint Basil the Great, in his discourse On the Fact that God is Not the Cause of Evil, says: “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 50:12). Not create anew, but renew what has been worn by sin. And again: “That He might make (build) the two one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). “Make” here does not mean to bring forth from non-existence but to transform what already exists. And again: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Moses also says: “Is He not your Father, who bought you, who created you and established you?” (Deuteronomy 32:6). Here the word “established,” following “created,” clearly indicates that it is often used to mean improvement (Works, part 4, discourse 9, p. 148).
It is clear that Christ created the Church with His blood, not in the sense of bringing it from non-existence into being, but in the sense of bringing it into a better state, renewing it, and redeeming it from the curse of the law and the devil’s power.
In any case, what is important for us here is not how Christ created the Church by shedding His blood—whether He brought it from non-existence into existence or redeemed it from the powers of darkness. What matters is when He created it. It turns out that it was when He shed His precious, life-giving blood for it. From this moment, it began, and from this point, we should start its history.