Do not forget that with all these words we are trying to show the “greatness” and “high grace” of the custodian’s (bishop’s, presbyter’s) ministry and its place in the hierarchy of Church ministries. Pay attention to the fact that all these dubious ordinations (pagans, Satanists, immoral people…) and all their (priests-priests, criminally ordained) actions are legitimate (until the church prohibits them from performing these ministries) – as pagan theologians say: the sacraments they perform are valid (Orthodox teaching on the Sacraments see in Part II) and no one repeats them (does not rebaptize, does not remarry, does not repeat ordinations, etc.)! So this ministry can be performed without the Holy Spirit (even when the presbyter is in the spirit of Satan – everything is legitimate). Someone will say that prophecy, teaching, and apostolic ministry can also be performed without the Holy Spirit, that is, these ministries can be carried out by people, even not being in the Holy Spirit!? That this statement is groundless fantasy, we will show by the example of prophecy and teaching. If, for example, a teacher teaches heresies, or even a whole council, which on a scale is called “ecumenical,” expresses heretical teaching, then when this teaching is revealed as heretical in the process of its reception by the Church, it is rejected (anathematized) as heresy, as a teaching that contradicts the experience of the Church. But if a priest, being in heresy, or being a real devil in the flesh (at the moment of performing the rite of the sacrament he was dead, outside the Church!), “performs” the sacrament (leads the community in performing the rite of the sacrament), it is considered legitimate and no one repeats it (even when the church finds out that at the moment of performing the rite of the sacrament the priest was already spiritually dead, outside the Church), if at that moment this priest was not prohibited by the church from performing the ministry (that is, all the faithful were informed about it)! Similarly, prophecy – you can babble, lie, or fantasize, but the Truth will reveal the impostor, and all these fantasies (prophecies) will be nullified
. And the rites of the sacraments, performed under the leadership of a Satanist (before the prohibition in the ministry), cannot be annulled (say pagans) – they are recognized as valid! Therefore, the ministry of a priest is technical, like that of a custodian, which is valid (even) when he is a pagan, or even a Satanist (without the grace of the Holy Spirit)!!! (Forgive us for speaking in the language of kindergarten, the language of primitive scholasticism. The Orthodox testimony about the Sacrament of the Church is completely different and in a different language (of hypostatic being, Love, and Freedom). But we must speak to the pagan, if we love, in his language, in the plane of his thinking, his categories, and slowly, gradually show him the delusion in which he is, and point to the path to the Truth, to Salvation).
Therefore, we are not talking about someone playing a role and pretending to be someone else (false apostle – as an apostle, false prophet – as a prophet, false teacher – as a teacher), but about the essence of ministry: one is grace-filled, Spirit-bearing (performed only in the Holy Spirit), and the other – technical (all ministries in the Church are grace-filled – there are no non-grace-filled ministries in the Church. So be careful – in this context of this section we use “grace,” “grace-filled” in two meanings – from the context understand what it is about!!!). The first without the Holy Spirit is invalid, and the second (of the priest) can be legitimate, valid when the priest performed it, not being in the Holy Spirit (not in the Church!). Therefore, someone can, deceiving the people of God, pretend to be a prophet, apostle, teacher, but the Church will reveal it sooner or later and reject (both deeds and doers – until they repent), but the deeds of the priest do not reject, recognize (do not repeat the rites), only call him to repentance himself!
To complete the picture, it remains to answer the question: why do the Holy Fathers so exalt (praise) the episcopal (presbyteral) ministry in the Church. It is enough to recall, for example, Saint Ignatius of Antioch (his sayings about the episcopal ministry in his epistles to the churches), John Chrysostom (his famous “Six Words on the Priesthood,” etc.) and some other great saints (our task is not to write out all possible quotes on a certain topic (if necessary, you can use the “know-it-all” – the Internet, use search engines; for example, “Google” does this quickly and for free!), but first of all to give a principle, help to understand the essence of things, reality, about which we are talking).
To better understand this issue, let’s trace how over time (from its inception and further) the ministry of the custodian (church elder – deacon-presbyter-bishop) became more and more complex (more and more responsibilities were added over time).