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THE PRIESTHOOD ACCORDING TO...
In 1 Peter 2:5,9 it reads, "Ye also, as lively stones are built up a
spiritual house, an holy priesthood... ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood." What is this priesthood which Peter talks about? That
all depends on which church you ask.
The position of the Catholic church is easy to explain. They claim the
Pope has the same priesthood as Peter had. And it is this priesthood
which gives the Pope his power and authority to direct the affairs of
the church. They declare that since Peter was the first Bishop of Rome
and the head of the church, then whomever is called to be the Bishop of
Rome, likewise fulfills the role which Peter had. Although there is no
scripture in the Bible which can be used to verify this claim, secular
history does indicate that Peter did act in the office of a bishop while
he lived in Rome. However there is no evidence that the authority to
preside over the church rested in the position of who governed Rome.
The remaining priests in the Catholic church derive their priesthood
from the Pope, either directly or indirectly. Thus, they claim that the
authority of their priesthood can be traced directly back to Peter, who
received it from Jesus Christ.
The Protestant movement came from a dissatisfaction with the Catholic
church. But what about the authority of their priesthood? Martin Luther
was indeed a priest, and, in his own church, he did ordain others to the
priesthood which he held, so it might be argued by some that they can
still trace their line of authority back to Jesus Christ. But to do that
they must go back through the authority of the Catholic church. But if
the Catholic church is teaching incorrect or false doctrine (which is
the reason Protestants claim they broke away) then the Catholic church
had lost the moral power of its priesthood long before Martin Luther
came along. In which case, the Pope had no real power or authority left
in his priesthood. And if that is the case, then Martin Luther's
priesthood had no power in it either. On the other hand, if the
priesthood in the Catholic church still retained its authority, when
Martin Luther broke with Catholic tradition, he was excommunicated by
the Pope, which also annulled his priesthood authority. So, either way,
the Protestants have no legitimate claim to the power and authority of
their priesthood.
Since Peter did talk about the members of the church holding the
priesthood, Protestants have invented all kinds of answers to explain
away this problem. Listed below are some of the official interpretations
of what the priesthood means to them.
This is what they explain.
The Priesthood of All Believers
Every Christian has direct access to God through Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, the
sole mediator between God and human beings. However, the priesthood of all believers is
exercised within a committed community of fellow believers - priests who share a like
precious faith. The priesthood of all believers should not be reduced to modern
individualism, not used as a cover for theological relativism. It is a spiritual standing
which leads to ministry, service, and a coherent witness in the world for which Christ
died.
1988 Resolution On the Priesthood of the Believer
Adopted at the Southern Baptist Convention
Held in San Antonio, Texas, June 14-16, 1988 as Resolution No. 5
Whereas, None of the five major writing systematic theologians in Southern Baptist history
have given more than a passing reference to the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer
in their systematic theologies; and
Whereas, The Baptist Faith and Message preamble refers to the priesthood of the believer,
but provides no definition or content to the term; and
Whereas, The high profile emphasis on the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer in
Southern Baptist life is a recent historical development; and
Whereas, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer has been used to justify wrongly
the attitude that a Christian may believe whatever he so chooses and still be considered a
loyal Southern Baptist; and
Whereas, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer can been used to justify the
undermining of pastoral authority in the local church.
Be it therefore resolved, That the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in San Antonio,
Texas, June 14-16, 1988, affirm its belief in the biblical doctrine of the priesthood of
the believer (1 Peter 2:9 and Revelation 1:6); and
Be it further resolved, That we affirm that this doctrine in no way gives license to
misinterpret, explain away, demythologize, or extrapolate out elements of the supernatural
from the Bible; and
Be it further resolved, That the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer in no way
contradicts the biblical understanding of the role, responsibility, and authority of the
pastor which is seen in the command of the local church in Hebrews 13:17, "Obey your
leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give
an account;" and
Be finally resolved, That we affirm the truth that elders, or pastors, are called of God
to lead the local church (Acts 20:28).
. The Priesthood of Believers--The Reformation Model
The priesthood of all believers was a cardinal principle of the Reformation of the 16th
century. It was used by the reformers to buttress an evangelical understanding of the
church over against the clericalism and sacerdotalism of medieval Catholicism. In modern
theology, however, the ecclesial context of this Reformation principle has been almost
totally eclipsed. For example, in the current SBC debate on the issue, both sides have
referred (uncritically) to the "priesthood of the believer." The reformers
talked instead of the "priesthood of all believers" (plural). For them it was
never a question of a lonely, isolated seeker of truth, but rather of a band of faithful
believers united in a common confession as a local, visible congregatio sanctorum.
The modern reinterpretation of the Reformation goes back to the philosopher Hegel who saw
Luther as the great champion of human freedom whose stand against medieval obscurantism
signaled the dawn of modern civilization. With F. Schleiermacher and "the turn to the
subject" in theology, Luther became more and more the hero of modern rugged
individualism. Consequently, the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers degenerated
into the ideology of "every tub sitting on its own bottom."
In this context the concepts of priesthood of believers and soul competency were
conflated, the one becoming virtually interchangeable with the other. W. S. Hudson, one of
the most perceptive interpreters of Baptist history, has pointed to the devastating impact
of this development on Baptist ecclesiology:
To the extent that Baptists were to develop an apologetic for their church
life during the early decades of the twentieth century, it was to be on the basis of this
highly individualistic principle. It has become increasingly apparent that this principle
was derived from the general cultural and religious climate of the nineteenth century
rather than from any serious study of the Bible . . . The practical effect of the stress
upon "soul competency" as the cardinal doctrine of Baptists was to make every
man's hat his own church.
The appeal to individual experience and private judgment--traditionally both suspect
categories in Christian theology!--corresponded to the shift away from biblical authority
and the dogmatic consensus of historic Christianity. It also produced a truncated and
perverted version of what Luther and the other reformers intended when they formulated the
doctrine of the spiritual priesthood of all believers.
P. Althaus, the great interpreter of Luther's theology, explains the original Reformation
meaning of this term:
Luther never understands the priesthood of all believers merely in the sense of the
Christian's freedom to stand in a direct relationship to God without a human mediator.
Rather he constantly emphasizes the Christian's evangelical authority to come before God
on behalf of the brethren and also of the world. The universal priesthood expresses not
religious individualism but its exact opposite, the reality of the congregation as a
community.
Of course, Luther did believe that all Christians had direct access to God without
recourse to "the tin gods and buffoons of this world, the pope with his
priests." But for Luther the Priesthood of all believers did not mean, "I am my
own Priest." It meant rather: in the community of saints, God has so tempered the
body that we are all priests to each other. We stand before God and intercede for one
another, we proclaim God's Word to one another and celebrate His presence among us in
worship, praise and fellowship. Moreover, our priestly ministry does not terminate upon
ourselves. It propels us into the world in service and witness. It constrains us to
"show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous
light" (I Pet. 2:9).
Priesthood of believers, then, has more to do with the Christian's service than with his
or her status. One function Luther specifies as incumbent upon all believer-priests is
that of "a guardian or watchman on the tower" (warttman odder welcher auff der
Wart).
This is exactly what one calls someone who lives in a tower to watch and to look out over
the town so that fire or foe do not harm it. Therefore, every minister . . . should be . .
. an overseer or watchman, so that in his town and among his people the gospel and faith
in Christ are built up and win out over foe, devil, and heresy.
According to Luther, then, the priesthood of all believers, far from providing a cover for
individual doctrinal error, is a stimulus for defending the church against those forces
which would weaken and destroy it.
John Calvin interpreted the priesthood of all believers in terms of the church's threefold
participation in Christ's prophetic, kingly and priestly ministry. Specifically, every
Christian is mandated to be a representative of Christ in his redemptive outreach to the
world.
All believers . . . should seek to bring others [into the church], should strive to lead
the wanderers back to the road, should stretch forth a hand to the fallen and should win
over the outsiders.
The priesthood of believers is not a prerogative on which we can rest; it is a commission
which sends us forth into the world to exercise a priestly ministry not for ourselves, but
for others--"the outsiders," not instead of Christ, but for the sake of Christ
and at His behest.
For Calvin, the priesthood of all believers was not only a spiritual privilege, it was
also a moral obligation and a personal vocation. C. Eastwood, the great Methodist scholar
whose book on the priesthood of believers is one of the few comprehensive treatments of
the theme, laments the distortion of this tremendous evangelical imperative:
The common error that the phrase "Priesthood of Believers" is synonymous with
"private judgment" is most unfortunate and is certainly a misrepresentation . .
. . Of course, the Reformers emphasized "private judgment," but it was always
"informed" judgment, and it was always controlled, checked, and corroborated by
the corporate testimony of the congregation. Indeed Calvin himself fully realized that
uncontrolled private judgment means subjectivism, eccentricity, anarchy, and chaos.
Given our commitment to religious liberty, Baptists cannot approve Calvin's method of
dealing with the excesses of uncontrolled private judgment, as evidenced by his
acquiescence in the execution of Michael Servetus who had repudiated the Christian
doctrine of the Trinity. At the same time, we can and should recognize the danger which
such teaching poses to the life of the church. We should not invite Servetus to become the
pastor of our church or a professor in our seminary! To do so would violate the integrity
of our Christian faith. It would also be an abdication of our responsibility in the
priesthood of all believers.
No one should deny the importance of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. It
is a precious and irreducible part of our Reformation heritage. But let no one trivialize
its meaning by equating it with modern individualism or theological minimalism. It is a
call to ministry and service; it is a barometer of the quality of our life together in the
Body of Christ and of the coherence of our witness in the world for which Christ died.
This is basicly what most of the protestant believe.
Other churches mantein that they have their autorithy and power directly from the Bible but they don't give further knowledge about that.
www.massimo.bigsmart.com
The Bible and the Book of Mormon this is a new study,totally from the Bible, supporting the divinity of the Book of Mormon.