There is No God-Ordained Established Christian Priesthood on Earth
The Bible only recognizes two established Priesthoods. The Levitical Priesthood and the Priesthood of Melchizedek.
You can see these two established Priesthoods compared in the Book of Hebrews chapter 7. The Priesthood of Melchizedek is reserved for none other than Jesus Christ (as a simple reading of Hebrews chapter 7 shows- and by the description of Melchizedek there it is also obvious that the Old Testament character of Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ). This Priesthood has now negated the need for the Levitical Priesthood that was a necessary institution for Israel until the fulfillment of God’s promises in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, should be a reality.
The fact that there are only two established Priesthoods appointed in the Bible, and one is not functioning anymore by God’s appointment, and the other is reserved for Jesus Christ alone, means that any church with a separate group of clergy who allegedly operate as priests is deceitful.
It is important to note that the offering of sacrifices was an essential aspect of the Levitical Priesthood. The need for the Levitical Priests’ mediation under the Old Covenant was based upon God’s appointment therein for Israel to come to them so they could offer that covenant’s prescribed sacrifices. The sacrificial system under the Levitical Priesthood foreshadowed Christ’s offering on the cross which was actually able to atone for sin.
The prescribed sacrifice and prescribed mediation in relation to the Levitical Priesthood were inseparable.
Though the Old Testament sacrifices could not actually atone for sin, in looking ahead to Christ’s atonement God justified Israelites’ under the Old Covenant who offered sacrifices through His prescribed system involving the Levitical Priests (when people offered these sacrifices through the priests with repentant hearts and made the restitution necessary to accompany their sacrifices- and God frequently rebuked Israel in the Old Testament for offering sacrifices without true repentance and restitution, and made it clear that such sacrifices were not acceptable to Him).
God esteemed the Old Covenant sacrifices through the Levitical Priesthood as sufficient to provide a provisional type of atonement; and to justify those who overall followed His directions concerning this from a heart aimed at pleasing Him (which is another way of describing those with an obedient faith in the true God- the faith of Abraham which is the Biblical example of justifying faith for both Jews under the Old Covenant and Christians under the New Covenant in Christ).
Since offering sacrifices on earth was an essential aspect of the Levitical Priesthood, when the actual atonement for sin was eventually made through the promised Messiah, then the need for an established priesthood to offer sacrifices on earth ceased.
It would make sense then that a group of priests which was labeled as an established Christian priesthood would probably not receive the truth that Jesus Christ’s atonement for sin on the cross has been fully completed and that Jesus is in heaven now to be the only mediator between God and men until He returns.
The following is from a Brittanica.com article on the Roman Catholic Mass: “According to church teaching, Christ’s sacrifice is not only recalled in the mass, it is made present. In the eucharistic prayer, the church asks God the Father to send the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine on the altar so that by his power they may become the very body and blood that Christ offered on the cross (see transubstantiation). That change having occurred, Christ is offered anew to God the Father, and the church unites with him in that offering.”
The Bible declares on the other hand that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is unique in what it accomplished. And it’s also clear that His sacrifice never will be (nor needs to be) repeated again.
Hebrews 9:24-28: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
If that doesn’t make it clear enough that Christ was offered once for sin, never needs to be offered again, and that the Roman Catholic Mass and its Priesthood (and any supposed established Christian priesthood) are thus overall deceitful, then keep reading in Hebrews.
Hebrews 10:1-18: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law (my note- that is, the prescribed ceremonies of the Law of Moses); Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”
There is no more offering for sin. There is still the need to obtain and (in the case of the authentic Christians in the churches to whom the Apostles’ epistles are written to) the need to maintain an interest in Christ. If you keep reading, Hebrews then focuses on instructions and warnings related to that.
Yet note that those directions are not about offering sacrifices through Levitical priests or seeking mediation of alleged Christian priests who are part of a supposed established Christian priesthood.
So when Hebrews goes on to say things in chapter 13 related to following the faith of, and submitting to those who have the rule over you, it is not talking about the following.
Section 1367 of the Catholic Catechism says: “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: “The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different.” “And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner… this sacrifice is truly propitiatory.”
And that just proves that the Mass’ stated purpose utterly opposes the Bible’s clear verdict concerning sacrifice and offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:19 to the end of the Book of Hebrews demonstrates how Christians are to follow and obey those who have the rule over them. You also see there how they are to identify those who truly qualify as faithful Christian leaders. Such leaders could not be an established class of Christian priests.
This logically also means that the doctrine of transubstantiation is unbiblical.
Besides what has been said concerning how there is no established Christian priesthood ordained by God, since Christ need not and cannot be offered again since He is at God’s right in heaven until He returns, then the offering which is allegedly offered in the Mass could not be Christ’s flesh and blood.
Didn’t Jesus say that we need to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have eternal life? Yes, He said that in John chapter 6 before He ever instituted the Lord’s supper.
Jesus said what He said in John chapter 6 to a generally superstitious people obsessed with their natural interests being met who sought God’s favor primarily for that. Imposing a superstitious ritual upon them would not have upset them at all. This was a people immersed already in rituals (some of them Biblical ones but many of them inventions of man that diminished or altogether made comprehensive Biblical obedience to seem to be of no practical effect).
When it is understood that Jesus Christ is the ultimate, and the only means of spiritual life, and that there is no shortcut to eternal life through Him besides being governed practically by the Word of God which is a testimony of Him, which points to Him, and which He always points those who come to Him back to, then what Jesus said in John chapter 6 would truly be an offense to the natural man in his alienation from God.
John 6:61-63: “When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth (makes alive); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
We need to partake of the life of Christ; and independently of Him we cannot live spiritually. We need to die to ourselves and obey His Word in subjection to His authority in order to be justified through His High Priesthood and to live to God through His Holy Spirit.
No sacrament, nor ritual, nor trip to the altar to “accept Jesus” can replace nor replicate this.
But didn’t Jesus tell His disciples at the Last Supper that the bread was His body and the wine is His blood? Read the whole discourse and it’s clear He was speaking figuratively concerning this.
Matthew 26:26-29: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
He called this liquid the fruit of the vine after He had called it His blood.
Many resort to Jesus’ words to His disciples during one of the times He appeared to them after His resurrection to try to justify an established Christian priesthood.
John 20:21-23: “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”
First of all, note that Jesus told them that He was sending them as His Father had sent Him. When Jesus was sent to earth He was not a priest. His High Priesthood was instituted when He ascended to heaven.
Hebrews 7:13-17: “For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude (likeness) of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
Also, not even Christ’s own Apostles were given the power to mediate between God and men. One of them testified that directly.
We still cannot overemphasize 1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Even crazier is the thought that the Apostles, let alone anyone else, were given the authority to declare anyone to be forgiven or not on their own terms.
The Apostles obviously had a responsibility to set forth the terms of reconciliation with God, to call people to reconcile with God on those terms, and to enforce those terms within the churches (based upon what they could know about people). We see all of this in Scripture.
2 Corinthians 5:19-20: “To wit (know), that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
James 5:19-20: “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
1 Corinthians 5:9-13: “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”
Never though do we see Christ’s Apostles or any Christian leaders in the New Testament telling people that they need to go do a sacrament of confession or to come to them in order to actually receive God’s forgiveness.
Consider how obviously improper it is for a woman to go into a confessional and tell a man who is called a priest details of her personal life (this is inevitable when a church requires “auricular confession” like the Catholic and Orthodox churches do- members are told they need to go to a priest alone and confess their sins to him in order to receive forgiveness from God).
Peter tells the crowd in Jerusalem in Acts 2:36-41: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
It mentions that the 3,000 souls added to the number of the disciples of Christ were baptized. It does not say that they went to confession.
Peter tells Simon the sorcerer in 8:22: “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.”
Acts 8:35-38 (Philip is preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch whom he has just met in the desert; and as he met this eunuch the eunuch was reading from Isaiah chapter 53): “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
The Ethiopian eunuch was instructed out of Scripture concerning Jesus Christ and was instructed to declare His reception of this testimony by baptism (and properly understood Christian baptism is a declaration of submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; and this implies willingness to learn to observe the entire Word of God- Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Peter 3:21, etc). If there was sin evident in the eunuch’s life which he was not proving he was putting away and willing to make restitution for as necessary, then Philip would have dealt with that before he baptized him. Yet he did not make the eunuch “go to confession” as a sacrament nor did Philip declare the eunuch forgiven by God.
Another clear example is in Acts chapter 9 when Saul (long before he was called the Apostle Paul) was converted to Christ on the road to Damascus. Saul was praying already before Ananias, whom Christ sent to lay hands on him so he’d receive his sight again, came to him. It is noted there that Ananias baptized Saul after he laid his hands on him to receive his sight. There is no note though that Ananias heard Saul’s confession and forgave him.
I’ve even seen the following passage used to try to justify the claim that Jesus ordained His Apostles as priests to begin an established Christian priesthood on earth.
Mark 2:23-28: “And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”
The claim was that Jesus compared His disciples to priests by comparing them to those who ate the bread designated for the Levitical Priests. Yet Jesus didn’t compare His disciples to the priests here. Jesus rather compared His disciples, who were plucking the ears of corn and eating them on the Sabbath Day in their hunger, to David and his men eating the bread in their hunger which was normally lawful only for the Levitical Priests to eat. David and his men were not Levitical priests.
Aaron’s email is: [email protected]
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