Christians only. Show me in the new Testament where it says we should establish a Christian priesthood.?

Question

Speaking of all Christians1 Peter 2:9 says "ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood". But can you show me where it says we need a priestly order with a Pope at the top of the heap?

I think the Jewish priesthood was transfered to Rome by Caiaphas the high priest when he made the proclamation "We have no king but Caesar."

Therefore, when Rome evicted the Jews from the land, it was within this acquired authority to do so. When Rome executed Jews who wouldn't submit to their religious authority, it was also by this authority.

Rome renamed the land "Palestina", and to this day have opposed the Jews occupation of the land.

Second part of the question; Do you believe in "replacement theology", that is that because the Jews rejected their Messiah, all the promises to Jews now fall upon Christians?

Just so I don't get called names, I should tell you, I don't believe this way.

Answer 1

In my mind, there is only one priest, and that is Christ. While I respect the beliefs of the Catholics, I do not think it nessecary to have a "direct link to God" who is human. Thats why Christ came. As far as the replacement theology, the bible makes it clear that Jews are still Gods chosen people. Jesus came first for the Jews, then the Gentiles. Just because the Jews rejected him does not mean he cut them off. There are still promises inthe bible for them...like the 140, 000 witnesses (was it 140,000?) Plus, God's promise that he will never destroy their race has been kept even when they underwent the Holocust and the wars today. LOL, man, my argument is weak, but its all I got at the moment. Hope it answers your question!

Answer 2

This is a great question!
For the first part the priesthood found in 1 Peter speaks of the priesthood of all believers. As a believer in Jesus Christ you are allowed personally to enter into the tabernacle and go before God himself(Through Jesus Christ) and present yourself before God for cleansing. See Hebrews chapter 8-10. Do we need specifically a Pope or something over us. NO. Because Hebrews also discusses the superiority of Jesus Christ over all. He is our high priest.

Second part of your question. NO replacment theology is clearly unbiblcal based on Romans chapters 9-11. Paul the writer is a Jew as well as a Roman citizen. He strongly tells the Roman Christians that the Jews are still God's elect. The old testament calls the Jews the wife who left to go into harlotry. The church is considered the bride of Christ. Paul teaches in Romans that God is using the non-Jews to stir up jealousy in the Jewish nation. They are but blinded for a moment but they will come to see Jesus as the Messiah.

Answer 3

I am a Christian and I flatly reject replacement theology in all it's forms!! It causes God to become a liar, and He is not! I am not aware of anything calling for a priesthood among Christians, but there is certainly a lot to be said in the New Testament about the appointment of leaders and elders in the church. My feeling is that we are to be a local body with bonds of community among one another and not give reverence to another man in a distant place who is not our teacher, nor is he involved in our lives. Priesthood seems to work on the outset in some denominations, but I do not think that Jesus intended us to appoint small religion-kings over ourselves any more than he intended us to break into denominational factions.

Interesting observation about Caiphas handing over spiritual authority to Rome. I had never picked up on that one.

Answer 4

I wonder if all the people who are so quick to chastise the Catholic Church really know anything about it, or the Catholic people.

Most don't, If you have not been through the RICA program, most likely your information only comes from anti-Catholic sources many of which either stretch the truth or outright lie about our Beliefs.

Catholics Don't believe in the Scripture alone, the Church was founded when Jesus gave handed the Church to Peter, one of his 12 Disciples and the first Pope.

Jesus set up this Church, not the Bible. Jesus was the leader, he picked 12 Disciples, they went out and spread the Gospels.

You can agree, or disagree, but before bashing, PLEASE at least know the truth about the Catholic Church first!

Peace!

Answer 5

I am a messianic jew , i do not think replacement theolgy is true. as for the jews who rejected the messiah if i remember correctly jews were following the messiah exclusivey untill gentiles were permitted. a more correct statement would be jewish religious athority rejected jesus where thousands of jews followed him and heard.I do not agree with the popehood either i think it was something rome invented up for control of the church. also submitting to the roman religuos authority meant banning jews who believed in jesus as well for not giving up jewish traditions.

Answer 6

The New Testament was written in Greek, and the terms used in the early Church, to describe their ministers, are most literally translated as: Servants, Elders, and Supervisors. In the Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Churches, in English, these are called Deacons, Priests, and Bishops.

Answer 7

You stole my thunder. We are a royal priesthood. And while Catholics ARE Christian, they do have their problems. This could be considered one of the minor ones. As to 'replacement theology', that's nonsense. God has a plan for the Jew just like He has a plan for the Christian. We each have our place in the Kingdom.

Answer 8

The Roman Catholics believe Sacred Scripture AND sacred Tradition hold as much weight in the interpretation of divine things. Therefore, they look to the early church as their example (along with scripture) as to the hierarchy of the Church. Consider what Paul says, "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thess. 2:15)

Answer 9

The One to create the Priesthood was Jesus...

Jesus created the priesthoods in HIS Church...prior to his coming to this world... prior to OUR coming to this world... prior to this world even existing...

I don't think you will find anything in the Bible about us trying to CREATE a priesthood... only that it was bestowed upon a certain tribe or that it was passed down by the laying on of hands.

Answer 10

It begins in Acts of the Apostle's 1:46, where Mathias becomes the first apostolic successor or the first episkopoi or the first Catholic bishop.

Just a note, the word priest in English was the English word prester which was the Latin word prebyter which was the Greek word presbuteroi. One of the issues you are dealing with is the English translations present in the words as well as specific theological issues. Only in English is a priest a priest, elsewhere the words are different but they all derive from the Greek in the end.

All Catholic bishops can trace their ordination directly back to the apostles. Unlike Protestant churches where anyone can suddenly decide to be a minister and be in charge, a bishop is called out of the community by other bishops. Just as Jesus chose the twelve, and the eleven began choosing bishops, those bishops in turn called out others to continue on the original apostolic message. Each Catholic bishop can trace his ministry directly to Jesus by ordination. Early bishops include people such as Timothy and Titus. see1 Tim. 5:19–22; 2 Tim. 4:5; Titus 1:5

The next member of the ministry to appear was the deacon. The Diaconal ministry first appears in the book the Acts of the Apostle's 6:1-6. The first martyr is a deacon, Stephen Archdeacon and Protomartyr.

The presbyter is different and literally means old man. The helpers to the apostle's were the old wise men of the community. They functioned in place of an apostle or bishop when they were absent or dead. They hold the responsibility of teaching, governing and celebrating the mysteries of the faith. see 1 Tim. 5:17; James. 5:14–15.

You begin seeing references to these as defined roles in the earliest writings and references to papal authority are older than John's Gospel. It is seen in the Shephard of Hermas, considered part of scripture for several hundred years in the early life of the Church and in 1 Clement also older than John's Gospel. The first person to really explicitly speak of papal authority was Ignatius in 107. He was the bishop of Antioch and was trained by Peter and John. He succeeded Evodius as bishop who succeeded Peter. Like the Pope of Rome, he is a successor to Peter. The ancient distinction comes from the fact that Peter was martyred in Rome, but his ministry did not stop with his death. It continued on in Linus who was succeeded by Anacletus who was succeeded by Clement (see letter above). Currently the successor to Peter's ministry is Benedict XVI.

Jesus gave a special ministry to Peter in John's Gospel and in Matthew's Gospel. In fact, the New Testament contains five different metaphors for the foundation of the Church (Matt. 16:18, 1 Cor. 3:11, Eph. 2:20, 1 Pet. 2:5–6, Rev. 21:14). And the last chapter of John gives Peter charge of the entire Church.

Jesus give Peter the authority that anything he binds on Earth is bound in Heaven and anything he looses on Earth is loosed in Heaven. He later gave this special ministry to the other eleven as well. He gave to Peter alone the "keys to the Kingdom." This refers back to Isaiah's passage where Eliakim is given the entirety of David's authority as though he were David when he succeeded Shebnah. Whatever he shuts on Earth is shut in Heaven, whatever he opens on Earth is opened in Heaven. Both of these statements had clear meanings in the culture of the day and in the rabbinic literature.

Finally, in the last chapter of John's Gospel he charges Peter alone with feeding all his sheep. The others were considered responsible for their particular charges, but Peter was alone responsible for all.

It is clear from the variety of early Christian writings that a papacy was intended. Of interest, there is no dispute on this issue for sixteen centuries.

A second way to look at this is this. There is but one Catholic Church which still teaches the same things it taught in the first, second, third, fourth....seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It remains the largest group of Christians by far, the most diverse group of Christians by far, and the second largest demographic group in the world after the People's Republic of China. There are 46,000 Protestant denominations. They change their doctrines constantly. Which one is rooted in the truth, the one Catholic Church or the 46,000 Protestant churches that can't even agree on things they used to agree on such as gay marriage or what the bible means or should the clergy be allowed to have sex outside marriage.