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Christians, priests one and all


JohnD

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As priests before God (Revelation 1:6 / Revelation 5:10 / 1 Peter 2:3-9) all of us have a unique ministry, a calling, and an anointing (spiritual gifts) to serve God and the Body Christian.

But the tradition of man church industrial complex along with the do-less majority of believers (both ever striving to see how close to the edge of damnation they can come) believe / would have everybody believe... there is an Old Covenant division in the New Covenant: clergy / laity. 

This stymies the growth of the Body of Christ which was intended to be an exponential harvest outreach to every generation. For centuries it has become stagnant...

While no one of us ever reaches the point that we cannot learn something new, we are to strive to grow in the grace and knowledge of God (2 Peter 3:16-18) to the point that we no longer need to be taught by man.

1 John 2:27 (AV)
27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

I once thought this was a verse that pertained to clergy. In the Calvary Chapel movement, for example, pastors like to consider themselves under the pastorate of Chuck Smith... calling him their pastor... even though they do not need him to teach them what to teach their congregations each week (it is more or less crediting Smith's teaching over all). The point here is that the pastors don't need any man to teach them. Then the scriptures about the individual priesthood of each and every believer came to light and I see that 1 John 2:27 pertains to all.

This is not to say one is instantly equipped with perfect knowledge of scripture.

Quite the opposite. Our humanity gets in the way of God's inspiration / interpretation of his own word (the Bible). And as we grow in Christ to learn his voice (that of the Holy Spirit) and weed out our own interference and that of others... we must still validate the teaching / inspiration / interpretation / anointing of the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:1) as we are to prove all things anyway (1 Thessalonians 5:21) by the scriptures (Acts 17:11 / 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

 

 

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God originally planned that all Israel would be priests. 

Exodus 19:6 (AV)
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Sound familiar? 

About 1,500 years later the Apostle Peter wrote:

1 Peter 2:3–9 (AV)
3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

God did not realize his plan with Israel under the Old Covenant because of the events in Exodus 32. 

Exodus 32 (AV)
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.
21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.
23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.
35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

This was not only about pagan worship / idolatry but what it symbolized especially at this crucial juncture in history... it was an attempt to undo everything God had done or would do to usher salvation into the human domain. Note in verses 27 - 28 especially... the Levites who came to Moses' side slew 3,000 Israelites. This was no small deal, and it was Moses' own tribe that responded (by choice) to the call and henceforth became the priests (the clergy, if you will) to the laity of the rest of the tribes of Israel. This event decided this truth. 

God also has not realized this plan (the priesthood of all [New Testament] Israel) in the New Covenant either for the following reasons:

1.. The Church organization (which is not the Church Organism) is based on human traditions / interpretations of scripture (Mark 7:13) rather than the revelation of the Holy Spirit who wrote the Bible (2 Peter 1:20-21) which we are to know first.

2. The Church organization is fractured from, divided over, splintered by conflicting traditions and interpretations of man though Jesus prayed specifically and implicitly that the Church Organism be one as he and the Father are one (John 17).

3. The Church organization brings the Law of Moses into the Grace of Christ further distorting the truth and confusing the Body of Christ with endless conflicts that interfere with the individual ministries of these priests of God unawares.  Hebrews 9:16-17 indicate where that line of demarcation is in scripture. Events before Christ was on the cross are under the Old Covenant even though they have a New Testament address in our Bibles. Jesus even said at the last Old Covenant Passover "This [third] cup is the New Covenant in my blood."   

Galatians 3:24-25

4. It's main mission is to protect and prop up its own existence rather than the outreach and service to Christ and members within.

Therefore let us be salt and light growing in Christ and diligently studying the scriptures under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit (validated by scripture) and stepping up into our own ministries as the priests before God / the Body of Christ / the Church Organism.

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We have to be careful with this idea. I was in one Bible study where 1 woman admitted she never read 1 page of the Bible. At least she was honest. I was in another Bible study where several people were only recently escaped from the New Age. But several of them thought they were prophets and expected us to accept them as prophets. 

   What ever happened to humility. I read and study the Bible for my own edification, I never intended to teach, preach or be the guy who knew the truth better than mostly everyone. But after 40 yrs this seems to have happened and yet I'm still slow to tell the things God has revealed to me. I have been doing it lately but only because I may die soon and I see some young people don't even know the meaning of the word repentance. I'm glad someone was honest enough to admit that. Without true repentance one cannot be saved, not really. Many of us older Christians who have survived the storms of our faith are a wealth of information for the young who are being corrupted at younger and younger ages. (I'm thinking of drag queens who are allowed to teach kindergarten)

   I agree God wanted us to all be as priests but even God doesn't always get what He wants. This is because He wants us to have free will. We have it so God had to make concessions with Himself. 

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I am nosy........lol......how,fine sir, do you define “ repentance”?  I share your belief that it is essential for Salvation and it is vital that young Believers understand it.

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21 hours ago, Blood Bought 1953 said:

I am nosy........lol......how,fine sir, do you define “ repentance”?  I share your belief that it is essential for Salvation and it is vital that young Believers understand it.

You aren't being nosy at all I'm glad you asked. Repentance means a lot of things and I may miss some. But first it means to be sorry for your sins, you have hurt God and you should also tell Him you are sorry and ask for His forgiveness. Secondly you must stop doing that sin. This is usually easier said than done but you have to keep trying. It's a good idea to ask for the Holy Spirit to help you give up the sin, but ultimately you yourself must decide not to do it. This is how you repent. 

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