Message from @Iakovos
Discord ID: 577911538980093968
1 Peter 2:5
**1 Peter 2:5 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)**
```Dust
<5> like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ```
We are priests of God to our own souls, maybe to those of our families, but proclaiming the Priesthood of all Believers in an ecclesial sense is like proclaiming the Professorhood of all first-year communications majors
Sure, you can offer spiritual sacrifices
You can't do what requires ordination
Where is ordination in the NT?
Honest question.
Ordination is all through the Bible lmao
Provide aa link.
In the NT
"And he breathed the Holy Spirt on them"
"Upon this rock, I shall build my church"
That's just the first couple of bits.
Laying on of hands by Christ to His Apostles or the Apostles to specific members of their disciples, and the breathing of the Holy Spirit on them.
I think you ahve a certain distorted view of the NT
<:ohyou2:569616856105877505>
Alright, I will go and explain this to my elders and get their opinions, you have affirmed what the priest said.
The NT is not presented as some kind of "literally everything about divinity and priesthood"
Some books of the NT relate to the life of Jesus, so they talk about that
Others are letters to some communities, so they talk about that
Others describe revelations, etc.
So to study the presence of ordained priesthood you also look at many more sources that you have at your disposal
@Iakovos I'm curious: is Christianity based on the Bible, or on the life of Jesus Christ and the community of Believers He started?
Do you expect the gospels to suddenly describe the ordination of christian priests? We can see this ordination in the communities that are described, the presence of authoritative figures, the documents from the first centuries etc
The latter. The bible is just evidence.
If it's the former, how are you any different from a Muslim? If it's the latter, then isn't the Bible just a byproduct of that community? Isn't the most central Authority in Christianity the Church from which the Bible came?
So if we take the same verses you use, we could also conclude that we do not need any church, since we are ourselves "spiritual houses"
We are commanded to sing praises to the Lord, and the early churches met on the first day of the week.
So there is a need for a congregation for worship.
We can do all of those alone
We are commanded to take communion.
I'm just giving you an example how it is pointless to use that verse to pretend that we are all priests, we are all the same, nothing is restricted to us
Yes, but Jesus ordained specific people to lead those congregations, and He gave them specific Spiritual Gifts, including the ability to pass those gifts along through ordination.
In reference to way above, baptism is so essential that even non-Christians can baptized in emergencies
Look st St. Genesius
So now you have to tur not only to the Bible, but to everything ever written by those people in that chain of ordination going back to Christ.
If your pastor is not in that chain, or has broken from it, you have a problem.
I'll think about it and pray for guidance.
I don't think the things we mention are unreasonable
You say elders, are you JW or LDS?