The breath of God

[@Sennen-oukoku]

Shalom pastor Jeon Can I ask some issues of Bible ？ I have no korean character in my cellphone .... I mean if you don't mind let me in japanese here. 今のクリスチャンは、万人祭司(universal priesthood )ですか？それは 聖書的でしょうか？

[@Sennen-oukoku]

それから、 プロテスタントを掲げたルターは、なぜ、反ユダヤ主義者と言われているのでしょうか。。教えて頂けたら大変嬉しく存じます。

[@ReBibleAcademy]

Universal priesthood or priesthood of all believers is widely accepted in various branches of Protestantism, which is based on 1 Peter 2:9 saying, “You are a chose race, a royal priesthood, a priestly kingdom”. This theological concept has several connotations and each one has its contextual reason. For example, during the early days of Christianity before it was approved as the official religion within the Roman empire, there was no clear ecclesial structure within the church to divide the congregations between lay and ordained people. As the book of ACTS informs us, believers just gathered in their homes and shared bread and wine without any religious order or structure. This was a way to differentiate Christianity after the resurrection of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost from Judaism which could not stand without the hierarchical religious structure. Another example is that Martine Luther needed to differentiate his theological stance on this particular matter from the Roman Catholic’s ecclesial system, which again could not stand without the solid system of ordination for priests. The ordained priests and the hierarchical ecclesial system were the central features of Roman Catholicism, which needed to be supported by laypeople. Luther needed to bring a new perspective to interpret 1 Peter 2:9 to criticise the corrupted ecclesial system within Roman Catholicism at that time. The universal priesthood does not mean that we need to abolish the existing ecclesial system or church politics. It is more like to emphasise that we have direct access to the throne of grace to have intimate fellowship with God without any intermediary, such as pastors or priests since the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom through the sacrifice of Christ. We still need pastors and priests as they have different gifts and talents from ours and play important roles in our faith communities to lead and guide the flocks who are not equipped with much biblical and theological knowledge. I hope this answers your question.

[@Sennen-oukoku]

@@ReBibleAcademy Thank you very much for your explain . Actually it was question to me for longtime ... I do pray for your family in U.K as always.... Shalom ！

[@ReBibleAcademy]

Thank you for praying for us.