1 Peter 2:5 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.
1 Peter 2:9 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.
Revelation 1:5 Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 5:9 Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Can anyone tell me what's wrong with using the above verses as proofs that the New Testament supposedly abolished the notion or idea of there being a special class of priests, the so-called sacerdotal priesthood? Anyone? Anyone?
Exodus 19:6 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.
Exodus 23:22 (LXX) If ye will indeed hear my voice, and if thou wilt do all the things I shall charge thee with, and keep my covenant, ye shall be to me a peculiar people above all nations, for the whole earth is mine; and ye shall be to me a royal priesthood, and a holy nation: these words shall ye speak to the children of Israel, If ye shall indeed hear my voice, and do all the things I shall tell thee, I will be an enemy to thine enemies, and an adversary to thine adversaries.
Isaiah 61:6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
3 comments :
Ooo, that's very good. Followed your link from E.P.
David, let me explain the philosophical reasons for your concern.
In Neoplatonism
“The One shines out as a light. It produces the duality of the Mind and the multiplicity of the Soul. There is no break in the continuity, no independent Demiurge, no space. Thus even the sense world is an ‘emanation’ from the Parmenidean One. One and matter are extremities of a single continuous line. There are no breaks. The whole, therefore, is a monistic, pantheistic system.[God and Creation are consubstantial] The One no doubt ‘transcends’ sense objects; but this transcendence is merely a higher rank or position in a continuum. [The Hierarchy].
Thales to Dewey, The Hellenistic Age-Neoplatonism-The One, pg. 147-148
The issue is, in Plotinus, our realm is not a creation, but an emanation extending from the nature and is therefore consubstatial with the One. The Hierarchies descend by level of brilliance and at each Hierarchy is the intermediary. Clark explains,
“A more reasonable and philosophical theory of emanation was that of Plotinus…whose deleterious effects, variously evaluated by different writers, were not so immediate. The theory is a form of pantheism. The Supreme One, transcending even the duality of propositional truth, transcending Mind, beyond all knowledge, shines by its own nature, and its expanding rays are the ranks of being in the world, each less brilliant than the prior one,[Hierarchies] until the light is lost in darkness and nothingness.”
The Trinity, pg. 115
This is indistinguishable from Gnosticism. Edward Moore (St. Elias School of Orthodox Theology) wrote an article on Gnosticism on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Moore says,
“According to the Gnostics, this world, the material cosmos, is the result of a primordial error on the part of a supra-cosmic, supremely divine being, usually called Sophia (Wisdom) or simply the Logos. This being is described as the final emanation of a divine hierarchy, called the Plêrôma or “Fullness,” at the head of which resides the supreme God, the One beyond Being."
This is the kicker:
Moore says,
“Indeed, while the receptive hermeneutical method implies that we have something to learn from a text, the method employed by the Gnostics, which we may call the “revelatory” method, was founded upon the idea that they (the Gnostics) had received a supra-cosmic revelation, either in the form of a “call,” or a vision, or even, perhaps, through the exercise of philosophical dialectic. This “revelation” was the knowledge (gnôsis) that humankind is alien to this realm, and possesses a “home on high” within the plêrôma, the “Fullness,” where all the rational desires of the human mind come to full and perfect fruition…On this belief, all knowledge belonged to these Gnostics, and any interpretation of the biblical text would be for the purpose of explaining the true nature of things by elucidating the errors and distortions of the Demiurge.”
Don’t we Protestants get this from the Eastern Orthodox quite often? The Gnostic Magisterium was a vital aspect of their epistemology. They claimed to be the only authority to teach and interpret the scriptures. This was the spirit of Antichrist which culminated into the Papacy.
I have shown the connection between the Pagan Hellenistic world and the Anchoretic Church through Origen and Dionysius the Areopagite here:http://eternalpropositions.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/dionysius-the-areopagite-and-his-influence-in-christian-history-by-drake/.
Dionysius’ Ecclesiology in his Celestial Hierarchies were designed right off of Neoplatonism. Let’s see it in action!
Monkpatrick says,
“In response, the hierarchy is not about putting something between the believer and Christ but something that enables the believer to have a direct concrete, in the flesh, relationship with Christ. It makes Christ present in fullness to the believer... the Bishop, is an icon that enables the person of Christ to become present in a tangible manner. Meeting the Bishop or Presbyter and even other orders of the hierarchy, is having a direct encounter with Christ.”
He says other things as well but I think you get the point.
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