“The priest is not made. He must be born a priest; must inherit his office. I refer to the new birth—the birth of water and the Spirit. Thus all Christians must became priests, children of God and co-heirs with Christ the Most High Priest”. Martin Luther
For our drive bys:
“Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength” Eric Hoffer
Many of our readers often bring up issues that are interesting to ponder. One such reader, Michael, made the following comment.
“I just baptized my son this past Friday. It was a wonderful and meaningful event for my son, for me, and my whole family. I’m writing to encourage others, with so much writing about our priesthood of believers on this blog, to exercise the same privilege with members of your family.
We often abdicate our spiritual responsibility in our kids’ lives by letting some, “elite,” minister, who is, “ordained,” as if we’re not, to baptize believers. That has to stop.
But, we must step up to the plate and not give up this privilege to others, empowering them and not ourselves, giving them authority that is ours, as believers. With all the griping about hyper-authoritarianism, do something about it and assume the ministries that God has given to you. Lay hold of what God is calling you to do. Stop waiting for permission from some, “elite,” within your church.
Although I baptized my daughter, as well, my former church, (the church that later terminated my membership when I pointed out that our, “pastor,” was lying), would not allow me to baptize her without an, “ordained minister,” participating. Although my wife led my daughter to the Lord and I led my son to the Lord, somehow, we’re not as anointed as the, “ordained,” to baptize them? Hogwash!”
In my own family, my husband baptized all three of our children during church wide services in two different churches. One of my former pastors, Pete Briscoe, encouraged families to baptize their own children. He even suggested that I, a woman, could do so as well.
Then TWW received the following comments in another post that is relevant to the above comment.
(JACK) “Too Dee, an emphatic yes!!! I do believe that only ordained ministers are authorized to baptize. I believe this is clearly taught in scripture”.
"I certainly agree that rebaptising someone who has been baptized by an ordained minister of the gospel in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit does not need rebaptising".
“Finally, and I do mean finally, if you can only accept 3 points you are an Arminian or a Pelagian. Both of these doctrines were condemed as heresy by the ancient church. Now, please do your homework.”
“Just study the New Testament and see how the apostles were given authority and how they organized the church. I don’t believe you will find any women given authority to preach, administer the sacraments or be ordained in any way. I’m sorry that you wish to take authority that is not yours to receive. There are many functions in the body for women but Christ has not authorized such duties for women. If you had read as much as you say you have you would know Calvin’s position on such things. I said I was done in the last blog. I’m sorry I had to break my word and say more. FIN”
I realize that I have taken some of his comments out of his exact context . Please click here to see the full extent of his comments.
Jack’s comments are not uncommon in the blogosphere. Such persons come onto a blog to “educate” the poor, deceived folks on the site. They claim superior knowledge and accuse said bloggers of being “uneducated.” Then they claim they have read such books as Calvin’s Institutes and suggest we read them.
But, once we let them know we have read the suggested work, they up the ante with claims to have read them several times and so must everyone else in order to comment. In other words, you will never be able to win with this guy because he will always have one more rule to trump you. For example, they will have read the recently translated books by some other supposed “giant of the faith”. I am waiting for the guy who then claims you must read the book in the original language in order to truly “understand” the book.
The world has a term for these guys: pseudo-intellectuals. They read but they don’t really understand. The ever cool Urban Dictionary defines this as "Created solely as an attempt to display the author's intellectual prowess though actually void of real pith; intellectualism as style rather than substance. Often relies on heavy name dropping and erudite, obscure terminology instead of easily understood, common words". Do I get an "amen?"
Then we are all lectured to read the Bible. Why? Supposedly we would then come out to the exact same conclusion that he has and be really good Christians. However, if it was so easy, then why have theologians debated many of these fine points for millennia? I guess they didn't have Jack to advise them.
They make their pronouncements on their version of correct doctrine and make accusation of heresy when one disagrees with them on a secondary issue. Wait, didn’t I write about this yesterday? Then, they sign off, having warned us of the error of our ways.
Well, Jack, you are a weenie. You are a hyper-authoritarian pit bull that cannot stand the courage of your convictions. It is people like you who birth websites like ExChristians.Net. In your self-centered smugness, you have lost site of your first love and I suggest that it is you who is following man and not Jesus. You can’t even stay around and have a conversation with your fellow Christians. You must be too busy reading another theology book to interact with us lowlifes. Wait, didn’t the Author of Life spend time eating and communing with non-theologians? In fact He called many of their religious leaders, “snakes.” He claimed such priests put rules and regulations on the backs of the poor in spirit and caused them to lose sight of the real faith.
Here is a suggestion. How about actually caring enough about the people you are trying to reach? Spend some time. Get to know their hearts. There are many who comment on this site who have made enormous sacrifices for the faith. Learn to dialog instead of lecture. You might learn something as well. Or do you really want to? Perhaps it is easier to put God in a box where you can control HIm and feel really safe. But, as C.S. Lewis ( Is he a heretic as well?) said in the Chronicles of Narnia, "Aslan is not a tame lion." By the way, I have read these books several times. Do I get any points?
Now, my rant is finished so we can get back to our readers and fellow searchers of grace. Perhaps you can weigh in on this subject. Can family members baptize their children or can only ordained pastors baptize? If you go the ordained route, please explain what you mean by ordination. I look forward to your input.
On Monday, I plan to address the controversy swirling around Beth Moore. Read the rest of this entry »
