Lin

Just a few thoughts:

1. The debate on what ‘prophesy’ means is a conumdrum for the comps which is why they try to give it different definitions even in the NC. They ignore that even the Puritans taught that it was preaching in the NC. Keep in mind that the early Christians had no NT scripture. Some had letters. They were using the OT.

2. The Holy Priesthood is another conumdrum for comps who spend a lot of time trying to play it down and teach there is a chain of command structure within the Priesthood of the NC.

Nine years ago, Al Mohler tried to get The words ‘Priesthood of believer’ taken out of the Baptist Faith and Message. The best he could do was to get them to add an ‘s’ to it. Why the ‘s’? It is pretty sad. Here is an article about this debacle:

http://www.baptiststandard.com/2000/7_17/pages/bfm_meaning.html

This and much more is why I have a hard time trusting comp teachers. Especially the celebrity ones who make a very good living off of it. I have been around too much of this hermeneutic wrangling to take their teaching seriously.

If the Holy Priesthood in the New Covenant is ‘metaphorical’ then we are in big trouble. I agree with Cheryl that other side, the sin part, is certainly not metaphorical. Neither is the Holy Priesthood.

But the comps want to play it down because it hurts their authority/follower structure not just in marriage but in the “Church”.

I cannot be a priest in the Holy Priesthood and still have a human layer between me and Jesus Christ. That is why ‘head’ is ridiculous as being interpreted ‘authority over’. All humans are depraved sinners only saved by the exact same grace. There is no special class of ‘head’ designed to be the spiritual authority of another human. That is the beauty of the Priesthood. There are only new believers and more mature believers. A man conferred title does not make one a more mature believer. Only the gifting of the Holy Spirit confers giftings. Anyone can go to seminary and get a title.

Anyway, that dog won’t hunt so the Royal Priesthood is played down, twisted and deemed metaphorical. The problem is that the temple veil was torn in two on the cross to prove this distinction. They do not like it but I, a woman, am a priest in the Priesthood of believer. There is NO human layer between me and Jesus Christ.

This is not a position of authority over other humans but a living sacrifice to our precious Lord. It just makes me a lowly servant saved by grace serving the Lord.