During the medieval period, a serious division was introduced into Christ’s Church. This division was not so much between one region and another region or one theological position and another theological position. Instead this particular division cut through each and every congregation separating the people behind the altar from those in front of it. Put another way, this was a division between the clergy (ordained religious specialists) and the laity (non-ordained Christians in general). It was believed that clergymen, at the moment of their ordination by a bishop in a valid line of apostolic succession, were changed in some miraculous way so as to enable them to transform the elements of the Lord’s Supper into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. This belief, in turn, slowly gave rise to what is now called “clericalism”, the elevation of the clergy as a class to greater and greater levels of power and prestige. Eventually, Christians began to think of clergymen (along with some non-ordained monks and nuns) as “the real Church” with ordinary Christians functioning largely as spectators during religious services. Thus, when one spoke of “the Church” doing something, what was generally meant was that the clergy (priests and bishops and some monastic groups) were doing something. It was the clergy who were to represent Jesus, study His words, oversee His people, and evangelize the world; the laity were pretty much just along for the ride.
During the Protestant Reformation a number of reformers vigorously opposed this now entrenched situation. These men sought to return to an earlier and more biblical view of the Church as all of God’s people—both ordained and not—working towards God-pleasing goals and prosecuting the Church’s mission. This belief came to be known as the doctrine of the “priesthood of believers” and finds its clearest biblical support in such passages as 1 Peter 2:4-5 & 9, Revelation 1:5b-6 and Revelation 5:9-10.
While the priesthood of all believers is a doctrine embraced by all Protestants (and even more recently by the Roman Catholic Church in a limited form, Lumen Gentium II.10) Baptists have emphasized the belief far beyond most other groups. As such it is generally considered a hallmark of Baptist theology and has been implemented in a variety of ways—some good and some less so. Two alternative approaches appear below.
The Priesthood of the Believer
Baptist ideology has had a significant role in the development of American political philosophy. At the same time, American political philosophy has had a significant role in the development of Baptist ideology. As a result some Baptists have uncritically embraced the radical individualism of American culture and read that back into their view of the Bible. When this happens a radically individualistic spirituality is often the result in which each believer feels himself an island and thinks that his theological views are equally as valid as any other’s. This is sometimes called the priesthood of the believer, as if the individual has some office which he exercises as an individual. Such a stance generally leads to a great deal of theological diversity within communities since, if no one person’s interpretation is more authoritative than any other’s (the whole concept of theological authority being relativized), all competing interpretations are merely “perspectives” to be graciously tolerated.
The Priesthood of All Believers
It is important to note that in the passages of the Bible where the priesthood of believers is mentioned it is always applied to the Church as a group and not to individuals. What’s more, 1 Peter 2:4-5 & 9, while foundational to the concept as a whole, is not a New Testament novelty; it is simply a quotation from the Old Testament, specifically Exodus 19:5-6. Thus, what Israel was the Church now is. But if ancient Israel, God’s priestly people, nevertheless contained genuine religious authorities (specifically, the Levitical priesthood) we should not expect the Church, God’s priestly people, to lack them. Indeed the New Testament clearly indicates that the local church should have religious specialist who function as religious authorities (1 Timothy 3, Hebrews 13:17). Rather, all Christians are part of a universal abstract priesthood in the sense that they are, just as Israel was, intended to be a light to the nations, functioning collectively as a witness to the truth of God in the midst of spiritual and moral confusion. In this broader sense the Church is a priest and each of its members has some part to play in that identity.