Why Are There No Priests in the New Testament?

The Catholic priesthood is not in the bible

as Jesus had prophesied, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. The Roman army destroyed it in 70 AD. That ended the Old Testament priest system of temple service and animal blood sacrifice.

In the New Testament, there is no mention of any priesthood office or human ‘high priest’ (like a ‘pope’) in the Christian church. Ever wonder why?

Priests were mediators between God and man. The Old Testament sacrifices only covered sin on a temporary basis, until Jesus came.

Jesus ended that. He was the perfect sacrifice. He was the only one worthy to pay the death penalty that we all deserve, because he never sinned. After Jesus gave his life for us on the cross, there was no need for any more sacrifice.

That’s not all. Jesus is our mediator. He is our “high priest”, our advocate. Through him, and only through him, we have direct access to the throne of God in prayer.

Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, states plainly that he is our high priest:

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession..”

Christians don’t need any earthly priest or mediator, because we have Christ:

“There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.” 1Timothy 2:5

That’s why I mentioned in last week’s post that when we are baptized into Christ, it doesn’t matter who is baptizing us. It doesn’t have to be a pastor, or an elder, or a priest. It can be anyone, because it is really God that we are submitting our hearts to, not any human. God is the one who is doing the work of washing our sins away in baptism.

If you are, or have been, a Catholic, what should you do?

It boils down to whether you consider a man-made system of religion as the ultimate authority, or the bible itself to be the authority. Men can change; the bible does not change. Men are fallible; the bible is not.

Find a bible-believing Christian church that teaches the absolute authority of the bible. No church is perfect, but at least it can be based on that which is perfect - the precious Word of God.

This is part of a series on some of the practices of the Catholic church. It’s meant to be a respectful outreach to my Catholic friends. A true friend will not withhold the truth; not if he really cares for you.

My best friend was a Catholic

   After surviving the Vietnam war as a helicopter pilot, he wanted to be closer to God, and decided to study the bible. He just wanted to become a better Catholic. Up 'till then, the bible was just a display book in his home – nobody actually read it. 
He and his young wife started to read the bible straight through from Genesis. (That is a really hard way to get started – it’s easier to start with one of the gospel accounts of the life of Christ.)
It didn’t take long for them to have lots of questions. I offered to help. We met once a week for about an hour and studied together. Things went OK until one day we came to Matthew 16:13-19.              
“13  When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
I explained that in the original language (Greek) there were two different words for rock. One has a masculine ending (petros) and simply means rock, like a stone. The other is feminine (petra) and means a massive rock; we might translate it as ‘bedrock’. 
Jesus was using a play on words. “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”. Using the Greek words, it’s “you are Peter (Petros, the rock), and on this rock (bedrock) I will build my church”. “this rock”, the bedrock that the church is built on, obviously can’t be Peter, because the word happens to be feminine. 
The most logical interpretation I’ve seen is that Jesus was referring to Peter’s statement as to who Jesus is – “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” – that’s the bedrock that the church is built on.
My friend was greatly troubled by this, because all his life, he had been told that the church was built on Peter, and that Peter was the first “pope”. (by the way, there is no mention of a pope in the New Testament; in fact, Jesus said “And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.”)
My friend was so troubled that he went to ask his Catholic ‘priest’ for an explanation. The only answer he was given was something like “It is not for you to question the mother church.” 
That was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ for him. It just wasn't a satisfactory answer. He made the huge decision to leave the Catholic church. This meant practically being disowned by his family. It was not done lightly. 
This is not to say that he lost his faith in Jesus Christ. On the contrary, once he was set free from the errors of the Catholic church, his faith grew by leaps and bounds. He learned what the bible really says about salvation – that we are saved by grace through faith.