But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)
Thoughts: The priest had a large amount of power in the Roman Catholic church of the late medieval period. People were discouraged from reading the Bible. Only the priest was supposed to read (in Latin) and interpret it to the people (though not all priests knew Latin). Priests had the power to withhold the Lord’s Supper (the Eucharist) and taught that if you did not receive the Eucharist you could not be forgiven. Priests could tell you what to do in terms of penance in order to achieve forgiveness and could absolve sins in the confessional. The priest was the mediator between the people and God taking away the authority of Christ as the true mediator between the Father and the people. The pastor was not a lord and his congregation the fiefdom. Calvin also taught against the idea of a person getting money from the people and not even ministering to them. The Reformation was in many ways a rebellion against power grabs by the church.
The leaders of the Reformation fought against the power of the priest when it went against what scripture said. They wanted the Bible in the language of the people- both Luther and Calvin were responsible for translations into German, French, and English. The risk was that people could misinterpret it- but they contended the church too was misinterpreting it. While communion was still closely guarded for the Protestants, it was not used as a personal weapon as it too often was in the late middle ages. For Protestants, Jesus Christ is our great high priest, and he is the mediator between God and man (see below).
Luther, quoting I Peter 2:9 says (In the Babylonian Captivity of the Church) “In this way we are all priests. There are indeed priests whom we call ministers. They are chosen among us and do everything in our name.” Luther, was not opposed to using the term “priest” and “minister” interchangeably. Calvin renamed the altar that the Lord’s Supper was served on “the communion table” as a reminder that the minister does not sacrifice Christ again. We all are called to pray directly to God- we do not have to go through the priest. We need not over-worry about the content of our prayers- the Holy Spirit helps us to pray and helps us to interpret the scriptures. We are the priesthood of believers- in that we are called to bring God to others- to the whole world. As Israel was a witness to God, so all Christians together are an inviting and challenging witness to the Lord. In our baptism we are all commissioned to go and make disciples and to teach (Mt. 28:19-20).
Tetzel selling Indulgences to Forgive Sins
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