Old Covenant Ruin of Clergy. I freely acknowledge that the word clergy, or its counterpart, laity, is not used by all evangelicals. Reformed Baptists, at least as far as I am aware, do not use it. Yet. This is not the case in all Reformed circles, however. But the word, surprising as it may seem to many, is a biblical word, and we should use it. in the right, the biblical way. Sadly, the way it is commonly used is anything but right. What is more, the corrupt notion of clergy has spread far wider than its overt use, and its insidious use is as damaging as its overt, if not more so. So, taking the word as it is commonly used, let me start by saying, with John Calvin, that the word clergy is improper, even though he contradicted himself and continued to use it. Surely we can do better than that. A man like Oliver Cromwell saw the point, and rightly called clergy and laity an anti-Christian and dividing a term. Frank Viola and George Barna paraphrased James Dunn, The clergy-laity tradition has done more to undermine New Testament authority than most heresies. And as C. H. Spurgeon declared, the distinction between clergy and laity has no excuse in Scripture. In fact, laity never appears in the New Testament. Nevertheless, Spurgeon was not quite right. Scripture does know of a clergy-laity split, but not in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, yes, but not in the New. In the Old Covenant, yes, but not in the New. Why, the phrase, the lay people, is actually used in 2 Chronicles 35, as distinct from the priests. Quite right, too. There was a clergy-laity split in the Old Covenant, but not in the New. Let us get our feet planted squarely on the right foundation. According to the New Testament, even though there is structure in the churches, and everything must be done in a fitting and orderly way, and some men are gifted and recognized teachers to rule and instruct the church, even to the extent that some are supported financially to let them devote their lives to such work, there is no clergy-laity split, none whatsoever. It is utterly wicked, blatantly unbiblical, to speak as though there is. It ought to be anathema to every believer. The New Testament is clear. All God's people are holy and consecrated ministers or priests of the New Covenant. All engage in priestly ministry. All believers are teaching ministers. In saying that, I am not suggesting that all are able to address a congregation, but no child of God is without some ability to pass on a word of experience, a word of encouragement, instruction, comfort, reproof to a fellow believer. Let me emphasize this, even though I know it will sound startling to some, perhaps many, but Scripture is rich on the subject. I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith, or in agreement with his faith. If it is serving, that is ministry, let him serve, If it's teaching, let him teach. If it's encouraging, let him encourage. If it's contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it's leadership, let him govern diligently. If it's showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. I myself am convinced, brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to instruct one another. I always thank God for you. because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service or ministries, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. The same Spirit gives to each one just as He determines. God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them just as He wanted them to be. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. It was He who gave some to prepare God's people for works of service, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work, that is, by which every part does its share. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful, for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit, that is, impart grace to those who listen. Be filled with the Spirit, Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, since as members of one body you were called to peace, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, Help the weak, be patient with everyone, make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Like newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salivation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to Him, the Living Stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to Him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Pray. Above all, love each other deeply. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace, that is, ministering it to one another in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, that is, ministers, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt. Snatch others from the fire and save them. To others, show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Is that not proof enough? All the saints are ministers, priests. All engage in ministry. All are responsible and gifted to be able to be a part of the mutual nourishing of the body of Christ. Note the emphasis, to each one. To each believer, Christ gives a gift or gifts so that each might serve the church. The passages I have just quoted tell us that all the saints are ministers, all are engaged in the ministry. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers, the first three were extraordinary, are given by Christ to the churches and are used by him in order to equip the saints for this work of the ministry. But do not miss the vital point. Christ gives such teachers to his people for the very purpose of fitting believers, all of them, to engage in profitable ministry. The stated and authoritative, not authoritarian, ministry is designed by Christ to produce believers who are able to edify each other, not to make them grow spiritually obese and at the same time increasingly dependent on the pulpit. Imagine, in a physical sense, always eating four square meals a day, and never doing any work, never doing anything productive with all the digestive calories and proteins. The very suggestion is laughable, or very sad. So it ought to be in a spiritual sense, to each believer, Christ gives a gift or gifts, so that each might serve the church. In short, There is no clergy-laity split among believers, none whatsoever. So, where does the idea come from? The word clergy is derived from kleros, allotted portion. Judas had shared, obtained a part, kleros, in the apostolic ministry, lost it, and Matthias was chosen to take the vacant position. Judas has shared, kleros. Even so, neither Judas nor Matthias was a cleric. They had a share, a part. They had been allotted a part. They had been chosen to be a part of the apostolic band and engage in apostolic ministry. But the first believers did not apply the words to apostles only. Peter told Simon the sorcerer, you have no part or share, kleros, portion, in this ministry. Peter was not telling Simon he had been defrocked, that he was no longer a cleric. He was telling him he had no part in Christ. He was an unbeliever. Clearly, every believer has his allotted part in Christ and in the priestly ministry under Christ. Kleros also means inheritance. Believers receive an inheritance, kleros, among those who are sanctified. They share in the inheritance, or kleros, of the saints in the kingdom of light. Beyond that, kleros is the church, the people of God, God's flock, who have been entrusted to the care of the elders. The people of God are God's kleros, God's clergy, God's part, God's portion, His elect, His inheritance, His own special people. The Fathers, however, turned all this completely on its head, not the first time they had done such a thing. They did it with minister and bishop. So how did they turn clergy on its head? By speaking of the clergy as those to whom the care, the allotted charge of churches has been assigned. In the new covenant, the clergy are the people who belong to God. In father speak, the clergy are the men who own the people. First the Father spoke about clerical appointment or office, then the clergy itself. It was Tertullian, followed by Cyprian, who first used the term in this sense. If it were not so serious, we should surely be amused by the irony of the Apostle's words not to lord it over God's clergy. Of all the upside-down interpretations of Scripture, of which there is no risk of shortage, the nonsense the Fathers dreamed up on the clergy, and which they foisted on Peter's words, must surely take the biscuit. Whatever else the clergy have done in these past eighteen hundred years, they have in the main lorded it over God's people. Let me underscore the point I am making since it is so important. In the Old Covenant there was a clergy, a distinct class of men who served as priests. Yes, certainly, but not in the New. In the New Covenant, the clergy are all God's people. It was the Fathers who, without warrant, indeed in flat contradiction of the principles of the New Covenant, went back to the Old Covenant. and applied its principles to the church, and thus invented a class of men who are over the church, a class of men who are of a different order to the rest of the members. And not only that, in doing such an abominable thing, they had the effrontery to take a New Testament word, kleros, and twist it to define this invented class of clerics. Humpty Dumpty had a field day. Wait a moment, says an objector. Didn't some of the fathers speak of the priesthood of all believers? Yes, they did. Especially in the very early days. Some also acknowledge that all Christians are ministers. But even so, the fathers soon came to hold to the clergy-laity split. Contradictory though it is. Actually, and to be fair to them, they were not contradictory. They simply let the priesthood of all believers wither and die. It was Cyprian who set the course for the elevation of the special priesthood, the clergy, the special priesthood of the few, and the corresponding elimination of the universal priesthood of all believers. And he got his way. What is more, it must be remembered that the concept of the threefold ministerial order evolved. so much so the fathers could make biblical statements with one breath, yet sweep them away in a torrent of nonsense in the next. In any case, the church, especially the bigwigs, liked the idea of a clergy, and so they went on their way regardless, saddling the following generations with the special priesthood of the few, the privileged. This should not surprise us. Sadness, yes, but not surprise us. It happens all the time. The priesthood of all believers appears in almost all church statements of faith, but how little it is acted upon and worked out in practice. In everyday terms, it has become virtually meaningless, not much more than an evangelical slogan. As for clergy, The common practice is all wrong, dreadfully wrong. Ministers are not the clergy. God's clergy is the church itself. The elders are not the clergy. The church itself is. God's people are God's clergy. The Bible says so. After all, elders are commanded not to lord it over the clergy, that is the church. How this simple statement needs to sink in. But according to church theory, this can only mean that the clergy must not lord it over the clergy. Nonsense. The elders must not become a clergy, and thus lord it over the rest of the believers. That is what Peter meant in 1 Peter 5, verse 3. And in the early church, when sinners were converted, they joined, and the Greek word has clero at the heart of it, God's people, God's clergy, Acts 17, 4. That is to say, as soon as a sinner is converted, he becomes a clergyman, or she becomes a clergywoman. Each and every part is a part of God's clergy. But these same converts are laymen as well as clergymen. They are both at the same time As for laity, the word comes from laos, people. All God's people, all of them, elders included, are His people, His laity. All God's people are gifted. Many scriptures to establish this. Nor is this the end of it. All God's people are stewards, ministers, servants of God. All believers are sacred to God. All of them are His royal priests. many scriptures. Thus all God's people are at once both His clergy and His laity, His ministers, stewards, kings and priests, all of them without exception. Not only is there no clergy-laity split in the New Testament, the clergy and the laity are one and the same. They are God's elect, His clergy, His chosen portion, marked out and separate, His laity, from the world. Can we not get back to the New Testament, the new covenant in this? What a daft question. Can we? We must.