Intermediary Priesthood

Intermediary Priesthood

Today’s situation is such that the priesthood is no longer universal. The nation of Israel failed; must the church fail too? During these two thousand years, there have never been as many priests as Christians. In church history, we often see a separation between the priests and the other believers. An intermediary class has come between God and His people. This is the work and the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

I hope brothers and sisters will see this clearly; we cannot allow an intermediary class to exist. We will not accept any group standing between God’s children and God, serving as an intermediary priesthood. We ought never to accept that. We know what the church is. In the church every child of God is a priest. We do not ask one or a few to manage spiritual things for us. An intermediary class cannot be accepted in the church.

Take note that our controversy is not with the outward form but with the contents of Christianity. We see today the presence of an intermediary class in Christianity—those who are appointed to serve God while the rest of the people are merely members of the church. Even though the latter are God’s children, they yet depend on the former in their approach to God. Not only does such an intermediary class exist, but it is even permitted by many organizations. We, however, cannot accept this intermediary class, for we will not, as the Israelites of old did, forfeit the grace God has given the church under the New Covenant.

Let us, then, get rid of the intermediary class. The best way to abolish it is for everyone to be in that class! We should kneel before the Lord and say, "Lord, I am willing to serve you. I am willing to be a priest."

The idea of an intermediary class comes from the world, from the flesh, from idol worship, and from the love of the world. If, from the beginning, all the brethren would deny the world and its idols, they would be able to offer themselves to God. They would say, "Hereafter I live on earth for the sole purpose of serving God." Quite naturally, then, the intermediary class would dissolve. If every brother and sister realized that serving God is our only occupation, the intermediary class would fade away in no time.

Actually, right from the outset, no mediatorial class should be allowed. It is only through failure and self-will that such a class can ever come into being. It seems to be natural that some serve the Lord and some not. Those who do not may engage in earthly things; those who do take care of spiritual things. The very most the former will do for the latter is to contribute some money. They go about their own businesses as traders, teachers, or physicians and seem to be utterly unconcerned with serving God. Sometimes they may want to be better Christians, so they set aside a certain time in the week to attend church services and to give some money as their offering. In this way the people of God are separated from the priests of God. This ought not to happen. We must realize that as Christians we ought to be fully committed; those who are fully committed are priests.

As the church falls progressively, from the works of the Nicolaitans at the Apostolic age to the domination of the prophetess Jezebel in the Roman Catholic system, God can no longer tolerate it. Hence comes Sardis. Sardis means "restoration" in the Greek. Sardis is God’s reaction to Thyatira. The history of revivals is the story of divine reactions. Whenever God starts to do the work of revival, He is reacting against the status quo. Now God’s reaction becomes man’s.