Monday, June 27, 2022

Edmund Levi Kelley (RLDS) on 1 Peter 2:5, 9

  

Christ as a Melchizedek Priest ordained a ministry set them apart consecrated them: that he might send them forth to preach. When he ordained them he must have conferred on them the Melchizedek priesthood, for Christ held that authority and the office of an Apostle was not in the Aaronic Priesthood. Men were called in the same way to offices in this Priesthood in the christian dispensation, that they were under the law, viz: by revelation from God; hence, Paul says, “As God hath distributed to every one as the Lord has called every one, so ordain I in all the churches.” Ordaining was the conferring of the office of the Priesthood upon them. Hence, when God  spoke through the prophets at Antioch, to separate Barnabas and Saul to the ministry, they did so by the laying on of hands. Peter makes it definite that the Melchizedek Priesthood was in the christian church.

 

“Ye are a Royal Priesthood.” 1 Peter 2:9. Melchizedek was king even on earth, and Christ who holds the royal authority is an Apostle, High Priest and King, and presides over his own House, the church. He is to reign as king of kings and Lord of Lords, holding the royal priesthood.

 

Ye are “an Holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices.” 1 Peter 2:5. The church of Christ was a holy one and “Royal Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices.” Yet my opponent has the audacious assumption to assert that neither the Aaronic or Melchizedek Priesthood were ever conferred in the Christian church. It is sheer nonsense and stupidity to talk about a Priesthood and no priests, or priests and no priesthood. It was the belief in a conferred authority in the Christian church that gave rise to ecclesiastical conflicts all along down from the Apostles to the present day. (Edmund Levi Kelley in Public Discussion of the Issues Between the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and The Church of Christ [Disciples], Held in Kirtland, Ohio, Beginning February 12th, and Closing March 8th, 1884 [Lamoni, Iowa: The Herald Publishing House, 1913], 360)