Ordination - a Proposal - Part 1 of 2

Based on the conclusion that since all believers are ministers, all believers should be ordained, one might ask: when? When they are admitted to the ministry of the church: that is when they are saved. And when could this be proclaimed publically? When they publically proclaim their faith in Christ: that is at baptism. The concept of baptism as ordination is not novel. Yarnell suggests that in the Roman church, there was a clear tie between baptism and entrance into the Royal priesthood.[1] Eastwood also presents and documents this view more thoroughly. In addition, Eastwood also presents evidence of this concept in the Orthodox church.[2] Brown implies that baptism as ordination was part of the Anabaptist teachings on baptism and the practice of the early Brethren.[3] As Yarnell’s warns, “there is no biblical evidence for the medieval assumption that baptism is ordination into the royal priesthood.”[4] Yet, while no Scripture passage directly ties baptism with ordination, some philosophical ties can be drawn. First, if baptism is seen as the entrance into the church,[5] it is therefore the entrance into a community of ministers. It follows logically that to enter this community, one needs to be admitted to the ministry of the church. Second, one could look at Jesus' baptism as an example. Granted that, according to Scripture, Jesus’ baptism had a different theological importance than just the initiation of his ministry, yet, his baptism is often described as his “inauguration to public ministry.”[6] Could the parallel be made that our baptism, while it has a different theological importance, could also be described as our “inauguration to public ministry”?[7]

This view of baptism as ordination would have the benefit of emphasizing the call into ministry of all believers. It would re-emphasize that all gifts are necessary in the body of Christ (as seen in the previous excursus post), and that all are required by their Lord to use their gifts. What of special callings? We'll talk about those in the next post.

[1] Malcolm B. Yarnell III, “The Priesthood of Believers: Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Royal Priesthood,” in Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches, eds. Thomas White, Jason G. Duesing, and Malcolm B. Yarnell III (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2008), 240.

[2] Cyril Eastwood, The Royal Priesthood of the Faithful (London: Epworth Press, 1963), 47, 94-95, 159, 148-150, 239-240.

[3] Dale W. Brown, “A Baptismal Theology with Implications for Evangelism, Conversion, and Church Growth,” Brethren Life and Thought 28, no.3 (Sum 1983): 154, 159-160. Kreider in Alan Kreider, “Abolishing the Laity – An Anabaptist Perspective,” in Paul Beasley-Murray, ed. Anyone for Ordination? (Tunbridge, Wells: MARC, 1993), 84-111, advocates this position also, but admits that the goals that he suggests, “although in keeping with much Mennonite thinking, by no means represent a cross-section of Mennonite practice in any country” (97).

[4] Yarnell, “The Priesthood of Believers,” 240.

[5] This is an accepted doctrine in Baptist circles for which there is also a lack of biblical evidence.

[6] See for example Daniel Akin, "The Meaning of Baptism," in Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches, eds. Thomas White, Jason G. Duesing, and Malcolm B. Yarnell III (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2008), 63.

[7] See Brown, “A Baptismal Theology,” 154, for a similar, more extensive argument.