The Priesthood — Authority That Can’t Be Self-Appointed
The New Testament does not describe a church where anyone with sincerity may act in God’s name. It describes an ordered body governed by men who were chosen, ordained, and sent — and heaven honored their actions on earth.
The Question That Exposes the Problem
Here is the question every Protestant pastor should be asked before their first sermon: Who authorized you? Not who inspired you, or who trained you, or who voted for you — who gave you the right to act in Christ’s name? The New Testament is unambiguous on this point. Hebrews 5:4 states it plainly: “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” Not self-appointed. Not congregation-approved. Called of God. That single verse frames everything that follows.
If the critics of LDS priesthood wanted to make a scriptural case, they would have to explain away the entire organizational structure of the New Testament church — because that church looks nothing like a loose fellowship of equal believers acting on personal conviction. It looks exactly like what the Restoration claims to have recovered.
Christ Ordained Men to Authority
When Jesus established His Church, He did not leave a movement without structure. He chose specific men, gave them power, and ordained them. John 15:16 records His own words: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.” The word is tithemi — to appoint, to place in office. This is not inspirational language. It is the language of commission.
In Matthew 10 and Luke 9, He gives them “power and authority.” In Luke 10, He appoints seventy others and sends them. After His resurrection, this pattern does not dissolve — it expands.
“As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you… Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.”
That is delegated authority. He sends them. They act. Heaven honors it. If there were no priesthood — no real, binding authority in the hands of authorized servants — this verse is incoherent. You cannot remit sins by pastoral charisma. Something real is being given here.
“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.”
The Book of Acts Is Not Decentralized Christianity
If authority ended at the Ascension, the book of Acts would show it immediately. It does not. The first major act of the Church after Christ departs is not a sermon — it is the preservation of an office. Acts 1:20: “His bishoprick let another take.” Matthias is chosen to fill the vacancy in “this ministry and apostleship.” The apostles do not say offices are no longer needed. They fill one.
From that point forward, the organizational structure of the New Testament church is unmistakable. Authority is not diffused equally among believers — it is held by officers, exercised through council, and recognized by heaven.
The Apostolic Structure in Acts
- Acts 2:42 — The saints continue in “the apostles’ doctrine” — not their own private interpretation
- Acts 15 — Doctrinal disputes are brought to apostolic leadership and resolved by council decree
- Acts 16:4 — Binding decisions are issued to the churches by apostolic authority
- Acts 14:23 — Paul and Barnabas “ordained elders in every church”
Authority Is Transmitted by Ordination
Authority in the New Testament is not only held — it is transmitted in a specific, repeatable way. When leaders are called, they are ordained by the laying on of hands. This is not an informal custom. Paul writes of a gift conferred “with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery” (1 Timothy 4:14) and “by the putting on of my hands” (2 Timothy 1:6). He warns: “Lay hands suddenly on no man” (1 Timothy 5:22) — because the act carries real weight.
Ordination by Laying On of Hands Throughout Acts
- Acts 6:6 — The seven are set before the apostles, who pray and lay hands on them
- Acts 13:3 — Barnabas and Saul set apart by fasting, prayer, and the laying on of hands
- Acts 8:14–17 — Baptized believers in Samaria lack the Holy Ghost until apostles arrive and lay on hands
- Acts 19:6 — Paul lays hands on believers and the Holy Ghost comes upon them
Acts 8 raises a critical question. Philip baptizes the Samaritans. The text records that the Holy Ghost had not yet fallen on any of them. The Jerusalem church does not say, “Any believer can finish what Philip started.” They send Peter and John — apostles — specifically because this requires apostolic authority. If the gift of the Holy Ghost could be conferred by any sincere believer, this entire episode makes no sense. The New Testament text itself presupposes a distinction between believers and those with apostolic authority to confer the gift.
Even Christ Submitted to Authorized Ordinance
John 1:6 establishes John the Baptist as a man “sent from God.” Not self-sent. Not congregation-validated. Sent. When the Pharisees challenge his authority (“Why baptizest thou then?” — John 1:25), his answer is positional: he was sent. And when Christ comes to be baptized, He does not bypass the authorized servant to perform the ordinance Himself. He goes to John. Matthew 3:15: “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” The Son of God submits to an ordained ordinance administered by an ordained servant. That is how God works — through authorized channels, not through whoever feels prompted.
James 5:14 reinforces the same pattern for healing: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church.” Not any believer. Not anyone with faith. The elders. They anoint with oil and pray in the name of the Lord. That is a priestly function defined by office, not by personal piety.
The Verdict
The New Testament does not describe a church where anyone with sincerity may act in God’s name. It describes an ordered body governed by officers who were chosen, ordained, and sent — apostles, elders, bishops, deacons — whose authority was conferred by the laying on of hands and whose actions heaven was bound to honor. Hebrews 5:4 does not say priesthood ended. It says it requires a divine call. That is precisely the claim the Restoration makes: not that men invented a new priesthood, but that God restored the one Christ Himself established.
The question is not whether the New Testament contains priesthood structure. It plainly does. The question is whether that authority survived the centuries of fragmentation, corruption, and apostasy that followed — or whether, as the Restoration claims, it required the intervention of heaven to restore it. Protestantism today is fractured into hundreds of distinct ecclesiastical traditions and dozens of major families — Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and more — that cannot agree on baptism, communion, governance, or doctrine. That irreconcilable division (not the inflated “40,000 denominations” figure, which is a per-country tally counting Catholics, Orthodox, and others rather than Protestant bodies — see here) is the evidence that the authority was lost. The Restoration is the evidence that it was found again.
The pattern in the New Testament makes the Restoration the most coherent answer to the question that haunts every self-appointed minister: who authorized you?