It is said that by long usage people get accustomed to anything; and no doubt it is this "long usage" that has so accustomed many of God's people to certain heresies, that these are held as "truth" which must not be questioned. Take, for example, the word clergy. In the religious world that term is used to describe a certain select class in the Church - or, at least, supposed to be in the Church. In fact, the religious world, by universal consent, has divided the Church into two classes, namely, the clergy, and the laity.
The clergy are held to be the privileged few, who are alone warranted to assume "ministerial functions" - who do all the preaching, who control public praise and prayer, and who alone are deemed duly qualified to baptize, and "dispense the elements" at the Communion. They are reckoned far above the laity.Between them and the laity a great gulf is fixed. The laity are taught that they themselves are only "ordinary believers"! The clergy are viewed as so eminently superior that a special garb is assumed in order to give emphasis to the distinction, while a special title ("reverend," "very reverend," "right reverend," & c., & c.) is prefixed to their name, to let it be known beyond a doubt that they belong to the clergy.
Now, the simple question arises here - "Is it in accordance with the revealed mind of God that His people should be thus divided into two classes-clergy and laity?" The answer is an emphatic No. There is not such a thing revealed in the Scriptures of Truth. But is there nothing about clergy in the Scriptures? Assuredly there is. We find the kleros (the clergy) referred to in 1 Pet. v.3, where the word is translated heritage, and, significantly enough, the elders whom Peter is addressing are warned not to lord it over God's heritage, which comprise all the people of God. This is instructive and conclusive. It clears the ground of a great deal of the dust of tradition which is associated in many minds with the high-sounding title, clergy.
If you will have the term clergy, you must apply it to every saint on earth, else you will not be in the current of God's thoughts on this point. He never divided His clergy (His people) into two classes; and we may surely say, "What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." But man has put them asunder. Man found it desirable to establish a select few in ministerial functions; and, to invest the order with a kind of Scriptural authority, they took from God's people a title which He had given to them all, and they have appropriated it as the exclusive title of a few. Believers have been so long taught they are "only the laity," and not the clergy, that many of them actually believe that these distinctions are due to a divine arrangement. This lets us see how completely the Word of God is sometimes set aside by the traditions of men. It is thus clear that such a distinction as "clergy and laity" is utterly opposed to Scripture; while everything that tends to emphathise that distinction must be as completely opposed to the mind of God.
It may be asked, Why did the translators not give "clergy" as the rendering of the word in 1 Pet. v.3 - giving an English form to the original word, in the same way as they did the word they translated baptize? Simply because the word has already been Englicised and appropriated by the "clergy"for their own exclusive use; and, if they had given clergy as the rendering, believers would have said, "Then it is we who are the clergy after all!" This would have let the people of God know too much! Nevertheless, they are awaking up to their privileges as "God's clergy" - the true clergy - the only clergy recognised by the Scriptures. The grave-clothes of tradition are being thrown off; and not a few, bound, lo! these many years, by laws, which God never made, are discovering their birth-right privileges. Here and there numbers of the clergy of 1 Pet. v. are arising to the dignity of their calling, are repudiating distinctions which are opposed to the revealed will of God, and are gathering in the one great Name of the Lord Jesus, to offer unto Him the sacrifice of praise.
We gladly admit that among clergymen there are to be found good men and true, according to their light - men who have proved themselves to be able ministers of Jesus Christ. But this does not justify the existence of an order called "clergy" within the precincts of the Christian Church. And these ministers would have been no less able to men of God although they had repudiated the "clergy" heresy, and simply taken their stand as servants of Jesus Christ. It is well known that a few of the most eminent preachers of modern times have refused the titles and peculiarities of the clerical position; and we have yet to learn that they have thereby weakened their power as servants of the Lord. No true loss can be sustained in honouring God; and there can be no real gain, either to the Church or the world, in fostering the class distinction of clergy and laity - a thing utterly opposed to the Scriptures of Truth. Let us pray that the true clergy - the blood bought people of God - may, in increasing numbers arise to the dignity of their calling, and stand alone by that which will stand the light of God.
Page 529-531 THE BELIEVER'S TREASURY No 169 September 1896 Vol. XI.
I copied verbatim, the above excellent article from the aforementioned publication. It is a wonder that those who would call themselves mature Christians will still sit under the teachings of men (and women!) with flattering titles, most especially in the Roman and Anglican Churches. Of these Nicolaitan institutions that would lord it over us, God says of their works which I also hate, Rev. 2.6 & 15.
The apostolic Christian Church would meet in the church that is in their house (my emphasis) Rom. 16.5, 1 Cor. 16.19, Col. 4.15, Phile. 1.2. The Lord rounded on those who elevated the tradition of men above God's commandments, see Matt. 15.1-6, Mark 7. 3-13.
We would also do well to remind those who errantly think that all was well and good in the apostolic Christian meeting houses, that there were those back then which caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 16. 17-18. And, They went out from us, but they were not of us. 1 Jo. 2.19 etc.
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