The last 3 blogs spoke about the last supper, the passion and crucifixion at calvary and the Ascension. The last thing that should be mentioned is Pentecost. In the Old Testament, God the Father interacted with man directly, communicating with him, punishing him, rewarding him and giving prophets the information that He would be sending a messiah to save them from the punishment due to original sin, which they promptly transmitted to the people of Isreal. The information on the Messiah was detailed (see the book of the prophet Isaiah) so that Isreal would know when Salvation had come but unfortunately, they were a stiff-necked people (Exodus 32:9, Jeremiah 17:23 and Acts 7:51) and either refused to see the signs that Jesus Christ was the Messiah or ignored the signs through pride!
Of all the people that had ever lived only one was clearly predicted to come over 600 years before he was born, and that person was Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17-20) that priest of old had been transmitting to the Jewish people. The priests of the Old Jewish religion were selected by God the Father using the natural law, i.e. the sons of Levi for priests and the sons of Aaron for the high priest. In the New Testament the priest and bishops were selected by supernatural law, by decisions by bishops or Christ Himself in the case of St. Paul which had to be “ratified” by someone who was a disciple and had presumably through at least the sacrament of confirmation if not Holy Orders (on reception of the Spirit being a prerequisite to full service to God see Acts 8:15-17) had received the Spirit (the first 13 being the 11 apostles who chose the 12th Matthias in Acts 1:15-26 – a decision by the bishops for a successor to Judas Iscariot, and St. Paul, selected supernaturally by the risen Christ from heaven but ratified by a disciple Ananias, see acts 9:10-18, presumably blessed by the apostles to be the equivalent of a priest in those days sometimes referred to a Presbyter in the Douey-Rhiems version of the bible the first English translation of the Vulgate bible, the first produced by the first printing press).
The reason for the implementation of a supernatural law to select priest and, with the advent of New Testament times, senior priests was two-fold: 1) to enable God to select non-Jews or gentiles to be priests in his religion and 2) Since gentiles of everywhere, other than the place Isreal has always been, He wanted a religion that was “portable,” where a church or diocese could be anywhere even another planet. This is why even the idea that dogma/doctrine that is solid can even change is so ridiculous. If man travels to the other side of the galaxy or even universe, how do the get news of that dogma/doctrine has changed? The same with the holy sacrifice of the mass (the Sunday ritual worship of the Roman Catholic religion), if it is always done and transmitted in Latin, it is a common language neither the rich nor poor can lay claim too and can keep the meaning of dogma constant and unconfused. No matter how language changes, if we assume the speed of light is the limiting factor for information transmission, changes in ritual or clarification of dogma will still insure the “old dogma” is not wrong. Almighty God planned it this way and why everything in the Old and New Testament is infallibly transmitted and meaning is constant and unchanging.
Many non-Catholic Christians, who follow Christ’s philosophy, appear to have problem’s with the fact that Christ might leave some visible authority who’s power is tracable back to God, specifically Jesus Christ. They appear to think that to pick up a bible, learn it then preach it gives them the authority of a true representative of Christ which of course only a priest or bishop selected through apostolic succession/selection is. Hebrews 9:11,24-25 reads:
“But Christ being come an high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation: . . . For Jesus is not entered into the holies made with hands, the patterns of the true: but into heaven itself, that He may appear now in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holies, every year with the blood of others:”
Because the bible talks exclusively of Christ as the high priest, people reading the Bible take this to mean he is the only priest, priests having to be consecrated by some authorities are not self-selecting. The fact is that if he is indeed the high priest, not the only priest, which is not something He said, then it is implied that He has other priests working for him as the “high priest.” Also, a priest’s function is to offer sacrifice but they hold that Christ sacrifice was all that was needed and made total restitution for our sins, which is true, but at the last the supper saying “do this in remembrance of me” meant to renew the power of Calvery through this union with the original sacrifice to continually draw power for the forgiveness of sins from that sacrifice. The Catholic Church is clear on this point, each mass is not a new sacrifice, it is the self-same sacrifice, to be pulled throughout time to renew the power of this sacrifice, through the remembrance that was asked for by Christ at the last supper.
Many so called Christians as mentioned above question the churches authority and whether or not priests might still exist (in the bible New Testament presbyters and bishops, which are mentioned are the Catholic Churches names for those officiating at Christs remembrances as replacements for priest and the high priest, so instead of having one temple in one place, each dioceses can have a head official like the former high priest – of which there is still only one, Jesus Christ, who in turn has priests under him), as if God, ever in the Old Testament did not have priests. But Christ said I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it in Matthew 5:17. If this is so and if and entire book of the Old Testament Pentateuch, the most holy 5 books of the Jewish religion is dedicated to the ritual and priest – Leviticus, why would he abolish the priesthood, and the fact that they must be selected by some law God (in this case Jesus Christ through His apostles) put into place, in the New Testament? Plus, if Jesus Christ changed anything from the Old Testament he made it stricter and explicit such as the definition of the sin of adultery: “I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28-29) Also, similarly his injunction on divorce and remarriage when the spouse is not dead is adultery (Matthew 19: 3-9). Everyone is always looking for loopholes for things that are not easy, so to go harder is always a better bet, and if allowed to interpret the bible any way they want, they may interpret it wrong to their everlasting regret! Unfortunately, they must interpret it all correctly to attain salvation! But that is what the tradition of the Church and the fathers of the church (great Catholics in the first 400 years of the church) are for.
This is why the keeping of tradition (“Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:14) is so important. As complex a problem as keeping the Barque/ship of Peter (a popular symbolic representation of the Roman Catholic Religion within the Catholic Church) on the right course to heaven, tradition becomes very important. Just like a nuclear submarine (if we use this to symbolically represent the Catholic Religion), when built, is accompanied by a manual (this being like the Bible). The builders wrote the manual, (Jesus Christ – God) also trained the first crew. This original crew (which is equivalent to the original apostles) learned tricks to run the submarine which became tradition, which one crew passed on to the next when they left through reassignment or retirement. If It’s important to ensure that a machine that could do incredible damage to the entire world have experienced people pass on the secrets to its efficient operation, how much more important is it to put into place a cadre of professionals to pass on the hard learned secrets to salvation for each and every man’s immortal soul from generation to generation?
Some things that come to mind when I think of people rebelling against Gods appointed authority in the Old Testament are the respect David had for the ruling king Saul as God’s anointed one in the first and second books of Samuel as well as the rebellion of Korah and 250 followers who said Moses and Aaron were not above the congregation in authority as high priest etc. God opened up the earth and swallowed them to prove the authority of Moses and Aaron as we see in the of Numbers chapter 16. Others were not convinced (as seen in the same chapter) and as a result 14,700 Israelites died before the rest of the Israelites got the message loud and clear. Finally, Moses’ own sister Miriam challenged his authority in chapter 12 of the book of Numbers chapter 12 and as a punishment contracted leprosy.
God always leads his people through people He selects, either by natural law or by supernatural law, which in our case is seen in the apostolic succession/selection (see Acts 1:15-26 that this was sanctioned that they should select successors). Those who pick up a bible and start to preach, should remember this. God chooses his representative, they are sent by Him, His representatives don’t select themselves.
But how can people now be thought to represent God? Because as spoke of earlier they are lead by the Holy Ghost, the third Person of the blessed Trinity – that is God, sent first on the last event of salvations climax, Pentecost, to the apostles (as promised by Jesus Christ in John 14:16-17). They in turned passed it to their successors, for the purpose of the priesthood/episcopate through the sacrament of Holy Orders. Rank and file Catholics are passed the Holy Ghost in different a way, with out the power to consecrate the bread and wine in mass to make it the body and blood of Jesus Christ, or to forgive sins (God alone can forgive sins as supported by Matthew 9:2-8 and Mark 2:7, but if the power is delegated to someone in cooperation with the Holy Ghost as in John 20:19-23, then sins can be forgive by God the Holy Ghost through his representative the priest or bishop). In the climax to salvation the apostles are given the Eucharist to be able to increase grace in all men and the ability to forgive all sins, but most notably mortal sin (1 John 5:17), to be able to save their souls from eternal damnation should the devil’s wiles succeed in making a man or woman fall hard!