THE PROBLEM OF PRIESTS
All of God’s people are called to be servants, shepherds and slaves. Colossians 3:23-24 reinforces this idea saying that God’s people are to do everything as though they were serving God. Our challenge is to understand how everyone can fulfill these scriptural imperatives without engaging in commercial religion as either a buyer or seller of religious products and/or services.

This challenge is greatly complicated by the issue of what it means to be a priest.  

STUDY TIP: See Shepherds, Sheep and Priests for a detailed discussion of priests. Also see High Priests.

Confusion about who is a priest and who is not is at the root of the sin of mixing business and religion. Since God said that his people are to be a nation of priests, we must assume that being a Godly priest is good and desirable. But, when we consider that chief priests (i.e. pharisees) conspired to kill Jesus, and that Jesus spoke against pharisees many times, we must conclude that not all priests are Godly priests. This creates a challenge to distinguish between Godly priests and priests that are not Godly.

To begin to understand which priests are Godly and which are not, we must consider the following facts:

Since the concept of shepherding also has strong Biblical associations, we must also learn to distinguish between shepherds/priests who are good and Godly, and shepherds/priests who are not good and Godly.

Religious people tend to think that the shepherds they follow are good and Godly. This attitude maintains until the shepherd disgraces himself/herself, or until the sheep discover that they and the shepherd do not share the same beliefs anymore. Then they fire the current shepherd and hire another shepherd who is only working for a salary and does not really care for the sheep.

In the Biblical terms, the issue of priests  goes back to Moses and Israel’s desert experience after the exodus from Egypt when God singled out the tribe of Levi for the priesthood. Actually, the issue first emerged while Israel was in bondage to Egypt where priests were critical features of the religious system.

In the Bible, the priesthood emerged after the golden calf incident in Exodus 32:21-31 when the Levites responded to Moses’ statement “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” They then went throughout the camp killing those who had worshiped the golden calf. As a result, the Levites were chosen for service to the Lord.

STUDY TIP: The Levites’ actions symbolically represent New Covenant Warriors, messiahs and angels/messengers whose are challenged to eradicate religion by speaking for God.

The fulfillment of this appointment came later when Aaron and his sons who were from the tribe of Levi were ordained and consecrated as priests to serve in the Tabernacle of Moses. They have been the models for professional priests ever since.

COMMENTARY: Ordination and consecration includes anointing with oil and sprinkling with blood (i.e. God’s word).

Later, in Numbers 18:21-24, God says that the Levites are to receive the tithes that the people present as an offering to the Lord. When we remember that priests (religious rulers) are the ones who served in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Temple of Solomon, it is easy to get to the idea that financial tithes and offerings (in lieu of crops and animals) are to be given to the religious leaders. And having made that jump, it is not difficult to go the extra step to saying that all religious leaders are eligible to receive financial tithes and offerings for the spiritual work they do. This seems like a reasonable enough way to handle money since God himself does not really need any money, and since the priests are imagined to be God’s chosen representatives who have the greatest responsibility for ministry. It is such a logical system that no one ever thinks to challenge its legitimacy.

The main problem with interpretations about priests, tithes and  offerings is that they are based on literal interpretations of scripture — not with the better, symbolic view which points to the New Covenant. The other problem with the commercial system is that it violates what God has said about not following the customs of other religious nations. When we understand that the custom of employing professional priests who serve in a religious temple actually existed in Egypt before the giving of the law of Moses, which is the Biblical basis for professional priests in Judaism and Christianity, we see that all religion has its roots in ancient, pagan religions.

STUDY TIP: See Nations for understanding of this Biblical term.

Ignoring these problems, Jews and Christians have done their best to apply literal  scriptural interpretations to contemporary religion. Thus, sacrifices, tithes and offerings are wrongly assumed to be money in lieu of grain, drink, and bulls and goats sacrificed on an altar. And rabbis, pastors, priests and other religious leaders are wrongly assumed to be the contemporary equivalent of Old Testament priests. These conversions, while making sense to religionists, are not in God’s way of thinking.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: We understand the logic of interpreting tithes and offerings as money and subscribed to it for many years thinking that we were being obedient to the Bible and to the exhortations of religious leaders whom we trusted. But now we see tithes and offerings with a New Covenant perspective that identifies tithes and offerings as spiritual sacrifices of the heart — not as material offerings.

STUDY TIP: See Sacrifices, Tithes and Offerings and Tithes and Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, High Places and Pilgrimages for more about the spiritual nature of these concepts

STUDY TIP: Do not assume that you know the truth about a topic because you have read the Bible or because you have heard a sermon on it. If you imagine yourself to be a New Covenant disciple, you must let God speak to you directly.

Remember, it is all a Mystery and a Puzzle that you must assemble. in order to make any sense of it. If you read anything for its literal meaning only, without searching for the spiritual meaning, and without coming to an understanding of related scriptures, you will not come to a right understanding of any scripture.

People who have read Sacrifices, Tithes and Offerings and Tithes will understand why we say that tithes and offerings are not money and are not volunteer labor. New Covenant disciples in particular understand that tithes and offerings are God’s words spoken by  true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors whom God sends to speak for him. What they speak comes out of their hearts as spiritual sacrifices of the heart. New Covenant disciples understand that tithes, offerings and sacrifices are not donations of money or labor.

These interpretations are difficult to grasp because they argue against everything Christians and Jews have been taught, believed and practiced.

STUDY TIP: If these principles do not yet register in you as truth, we recommend that you go back to Sacrifices, Tithes and Offerings and Tithes to study those scriptures and commentaries again. If you don’t understand that God wants sacrifices of the heart and not physical sacrifices, you won’t appreciate what we have to say about priests and mixing business with religion.

Assuming that those issues are now settled in your mind, we can return to priests and commercial religion.

Traditional thinking about tithes and offerings is that in these modern times, most of us are not all farmers with crops or herds from which we can bring produce or animals to God. Therefore, we do our best to adapt to our understanding of scripture by bringing money instead of grain and bulls and goats because it is money that we make or grow from our labors. Part of the problem with this thinking is that farmers and ranchers do still exist. But do they bring a tenth of their crops or herds to church? Of course they don’t. Church would be a different place if they did. So, even in their attempts to be Biblical they err by substituting their wrong interpretation for a literal interpretation which it impossible for them to obey.

A related problem is about who is a priest and who is not. This gets confused when we consider that God says we are a kingdom of priests. If we are all priests, then we have priests bringing tithes and offering to other priests. So here is what we have to reconcile: Are we or are we not all servant/slave priests who work for God, or do some of us get paid for our work?

Scripture cannot possibly mean that everyone serves as a priest (or rabbi) as we commonly understand priests as professional clergy in any religion. Obviously that kind of kingdom would collapse if everyone was a professional priest who earned his or her income from ministry. Who would be left to earn an income from which a share would be given to support the priests? Therefore, we must alter our understanding of what a priest is and what a priest does if we are to understand what God meant when He called us all to be a kingdom of priests. There must be an interpretation of “priest” that any believer can fulfill. What is it?

We all accept that we need to work at something in order to earn a living. If there is any doubt about that, look at 2 Thessalonians 3:10. The question is this: Do we work as servants or as employees, or both?

Colossians 3:23-24 says that whatever we do (this would include working as a priest, or as a slave, or as a servant, or as an employee working for wages), we should work as though we are doing it for God. This exhortation clearly implies that laborers who are not employed in the religion business have spiritual value in God’s eyes. It also implies that we can fulfill priestly functions even if we do not work for wages in a business that is not associated with religion. In other words, God does not recognize two categories of priest (i.e. professional and unprofessional).

This is important to recognize that, in the context of commercial religion, professional priests are the direct beneficiaries of all commercial religious activity. Since God intended for all of his people to be priests, however, having a special class of professional priests is not necessary. And, since there are there are no professional priests in the  New Covenant kingdom of God, there is no need for Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, and High Places in which professional priests can conduct their business. This effectively eliminates the need for commercial religion because there is no need to collect tithes and offerings to support priests or pay for the costs of building and maintaining religious buildings and organizations. This is exactly why God is Calling People Out of Religion. This is exactly why Jesus wanted to destroy the temple system.

This all makes sense when we consider that God wants people to  listen to his voice only.

STUDY TIP: See God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 1, God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 2, Religion is the Kingdom of False Prophets, Jesus and the Money-Changers in the Temple, and Religion is Idolatry for more understanding about why God is opposed to commercial religion.

The challenge is to understand how God intends for all of his people to function as priests in the order of Melchizedek — not as priests appointed according to religious laws. He does not want any of them to be in professional ministry. There must be a way for this to work or God has created a situation that is impossible for us to fulfill. What is that way? We all need to know. It is a problem to solve for all believers.

For starters, let’s assume that people who are not in a professional ministry are already integrating their spiritual life with their religious life. This is not how it is for people who are in professional ministry. They have made their spiritual life their business. The professionals, therefore, are the ones who violate God’s principles regarding mixing business with religion.

Since God says his people are a kingdom of priests, we should not ever say that people who are in professional ministry are more spiritual than those who are not in professional ministry. But, the common perception in religious communities is that the professionals are the ones who are more spiritual. Can they indeed be more spiritual if the are guilty of violating the important principle of not mixing business with religion?

Remember the scriptures about Jesus and the Pharisees, temple leaders and money-changers? None of them escaped Jesus’ wrath (verbal or physical). Remember that Jesus saw the people of Jerusalem as though they were like sheep without a shepherd? We must concluded that those who are in positions of leadership are not automatically more spiritual just because they have degrees and titles. Since most of them have been to seminaries and Bible schools, they surely have studied what the Bible says about mixing money and ministry. And, if they know those scriptures, we would expect that they would not mix business with religion. But the truth is that, despite all the training and study they continue to engage in commercial religion. They are greedy for financial gain and the literal Bible is the tool that they use to earn money.

To make any sense out of scripture about sheep, shepherds and priests, we must first believe that all scripture is able to instruct us in righteousness. This attitude compels us to identify with ancient Israel and see it’s history as a parable of our own history with God. It also compels Old/First Covenant religionists to see themselves as sheep without a shepherd.

This perspective also allows us to look at all the religions in the world today and compare our religion with those religions who employ priests. And when we see religious beliefs and practices in our religion that are similar to the beliefs and practices of other religions, both past and present, we must conclude that we disobey God in those areas.

STUDY TIP: See THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION DOES NOT CHANGE and HISTORY OF RELIGION