This article shows that on account of the various boundary laws in the Old Covenant, the people of God were never fully able to serve as priests to the nations. This fact called out for the coming of Christ and inauguration of the new covenant.
What is a good Christian theological basis for protecting and developing the environment and the ecological system? After giving an overview of the environmental crisis the world is in, the author reflects on the threefold office of believers as prophets, priests, and kings, as it applies to the Christian and the environment.
Beale notes the cultic affinities drawn between the garden of Eden and the temple of Israel. The word pair usually translated as "cultivate" ('abad) and "keep" (shamar) occur together in the Old Testament elsewhere referring only either to Israelites "serving" God and "guarding" (keeping) God's Word, or to priests who "keep" the "service" (or "charge") of the tabernacle.
The priesthood of all believers is a teaching that is taught in the Bible, rooted in the priesthood of Christ. This article shows that recovering this teaching is crucial to the health of the church. It shows the privileges and responsibilities of being priests.
The Roman Catholic church maintains that the celibacy requirement for all its priests is essentially of apostolic origin. It was according to this view therefore binding on priests from early church history. If this claim of an apostolic origin for the Roman Catholic celibacy requirement can be refuted, it seems as if celibacy is left without adequate foundation. The question is not whether or not the Roman Catholic church will change the requirement of celibacy.
