Priests?

ceaserecs

I've been talking with a protestant friend of mine about the differences between our churches and the subject of priesthood came up. Now what he said was this: Why do the Orthodox and Catholic churches still have priests? Since Our Lord was the final sacrifice to atone for the peoples sins why are there still priests around now, isn't it just an old testament thing that was dropped (As we all know the protestant church does not believe in priesthood calling their church leaders pastors) What should i say in response?

Unknown

First of all, to say all the Protestant churches (there is not 'a Protestant Church') do not have priests is just plain wrong.

Anglicans have priests, Lutherans have priests, etc.

Secondly, the idea that we don't need priest because Christ attoned for our sins is one that totally misunderstands the role of the priesthood.

In the Old Testament, yes, it was the role of the priests, among other things, to make sacrifices to atone for the people.

This is not the purpose of the New Testament priesthood. Priest administer the holy Sacraments.

Christ said that those who do not partake of Holy Communion do not have life in them (see John 6). Therefore this Sacrament, above all others, is the centre of Christian life.

Of course, many Protestants deny that Holy Communion is truly the Body and Blood of Christ - they see it as symbolism - but this is equally wrong, since it rejects both the clear meaning of Christ's words and the fact that the symbolic approach did not really exist until 1600 years after Christ.

looppool

Hello,
Remember what the bible said about the miracle of the two fish and five loaves of bread? Jesus gave to the apostles and the apostles gave to the people.
Now a days, Jesus gives to the priests, and the priests give to us.

Also, Jesus gave the apostles the power to forgive sins which is passed on to the Popes, and the Popes pass it on to the priests...

May be, ask you friend, to whom should we confess? Or, How can we obey the command of our Lord when He said Take eat... take drink... this is my body and blood...do this in remembrance of Me.

Tell him how the apostles were baptizing the people and not Jesus himself.

Pray for me.

minatasgeel

[quote author=ceaserecs link=board=1;threadid=4637;start=0#msg63179 date=1163385042]
I've been talking with a protestant friend of mine about the differences between our churches and the subject of priesthood came up. Now what he said was this: Why do the Orthodox and Catholic churches still have priests? Since Our Lord was the final sacrifice to atone for the peoples sins why are there still priests around now, isn't it just an old testament thing that was dropped (As we all know the protestant church does not believe in priesthood calling their church leaders pastors) What should i say in response?


in our church we have 7 secremtns whicha priest is responsable of in every church. i would let the protestent guy understand that to than understand the priesthood in our church and i thinm also in the catholic or the noncononical churches.

mg

i believe this book, available at the link below, will answer all your questions on priesthood:
http://www.copticchurch.org/Texts/Spirituals/Priesthood.pdf

however, i also have had this personal discussion with protestant friends, and this is a strong topic of debate for them, so do be careful when discussing it, because they will quote a lot of old testament references that are not easily explained in the new testatment, so your understanding must be complete if you ever hope to convince them and yourself of the actual truth

your brother in Christ
mina