Baptist Theology and Distinctive Doctrines — Unit 5: Soul Competency and the Priesthood of All Believers

Key Verse

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain what Baptists mean by the priesthood of all believers and by soul competency.

2. Support the doctrine from the Old and New Testaments, especially 1 Peter 2:5-9 and Hebrews 4:14-16.

3. Describe the duties that come with the priesthood of believers, and not only the freedoms.

4. State the common misunderstandings of the doctrine and the objections from churches with an ordained priesthood, and answer them.

5. Explain how this doctrine fits with pastoral leadership, the local church and the ministry of women.

One Mediator

Our key verse is short, and it answers one of the largest questions in religion: how does a sinful person come to God? Paul's answer is that there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. No saint, priest, bishop, pastor or church stands between a person and God as a second mediator. Christ has opened the way, and every believer may walk in.

Baptists call this teaching the priesthood of all believers, or the priesthood of the believer. It is closely connected with the teaching we call soul competency. These two expressions are not found in the Bible as phrases, but the truths behind them are. In this unit we ask what they mean, what they do not mean, and how they shape the life of a Baptist church. The history of the Baptists who fought for these ideas is told in Course 1, and Unit 6 of this course will take up religious liberty, which grows from the same root.

What the Terms Mean

Priesthood of all believers. Every person who has trusted Christ is a priest before God. He has direct access to God through Christ, without needing another human priest, and he is called to serve God and others.

Soul competency. This phrase was made popular by E. Y. Mullins, who taught at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and was its president from 1899 to 1928. In his book The Axioms of Religion (1908), Mullins argued that every person has the ability, under God, to deal with God directly, and that every person is answerable to God. "Competent" here does not mean sinless or wise. It means that each person is created by God with the capacity to respond to Him, and that no one else can believe, repent or answer to God in his place. Baptists say that this competence is a gift of God's grace, and a sinner is made able to respond only through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Biblical Foundation

In the Old Testament

At Sinai, before the law was given, God said to Israel: "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). The whole people were meant to be priestly. In practice God appointed Aaron and his sons to serve at the altar, and the people came to God through them. This arrangement was a picture, and the New Testament shows what it pictured.

In the New Testament

Christ our High Priest. The letter to the Hebrews explains that the old priests could not remove sin and that they died and were replaced. Christ offered Himself once, and because He lives forever His priesthood does not pass to another (Hebrews 7:24-27). Because of Him we may "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). The letter also says that we have "boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19). The curtain of the temple was torn when He died (Matthew 27:51), and the way into the presence of God was opened.

Believers as priests. Peter writes to ordinary Christians: "you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). A few lines later: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). John says that Christ "has made us kings and priests to His God and Father" (Revelation 1:6). These verses are addressed to the whole church, not to a class within it.

No priestly class in the church. The New Testament has a Greek word for a sacrificing priest, hiereus. It uses the word for the priests of Israel, for Christ, and for all believers together. It never uses it for an elder, a pastor or a deacon of a church. The offices of the church are described as shepherd or elder, overseer and servant, not as priest. This is an important fact. The New Testament did not think of a Christian minister as a priest in the sense of the old covenant.

Baptist confessions affirm this. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 speaks of the priesthood of the believer and of every believer's access to God. Baptists also connect it to the church. A believer is a priest not in isolation but as part of the "holy priesthood" built together as a house.

What Believer-Priests Do

The doctrine is often described as a privilege, and it is. But Scripture also describes it as a calling. A priest has work to do. The New Testament says that believers offer:

• Themselves. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).

• Praise and good works. "Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips" and "do not forget to do good and to share" (Hebrews 13:15-16).

• Prayer for others. Paul urges that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men (1 Timothy 2:1).

• Witness. We are a priesthood in order to "proclaim the praises of Him who called you" (1 Peter 2:9).

• Service. Pastors and teachers are given to the church "for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry" (Ephesians 4:11-12). The work of ministry belongs to the saints, that is, to all believers, and the leaders prepare them for it.

A church that understands this will not leave all ministry to the pastor. It will teach every member that he has a gift (1 Corinthians 12:7), a calling and a duty to serve.

The doctrine also includes answerability. Paul says, "each of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). No one can believe for another, and no one will be judged through another. This is the center of soul competency.

What the Doctrine Does Not Mean

The idea is sometimes misused, and a pastor should be ready to correct it.

It does not mean that every person may believe whatever he likes. Some people say, "I am my own priest, so no one can tell me what to believe." Baptists have never taught this. The believer-priest comes to God on God's terms, and God has set the terms in Scripture. Our authority remains the Bible (Unit 1). Soul competency means that no human power may force belief, not that truth is a matter of private taste.

It does not mean that a believer can do without the church. The New Testament never shows a Christian alone. Hebrews 10:22-25, which tells us to draw near with a true heart, goes on at once to tell us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The priests are built together into one house. A person who says, "I have my own relationship with God, and I do not need a church," has misunderstood both words, priest and church.

It does not mean that pastors have no authority. The New Testament also calls believers to respect and obey their leaders, who "watch out for your souls, as those who must give account" (Hebrews 13:17), and to esteem those who labor among them (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). The pastor leads by teaching the Word and by example, not as a lord (1 Peter 5:2-3). The members test his teaching by Scripture (Acts 17:11). The pastor and the congregation are both under Christ, and neither rules the other as a master.

It does not mean that Christians never help each other spiritually. James says, "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James 5:16). Believers may confess to each other, counsel each other and pray for each other. But no human being forgives sin on God's behalf. The promise is, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

Objections and Baptist Answers

Objection 1: Churches with ordained priests say the New Testament has an ordained priesthood with special power.

Roman Catholic, Orthodox and some Anglican teaching holds that the apostles passed their authority to bishops and priests who offer the sacrifice and forgive sins in Christ's name. They point to Jesus' words to Peter about the keys (Matthew 16:19) and to the apostles about forgiving and retaining sins (John 20:23). Our answer. The authority to bind and loose was given in Matthew 18:18 to the gathered church, not only to Peter. The words of John 20:23 are about proclaiming the gospel of forgiveness, which the church does with authority from Christ's own word. The letter to the Hebrews describes one High Priest and one sacrifice, and our key verse speaks of one Mediator. The church's leaders in the New Testament are shepherds and teachers, not sacrificing priests. We honor the pastors of these churches as fellow servants, but we cannot affirm a priesthood that stands between the believer and God.

Objection 2: The doctrine turns every man into his own pope and makes unity impossible.

Our answer. Baptists take the concern seriously, but the remedy is not a human head over the church. It is the Bible, the Spirit, and the fellowship of believers who study together. A church governed by the congregation (Course 3) tests each person's claim by Scripture. Soul competency gives each person the right and duty to answer God. It does not give anyone the right to teach error in the church without correction.

Objection 3: The idea comes from the Enlightenment and American individualism, not from the Bible or early Baptists.

Some historians, and some Baptists, have said that Mullins's emphasis on individual freedom reflected the thought of his own age, and that earlier Baptists spoke more of the covenant community. Other historians find the idea of personal accountability before God in the earliest Baptist writers, who suffered for refusing to let rulers decide their faith. Our answer. The truth that each person must answer to God is in Scripture (Romans 14:12; Ezekiel 18:20). The earlier writers also held that believers belong together in covenant. The best Baptist teaching holds both: personal faith and shared life. Where later writers stressed individual freedom too much, they should be corrected, as many Baptist writers have done. Where critics wish to remove personal accountability, they should be corrected by Scripture also.

Objection 4: Some conservative scholars say that 1 Peter 2:9 describes the church as a body, not each believer as a priest.

Peter does use collective words such as "nation" and "people." Our answer. We accept that the text speaks of the church corporately. But a body of priests is made of priests, and Hebrews 10:19-22 speaks directly of each person drawing near. Both truths are in the text. Baptists speak of the priesthood of "all believers" because the priesthood belongs to each member as part of the whole.

Priesthood and Women in the Church

The priesthood of all believers includes women. Peter was writing to men and women together. Women have the same access to God through Christ as men, the same calling to offer spiritual sacrifices, and the same gifts of the Spirit. The earliest women disciples served Jesus, Priscilla taught Apollos with her husband (Acts 18:26), and Philippians 4:3 speaks of women who labored in the gospel with Paul. Baptists therefore affirm women's wide service in teaching, witness, missions, prayer, giving and care for others.

Most conservative Baptist bodies, including the Southern Baptist Convention in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, hold that the office of pastor is reserved to men, as the passages on the qualifications for elders suggest (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:1-7). They teach that this is a matter of the office and not of worth or access to God. Other Baptist bodies, including some in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, ordain women as pastors and understand the same texts differently. This course holds the first position as the main position of conservative Baptists and respects the other as an honest Baptist view. Unit 4 of Course 3 treats the matter in detail.

Pastoral Application

A woman in a Baptist church in Cuba, raised in the Catholic church, has come to faith and asks her pastor: "When I did something wrong, I used to go to a priest and confess it, and he told me I was forgiven. Now I have no one to tell. Must I confess to you? How do I know I am forgiven?"

The pastor first thanks her for her honesty and explains that no one needs to be ashamed of her past. He opens 1 Timothy 2:5 and Hebrews 4:16 and shows her that she may go to God herself, at any hour, through Christ. He reads 1 John 1:9 with her and says that God Himself promises forgiveness to the person who confesses. He also tells her that if a sin is heavy on her conscience, or if she needs counsel, she is free to talk with him or with a mature Christian friend, for James 5:16 invites believers to pray together. But he is not her mediator. Finally, he invites her to use her priesthood: to pray for her family, to tell her neighbors what Christ has done, and to join the women's ministry of the church. She learns that she has been given both a door and a work.

Summary

Baptists teach that there is one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. Every believer is a priest, with direct access to God and with the calling to offer spiritual sacrifices, to intercede, to witness and to serve. The New Testament gives the term for sacrificing priest to Israel's priests, to Christ and to all believers, and never to a church office. Soul competency, taught by E. Y. Mullins, means that each person can and must deal with God for himself, though this ability is the gift of grace. The doctrine does not mean that anyone may believe what he pleases, that a Christian can do without the church, or that pastors have no authority. Churches with an ordained priesthood object, and so do critics who think the doctrine too individual; we answer from Scripture. The doctrine includes women, whose wide service is affirmed, while most conservative Baptists reserve the pastoral office to men and some Baptist bodies differ.

Further Reading

• E. Y. Mullins, The Axioms of Religion (1908), a public-domain classic.

• James Leo Garrett Jr., Baptist Theology: A Four-Century Study (2009).

• John L. Dagg, Manual of Theology (1857), a public-domain classic.

• J. M. Pendleton, Church Manual (1867), a public-domain classic.

• The Second London Confession (1689) and the New Hampshire Confession (1833), both public domain.

• The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), Southern Baptist Convention.

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