The Priesthood of the Believer is More Than Personal Access to God

The priesthood of the believer is such an important doctrine for Southern Baptists that it is mentioned in the preamble of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000. “We honor the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming together both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other under the Word of God,” the preamble says.

Based on passages such as Isaiah 61:6, 1 Peter 2:9, and Revelation 5:10, this biblical concept teaches how God utilizes the redeemed to serve as priests in His church and for His kingdom.

To be clear, though, a member of the BF&M 2000 team says the doctrine isn’t aimed at leading Southern Baptists toward the creation of a papacy. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the

No Baptist conducts any kind of sacrifice of mass or sacrament claiming that (it) is a priestly function in which this human being is representing us before God. That is a heresy. We believe in no such priesthood. And yet in the spirit of the Reformation, we claim . . . that we are priests to each other. (We are) not priests delivering atonement, but priests ministering to each other in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great High Priest.”

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

priesthood of the believer is a directive for believers on how they serve Christ and His church.

A 2000 Baptist Press article titled “Mohler: Question should be over faith in Baptist message, not simply BF&M” quotes Mohler as saying, “No Baptist conducts any kind of sacrifice of mass or sacrament claiming that (it) is a priestly function in which this human being is representing us before God. That is a heresy. We believe in no such priesthood. And yet in the spirit of the Reformation, we claim . . . that we are priests to each other. (We are) not priests delivering atonement, but priests ministering to each other in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great High Priest.”

The Spring 2019 Southern Baptist Journal of Theology echoes similar tones from generations past. In it, Jonathan Leeman says 17th century Baptist pastor John Smyth “ . . . argued that the priestly work of the saints consists in offering spiritual sacrifices through prayer, praise, and obedience. Their kingly work involved them in admonition, examination, excommunication, and absolution.”

A report adopted by SBC messengers at that 1994 SBC Annual Meeting sought to clarify the doctrine. It defined “the priesthood of all believers” as the principle that “every Christian has direct access to God through Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, the sole mediator between God and human beings.” The report goes on to say, “However, the priesthood of all believers is exercised within a committed community of fellow believers-priests who share a like precious faith. The priesthood of all believers should not be reduced to modern individualism nor used as a cover for theological relativism. It is a spiritual standing which leads to ministry, service, and a coherent witness in the world for which Christ died.”

The issue of soul competency, introduced by E.Y. Mullins in 1908 in his book The Axioms of Religion: A New Interpretation of the Baptist Faith, has caused debate over the definition of the priesthood of the believer.

Leeman, in the 2019 journal article, said Mullins’ doctrine of soul competency “treated direct access to God as the right of all souls apart from the interference of any church, pastor, or creed.”

Influential Southern Baptist theologian and former SBC president (1961–1963) Herschel Hobbs “pushed the message of soul competency well into the middle of the twentieth century,” Leeman wrote, “helping to ensure it appeared in The Baptist Faith & Message 1963.”

Baptist historian Malcolm Yarnell says debate surrounding the doctrines was no small squabble.

“It was a major discussion for Southern Baptists in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s,” Yarnell said.

“On one hand, there was a strong sense of individualism, on the other, a sense to preserve pastoral authority. That diametrical opposition is what dominated people’s minds and drove me to my research.”

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary theology professor Adam Harwood said in an interview that soul competency refers to “an individual’s ability to relate to God directly, without a human priest.”

“The significance for Southern Baptists is that we believe Jesus is the only proper and authorized mediator and priest between humans and God,” Harwood said. “We don’t access God through other humans, and we don’t need anyone to interpret the Scripture for us.”

Debate swirled again at the 1998 SBC Annual Meeting in San Antonio, leading the SBC Committee on Resolutions, chaired by Nashville pastor Jerry Sutton, to present a resolution it believed could balance the longstanding Baptist views of the role of a pastor and the priesthood of the believer.

“We felt like the priesthood of the believer— that doctrine—was being used to undermine the God-given leadership capacity of the pastor of the church. . . . And I do not believe Jesus would contradict Hebrews 13:17,” Sutton said of the resolution.

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While the resolution was passed by messengers, Randall Lolley, then-president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), was so angered by it that he led a group of messengers to the Alamo where they ripped up copies of the resolution.

In the book Perspectives on Church Government, current SEBTS president Danny Akin writes, “The priesthood of all believers . . . means that in the community of saints, God has constructed his body such that we are all priests to one another. Priesthood of all believers has more to do with the believer’s service than with an individual’s position or status. We are all believer-priests. We all stand equally before God. Such standing does not negate specific giftedness or calling. It rather enhances our giftedness as each one of us individually and collectively does his part to build the body (Eph. 4:11-16). We are all priests. We are all responsible.”

Leeman sees the priesthood of the believer essentially connected to the Baptist conviction that the church be congregational.

“Church authority is not finally about budgets or buildings or staffing or Sunday School curriculum,” Leeman writes. “It’s about confessions and confessors, because this is how we mark off the temple, consecrate a people to the Lord, and maintain the line between clean and unclean, holy and unholy.

“And whoever possesses the authority to answer those questions possesses the most crucial authority in a church, because this is what makes a church a church.”