I had someone tell me the other day that they had a book with a bunch of quotes from the church fathers that prove the rapture...
Guys, I say this with all love to my dispensational brothers: there was no such thing as the rapture before the 19th century.
Palms, pomegranates, & the Presence of God on a SoCal morning
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In this life, you are on one of two roads: one that leads to eternal life and one that leads to eternal death. And the road to eternal life can only be accessed through Christ. Are you following Him?
The Creeds and Confessions exist to maintain the honor and glory of God among men, to protect the Church from heresies, and to promote the unity of Christian people. The very reason cultists and heretics despise them.
"For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head."
Obadiah 15
Reading through the Old Testament prophets, their primary calling was to preach against the sins of the people and call them to repentance. Looking at many sermons today, there are hardly any sins mentioned and few calls to repentance. God help us.
"Men can be saved in no other way from the old wound of the serpent than by believing in Him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is lifted up from the earth upon the tree of martyrdom, & draws all things to Himself, & vivifies the dead"
Irenaeus of Lyons
Against Heresies 4.2.8
So this is aging. I pulled a muscle at the gym and couldn't finish my last set. What's worse is that I didn't pull it while lifting, I pulled it while picking up my water bottle.
The New Testament does not use the Greek word ἱερεύς (hiereus = sacrificing priest/temple priest) for ministers of Word and sacrament in the visible church.
Instead, the NT consistently uses terms like:
πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) = elder
ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos) = overseer/bishop
διάκονος (diakonos) = deacon
ποιμήν (poimēn) = shepherd/pastor
But ἱερεύς is used for:
Old covenant Levitical priests
Pagan priests
Christ as our Great High Priest
The whole church as a royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6)
That distinction matters enormously.
The Reformation argument was not that there is no ordained ministry. The Reformers strongly affirmed a distinct, public, ordained ministry. Article XXIII is explicit about lawful calling and public authorization.
The issue was sacerdotalism.
The NT never presents ministers as a new covenant sacrificing priesthood offering propitiatory sacrifices. Christ’s sacrifice is once-for-all (Hebrews 7–10). Therefore, no new covenant minister stands as a mediating sacrificer between God and the people in the old covenant sense.
That is why many Reformers preferred “minister,” “pastor,” “presbyter,” or “elder” rather than “priest,” even though the English word “priest” historically developed from the Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros), which became the Latin presbyter, then the Old English prēost, and finally modern English “priest.”
This is also why the Anglican Formularies are careful:
the minister presides over Word and sacrament,
pronounces absolution ministerially,
administers the sacraments,
shepherds the flock,
but does not offer a repeated propitiatory sacrifice.
Article XXXI is decisive here:
“The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world… and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses… were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.”
The NT reserves ἱερεύς for Christ, old covenant priests, or the whole people of God—not for ordained ministers of the church. Ministers are called presbyters/elders, overseers, pastors, and servants—but never ἱερεῖς in the sacerdotal sense.