{"id":25901,"date":"2013-04-02T22:14:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T03:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=25901"},"modified":"2013-04-02T23:28:23","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T04:28:23","slug":"established-by-jesus-christ-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2013\/04\/established-by-jesus-christ-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"Established by Jesus Christ himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent news article discussing the Ordain Women<\/a> community and its upcoming inaugural meeting<\/a>, LDS church spokeswoman Jessica Moody stated<\/a> that the male-only priesthood “was established by Jesus Christ himself and is not a decision to be made by those on Earth<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Of course, there may be a few questions about whether this statement is descriptively accurate, given those pesky Phoebe and Priscilla and Junia<\/a> verses and whatnot. But let’s set those issues aside for a moment. Because theologically, it does make sense that we might want to follow Jesus’s example here. And factually, a few quirky anomalies aside, the Priesthood ordination pattern during Jesus Christ’s ministry is very, very clear:<\/p>\n

Jesus only ever ordained men<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Jewish men. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s very clear, folks. No women. And no Gentiles<\/em>. Zero.<\/p>\n

\"Ordination\"
Jesus Ordaining Some Jewish Men<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so if we want to follow the pattern set out during Christ’s ministry — well, I guess we ought to do the same.<\/p>\n

Of course this might be difficult news for some people to hear. For instance, some people might argue that there are important contributions which white men could make in the church, if they were eligible for ordination. Many white men are excellent organizers, and they might potentially serve as effectively as Jewish men. The same could be said for Black men, Latino men, women, and other people who are not-Jewish-men. In addition, critics might point out that white men, Black men, Latino men, women, and other ineligible people could begin to feel excluded or undervalued within the community.<\/p>\n

Sorry, folks, but the facts are crystal clear: If Jesus had wanted white men to hold the Priesthood, don’t you think He would have ordained a few of them during His lifetime<\/em>? <\/strong><\/p>\n

(And if we start making exceptions<\/a> now, then who knows<\/a> what people might ask for<\/a> next.)<\/p>\n

Yeah. That’s what I thought.<\/p>\n

Next question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent news article discussing the Ordain Women community and its upcoming inaugural meeting, LDS church spokeswoman Jessica Moody stated that the male-only priesthood “was established by Jesus Christ himself and is not a decision to be made by those on Earth.” Of course, there may be a few questions about whether this statement is descriptively accurate, given those pesky Phoebe and Priscilla and Junia verses and whatnot. But let’s set those issues aside for a moment. Because theologically, it does make sense that we might want to follow Jesus’s example here. And factually, a few quirky anomalies aside, the Priesthood ordination pattern during Jesus Christ’s ministry is very, very clear: Jesus only ever ordained men. Jewish men. It’s very clear, folks. No women. And no Gentiles. Zero. And so if we want to follow the pattern set out during Christ’s ministry — well, I guess we ought to do the same. Of course this might be difficult news for some people to hear. For instance, some people might argue that there are important contributions which white men could make in the church, if they were eligible for ordination. Many white men are excellent organizers, and they might potentially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women-in-the-church"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25901"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25916,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions\/25916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}