Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09018. The doctrine of apostolic succession holds that the authority Jesus gave His apostles has been handed down in an unbroken chain of ordinations, bishop to bishop, from the first century to the present day. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and some Anglican bodies rest a good deal of weight on it. On this account,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09010. Ordination to ministry is the recognition by a local church that God has called and gifted a man for the work of an elder or pastor, and its public setting apart of him for that work. Notice what that definition does not say. It does not say that ordination confers powers, creates a…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4177. What is the Spirit’s role in a person’s calling to ministry, and how can anyone be sure that the call is from God rather than from their own ambition or a passing enthusiasm? This is one of the weightiest questions a believer can face, because a genuine calling to ministry shapes the whole…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 4175. Can a believer today receive a spiritual gift through the laying on of hands, the way Timothy seems to have received something through Paul’s hands? This is a genuinely contested question, and I want to handle it with care, because there are sincere believers on more than one side and the texts themselves…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 4169. The Holy Spirit and ordination are joined together in the New Testament far more closely than our tidy modern ceremonies sometimes let on. We tend to picture ordination as a service of certificates, robes and a kind handshake from the deacons, and there is nothing wrong with marking the moment well. Yet when…