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BIBLICAL BASIS FOR ORDINATION

-Roy Harrisville

For anyone who regards the Bible as the sole norm for faith and life, the following deserves attention respecting the biblical basis for ordination:

In the New Testament only four passages unequivocally refer to ordination: Acts 6:1-6; 13:1-3; I Timothy 4:14; and II Timothy 1:6. Based on these passages, the New Testament makes it clear that:

1. Ordination takes place at the summons of the Spirit. Ordination is not a human decision or act of choice, but an action of the Spirit.

2. The Spirit’s summons occurs through prophetic utterance, (I Tim. 4:14, I Tim. 1:6).

3. No rule exists as to who shall lay hands on the ordinand in response to the Spirit’s

summons:

a. The apostles or the entire community may perform the action (Acts 6:3; cf. Acts 14:23

and Titus 1:5). The cooperation of the college of presbyters is an essential aspect of

Christian ordination.

b. The New Testament knows nothing of a power of ordination limited to the

apostles.

4. Those ordained already possess the Spirit (cf. Acts 6:3, 5; 13:1).

5. Ordination bestows a charisma for a particular task. In Timothy’s case, that of office-bearing (I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:6 — a narrowing over vs. Paul for whom all services in the community are a gift of the Spirit, cf. I Cor. 12; Rom. 12).

6. Ordination is more than a mere form or symbolic act without material significance.

7. Ordination is not an act through which the ordinator transmits a quality which he possesses to the ordinand. The view that through ordination an unbroken chain is formed from the apostles onward is a fiction without New Testament warrant. The contest between the apostles and Simon Magus (Acts 8:18ff.) clearly militates against such a view.

8. There is neither a primacy of office nor of community.

9. It is God alone who gives the charisma, God alone who in each instance equips his servant.

10. Conclusion:

a. The sober and factual way in which the New Testament speaks of ordination

warns against according it the status given it in current ecumenical discussion.

b. All views regarding ordination without warrant in the New Testament, that is,

which do not directly derive or cannot be legitimately inferred from the New

Testament witness, are to be resolutely resisted.

c. All actions based upon such views which do not directly derive or cannot be

legitimately inferred from the New Testament witness, are to be resolutely

resisted.

d. Those entertaining such views and performing such acts as are without New

Testament warrant are in rebellion and are thus to be resisted.

Dr. Roy Harrisville is Professor Emeritus at Luther Seminary in St. Paul

and a member of the WordAlone Theological Advisory Board