Priesthood authority was restored

Hebrews 5 begins, “every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (5:1). The “honour” in verse 4 is the honor of being high priest, and Aaron is the example.

Then the writer says who holds that honor now: “So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son … Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (5:5-6).

The verse is not a rule about how men in the church receive priesthood. It sets up the writer’s argument that Jesus was called by God, as Aaron was, to be the high priest of a new covenant. Chapters 5 through 10 develop that argument, and they are the best place in the Bible to learn what priesthood looks like after Christ.

“If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood … what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (Hebrews 7:11-12).

The writer points out that Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, “of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” (7:14). Under the law of Moses, priesthood belonged to the descendants of Aaron in the tribe of Levi. Jesus is a priest of a different order, under a different covenant. Of the old covenant, Hebrews says: “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (8:13).

Doctrine and Covenants 13 says that the Priesthood of Aaron “shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.” Hebrews describes that priesthood differently: as the priesthood of a covenant that was ready to vanish, replaced by the priesthood of Christ. Its priests “offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” gave way to one who “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever” (10:11-12).

Hebrews explains why the old priesthood needed a line of successors and the new one does not. “And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:23-25). The Berean Standard Bible renders verse 24, “But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.”

Priests had successors because priests died. Jesus does not die, so his priesthood does not pass to anyone. He holds it himself, forever, and he is able to save completely everyone who comes to God through him.

Hebrews never says that the Melchizedek priesthood was given to the apostles, to elders, or to anyone besides Jesus. In the whole letter, only two people hold it: Melchizedek, as a picture, and Christ, as the reality. If no one else ever held it, it could not be lost from the earth or need restoring, because its only holder “ever liveth.”

The New Testament names many leaders in the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, bishops (overseers), and deacons. It never calls any of them priests. Apart from the priests of the Jerusalem temple, the New Testament uses the word “priest” for only two kinds of people in the new covenant: Jesus, the high priest, and all believers together.

Peter writes to ordinary Christians, men and women, slave and free: “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood” and “ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5, 9). John says Christ “hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:6).

That affects how you approach God. Hebrews says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near” (Hebrews 10:19-22). Paul writes, “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus has already opened the way into God’s presence.

Paul’s test for any messenger includes himself: “though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Authority did not exempt even an apostle. When Peter acted against the gospel at Antioch, Paul says, “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed” (Galatians 2:11).

Joseph Smith-History says that the priesthood was conferred by “a messenger from heaven” who said “his name was John” (1:68, 72). The Bible asks you to judge that account by the message it brings, not by how sincerely Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery told it. Doctrine and Covenants 84:21-22 says that “without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.” Hebrews says that access to God comes through Christ’s own blood and his permanent priesthood, and it invites every believer to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16). Read more in a great apostasy made restoration necessary.