Introduction

In scripture the believer is referred to by many names. Believers are called saints, brethren, the elect of God, the faithful, servants of God, beloved, and children of God. But never in scripture does the believer refer to himself as a Christian. The name Christian only appears three times in scripture, and it is never used as a self-designated title. Acts 11:26 records that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Christian was a derogatory term given to believers, not by the Jews but by the heathen world of that day to indicate the sect to which the Christians belonged; namely, they were followers of Christ. The heathen world considered the Christian as merely being part of a sect. Christian was not a term of endearment, and there was a certain reproach attached to that name.

But our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord’s Day 12 asks the question, “Why art thou called a Christian?” (Q 32, in Confessions and Church Order, 96). Soon that name was adopted by believers themselves. Christ means anointed, and believers too, by God’s grace and Spirit, were anointed ones. Christ is God’s officebearer, par excellence, the perfect officebearer and mediator of the covenant. And the Christian, partaking of Christ’s anointing by faith, is also a servant of Jehovah. What began as a popular slang term, believers took to themselves as their own. They called themselves Christians, anointed ones.

You are a Christian! You are an anointed one. This expression and its beauty have been lost. If you ask anyone, even one who is merely somewhat religious, they will say, “Yes, I am a Christian.” The Roman Catholic will insist with an uproar, “Yes, I am a Christian.” The Arminian and the Pelagian will sneer and with resolute firmness will assure you that they are Christians. And so all nominally Reformed church members of our day will say that they are indeed Christians. In the year of our Lord 2024, our country supposedly is still a Christian nation. The fact is, the citizens have no part in the spiritual reality signified by the name. They who claim Christ in name but deny him in doctrine are not Christians. They have no part in Jesus Christ, as they were never of his fold. They do not know him and most never will. God surely accomplishes all his good pleasure and will save his own. His purpose according to election must always stand, and all must serve that divine purpose for his own glory!

Why are you called a Christian? Do you just happen to be a Christian because you were born into a church—a Reformed church or even any evangelical church? Or are you a Christian just because you were baptized? Or are you a Christian because you have accepted Christ and have forsaken all to take up your cross and follow him? The answer must be no. Emphatically no!

You are a Christian because you share in Christ’s anointing by faith alone, which is an utterly gracious gift. Upon Christ you are entirely dependent. The anointing is Christ’s; the believer is only a partaker. The believer receives that anointing. Christ is the head; the Christian is the member of Christ’s body. Christ is the vine; the Christian is engrafted into that vine, and from that vine the life-sap flows into the branch, and that branch then draws all its life from the vine. There is only one Christ—the Christ of God; the Christ of the decree; the Christ of the unconditional covenant; the Christ of election; the Christ of sovereign, efficacious, irresistible grace. Only of the anointing of this Christ does the believer partake.

The spiritual reality of our partaking of Christ’s anointing is the fruit of Christ’s imparting himself to us through his Spirit. The office of all believer is strictly the fruit of Christ’s work.

In this article I conclude my treatment of the office of all believer, explaining how this high office is carried out and executed in the world. To have a proper understanding of the office of all believer is important because it is a truth that is disregarded and attacked in many ways today.

The Believer as Prophet

Just as Christ’s office is threefold, so by faith we are servants of God in the same threefold sense. There is naturally some overlap between each function, as the office is really one. I treat first the office of believer as prophet. Adam in the garden was God’s prophet. Man once spontaneously and instantly knew the truth of God by virtue of being created in God’s image. Man loved the truth, confessed the truth, and lived the truth in his original state of rectitude in paradise. He knew God rightly and loved him with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. Adam glorified God as creator and as his God and prostrated himself before God in worship and praise.

But when man fell, there was a radical change. The knowledge of God was completely lost. And so far did man fall that his knowledge and love of God and the truth not only were lost, but also they turned into the very opposite. Man became a false prophet who only ever speaks a lie about God. Man became a false prophet who stands now in the service of the devil. Through sin man is become a liar and one who only ever holds the truth of God down in unrighteousness. Man loves to speak the lie about who God is and what kind of God he is.

And one can trace man as a false prophet throughout all the sacred scriptures. At the tower of Babel man as a false prophet spoke the lie about himself that he could be god. Man revealed himself at the time of the flood when he rejected the word of God through Noah as the preacher of righteousness. In ultimate wickedness man rejected God’s Christ and his cross. The men of the circumcision in the apostle Paul’s day taught the lie of conditions, that the way of salvation was obedience to the law of Moses.

Then throughout church history, every man had a heresy about Christ: he was two persons; he was one nature; he was not a real man; he was not very God but just a great prophet. And man as a liar continued to speak a lie concerning God. The Arminian and Pelagian made God dependent upon the work of man in salvation. Man as the false prophet spoke proudly against the living God. The Christian Reformed man spoke the lie that God does good to the reprobate and that there is a well-meant offer of salvation to all who hear the preaching.

And today the roar of man as the false prophet can be heard as loudly as ever in the church world. Man divides God and clamors that God is only love and not righteousness—that he does countenance iniquity and tolerates sin. Man hollers that God desires the salvation of all and that Christ died for all men, but man must fulfill the conditions of faith and the obedience of faith. The shrill yell of man pierces the air, crying out for ecumenicity and toleration. And closest to us of all is the voice of the false prophet of the Protestant Reformed Churches that will not shut up about man and man’s working.

Let it be known that in the judgment God will finally and completely shut the mouth of the false prophet.

But by partaking of Christ’s anointing by faith, the believer is changed into a true prophet of God. God himself instructs his prophets by his inspired word and by his powerful Spirit. God delivers us from the darkness of our understanding. He enlightens our minds by his grace, so that we have the true knowledge of God. He does that now in this life. What yet awaits us is the perfection of this knowledge in glory, when we shall see God and know God face to face in Jesus Christ as his true prophets. We shall know even as we are known.

But the knowledge of God that we have in this life is real knowledge of God as he has revealed himself. As true prophets, then, we confess God’s name before men and show forth his praises, who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And the believer does so antithetically, in the midst of his flesh and in a world that lies in darkness and ruin and that can only ever love the lie.

The prophetical dignity which is in Christians, is an understanding, acknowledgement and confession of the true doctrine of God necessary for our salvation. Or, our prophetical office is, 1. Rightly to know God and his will. 2. That every one in his place and degree profess the same, being correctly understood, faithfully, boldly and constantly, that God may thereby be celebrated, and his truth revealed in its living force and power. “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:32.)¹

The believer holds the word of God as a true prophet. God’s word is the lamp unto the Christian’s feet and the light upon his path. God’s inspired word is the precious possession of the believer. What was taken away from the believer by Rome was restored by God in the Reformation.

The word is the content of the Christian’s confession as a true prophet of Jesus Christ. The eternal Word is the only message that the true prophet speaks. The believer’s confession is Jesus Christ as he was revealed in the garden as the great seed of the entire Old Testament. It was the seed that God promised over against all of the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel. The confession of the believer is Jesus Christ, who personally came as the fulfillment of the gospel. The one confession is Jesus Christ and him crucified, who arose from the dead the third day, ascended into heaven, and sits now at God’s right hand and who will soon judge the quick and the dead.

The content of the Christian’s confession cannot be worldly philosophy or seven steps to a successful life. The content cannot be what the believer dreams up in his own head because his own totally depraved flesh still only lies about God and the savior. The totally depraved nature of the believer cannot abide the truth. That is the explanation of doctrinal departure and why it is so shockingly easy to depart from the truth. The departure from the truth is in the flesh of man and ultimately rests in God’s decree of election and reprobation, which he carries out infallibly.

The Spirit-filled believer as a true prophet of the living God speaks the truth over against the lie. He speaks right doctrine, as doctrine reveals what one knows, believes, and confesses about God. He speaks the doctrine of the one message of Jesus Christ as the one way of salvation. When the experience of the covenant is taught to be on the basis of Jesus Christ, by means of faith, and in the way of obedience, the believer refuses to abide in that church. When the experience of justification is not preached as by faith alone but by faith and repentance, denying Christ’s perfect sacrifice that he once offered on the cross, the believer refuses to capitulate to the pressure to shut up about it. He will not tolerate the notion that in some sense man must precede God before God blesses man in his experience. As well as being disobedience against God, staying in such a church and refusing to condemn the lie of man give way to a great danger.

The public, written statements of unbelief and the public, oral outbursts could be made in part because these men knew they could not be censured. Truth had no objective standard. Repeatedly one reads that the majority agreed with the bold, unbelieving statements of the few. Unfaithful preachers had created throughout the churches a spiritual climate of indifference to doctrinal truth. People no longer perceived, nor were able to perceive, that the gospel of salvation had been removed from the life of the church.²

What was true of the state church in the Netherlands in 1834 is true of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) today. The office of prophet has all but disappeared in the PRC. A spiritual slumber has settled over the people as a result of unfaithful preaching and their own complacency. It is easier not to take any accountability and to say, “I trust the consistory” and “It is the job of the classis to handle that; it’s not my business.” Or, if one is roused for a moment and is forced to vaguely acknowledge that there is a problem, he says, “Yes, the assemblies are dealing with it, but the wheels of justice turn slowly.” The people have willingly abandoned their offices and high callings from God in favor of lives of earthly peace. It is only by the grace of God that our eyes were opened and we were set free.

In this magazine men, women, young adults, and children read and write the truth. Reading and writing the truth are part of carrying out the office of prophet. Lamentably, both reading and writing are skills that are not in vogue today. Reading takes work and effort. It is an exercise of the mind, and it takes patience, discernment, and critical thinking to comprehend the meaning and sense of the author. And writing takes time, effort, critical thought, and above all else, prayer and meditation on the mysteries of faith. Reading and writing the truth are not popular compared to the mind-numbing behavior of watching and listening to the world’s filth through ultra-high-definition televisions and mindlessly scrolling through the internet. All the world’s entertainment would have us abandon this aspect of the office of prophet.

The believer carries out this office in his life daily. The believer studies the word and meditates on the word. The believer does so as a father leading his family in the study of that word around the dinner table or as a mother teaching to her young children the truth of God’s word. Believers gather together as members of the body to discuss the truth of the word in Bible studies and societies. These societies, which are not established or mandated by the consistory but arise organically out of the members of the church, serve as a thermometer for the health of a congregation. When Bible studies are poorly attended or the members who do attend are poorly prepared, you must see in that the office of prophet being attacked. The believer as a prophet delights in the word, and in delighting in the word, he delights to gather around that word with fellow believers.

This all takes place in organic connection with the church and never outside the church. The gospel stands central for the doctrine of the office of all believer as that gospel is preached in the true church, which gospel preaching opens the pages of scripture and makes the word effectual in the lives of believers.

Protest and Appeal

The believer also exercises his office as prophet in his right of a protest or an appeal. This may be the most important aspect of this office. The Christian does not merely attend church, but in honor for Christ’s office and ministry, he takes responsibility for what is preached and taught in his local church and, by implication, the denomination with which his church is federated.³ The believer must demand the truth of the word of God off the pulpit and in the catechism room. The believer must hear Christ and only Christ, in all his person and work as the one in whom dwells all the fullness of God; and the believer must hear that man, including himself especially, is made nothing. And when there has been a failure to proclaim the gospel, it is the duty of the believer to speak, write, and confess the truth over against the lie that has been taught; and an avenue by which to do this is to write a protest.

It has been long established that in the churches we came out of this right of the believer to protest is nothing but a fruitless proposition. Protestants in the Protestant Reformed Churches who speak and write the truth in their office of all believer are often slanderously reported and vilified. Protests are bogged down for years under bureaucratic politicking. And every effort is taken to not deal with protests at the assemblies.

For years now Rev. Kenneth Koole’s false doctrine has been allowed to fester, sizzle, and ferment away in the denomination. When we left the PRC three years ago, we were told that we should not have left and that Koole’s theology was being dealt with. And when appeals regarding Koole’s doctrine finally reached the Protestant Reformed Classis East in September 2023, half were thrown out on legality. And the classis made sure to studiously avoid entering into the doctrinal issues for the other half. How is it that protests and judgments take years finally to be made public and rendered while the man in question continues to preach his false doctrine to every church that lets him behind her pulpit? Not only have members willingly given up their office of prophet due to their own apathy, but members who do try to protest or appeal have their office stolen away in a sinister way. Protestant Reformed church polity requires many conditions and prerequisites before a doctrinal protest can be treated.

The irony of this all is that in a Standard Bearer article by Reverend Koole in 2017 on the office of all believer, he used the doctrine of the office of all believer to inject his conditional covenant theology into the PRC. Koole makes a mockery of God and the Spirit-filled office of all believer with the same conditional covenant theology that plagues the PRC, is propped up in his Standard Bearer articles promoting Herman Witsius, and is currently defended by Pete VanDer Schaaf. Koole does so by using the doctrine of the office of all believer as an instrument to spread the lie. Referencing the veil that Rome sought to hang between God and his people, Koole pays lip service to the doctrine that we have access to the throne of grace by faith, but he reveals once again that he believes that faith is a work that man must do to have access to the Father.

The repenting, confessing, believing sinner regained direct access into the presence of God. All need for any special earthly priesthood to make ongoing sacrifices and intercession ended.⁴

How deceptive! The repenting, confessing, believing sinner regained direct access into the presence of God? No! The ungodly sinner, out of God’s free and sovereign grace, is given direct access to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. The child of God has direct access to God by means of the spiritual union to his head Jesus Christ. He is made a partaker of Christ’s anointing by faith. The office of all believer is a fruit of receiving the fullness of Jesus Christ. The believer is a prophet, and he must, may, can, and will confess the name of God in that office.

Material from Protestant Reformed assemblies continues to be hidden behind the curtain that the clergy have drawn to keep the people in the dark and so they will not ask questions, that the fire raging might not be seen by them. The distribution of the agenda and access to information has been curtailed by the clergy.

In 2018 a protest from Mr. Gordon Schipper came to the Protestant Reformed Classis East against a decision that was adopted to limit access of classical material to only special officebearers. He laid out the truth of the office of all believer in defense of the right of believers to have access to the classical agenda and supplemental material. The protestant argued that the office of believer was infringed upon. The classis sustained Mr. Schipper’s protest, but today that has been shown to be meaningless to the denomination.

The Protestant Reformed Churches upheld his protest for a time; but not long after, the denomination went right back to hiding material and limiting access again, so that by January 2021 when the deposition of Rev. Andrew Lanning was on the docket, the Protestant Reformed political machine was chugging along at full speed. The deposition trial was treated in closed session because it was a matter of “sin,” so that members of the church were not allowed to witness the deliberations on the matter. One member of Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church had received (unauthorized) access to a classical agenda and was discussing it outside after church when an active officebearer accosted the man about how he had received the agenda and material. To read, have access to, and to judge public material pertaining to the church of Jesus Christ as a mere layman was sin. Not to mention the fact that the password on a locked officebearers’ agenda has been “Lev 19:16” which reads, “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord.” That is what the PRC thinks of the people: talebearers. Let that sink in for a moment. To have the classical agenda and to discuss it is to be a talebearer in the PRC.

A return to Rome, indeed. The office of all believer was hijacked by the Protestant Reformed clergy. And the PRC has completed the biggest heist of the twenty-first century. And if you say to me, “But they have distributed the agenda for this past classis,” I will say to you that the PRC today picks and chooses when it wants to make material public to suit its interests.

The believer has the right to the classical agenda of the churches to which he has willingly bound himself. He has the right to study the material and to judge that material on the agenda, and he must make judgments. The believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit judges!

14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (1 Cor. 2:14–15)

The things of the Spirit are salvation; therefore, the natural man perishes in his ignorance. The natural man has no ability, whether in the church or in the world, to judge spiritually. The reason is that the things of God are spiritually discerned. The meaning of the word “discerned” is to judge, and the idea is that a man who does not have the Spirit cannot judge spiritually. The evidence is that the natural man calls the things of the Spirit—salvation in Jesus Christ by faith alone—foolishness.

And the apostle gives a contrast in verse 15. He who does have the Spirit judges all things! And that one, as spiritual, is judged by no man but by the word of God alone. The believer who has the things of the Spirit and salvation in Jesus Christ judges all things. Nothing stands outside the scope of what the believer may judge according to the word of God. Nothing or no one may stand in the way of his making a judgment because he has the Spirit. That certainly includes classical agendas and material.

Luther combatted the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church with the truth that the believer is a prophet and has the right and ability to judge doctrine.

Do you see how shamelessly and foolishly this boasting, [that only bishops, scholars, and councils should be allowed to judge doctrine] with which they intimidated the whole world and which is their highest stronghold and defense, rages against God’s law and word?

Christ institutes the very opposite. He takes both the right and the power to judge teaching from the bishops, scholars, and councils and gives them to everyone and all Christians equally when he says, John 10[:4], “My sheep know my voice”…

Here you see clearly who has the right to judge doctrine: bishops, popes, scholars, and everyone else have the power to teach, but it is the sheep who are to judge whether they teach the voice of Christ or the voice of strangers…

For no one can deny that every Christian possesses the word of God and is taught and anointed by God to be priest, as Christ says, John 6[:45], “They shall all be taught by God”…

If it is true that they have God’s word and are anointed by him, then it is their duty to confess, to teach, and to spread [his word].⁵

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:13, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.”

The Believer as Priest

Second, the believer is anointed as priest. God transforms us into a holy priesthood, so that we become priests of God. He instills in our hearts the love of God. He cleanses us from the defilement of sin as a spiritual-ethical power. He consecrates us to himself in true holiness. And we shall be unto him a kingdom of priests, for we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people. This now in principle but hereafter in eternal glory with Christ, where the entire church shall become the perfect habitation of the living God.

In his commentary on Lord’s Day 12, regarding the office of priest, Herman Hoeksema writes,

The Catechism describes the calling of believers as consisting in this, that they present themselves a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him. This evidently refers to their priestly office. To consecrate themselves, with soul and body, with all their heart, and mind, and soul, and strength; with all things, and in every department of life, in home, and school, and shop, and office, to the living God,—such is their calling as priests of the Most High, and that, too, in opposition to a world that devotes itself to the service of the devil and unrighteousness.⁶

Belgic Confession article 28 states, among other important things, that the office of all believer exists in connection with the local, instituted church. “It is the duty of all believers, according to the Word of God, to separate themselves from all those who do not belong to the church” (Confessions and Church Order, 61, emphasis added). This confession explains what scripture means when it adorns Christians with the honorable title of king-priests. This means, first, that the office of all believer cannot exist in separation from the instituted, true church of Jesus Christ. The witness of believers and the witness of the church are distinct, yet they cannot exist independently from one another. A true church of Jesus Christ will champion and uphold the office of all believer, as opposed to disparaging and despising the office. When Sword and Shield was first published, the leaders in the PRC did not trust—or were afraid of—the ability of believers to try the spirits and trampled that office underfoot. Neither may one claim to himself the office of all believer apart from the church, for the faith by which the believer is joined to Christ and partakes of Christ’s anointing is strengthened and nourished in the church by the preaching of the gospel. The believer in his office joins himself to a true church where Christ speaks and saves. The Christian cannot stand to be apart from that church for even a moment! For Christ is his all in all, and the Christian must hear the royal priest himself speak of his sacrifice and intercession on the Christian’s behalf before the Father.

Second, article 28 means that the Christian separates himself from all that is profane, for he is of a holy priesthood consecrated to God. The believer cannot stay in a church where Christ’s perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice is mocked and blasphemed. Third, it means that where there is no true church, the believer in his office must reform the church, for that is his duty and obligation to God, being consecrated as a priest. Yea, even though he may lose his life for Christ.

The believer carries out his office as priest daily in coming before God in prayer. The believer has the privilege of coming before the throne of God to lay before God all the needs and cares of all God’s people. The Christian prays for the afflicted. He prays for the king of the land, who may be wicked and profane, who may even persecute him. He speaks to God of all the needs of the church, the Christian day school, and the needs of his own family. As a priest, he makes supplication to God in the full assurance of faith for the sake of Jesus Christ and his shed blood on the cross.

Lord’s Day 49 touches on the believer’s office as priest when it speaks of our stations and callings. The mother, father, child, the single man or woman—in all areas of life and at every moment—all serve God in the stations and callings that God has given to them. They are consecrated to him in lives of thankful service as priests of the most high God. The man and woman who daily work with their hands and think with their minds; the father who provides for the needs of his family that he might give to support the gospel ministry and the Christian school; the mother who cares for her children and keeps the home; the child who learns in the school and plays with other children of the covenant, labor before the Lord as priests. Never can the Christian section off his life as a priest. Our lives are wholly consecrated to God in thankful service for the great work that God wrought in the great high priest, Jesus Christ. That is true freedom: freedom to serve the Lord all your life.

The office of all believer is one to be used diligently and faithfully in the church. Every child of God is a partaker of Christ’s anointing, so that he may serve God in the body of Jesus Christ as that universal body is manifested in the local, instituted, true church. The believer has the calling to use his gifts in his office for the benefit of the body.

Q. 55. What do you understand by “the communion of saints”?

A. First, that all and every one who believes, being members of Christ, are, in common, partakers of Him and of all His riches and gifts; secondly, that every one must know it to be his duty, readily and cheerfully to employ his gifts, for the advantage and salvation of other members. (Confessions and Church Order, 104)

Bavinck also explains the connection between the office of priest and the communion of saints when he writes,

The congregation is not voiceless; it is not a “listening church” or an “economic order” whose role is to listen and be silent. But it has “an anointing from the Holy One” (1 John 1:20), consists of many members who all need one another, and may not neglect the gifts given them.⁷

 

The Believer as King

Finally, the believer is a king. Jesus Christ is our eternal king, and he constitutes us as a royal people and a nation of kings under God with him. As king, the believer is at war. All believers are soldiers of Jesus Christ, and in Christ’s army on this earth there are no retired or neutralized soldiers. The battle for the believer rages on from the moment he is born until he takes his last breath. He wars against Satan, the world, and his own sin and sinful flesh with a free and good conscience, that afterward he will reign with Christ eternally over all creatures.

As kings, we have the victory of Jesus Christ by faith. We have that now in principle. And we await the perfection of that victory when at Christ’s return our souls are completely delivered and our bodies are raised from the dead. As we fight then in this life, we fight as victors going forth in the battle against all the hosts of darkness in the assurance that the captain of our salvation has wrought the deliverance. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us, so that even as we suffer and are still engaged in this deadly combat, we fight on as kings in the army of Jehovah God.

The believer has a say in the government of the church. The believer directs the current officebearers to qualified men who ought to be put up for nomination—men who are filled with the Holy Spirit. The believer votes in the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, that the man of God’s choosing might be placed into office. Luther proves that this is both scriptural and Reformed:

No bishop should institute anyone without the election, will, and call of the congregation. Rather, he should confirm the one whom the congregation chose and called…Neither Titus nor Timothy nor Paul ever instituted a priest without the congregation’s election and call. This is clearly proven in sayings in Titus 1[:7] and I Timothy 3[:10], “A bishop or priest should be blameless,” and, “Let the deacons be tested first.” Now Titus could not have known which ones were blameless; such a report must come from the congregation, which must name the man.⁸

The believer is a king in the church of Jesus Christ, and his office must be allowed to operate freely in the rule and government of the church.

The Special Offices

The treatment of the office of all believer would not be complete if I did not treat, albeit briefly, the special offices in the church. The special offices are distinct roles to which men are called and installed. The special offices in the church are the offices of minister, deacon, and elder. And these offices arise in organic connection with the office of all believer.

The office of all believers is the spiritual fountain of all the church’s organic activity and its instituted form. The special offices of pastor, elder, and deacon arise in the church through the office of all believers, and by these special offices the true king of the church, Christ Jesus, exercises his royal rule according to his word and by his Spirit. The office of all believers stimulates and causes the special offices to come into being.⁹

The minister as a prophet is to speak the word of the Lord to God’s people. From week to week he must sound forth unashamedly the gospel of free forgiveness in Jesus Christ. As king, the elder is to rule in the church of Jesus Christ according to the word. As priest, the deacon is to show mercy to the flock of Christ in the collection and distribution of the alms. The minister, elder, and deacon are servants to the sheepfold of Christ. These offices are not special in the sense that those who hold the special office are higher, more important, or more powerful than the lay member of the church. Rather, the word special designates that there is a specific labor and work to which those who hold those offices are called.

To conclude I leave the reader with insightful truths from our spiritual forefathers, who held the office of all believer in great esteem.

It is true, also in the new dispensation after the Spirit was poured out, the Lord has instituted his church. And for the upbuilding of the saints he gave unto her apostles, prophets, evangelists, ministers, elders, and deacons. But although these are given to the church for the edifying of the body of Christ, this does not mean that believers are now wholly dependent upon an institution of men for the knowledge of the Lord and for the proper functioning of their spiritual life. They are free; all have the Spirit. All have the unction of the Holy One…For all know him, from the least to the greatest. And if a certain institution of the church in the world would become deformed, wicked men are in high places, the truth is corrupted, and the holy things of God’s covenant are profaned, the church, the true spiritual remnant, is in a position to exercise the office of believers, separate themselves from that false church, and institute the true church anew.¹⁰

We thank God for preserving and restoring to us the office of all believer in the reformation of 2021 and the formation of the Reformed Protestant Churches. May the Lord preserve us as believers in the Reformed Protestant Churches in the truth of this doctrine of the office of all believer. For it is a glorious doctrine.

For this reason our fathers devoutly spoke of an office of all believers. In Christ’s Church there are not merely a few officials and a mass of idle, unworthy subjects, but every believer has a calling, a task, a vital charge. And inasmuch as we are convinced that we perform the task because the King has laid it upon us not for ourselves, nor even from the motive of philanthropy, but to serve the Church, to this extent has our work an official character, although the world denies us the honor.¹¹

Why are you called a Christian? Because you are a member of Christ by faith, and thus—as a fruit—are a partaker of Christ’s anointing to the office of all believer as a prophet, priest, and king.

Such is the office of all believer!