A Sacrament-free Faith

Catholics recognize confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction as sacraments, in addition to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Many Protestant churches recognize only baptism and the Lord’s Supper (or what my boy calls “that thing you do at church with the blood and flesh”). Some apostolic churches have a third sacraments—holy sealing-- the passing of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands by church elders. But on what authority are there any ordinances? Doesn’t Jesus command us to do much more than just these acts? Because sacraments are done without exception within the context of the institutional church, I believe that the observance of any sacraments is a form of sacerdotalism—an attempt by the clergy to mediate between me and God by imposing on me requirements that have nothing to do with my faith in God. I think we can affirm our faith with baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but it isn’t and shouldn’t be an obligation.

Baptism and church membership are the external criteria of faith, and a true follower of Jesus is one who keeps his beliefs free from heresy and tries to live a moral life. But these seem to be minimal and possibly even irrelevant criteria. Faith is not an intellectual assent to dogmatic propositions but a commitment of one’s entire being, directed not just to myself, but also to my neighbor and the world. Christian ethics provides us with the tools to deal with the world with all its challenges. The only law for a Christian is to be a fully-devoted follower of Christ who, in the words of Micah 6:8, will "do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with God." Thus, to the question: how many sacraments are we obliged to follow? I would answer: none.

Even a cursory glance at church history will show the many schisms and sometimes violent wars between nations that were created in arguments over sacraments and succession. Is it relevant if someone is baptized with a drop of water or with a dunking, or if you believe that the wine (or grape juice for us Baptists) at the Lord’s Supper is Jesus’ blood or represents Jesus’ blood (the transubstantiation versus consubstantiation debate)? I think what really matters is that we try to follow Jesus by rescuing the perishing and caring for the dying.

If I’m right on this point, it would also follow that the doctrine of apostolic succession is not true or necessary. The Catholics believe God’s authority passes from generation to generation starting from Peter, through Linus, Cletus, and Clement to the present day Pope. The Mormons and some other churches believe that succession was broken through apostasy and has since been restored through their church and scriptures. Ephesians 4: 11-14 are verses used to justify the succession, where God gives to different people different abilities “for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.” But no where in these verses or any else does the Bible suggest that man can confer God’s grace or authority to other men. The transmission of these gifts is not through the church or the apostles or their delegates. Since our relation is to God not through the church, such a succession was never needed.