Melchizedek and the Priesthood
By A. F. Ferguson
(Notes on a Study of the Subject by A. F. Ferguson) MELCHIZEDEK was priest of the most high God. Gen. 14:18. He was king of righteousness, king of peace, without natural father or mother ("pedigree," margin), without beginning of days (as an infant) or end of life literally. Heb. 7:1-3. Melchizedek was greater than Abraham. Compare Gen. 14:19 with Heb. 7:7. Abraham was the greatest man on the earth at that time, and God said He would make of him a great nation, and the father of all the faithful. Hence we conclude that Melchizedek was not of this world. We will consider this later. He was not Christ. See Heb. 7:15-17. We see another priest after the order of, or like, Melchizedek, a priest of the endless life. Who was this priest? Heb. 8:1, 2: "We have such an high priest," etc. Heb. 6:20: "Jesus, made an high priest." Jesus was not Melchizedek, but was made a high priest of that order. Melchizedek was not the Holy Spirit, for he was a man. Heb. 7:4. He was not an angel, for angels are not priests. Heb. 1:14. He was not of the human family, for each has had end of days, except Enoch and Elijah, who were translated. Each has had beginning of days as an infant, except Adam. If Adam had not sinned, he would not have died, but would have lived forever. Rom. 5:12. Death came by sin. And thus Adam would have been like Melchizedek. Heb. 7:1-3. He would have been priest, or head, of the human family. He would have been king of the earth. Gen. 1:26. If Adam had not sinned, he would be king of righteousness, and also king of peace. Adam lost all, because he became a servant of Satan. Rom. 6:16; 2 Peter 2:19. Satan became ruler and prince of this world. Compare Luke 4:5, 6 with John 14:30. So this world passed into the hands of Satan, and he became its representative instead of Adam. But there are more worlds than this one. This world is the lost sheep which the good Shepherd, Christ, came to seek and to save. Then let us grasp the fact that there are other worlds, inhabited the same as this one. Adam was the son of God in a special sense. Luke 3:38: "Which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God." He was created a man, without beginning of days as men, without father or mother. He was the beginning of the family of beings in this world. Would it not be reasonable to suppose that God created an Adam, or a creature like Adam, for each world, that could be called, as Adam was, the son of God? Then each world would have its Adam, or son of God. In Job 1:6, 7, we find the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. But was Adam there?—No. He was dead, for this was in the time of Job. See verse 8. Who was there to represent this world?—Satan. Verse 6. The Lord said to Satan, "Whence comest thou?" And he answered, "From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." Verse 7. Adam had lost his kingship. It had passed to Satan, and now he came to represent the earth in the council of all the sons of God—the rulers, or kings, of all the other worlds. Jesus comes to seek and to save that which was lost, and redeem the earth. He paid the price on the cross, came forth from the tomb, and ascended on high. He becomes our high priest (Heb. 6:20), and at the same time, our priest after the order of Melchizedek. Then Christ redeems the Israel of God from death. Hosea 13:10, 14: "I will be thy king." "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death." Then the government will be upon His shoulders. Isa. 9:6. Then the second man Adam, the Melchizedek of this world, our "Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father," even as Adam, if he had not sinned, would have been, is the everlasting Father of the human family. Christ is king of this world, as Adam would have been. He sits "upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, . . . henceforth even forever." Verse 7. So we conclude that the Melchizedek priesthood, or order, is the heads of all the other worlds, with Jesus as head, or representative, or king, of this world. And the being who met Abraham was the head, or representative, or king, of some one of the other worlds, being named, after the order of priesthood to which he belonged, the Melchizedek of that world.