Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

THE OFFICES OF CHRIST
I. Introduction; The Prophetic Office
A. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE OFFICES IN GENERAL.
1. THE IDEA OF THE OFFICES IN HISTORY. It has become customary to speak of three
offices in connection with the work of Christ, namely the prophetic, the priestly, and the
kingly office. While some of the early Church Fathers already speak of the different
offices of Christ, Calvin was the first to recognize the importance of distinguishing the
three offices of the Mediator and to call attention to it in a separate chapter of his
Institutes. 33 Among the Lutherans Gerhard was the first to develop the doctrine of the
three offices, Quenstedt regarded the threefold distinction as rather unessential and
called attention to the fact that some Lutheran theologians distinguished only two
offices, combining the prophetical with the priestly office. Since the days of the
Reformation the distinction was quite generally adopted as one of the commonplaces of
theology, though there was no general agreement as to the relative importance of the
offices, nor as to their interrelation. Some placed the prophetical, others the priestly, and
still others the kingly, office in the foreground. There were those who applied the idea of
a chronological succession to them, and thought of Christ functioning as prophet during
his public ministry on earth, as priest in his final sufferings and death on the cross, and
as king now that He is seated at the right hand of God. Others, however, correctly
stressed the fact that He must be conceived as functioning in His threefold capacity both
in His state of humiliation and in His state of exaltation. The Socinians really recognized
only two offices: Christ functioned as prophet on earth, and functions as king in heaven.
While they also spoke of Christ as priest, they subsumed His priestly under His kingly
work, and therefore did not recognize His earthly priesthood.
In the Lutheran Church considerable opposition appeared to the doctrine of the
three offices of Christ. Ernesti gives a summary of the objections that were raised.
According to him the division is a purely artificial one; the terms prophet, priest, and
king are not used in Scripture in the sense implied in this division; it is impossible to
33 Bk. II, Chap. XV.
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