The concept that every person can approach God directly, without the services of an intermediary human priesthood, is one of the fundamental principles of the Protestant Reformation. It is a logical corollary of belief in salvation by faith alone. The Catholic sacrament of ordination draws a sharp line of demarcation between the laity and the clergy. Protestants’ rejection of the exclusive priesthood of the clergy came about, in part, because they renounced the Mass, for the celebration of which a priest is presumed to be necessary. Generally Protestants refrain from applying the term priest to one who administers Communion.
The Catholic Church teaches that one’s access to divine grace is, and must be, exclusively through the church. The Protestant, on the other hand, believes that saving grace comes to a repentant sinner by virtue of his or her own direct, personal contact with God, not through the church. To the Protestant, the church announces God’s grace and invites the sinner to accept it. To the Catholic, on the other hand, God dispenses grace exclusively through the priests of the church.
Seventh-day Adventists share with Protestants generally the concept of the priesthood of all believers. But whereas Luther, for instance, stressed the idea of universal priesthood, Seventh-day Adventists emphasize the priesthood of Christ, to whom anyone may come directly.