The ordination of called ministers is not a divine institution, or ordinance, but a church rite; for while it is mentioned, Acts 14, 23, it is not commanded in Scripture. We therefore rightly classify ordination among the adiaphora and affirm that not the ordination, but the call makes a person a minister.
Luther writes St. L., XVII, 114: "The laying on of hands ordination blesses, confirms, and attests this the call to the office, just as a notary and witnesses attest a worldly matter and as a pastor, when he blesses a bridegroom and bride, confirms or attests their marriage, that is, that they before took each other and publicly announced it."
Similarly also the Smalcald Articles declare that ordination is only the public ratification of the call. They say (Of the Power and Primacy of the Pope, 70): "Formerly the people elected pastors and bishops. Then came a bishop, either of that church or a neighboring one, who confirmed the one elected by the laying on of hands; and ordination was nothing else than such a ratification."
For this reason the confessional Lutheran Church does not practise the so-called absolute ordination, that is, the ordination of a person who as yet has received no call, since this might create the wrong impression as though by the ordination the ordained person were received into a "spiritual estate" (ein geistlicher Stand) and made a consecrated priest, who is eligible for a call by a congregation just because of special virtues conferred by the ordination. (Cp. Walther, Pastorale, p. 65.)
It goes without saying that also the right of ordination is originally vested in the local churches, as the Smalcald Articles declare: "Wherever there is a true church, the right to elect and ordain ministers necessarily exists."
According to Roman Catholic doctrine only those are Christian ministers (priests) who have been ordained by bishops created by the Pope, while pastors called and ordained by Christian congregations are thieves and murderers (Council of Trent, Sess. XXIII, Can. 4). From the viewpoint of the Papacy this antichristian doctrine is quite intelligible; for according to papistic teaching the "sacrament" of ordination confers ex opere operato upon the ordained the Holy Spirit and impresses upon him an "indelible character'' (character indelebilis), which makes him a priest for all times, even though by gross sins he should render himself unworthy of the sacred office.
But this is not all. Through the ordination the priest, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, receives also the supernatural power to transubstantiate the bread and wine in the Holy Supper into Christ's body and blood and to offer these up as a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead (Council of Trent, De Sacram. Ord., Cans. 1-8). This is a power so great that not even the holy angels or the greatest saints are said to possess it. Indeed, this power is superior even to that of the human nature of Christ, which, as they claim, must obey the command of the priest whenever he bids it appear on earth to he sacrificed for the sins of the living and the dead. The papistic doctrine of ordination and the Mass therefore involves an unspeakable blasphemy of Christ and His holy Word.
While the Episcopalians do not acknowledge the Pope as the vicar of Christ on earth, they nevertheless teach that ordination is the only means by which the apostolic succession, and with it the true ministry, can be transmitted.
Finally also the Romanizing Lutherans, who regard the ministry as a "special spiritual estate" (ein beeonderer geistlicher Stand), which is self-propagating, change the church rite of ordination into a divine institution, or ordinance. These Romanizing Lutherans emphatically deny that the Christian minister receives his office through the call of the congregation, though this doctrine is clearly taught in Scripture.