Scripture does not say that Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Timothy, Andranicus and Junia were 'an eye witness to the bodily resurrection of Christ before He ascended,' and yet in the scriptures they had an apostlolic ministry. The post by AbideinHim of Watchmen Nee is a very good explanation about apostles. If somebody is commisioned by God to preach the gosple and make disciples and his apostleship is corfirmed by signs and wonders and his ministry fruitful not only in winning souls for Christ but building up the body of Christ, then we have good evidence to believe that this man is a genuine apostle of the Church of God. Another thing i want to add is that a true apostle is a godly man who has spiritual power and authority, he appoints elders to local churches that the Holy Spirit has chose, in another word he recognizes those spiritual local leader appointed by the Holy Spirit and gives his consent. The sad reality is that there have been too many self-claimed apostles in our days. They look like those super apostles in the corinthian church or those fake apostles mentioned in the book of revelatons who not only fulfill the requirement of apostleship. The fact that there are too many counterfeit and spurious apostolic ministries going on, is not an indication that the genuine does not exist. The truth is that many of us who are evangelicals have blindly accepted the theological conclusions of theologians who believe that apostles and prophets were only for the apostolic church and after the first century what we had left were evangelists, pastors and teachers. That's called cessesional theology and they too believe that the gifts in 1 Coninthians 12-14 ceased to be operational in the church after the bible was complete. There is no evidence at all in the entire bible that the supernatural or miraculous gifts of the Spirit were only for the apostolic church.Also in the history of the church there have been many men of God who have had the miraculous or supernatural gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12. Scripture and church history prove that miraculous gifts are for this age of grace. BlessingsRedi
_________________Redi
Sorry misstyped it should be, " They look like those super apostles in the corinthian church or those fake apostles mentioned in the book of revelation who do not fulfill the requirements of apostleship."
Quote: "The truth is that many of us who are evangelicals have blindly accepted the theological conclusions of theologians who believe that apostles and prophets were only for the apostolic church and after the first century what we had left were evangelists, pastors and teachers. That's called cessesional theology and they too believe that the gifts in 1 Coninthians 12-14 ceased to be operational in the church after the bible was complete. There is no evidence at all in the entire bible that the supernatural or miraculous gifts of the Spirit were only for the apostolic church.Also in the history of the church there have been many men of God who have had the miraculous or supernatural gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12. Scripture and church history prove that miraculous gifts are for this age of grace."The true apostles that are the "sent ones" are within the Church today, and they are not advertising the fact that they are apostles, but they are doing the work of an apostle. Many of them are missionaries, sent to other countries, building churches, and there are signs and wonders that follow their ministry. We are warned in scripture that there would be much deception in the last days, and we will know them by their fruits. Jesus Christ is building His Church through His apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They are equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry. Their authority and commission is not from any man or any deomination but comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Mike
_________________Mike
