Key to Lesson No.3
(1) The apostles and prophets exist today. Is this statement true or wrong? Please justify your answer with reasons.
Recently, there was a hot discussion in a Christian web-site forum on the above issue. During the discussion, the Spirit of God led me to deal with this doctrine on the basis of the Word of God. The queries raised by a dear member and my comments are given below.
Query (i):
Certainly the church today needs church planters, missionaries, or leaders who act as pastors over other pastors. Fortunately, when some people say that the church needs "apostles" today, that's all that they mean. And while the usage of the term "apostle" is not biblical, certainly the church does need such persons.
Our comments: How can you say that the pastors of the local churches are the church planters, missionaries? Many servants of God from America, England and other European countries came to India and established churches where Christ was not named. They were apostles indeed. They could have pastured some churches in their own nations. William Carrey was a pastor in England but came to India as an apostle, in obedience to his apostolic calling by God. I have already explained to you in my earlier post about the apostolic ministries. An apostle is not one who has established a particular denominational group of churches in a place which was already evangelized and where Christ is already named.
Please note that according to the pattern of the churches established by Apostle Paul, each local church should be administered by deacons or elders. The pastors are appointed only to the Body of Christ as one of the five types of New Testament ministers.
Query (ii):
When some people say that the church needs "prophets" today, they mean that the church needs Spirit-filled leaders who can inspire the church with a vision for its mission, or who can challenge the church to deeper commitment to Christ.
Our comments: Yes, the Church, the Body of Christ needs prophets today who can inspire the local churches with a vision for the evangelical mission or who can challenge sleeping local churches to a deeper commitment to Christ through evangelism and revival.
Query (iii):
If by "apostles" and "prophets" mean Christian leaders of the same kind as the twelve apostles or the apostle Paul, they are clearly mistaken. There are no church leaders today whose authority cannot be questioned, or through whom new doctrinal revelations are given to the church, or whose teachings must be accepted by all Christians.
Our comments: Apart from the 12 apostles raised up by God during the New Testament period, the same apostolic ministries continued to function after the death of the 12 apostles who had lived during the earthly ministry of Jesus.
What do you mean by “new doctrinal revelations”? Paul gave doctrinal revelations about faith in Christ Jesus to those who were steeped in the laws and the commandments of the Jewish religion. Similarly, God did raise up many apostles like Paul during the later centuries to deal with many doctrinal issues when the people from the heathen religions began to accept Christ. Why did God raise up Martin Luther as a great reformer? God did raise him up as an apostle to deal with the false doctrines of the Catholic Church. Of course, all the apostles raised up by God after the ministry of Paul did confirm what Paul said in his epistles to the churches that existed during the New Testament period. In India, God did raise up Sadhu Sunder Singh, called an apostle with bleeding feet, who preached the gospel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in India and went to countries like USA, UK, Canada, during the 19th century. Sadhu Sundar Singh lived like a Hindu hermit, wearing the saffron dress as commanded by Jesus Christ. He has beautifully dealt with the doctrines of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, etc which the great Apostle Paul could not deal with.
Of course, I agree that no apostle of today can claim that his authority should run over all the churches. The Body of Christ is a multi-membered body. Everyone in the Body should submit himself/herself to the other members of the Body.
Query (iv):
The New Testament teaches that the apostles of Christ were persons to whom Christ appeared after His resurrection and whom He commissioned to be His personal spokesmen (Acts 1:21-26; 5:32; 1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8).
Our comments: If your argument is to be accepted, what about Paul, the great apostle? Jesus did not appear to him in His resurrected body before His ascension. Paul had only seen a vision of Christ on his way to Damascus. In I Cor.15:8, Paul says that last of all Jesus was seen by him also, as by one born out of due time. Paul saw Jesus not in His resurrected Body. Had he seen Jesus in His resurrected Body, Paul would have believed Him earlier. But he saw Christ in a heavenly vision which resulted in his conversion. The same Paul writes in 2 Cor.5:7 that we should walk by faith, not by sight. There were many apostles like Martin Luther, George Wesley, who had not seen Christ in His resurrected Body.
Query (v):
Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5 teach that the apostles and prophets had foundational offices through which Christ established the church as the newly constituted people of God, a church in which both Jews and Gentiles make up the singular body of Christ.
Our comments: Please note that Paul, while writing to the saints in Ephesus, said that they were built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets who had lived at that particular point of time.
Query (vi):
Clearly many men today who claim to be apostles have taken upon themselves authority over other people which has not been given to them by God. Additionally, they are making prophetic utterances which they falsely claim to be divinely inspired.
Our comments: I agree with you in this regard. Though there are many aberrations like this in the Body of Christ, some wrongly claiming to be the apostles and the prophets, this does not mean that there are no true apostles and prophets in the Body of Christ today. Sitting before the computer, you cannot look for the true apostles and the prophets who live today in the Body of Christ. You are most welcome to our mission fields to see for yourself the works of apostles whom God has raised up in this nation. By judging on a few ministers like Benny Hinn, etc, you cannot come to the conclusion that there are no apostles today.
Query (v):
You should name a living prophet that prophecies future events, aligns with Scripture and passes the tests for a prophet that God established in Deuteronomy 18.
Our comments: Verse 20 of Deut.18 warns a prophet against speaking a word which He has not commanded him to speak. The punishment for such a prophet is death.
Verse 22 in Deut.18 says that when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
The above verse says very clearly that when a prophet speaks in the Name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen, it means that the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. This shows that a prophet of God may prophesy presumptuously. In that case, you need not be afraid of him. You can just ignore him. Here, the prophet does speak in the name of the Lord. But the thing prophesied by him does not happen. However, the prophet is still a prophet.
Read about the prophetic ministry of Agabus in the book of Acts (11:27-28 & 21:10-11). Whatever he did prophesy had come true. This shows that a New Testament prophet can predict future events as led by the Spirit.
The test of a true prophet is that he remains true to the Word of God, despite many trials and tribulations that he comes across. It is for God to judge him, and not for any man or any woman to pass judgment on his ministry.
Dearly beloved, please read I Cor.13:9-10, about the gift of prophecy. We know in part and we prophesy in part. When the perfection comes at the time of the second advent of Jesus, we will not require either the ministry of a prophet or the gift of prophecy. As such, the ministry of a prophet or the gift of prophecy is now imperfect.
You also want me to name a true prophet whose prophecies will come true. Are you on the look-out for a true prophet? In that case, you should go to the wilderness to see a true prophet like John the Baptist who remained in the wilderness. This reminds me of the words of Jesus in Math.11:7-11 concerning John the Baptist. “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses….A prophet?
I challenge you to go to the wilderness to see a prophet, and not by asking others to show you a true prophet while you are seated yourself comfortably before a computer. In case you cannot find out the wilderness in your nation. I will take you to the wilderness where you can see for yourself a true prophet. I cannot show you a true prophet when you sit before your computer.
A prophet? Do you look for a prophet? You cannot find a true prophet in the comforts of the pulpit of a church. You cannot find him in the king’s house, living a luxurious life. You may not see him in any T.V. Channel. He will be like John the Baptist, preaching a message of repentance, boldly without fearing any man or any king in authority. John did not predict any event. Why are you looking out for a prophet who should predict some future events by sitting before your computer? Why are you looking for a prophet with some signs because the prophet himself is a sign?
If some people have falsely prophesied on certain future events, that does not mean that there are no prophets in the Body of Christ and that the Church, the Body of Christ, does not need the prophets today.
You may have some servants of God in your mind whose prophecies did not come true. I do not want you to name them. Please note that a New Testament prophet does not always predict the future events. He has more important functions to perform. He has to expose the false doctrines that afflict the Body of Christ and to give prophetic warnings to the churches.
You have referred to the ministry of Benny Hinn. Benny Hinn is an evangelist, and not a prophet. However, if his messages are in accordance with the Word of God, we should ignore his messages. You are not supposed to judge him as a false prophet.
Indeed, there are false prophets in our midst, especially, those who prophesy in the name of heathen gods (Verse 20 of Deut.18).
Please note that the living apostles and prophets are of the living Body of Christ. Otherwise, there may be a truncated Body of Christ, devoid of apostles and prophets abut consisting of only pastors and evangelists.
Despite all the imperfections of a particular prophetic ministry that you have in mind, God needs that particular foolish ministry because God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the mighty. It is not your or my choice to keep an imperfect prophet in the Body of Christ.
Who are we to judge that the Body of Christ does not need the ministries of apostles and prophets today? It is God who appoints the apostles and prophets to the Body of Christ.
(2) The gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were imperfect, are no longer in operation because we have received the Bible, the perfect thing. Is this statement true or wrong? Please justify your answer with reasons.
When Christ comes to this world and reigns this world with us, we may not require the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Perfection will be attained when we put on the immortality on the second advent of Jesus. The gifts of the Holy Spirit exist today and are very much needed by us.
(3) Your pastor says that he has the apostolic ministry and that there are no apostles today. How will you answer him?
Paul wrote many epistles to churches and some epistles to individuals Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Of all the epistles to individuals, his two epistles to Timothy are outstanding. In his epistles to individuals, we can see the apostolic love for the individual members of the Body of Christ.
Paul called the young Timothy "my own son in the faith" and "my dearly beloved son". Where are the apostles today, who treat the individual believers as their own sons in the faith?
While writing his second epistle, Paul was conscious of his home-call. He knew that he was nearing his martyrdom. But he did not care for his own life but cared for the young Timothy. Paul took time to write a long epistle to his beloved son in the faith, warning him against "the last days' perilous times" (II Tim.3:1). With a heavy heart, Paul warned Timothy against the tide of apostasy that had set in. Paul wrote, "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia turned away from me…." (II Tim.1:15). The Asian churches had not disbanded, nor ceased to call themselves Christians but they had turned away from the doctrine of grace distinctively revealed through the Apostle. This was the proof that already the apostasy had set in, in its first form, legalism.
The apostle who was forsaken by those very people to whom he had preached the gospel did not lose his heart but wrote two long epistles to a single individual who was a youth. These days, many ministers do not want to minister to individuals because they are busy in God's work by way of holding big crusades. Even if you want to meet one of them, you cannot have easy access to him or her. You have to meet his/her personal staff just to get an appointment. If you are an influential person in the society, you may succeed in getting the appointment with the minister concerned. Can you expect the minister concerned to write to you a long letter or to send you a personal email? No. Where are the apostles today who take care of the individuals and who take time to warn the individuals personally against the false doctrines or against the days of apostasy?
A true apostle is the one who not only takes care of the individuals but also has upon himself "the care of all the churches" (II Tim.11:28). His vision is for all the churches of God in the universal Body of Christ and not for any particular denomination churches or for the churches geographically confined to his nation.
A true apostle is the one who through his prophetic eyes sees the decline of the Christian standards in his time. The one who hankers after church pulpits but does not expose the doctrines of apostasy in the churches concerned for fear of losing the pulpit is not an apostle at all.
Today, we see that many churches have turned away from the doctrine of grace but have turned towards certain sets of rules and legalism. We are indeed in the days of apostasy. We cannot expect revivals in those churches that are in the grip of apostasy. Where are the apostles who warn the churches against this tide of apostasy that is raging the churches of God today? At times, we find the so-called apostolic gatherings in our midst. But we do not get any siren of warning nor hear the blowing of trumpets from such apostolic gatherings about the tide of apostasy.
(4) An evangelist preaches that since he has the gift of prophecy, the ministry of prophets came to an end. How will you answer him?
No. A prophetic ministry is a ministry to which God places a person for this type of ministry whereas the gift of prophecy can be coveted by any person. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to desire the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy and tells them, “Ye may prophesy” (I Cor.14:1). But the same Paul tells in the previous chapter that all are not prophets (Ch.12:29).
(5) Please mention any two important functions of an apostle. Please quote the relevant Bible verses either from the epistles or the Acts.
An apostle is one who is appointed by God, in the first place, in the body of Christ (I Cor.12: 28) and who is being sent by God on a mission of preaching the glorious gospel to the lost souls in places where Christ is not named and of establishing churches in such places; they ordain ministers and elders in the churches (2 Cor.10: 16 & Acts 16:4-5). They also confirm the souls of the disciples and exhort them to continue in the faith (Acts 14:22). They visit the people in those places where they have already preached the gospel to see how they are growing in the faith. (Acts 15:36). They also deal with the doctrinal issues, which confuse the churches by rightly interpreting the Word (Acts 15:36).
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