APOSTLES
As far as the
apostles were concerned, they were as weak as any other men. They were uneducated, very ordinary men. Yet they are given this privileged position:
they will deliver the Word of God through the Son to the world. From God the Father,
through the Son, through the Spirit, and through the apostles to the world. In this sense, the apostles are
"foundational" to the church... Theological and ethical instruction
from the apostles is universally binding.
Indeed, it is "from God to us."
Fred Zaspel
Taken from "New Covenant Theology" by Tom Wells
and Fred Zaspel, page 38. (c)2002 New Covenant Media, Used by
permission of New Covenant Media, 5317 Wye Creek
Drive, Frederick, MD 21703-6938. http://www.newcovenantmedia.com/home.php
What then
were the apostles? It is plain from the divine record that they were men
immediately commissioned by Christ to make a full and authoritative revelation
of His religion; to organize the church; to furnish it with officers and laws,
and to start it on its career of conquest through the world...The apostles, the
twelve, stand out just as conspicuous as an isolated body in the history of the
church, without predecessors, and without successors, as Christ himself does.
They disappear from history. The title, the thing itself, the gifts, the
functions, all ceased when John, the last of the twelve, ascended to heaven.
What is Presbyterianism? p.
53, 60.
Apostles were
chosen by God to work in the founding and forming of the church, after which
time apostleship ceased. When all the
apostles had died, the office of apostle no longer existed. They were selected, sent and empowered by God
for that period in the history of the church, which was over when their lives
were over. As the human founders and
foundation of the church, the apostles had particular purposes and
responsibilities.
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 4.
In Christ’s
day the world was filled with intellectuals and influential people. There were celebrated philosophers in Athens,
unsurpassed scholars in Alexandria, the most powerful political leaders the
world had ever known in Rome, and some of the most meticulous rabbis of all
time in and around Jerusalem. Christ
bypassed them all and called simple, crude, unknown, and uneducated fishermen
from Galilee to be His disciples.
The Book on Leadership, 2004, p. 114.
Six
biblical reasons may be given as to why the apostolic office is not for today:
1. The church was
founded upon the apostles (Eph. 2:20)… Their role was to give grounding,
support, direction – to provide the underpinning for a
fledgling church. They were the church’s founders. That role was fulfilled by
them and by definition can never be repeated.
2. Apostles were
eyewitnesses to the resurrection (1 Cor. 9:1)… There is no trustworthy evidence
that (Jesus) has appeared to anyone since the close of the apostolic era.
3. Apostles were chosen
personally by Jesus Christ (Mt. 10:1-4).
4. Apostles were
authenticated by miraculous signs (Ac. 3:3-11; 5:15-16; 9:36-42; 20:6-12;
28:1-6)… No such miracles were ever performed – even in the apostolic era – by
anyone other than the apostles and those commissioned by them.
5. Apostles had absolute
authority (Jude 17)… When the apostles spoke, there was no discussion.
6. Apostles have an
eternal and unique place of honor (Rev. 21:14).
John MacArthur
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 148-151, www.zondervan.com.
When did the
apostolic office cease? Right after the
Apostle John penned the last words of Scripture. Shortly after Scripture was completed, the
last living apostle died.
John Napier
Charismatic
Challenge by John Napier, Providence House Publishers, 2003, p. 63. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
I do not know
what you feel, but I never cease to be grateful to these disciples. I am
grateful for the record of every mistake they ever made, and for every blunder
they ever committed, because I see myself in them. How grateful we should be to
God that we have these Scriptures, how grateful to Him that He has not merely
given us the gospel and left it at that. How wonderful it is that we can read accounts
like this and see ourselves depicted in them, and how grateful we should be to
God that it is a divinely inspired Word which speaks the truth, and shows and pictures
every human frailty.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Spiritual
Depression – Its Causes and its Cures, 1965, p. 137,
Used by Permission from Elizabeth Catherwood (daughter).
Matthew
suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia.
Mark expired
at Alexandria, after being cruelly dragged through the streets of that city.
Luke was
hanged upon an olive tree in the classic land of Greece.
John was put
in a cauldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was
afterward banished to Patmos.
Peter was
crucified at Rome with his head downward.
James, the
Greater, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
James, the
Less, was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death
with a fuller’s club.
Bartholomew
was flayed alive.
Andrew was
bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors until he died.
Thomas was
run through the body with a lance at Coromandel in the East Indies.
Jude was shot
to death with arrows.
Matthais was
first stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas of
the Gentiles was stoned to death at Salonica.
Paul, after
various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by the
Emperor Nero.
Source unknown.