Apostles Today?

I had an intriguing, though brief, conversation on this topic this past evening, and it spurred an investigation. I spent much of the night into the early morning on the fascinating topic of apostles (and prophets) existing after the early church.

I looked at many different cross-referenced Bible verses and went back to the original languages, looking up the Greek and its meanings and usages in lexicons. Finally, I resorted to my commentaries. None of this is a salvation issue, but it seems to me it has important pragmatic and doctrinal consequences nonetheless.

I have always been somewhat more comfortable relegating such things back to the first century Church, but had never really researched the issue very much, so was left unsure about it. I still am a bit unsure since even tonight my research has been relatively non-rigorous and light, but leaning heavier than ever toward only in the early church when the original apostles were still alive, the last one living being John who died in the late 90s AD.

My recent exposure on the Internet to those claiming to be apostles has left me even more leery about this issue, and having witnessed over many years those claiming also to be prophets and faith healers on television, radio, and the Internet, they seem to be equally problematic. From what I have witnessed and many others have told me, often overly stressing money and giving goes hand in glove with those who claim to be apostles, prophets, and faith healers.

See below what I feel seems to be a good treatment of this topic by a person much smarter and more knowledgeable than me quoted from the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (my emphasis added):

11. Now Paul goes on to speak of the specific gifts that he has given. The gifts are the people. All, in their particular ministries, are God’s gift to the church. ‘To Christ’, says Calvin, ‘we owe it that we have ministers of the gospel.’ The church may appoint people to different work and functions, but unless they have the gifts of the Spirit, and therefore are themselves the gifts of Christ to his church, their appointment is valueless. The expression also ‘serves well to remind ministers that the gifts of the Spirit are not for the enrichment of oneself but for the enrichment of the Church’ (Allan).

At the later date which some would give to this letter it would seem almost impossible not to have reference to the local ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons which had come to be of greatest importance to the church. As it is, the apostle is not thinking of the ministers of Christ in their offices but rather according to their specific spiritual gifts and their work, and not least of those who in the exercise of their functions were not limited to a particular locality. This may account for the differences between the list that we have here and the similar list in 1 Corinthians 12:28. It also seems true that, as F. F. Bruce puts it, ‘those that are named’ here ‘exercise their ministries in such a way as to help other members of the church to exercise their own respective ministries’.

First stood the apostles. First in time and first in importance, Masson puts it. The word apostolos is used in three different ways in the New Testament. It could mean simply a messenger, as is the case apparently in Philippians 2:25—we can neglect that meaning here. It was used above all for the twelve, who in many parts of the New Testament are given a special and distinctive position (cf. 1 Cor. 15:5; Rev. 21:14). But we read of others as apostles, not only Paul himself and Barnabas (Acts 14:14), but James the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19), Silas (1 Thess. 2:6), and Junias and Andronicus who are mentioned only in Romans 16:7. In fact there would appear to be those who can truly be called apostles (1 Cor. 15:7), who are not even known to us by name. From Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:1–2 it would seem that a necessary qualification of an apostle was to have seen the risen Lord, and to have been sent out by him, and thus to have come to be engaged as a foundation member (Eph. 2:20) and worker for the building up of the church. If the qualification for an apostle was thus to have seen and been sent by the risen Lord, the proof of an apostle was his labours in the power of Christ, even ‘with signs and wonders and mighty works’ (2 Cor. 12:12). It should be noted also that, according to Acts 1:21–22 (cf. Acts 2:42), the apostles gave definitive witness to the facts of the ministry of Jesus and to his resurrection.

Closely associated with them in the work of building the church from its foundations, and therefore basic as gifts of Christ to the church, were the prophets (see on 2:20 and 3:5). It is harder for us to see their particular ministry, but they stand out clearly from the New Testament as people of inspired utterance, whose ministry of the word was of the utmost importance for the young church. On occasion they might foretell the future, as in Acts 11:28 and 21:9, 11, but like the Old Testament prophets their great work was to ‘forth-tell’ the word of God. This might be in bringing to light with convicting power people’s sins (1 Cor. 14:24–25), or in bringing new strength to the church by the word of exhortation. The latter is illustrated most strikingly by Acts 15:32 where it is said that in Antioch ‘Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words and strengthened them.’

The ministry of apostles, as we have understood the word above, ceased with the passing of the first generation of Christians. The foundational ministry of prophets ceased also. Their work, receiving and declaring the word of God under direct inspiration of the Spirit, was most vital before there was a canon of New Testament Scripture. There continued to be prophets, but not with quite the same ministry as those of the church in the first generation. The apostolic writings were coming to be read widely and accepted as authoritative; the written word took the place of the authoritative spoken word of apostles and prophets making the essential nature of the gospel plain. At the same time the local ministry came to assume much greater importance than that of itinerant ministers, and there was the added problem that there were many false teachers and self-styled ‘prophets’ who went from place to place to peddle their wares.

Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 10, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 123–125.

Used with permission from Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL.