Same Jesus!
Rejected gifts? ‘Celebrity’ apostles? Wake up church!
As a reaction to Roman Catholic claims of miracles, the sixteenthcentury Reformers adopted the erroneous teaching of cessationism, purporting that the various gifts of the Holy Spirit that were active in the first-century church had been suspended by God because they were no longer necessary for the church. With it came an understanding that all of the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and the ministry gifts of Ephesians 4:11 had ceased to operate in the church.
Ironically, faith, knowledge, and wisdom were maintained while miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues were jettisoned! Similarly, evangelists, pastors, and teachers were somehow deemed necessary for the church while apostles and prophets were abandoned!
Apostles or imposters?
Through the centuries, most Christians came to believe that the only apostles were the twelve whom Jesus chose, and when they died, the apostolate died with them. Paul was thought to be an enigma, as one born out of season (1 Corinthians 5:18). Though Scripture specifically called others—including at least one woman— apostles (Acts 14:14; Romans 16:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:6), this continuation of apostolic ministry came to be ignored.
For centuries, cessationism has been pervasive in most of the Christian church; however, since Scripture never implied that Jesus’ High Priestly ministry of “giving gifts to humanity” was ever suspended, the church has had no right to place the Messiah in shackles of dogma. The reality is that Jesus still gives all of the gifts because, despite what people think, he truly is the same, yesterday, today, and forever!
Restoration!
Today, the spirit of renewal manifest in Hebraic Restoration has effected a recovery of the truth about spiritual and ministerial gifts and has brought about a renewal of their manifestation in the church. Since all of the gifts that Paul mentioned for the church were present among the Israelites in the old economy and were merely expanded in the New Covenant, there is no reason not to expect them to continue today. God is restoring Hebraic apostolic and prophetic ministry to the church by calling and anointing men and women who have received dispensations of divine grace to be able to discern the mysteries of God’s plans for the ages and the segment of those plans that are being unfolded in the present time. This is what Paul defined as apostolic and prophetic ministry: “Surely you have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that has been given to me for you, that by revelation he has made known to me the mystery . . . which in other generations was not made known . . . as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:2–6).
Apostolic and prophetic ministry, therefore, is ministry of insight into the purposes of God and the “present truth” of the kairos moment of divine opportunity. For our time, it is the prophetic work of restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of God’s prophets since antiquity (Acts 3:20–21).
Watch out for imposters!
As is always the case, however, true restoration is accompanied by counterfeit fabrications and frauds. In some Christian circles today, the word apostle has come to be used for purposes for which it was never intended in first century Christianity. Indeed, apostle has become the honorific title de jour for many in charismatic Christianity, replacing the Orthodox and Catholic title of bishop. A new, more glamorous form of hierarchical episcopacy has emerged with “apostles” occupying the apex of the ecclesial pyramid where they relish and abuse autocratic powers and revel in the accoutrements of “success” that have enabled them to make ostentatious displays of conspicuous consumption¬— the old “godliness-is-gain” syndrome that Paul excoriated in I Timothy 6:5. The braggadocio of some is even breathtaking, as they televise their symbols of luxury and excess, arguing that such perverse materialism is proof of their apostleship! “Prophets,” too, are “second in command,” fully submitted to their “apostles” but also exercising perverse authority through the imperial word of the Lord. The truth is that none of this charismatic excess has anything to do with apostolic or prophetic ministry!
Over to you, Paul …
Want to be an apostle or a prophet? Here is what Paul said about apostles (and prophets are not far behind): it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena “…To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our hands. When we are cursed, we bless, when we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world— right up to this moment” (1 Corinthians 4:11-13).
Surely it is time to see the restoration of first-century apostolic and prophetic ministry. Can we get it right?