Apostles and Prophets Everywhere!

When I was growing up in the Pentecostal/Holiness movement years ago, I always thought it was pretty cool to be an Apostle. There weren't’t too many back in the late 70’s and early 80’s but then ones I saw and met, seem to have that, for lack of a better term, swagger. The ones back during those times had large following and many churches “under” them. Thinking about it now, they were probably better termed Bishops than Apostles, but hey, Apostle sounds cooler right?

When I left the movement in the mid to late 80’s after serving as a Pastor for a short time, I began to really look into the Word to try to understand why there are Apostles and Prophets today. The first question I wondered was how one is called to be an Apostle and what are the requirements of the office. Has that person seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, and been commissioned as one? Has one been given the authority to write scripture (Not even all of the original Apostles had this privilege). What about our modern day Prophets? Are they forth telling accurately, 100% of the time? Are there words being put to the test as in biblical times? I can remember prophets “speaking a word” over me on many occasions. To my recollection, none of them have come true. Others were pretty generic.

Now, there appears to be an explosion of new Apostles and Prophets. Some have opened up prophetic schools to teach one how to be an “anointed prophet”. Small churches now are led not by pastors or bishops, but by Apostles. I am more inclined to believe that the offices of Apostle and Prophet, in the Old Testament and Book of Acts sense, has ceased. We have the complete Word of God. There are no more authors of scripture and there are no new doctrines to be added to the Bible. We have been equipped with everything we need. Apostles as church planters are debatable, but if you want to use that term for one who does that then maybe. Certainly there are those in the church who have ability to expound the Word and are given insights to what we already have in the Bible. There are even some who are given foresight into specific events for the edification of others and the Church. But those who claim to be full time prophets in the Old Testament sense is another story altogether. Most of the time these modern day prophets are speaking for there own edification and pride, not for the churches benefit.

So I am left to believe that the explosion we see today of Apostles and Prophets is a result of people wanting to seem more important and “anointed” than they really are. We love titles and honor. We love to be given respect and recognition. We like to follow trends so if there is a new apostle across town, we figure we should also be one. You may think I’m being harsh, but how many apostles do you think there are in the persecuted churches in China, or India or the Middle East? It’s only in the West, and more precisely, the U.S. that we have this phenomena happening. I personally don’t think it’s good for the church because it seems like we are more concerned with our titles and positions than we are with teaching and pastoring God’s people. I certainly would never want to be mentioned in the same breath as Peter, Paul, James and John, the greatest Apostles of the New Testament. I long for a time when God fearing, humble men as pastors are the rule and not the exception and when we are not so enticed by our own importance and abilities. We should concentrate on the one who is the Chief Apostle and make it our business to fulfill the great commission!

S.T. Woods