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NASB | 1 Corinthians 12:27 ¶ Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 12:27 ¶ Now you [collectively] are Christ's body, and individually [you are] members of it [each with his own special purpose and function]. |
Subject: Prerequisite-infallibility? |
Bible Note: Hi Charis well here goe's It is sometimes claimed (for example, by the Mormon church, and by the Christian organization known as Gospel Outreach) that God intends for the church to have the office of apostle operative today. The Scriptures, however, indicate that the apostleship was strictly a first-century office. Jesus trained the Twelve to be preachers, teachers, and evangelists for Him after His death and resurrection (John 14:17; Matthew 16:18-19; 18:17-18; etc.). The apostles would speak with authority, not only because they had the Holy Spirit teaching them, but also because they were eyewitnesses of the saving events of Christ's death and resurrection (John 14:26; 15:26-27). The apostles, therefore, were trained by Jesus to play a vital and unrepeatable role in the history of the church. While the Holy Spirit still dwells in the church, there are no more apostles, since an apostle was required to have been an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:21-26; 5:32; Luke 1:1-4; Ephesians 3:4-5; I Corinthians 9:1). Given the fact that no one living during the past eighteen centuries has seen the risen Jesus (despite the claims of persons such as Joseph Smith), it is impossible that during this period we should have "apostles." The New Testament indicates rather clearly that the apostleship did end in the first century. In Paul's recounting of the resurrection appearances, he ends with his own, saying, "and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me" (I Corinthians 15:8). Elsewhere, Paul speaks of the church as "having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:20). Just as we do not lay new cornerstones from time to time to replace the old one, so too, we do not lay a new foundation of apostles and prophets over and over. The foundation of the apostolic witness to Christ and the prophetic revelations which pointed to and interpreted the saving acts of Christ has been laid; it does not need to be laid again. Whenever teachers come along with "new revelations from God," they are attempting to lay a foundation which has already been laid (see I Corinthians 3:11). It is sometimes argued that Paul clearly implies the perpetuity of apostles and prophets in Ephesians 4:11-13. On a superficial reading of the passage, it might seem to be saying that Christ gave apostles and prophets to the church "until we all attain to the unity of the faith," thus implying that these offices continue until the church is perfected. This interpretation is incorrect, though, for the following reasons: (1) Paul has already set apostles and prophets in a class by themselves in Ephesians 2:20. (2) If apostles and prophets were intended by Christ to continue until the church was perfected, how is it that a second generation of apostles was never chosen? |