Bible Question: I would like to know if apostles and prophets exsist today in the fullest sense of the meaning, and if so where is the scripture stating that their is going to be anything as those types ,raising dead etc. doesnt the bible teach that there will be a great falling away before Christ returns.wasnt their signs and wonders just a foundational gift and the best we could call someone today is a missionary.and how come the church fathers didnt think they were or write of these apostles or prophets if they still exsisted .please use scripture. love in Christ RCScroll |
Bible Answer: At first glance your user name, RCSCROLL, set me aback. I read it as RCSPROUL, the well-known apologist for the faith and theologian of some renown! Your question is a complex one, if only because the definitions of apostle and prophet are incredibly complex. Scholars differ widely on their definitions. In the strictest Biblical sense, an apostle is generally a person who witnessed the Risen Lord and who was sent out with authority (which is what the word apostle actually means) as a messenger to proclaim the gospel. Matthew (10:1-5) uses the terms disciples and apostles interchangeably when speaking of the calling of the Twelve. Luke in Acts extends the title apostle beyond the Twelve. And Paul calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ in the greeting of virtually every letter he wrote that we have in the New Testament canon. In light of the scriptural record, therefore, it is difficult to see how anyone living today could be called an apostle -- not, at any rate, in the Biblical sense.Prophets. Do they exist today? Yes, they do and Scripture supports this view, particularly the existence of false prophets. Jesus issued a stern warning to beware of false prophets and false Christs (Matt. 7:15; Mark 13:22) Paul referred to genuine prophecy as a gift in 1 Cor. 13:2. Prophecy simply means "spokesman for God" and does not always entail the foretelling of future events. The Old Testament is replete with instances in which the prophets spoke to Israel a message from God that had to do with current events here and now and nothing at all about the future."Beloved," said John (1 John 4:1) "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."It would appear that we are running well above quota almost 2000 years later. I'm keenly aware that in this poor attempt to answer your question I have not even begun to skim the surface. But your subject matter, as I said at the outset, is a complex one. At the risk of appearing to play the pedant, I'll venture a pair of suggestions. Consult entries for apostles, disciples, and prophets in a good Bible dictionary. I like Holman's. That will give you a fairly broad background on the subjects. Next, run the Scripture references provided by an exhaustive concordance. I use NASB. The concordance will allow you to do what amounts to an inductive study of these subjects, wherein you allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. I think there is nothing on earth that takes the place of searching the Scriptures for ourselves. It means digging, and digging is had work any way you slice it. But the nuggets to be found, and found in abundance, are without price. |