Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
1. Where in the NT does it say that the gift of apostles is gone? (no one is disputing that the original 12 Apostles + Paul are gone).
|
Because one can argue that apostleship includes the power to establish the faith, and the faith cannot be further established. Therefore the office the early apostles had can no longer exist.
Quote:
|
2. Is church tradition of shying away from the term Apostle a valid basis for a teaching or shouldn't our basis be the NT?
|
Shying away from using the term apostle is a prudent move given the confusion than can be caused by using it. The Bible doesn't require us to use specific terms, otherwise we would be required to call all church-administered pot-luck dinners "love feasts."
Again, I'm not denying that certain apostolic gifts still exist. I'm suggesting that using the title apostle is confusing because there are clearly two uses of it in the NT, the general
gift of being a sent one, and the
office of apostle, which was only held by a select handful which are all gone and cannot be repeated, in part because essential requirements were that they had seen the Lord Jesus and been witnesses to the resurrection.