09-10-2011, 07:17 AM
|
#266
|
Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον For God So Loved The World
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 3,828
|
Re: Apostles
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
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.
|
Interesting thought here... "gift" versus "office". Not sure I ever thought that there was an office of "apostle". I believe that the only offices in the Church are those of Elder and Deacon. When the apostle Paul said "he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists.." it seems to me he may have been referring to extra local church functions. Today the modern term may be "para church ministries". I really think Igzy is on to something here. This may be the answer to our dilemma - the "office" of apostle has passed away with the original apostles, but we still have the gifts. "He gave gifts to men" and "according to the measure of Christ's gift" seems to fit in with this notion.
So I think this would follow along with the terms "prophets" and "evangelists". In some Christian circles these two are considered positions or offices, but it seems that these may better considered as "gifts". Certainly there are those who have been given the gift of evangelism and those who have been given the gift of prophesy (careful on this one!) Of course none of these two (prophet or evangelist) carries the weight of the apostles authority, so this makes the term apostle more of a sticky wicket for us to deal with. So if there are those with "an apostolic gift", what sort of authority or "extra local" power should/could they have? If we consider that apostle is a gift and not an office are we still back at square one? Darn! I thought at the beginning of this post I (actually Igzy) was on to something. Now I'm not sure.
__________________
αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων ἀμήν - 1 Peter 5:11
|
|
|