[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by zeek

The original premise of this thread is that the Bible is today's apostle. Sola scriptura (Latin ablative, "by scripture alone") is the doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness [Wikipedia]. One problem with that idea is that how the Bible is interpreted is as important as what the Bible says. To understand the problem, imagine that no one knows how to read. It wouldn't matter how inspired the Bible is if no one can read and understand it. Of course most people do know how to read. But reading also requires understanding. The words of the Bible are ambiguous enough to permit many interpretations. How do we know which if any are correct? If every individual makes his or her own interpretation, we are hardly in an analogous situation to that of churches under the authority of a living apostle.

zeek is getting us to the heart of the matter I believe.

Igzy has proposed that

Originally Posted by Igzy

The church is apostolic, meaning it's based on the teachings of the apostles. The church has believed that since the beginning. But the apostles are gone. Our apostle therefore is the Scriptures. Nothing more. Nothing less. Any other stance is reckless.

I would put a little finer point this. My take would be that

Our apostle therefore is the apostles' teachings as presented in the New Testament

Maybe this is exactly what Igzy means and if so I'm just spitting hairs.

I must admit, at the start of this thread, I was more on the side of those who say there are (should be) apostles today. On the surface it appears that Ephesians 4:11 ("And He gave some apostles..") is strong evidence for this view. The statement a few verses earlier ("..And He gave gifts to men") helps to bolster this view as well. But I must bow to the realities that we are faced with in the here and now. This is to say nothing of the fact that just about everybody (in our lifetimes) who has ever said they were an apostle, or were called an apostle by others, has completely and utterly failed the test - they have been tried and found to be false. Sorry to say my dear Local Church brothers and sisters (current and former), but Witness Lee definitely falls into the "tried and found to be false" category.