Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Does anyone know Witness Lee's take on Ephesians 4:11? I imagine it would have put him in a bind. If he said apostles continued past Paul, the next question would be, who were (and are) they? Second, if he said no, then the "ministry of the age" argument is undermined.
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He taught that the word apostle means sent one. if the Lord sends you to speak to your friend, or coworker, or family member, then you are by definition a sent one. So all of us at some point or another operate as apostles. However, that doesn't mean we are "gifts" to the Body. The gifts were given to perfect the Body. Gifts operate by training others to do the same thing they do. Evangelists train you to evangelize. Shepherds train you to shepherd. Teachers train you to teach.
I think we have done a reasonable job in this thread showing that this definition of Apostle is quite inadequate. I like my analogy with pioneer species, an apostle is gifted to go into an area where there are not christians and churches and change the environment to a Christian ecosystem. If they are successful their gift will become marginalized and recede into the background.
So WL saw himself as "The Apostle of the Age" that could train and perfect all the others to be mini apostles.