Who Is An Apostle?

There are innumerable charlatans calling themselves “prophets” and “apostles” in these last days. They’re on TBN, INSP and all over the TV, radio and internet. They are collectively bilking people out of hundreds of millions of dollars each year that could otherwise be used for legitimate Gospel ministry. These men and women will burn in the Lake of Fire. (Matthew 7:1-23)

In the meantime, the poor ignorant masses continue being duped. This whole movement of professed “apostles” demonstrates the utter ignorance of the Bible among most human beings walking the planet in these last days. We are seeing the death of common sense.

God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. But in His word, He makes it plain that His purpose is to do certain things at certain times with a certain purpose in mind. We’re not limiting God but simply BELIEVING that He means what He says.

God says who is qualified to be an apostle and God also gave signs that would accompany any true apostle. When we test these so-called apostles and expose them, we please God (Revelation 2:2). By knowing what God says on the matter, we can shut the mouths of the liars and crooks.

Who Is An Apostle?
The office of apostle is clearly taught in Scripture as being held only by a person appointed by the risen Savior. Each apostle is a MALE JEW and there isn’t a single exception to this rule. The Bible also makes clear that each apostle will be given special gifts for the purpose of providing a sign to his JEWISH brethren, when God so wills for him to do so.

It is a heresy akin to White Supremacy and Black Power to pretend that some gentile is an apostle.

Paul openly rebukes those who call themselves apostles other than those appointed by Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Paul says, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

Paul affirms his own apostolic calling by pointing to his being a Jew (2 Corinthians 11:22) and to his being ordained to apostleship by the resurrected Christ (2 Corinthians 11:23, 2 Timothy 1:11). In Acts 1:2 it is confirmed that the original twelve, minus Judas, were specifically chosen by the resurrected Jesus. We read, “Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.”

Judas was later replaced by the resurrected Jesus with the apostle Paul as we read in Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” Paul talks of this appointment in several places including Romans 1:5, 1 Corinthians 9:2 and Galatians 2:8.

Apostolic Signs
In the Book of Acts, the act of speaking with unlearned (unknown) “tongues” only appears three times and in every instance it was a SIGN to circumcised Jews (Israel as a nation). Other than during this historical account of the foundational/transitional years of Christianity that we call The Acts, you will only find “tongues” and the apostolic signs discussed in the earliest Pauline epistle to one church (1 Corinthians), taking up a sum total of 3 chapters.

You know you’re in trouble when you belong to a church or movement whose major claim to fame requires them to emphasize three chapters of one book while virtually ignoring the rest of the Scripture.

The Book of Acts is a history book and not a doctrinal treatise. For doctrine, you turn to the epistles that specifically address the church and those that are written to gentile believers (Timothy, Titus and Philemon). Only someone who is blind to the facts would run to a history book like Acts or to the book of Revelation for DOCTRINE regarding church practice. Acts is history past. Revelation is history future. The epistles serve as a statement of faith and practice for the newborn Church of Jesus Christ.

The sign gifts of Mark 16:15-18 aren’t even MENTIONED in letters to the Christians in Rome, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica or in any of the epistles from Peter, James, John or Jude. Why? It’s obvious to anyone with any level of common sense. Everything has it’s place and these apostolic sign gifts have the place of serving as a sign to circumcised Jews during the transition period detailed for us in the Book of Acts.

ALL first generation Christians died without having ever had a complete Bible in their hands. What an absurd lack of consideration it was for Paul to have failed to mention “tongues” and the apostolic gift of healing, etc., to these other churches if apostolic age sign gifts were for ALL Christians at ALL times. Of course, that is sarcasm but it is the actual conclusion you would have to come to if you want to teach that apostolic age sign gifts were for all churches, even in the second century!

Was Paul inconsiderate? Of course not. He didn’t mention them because their importance had diminished once the church was founded and the work of preaching the Gospel progressed beyond Judea into the uttermost parts of the earth (ie., the Gentile world) (Mark 16:15). Gentiles did not require a sign as the Jews did and the church was established upon the Gospel from that point forward. When he became a man, he put away “childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

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