Apostles and Prophets, Part 1

Question

Can you share with me why you teach that we cannot have apostles and prophets today?

Answer

This is a question people often ask me because churches and individuals use these terms worldwide today.

According to Paul in Ephesians 4:11, Jesus gave four specific leadership roles to his church – apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers (in this context, they are not two distinct roles). The purpose of these leaders is to equip the saints to do ministry, namely, building up the body of Christ, i.e., their fellow Christians. In 1 Corinthians 12:28, Paul wrote that apostles and prophets were the primary gifts/roles in the church. Evangelists and pastors are not mentioned in 1 Corinthians at all, but teachers and teaching (as distinct from pastor/teachers) are listed here and in Romans 12:6-8 (where he included prophecy as well).

Now, if we had no other information about apostles and prophets, we would be right to believe that they should still function today. But we do have more information. In this post, I will broadly address both groups and the role of apostles specifically. In the next post, I will address the role of prophets.

Apostles and Prophets – Temporary roles

Just two chapters before Paul gave that list of four church leadership groups, he made an important point about two of them. In Ephesians 2:20, Paul wrote that the church is being “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” In other words, these two groups laid the foundation on which the church has grown over the past 1,900 years.

Laying foundations is temporary work with a permanent effect. Once the foundation is laid, that role is no longer necessary. It is left to others to complete the structure the foundation is designed to uphold. Foundation work is foremost and lasting but not ongoing.

Apostles

Even at the beginning of the church, the apostles were a small, fixed group. Jesus personally appointed only 13 apostles (including Paul), no more. As they died off, no others were added or appointed to replace them. (Yes, they added Matthias in Acts 1:15-26 to replace Judas, but that was an exception and did not happen again for any of the rest.) John was the last apostle, and no others have existed since. No one today is appointed to be an apostle.

Instead of appointing more apostles to continue their work, they appointed others to build on it. When they needed help in Acts 6:1-6, they appointed ministers (possibly an early form of deacons), not more apostles. When James died (and then the others), they left the ministry to the pastors and saints in the churches.

Even as early as the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, the apostles recognized the authority of the church elders. They proved this by having James (the brother of Jesus, not the apostle) lead the council and write the letter to the other churches containing their conclusion.

Today, we have local church pastors/elders, a distinct group in Ephesians 4:11. Unlike the apostles, whose role ended, pastors/elders train and appoint new pastors after a thorough examination of the candidates (1 Timothy 3:1-7; 5:17-25; Titus 1:5-9).

The apostles’ own actions and teachings prove they saw no future apostolic ministry. Churches are to be led by a group of examined, trained pastors. There is no need for apostles in our time, and their role died with the apostle John at the end of the first century.