[CS-FSLUG] OT: What Is The New Apostolic Reformation? (And Why Should We Be Concerned About It?)

[davidm at hisfeet.net]

Granted that there are some pretty strange and very dangerous beliefs
ascociated with the usage by some of the term "apostle".  But Eph.4:11-13
is absolutely clear that these five gifts will continue in the churches of
Jesus Christ until the end of the age of grace at least. verse 13 says:
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ:" Brethren, we are not yet there!

That certainly does not mean that apostols or prophets have more authority
in any church than (for instance) one given by God to be a pastor or a
teacher or an evangelist. These are all not entirely separate, but
different spheres of work. Only a few of the apostles (and some who were
not apostles (or at least certainly not of the "twelve") wrote any portion
of scripture. And none claimed that their speech was the voice of God
unless it was backed up by the rest of scripture, and the revelation of
the Spirit of Christ. And even when it was, not all such statements were
(or should have been) regarded as scripture.

By the way noneof these five gifts comprised or pertained to any sort of
"clergy" (as opposed to "laity". This is a very side spread error today
that Jesus himself spoke against on several occasions.

The greek word from which we get the word "apostle" means the same thing
as the latin word from which we get the word "missionary"; namely "sent
one". The word"prophet" merely means "forth-teller" (not "forteller"). A
pastor is a "shepherd" (not an administrator). An evangelist is a "good
news teller". a teacher is just one who teaches. All of these are still
needed to day, and until we finally arrive in His image (Eph.4:13 and 1Joh
3:2). Let's not let false teachings drive us off from the true teachings
of His word. I am not willing to abandon Bible wording of Bible doctrine
just because some have perverted it. Although I do recognize that when an
error gets to be as pervasive as the error that "apostles" have some
magical powers not entrusted to the rest of the church, for the sake of
the superstitious we either must explain ourselves or (until we do) avoid
using terms that confuse them.

But for my part,I never began to know what a "missionary" was supposed to
be doing until I understood that the Bible word is "apostle".  The word
Missionary never occurs there.

It is still true that it is the business of apostles and prophets to lay
the foundation (which is Christ).  In many places that foundation has not
been laid.

Dave McMullen



> In somewhat the same way, a new movement - with some pretty strange
> beliefs - inside of Christian evangelicalism called the *New Apostolic
> Reformation (NAR)
> <http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/newapostolic.html>* has gathered
> lethal momentum very unexpectedly. This movement had up until recently
> only been taught and believed inside the hyper-charismatic movement
> (think IHOP, Kansas City Prophets, Mike Bickle, etc.). But now, having
> somehow "jumped" from its normal carrier, rather than being "contained"
> as a strange belief system that would only impact a limited number of
> people, it suddenly began to go viral when big names on the political
> right began to align themselves with the big names from the charismatic
> Christian side.
>
> http://worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=7636
>
> --
> "Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it
> tougher for sober people to own cars." - Unknown
>
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